A report tracking San Diego's quality of life is offering a mix of good and bad news in its regional snapshot.
The Center for Sustainable Energy's Equinox Project has developed a dashboard that looks at indicators that are designed to gauge the quality of life. Six of the dashboard's indicators moved up, six moved down and three remained the same.
The dashboard finds San Diego residents are using less water, but residents were also asked to stay out of the ocean because of pollution more often than the year before.
"Beaches are more than just a beach they're our most important open space," said Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina. "And what we're learning when these beaches are closed is that we cut off the fabric of our community life here in San Diego. We are the beach. The beach is the engine of our happiness and our quality of life."
The dashboard found people are throwing away more trash and that strains local landfills. But the economy is performing well and communities are developing climate action plans in an effort to soften their carbon footprint.
There were nearly 30,000 solar installations last year, boosting the region's capacity for clean energy. But the cost of housing remains a concern as does the impact from transportation.
"At a time when we're discussing the environment, and this is the biggest discussion in Sacramento and all over the state, we had more unhealthy air days in 2016 than we did in 2015," said Mitch Mitchell of San Diego Gas and Electric.
The Equinox Project has compiled the dashboard since 2010. The report aggregates data from more than 30 sources. Project organizers hope the information will help local leaders shape public policy.
