The San Diego City Council is scheduled to hear an update on its Pavement Management plan on Monday.
The 10-year plan is a roadmap for improving the pavement on city streets. After the city first released the plan in Jan. 2024, residents in the lower-income, majority Black and Latino neighborhoods in District 4 pointed to a problem: in ten years, the condition of their streets would still not be as good as the current streets in the wealthier District 5.
That was because the city was using what it called a “best value approach” – stretching limited budget dollars the farthest by improving the streets that aren’t as bad.
KPBS reported that story after the plan was released two years ago.
Since then, the city made some changes to the plan.
The annual update for 2026 says at least 43% of annual paving investments should happen in what the city calls “Communities with Equity Needs” – those are areas that have a “very low,” “low,” or “moderate” Climate Equity Index, are eligible for Community Development Block Grant funds, or are in a Promise Zone.
That percentage is equal to the portion of the city’s street network located in those communities.
City spokesperson Ramon Galindo said that goal was established in the original plan, but “FY25 was the first year it was implemented and tracked as part of the street selection process.”
The goal of “at least 43%” is more representative of equality – providing the same resources to everyone – than equity – recognizing the districts are starting with unequal conditions and allocating the resources needed to reach an equal outcome.
It’s set to pass that goal; 52% of streets selected for maintenance and rehabilitation projects in 2026 were within communities with equity needs, according to the update.
The City also formalized a new pothole strategy. Neighbors can report potholes through the “Get It Done” app. But that can mean the communities that report more get more attention, regardless of the actual need. Now, the city sends a dedicated crew into what it calls under-reporting communities. When the backlog falls below 100 service requests, that crew proactively identifies and repairs potholes there.
“While City crews have always completed proactive repairs in addition to responding to submitted reports, this work had not previously been structured or tracked as a formal program,” Galindo said.
“During October 2025 dry-weather operations with reduced backlog levels, approximately 14% of pothole repairs were proactively generated by in-house crews to support more balanced service delivery across the street network,” the update reads. “From July through September 2025, approximately 29% of completed pothole service notifications occurred within Communities with Equity Needs.”
Galindo said because these proactive efforts were not fully standardized or documented in prior years as they are now, the City does not have year-over-year comparison data.
These changes aim to ensure more equity between neighborhoods, but the city faces a huge pothole in the budget: a $118 million deficit.
Because of the consistent funding shortage for pavement improvements, the city lowered its overall street condition goal from “satisfactory” to “fair.”
