City Council District 3 Candidates Differ In Approaches To Homelessness

Speaker 1: 00:00 Of the five San Diego city council districts on the ballot this year. District three is the most urban. It includes downtown banker's Hill, Hillcrest and North park KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says all the main candidates are Democrats, but they don't all agree on how to address the district's most pressing issue. Homelessness. Speaker 2: 00:23 I know how we talk big about our problems, but end up acting really small when it comes to solutions. Speaker 3: 00:29 Adrian quiet Koski is a local lobbyist who's worked on issues ranging from the seals and LA Jolla Cove to the city charter reform that created the strong mayor form of government. We needed a VA facility in old town that he worked to get approved. It was controversial at the time. Speaker 2: 00:45 We had to work with the neighbors, work with the community, work with the school across the street and come to some sort of consensus and how we can move this project forward and we were able to do that Speaker 3: 00:56 on homelessness. Quiet Koski says he supports the city using the police to crack down on people sleeping on sidewalks. He says he would ask the city attorney's office for options on how to toughen such laws. Speaker 2: 01:07 When you approach a little bit of tough love, there are going to be people that criticize you, but I will tell you that voters want to see some sort of positive action. They are tired of the talk and the constant issue just getting worse and worse. Speaker 4: 01:20 You know, we have a housing and homelessness crisis that we need to get serious about. Speaker 3: 01:27 Tony Duran is a community representative for Senator Toni Atkins. We meet her at the old mission Hills library site, which has been vacant since the city replaced it last year. Duran is advocating a proposal by the mayor's office to make the site available for permanent supportive housing. Even though the site is pretty small, Speaker 4: 01:45 granted, it would only help 28 people, but helping 28 people get off the street, get housing, get support services that they need so they can thrive. That's, that's important. This is what we need to be doing. Speaker 3: 01:59 The rant acknowledges many mission Hills residents are wary of the plan. She says she would make sure their concerns are heard. Speaker 4: 02:06 I'm having conversations with people, I'm asking their opinions. I'm asking what do you like? What don't you like? What are you afraid of? What will help you get more comfortable with, will help you get there so we can do this important work Speaker 5: 02:20 I'm running because I think it's time to bring the communities into the conversation Speaker 3: 02:24 better. Community outreach is also important to Steven Whitburn, a director of community development for the American cancer society. He says, neighborhoods want to do their part to solve homelessness but deserve a say in how to address it. Speaker 5: 02:37 And that's what frustrates people in our neighborhoods is that people make decisions before consulting with them. And I'm not going to do that. I'm going to consult first and then we'll come up with a solution. Speaker 3: 02:46 Whitburn who ran for this same seat in 2008 and for a County supervisor seat in 2010 says district three neighborhoods can play a big role in solving San Diego's housing shortage. Speaker 5: 02:58 Yeah, I think we to increase density Speaker 3: 03:00 throughout the urban core. Um, I do feel it's also really important to engage our neighborhoods and listen to what our communities have to say about the best way of doing that. I've been here in San Diego at city hall for the past six years working in independent budget analysts office. We meet Chris Olson at a hotel in the Gaslamp quarter that used to be SRO housing, low quality, but cheap rooms that are often people's last stop before homelessness. Olsen says the city is missing opportunities to preserve this form of affordable housing. You know, many other cities in times of a lot of development pressure, we'll turn to the moratorium or in room interim control ordinance to kind of take a breather and put a pause on certain conversions while we come up with a strategy that will work best for all stakeholders. Olsen agrees. District three has room for growth and that adding more neighbors will enhance the community's character and support local businesses. I'm an analyst by training. Uh, I don't have any motivation other than finding the best solution to our problems, even if it's not my solution. District three voters will decide Speaker 6: 04:04 March 3rd, which two candidates get to compete in November's general election. Speaker 1: 04:09 Joining me is KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew, welcome. Thank you. Now, Councilman Chris ward, who's running for the state assembly is currently representing San Diego's third district. Has he endorsed any of these candidates? Speaker 6: 04:23 He has not at this point. Um, and that's something that I think we've noticed, uh, as a trend in this primary season is that the current city council members seem less interested in Dorset in endorsing candidates in the March primary. Maybe because the election is a little bit lower stakes than than uh, in 2016 at least now the candidates can no longer win in the primary election. They have to go to a November runoff. But in terms of who is winning the endorsement game, and it is a competition among all the candidates, certainly in this race, I think the clear a front runner in terms of endorsements is Steven Whitburn. He has a, the most coveted endorsement from the San Diego County democratic party as well as several democratic clubs and some unions. He's been in the game for a bit longer. He, as I mentioned in this story, he ran for a city council in 2008 and County supervisor in 2010. So he's had some time to build up those relationships in the democratic party leadership that you really need to win those endorsements. What Speaker 1: 05:19 fundraising, how are the candidates doing there? Speaker 6: 05:22 Uh, we only have complete numbers as of June 30th of last year. The next fundraising reports should be coming out soon. Um, but based on the information that we have right now, Stephen Whitburn is, uh, has raised the most money. Chris Olson has raised the second most, he's pretty closely tied with Adrian quiet Koski and then Tony Duran is coming in at fourth. But that being said, all of the candidates have done fairly well in terms of fundraising and in a city council race like this, when you don't necessarily need the most money to win, you just need enough money to run your campaign and get your message out to the voters. Speaker 1: 05:55 What did you find to be the biggest difference Speaker 6: 05:58 in how these candidates would address the issue of homelessness in district three? Well, everyone says that the city needs more affordable housing, more permanent supportive housing. And this is one of the challenges we face as journalists is trying to read between the lines, between people's sort of broad statements about what, how they would tackle issues and get down to specifics and help voters understand what the differences are. So as you heard in my story, Adrian, quiet Koski was the one out of the four that I interviewed who referenced a tough love and the desire to pass new laws that would toughen or, or toughen existing, the ones that would target issues surrounding homelessness. Chris Olson was the only one to mention SRO housing and the loss of those units as, as a cause of homelessness and the potential need for a moratorium on to stop those conversions. Speaker 6: 06:44 And I will say a Tony Duran was really the most vocal on the particular issue of the mission Hills library being used for permanent supportive housing. I think that she says, you know, she understands the concerns. Uh, and things that, uh, in the neighborhood, but things that the council member of that district needs to lead and, and listen to those concerns, but also educate their constituents on the nexus between this type of housing that we really need and the problems that we see of people living on the streets. Now, one of the major issues in this urban district is public transportation, especially when it comes to things like safer bike lanes. Are any of the candidates addressing that issue? Yes. Uh, and again, everyone, I think everyone says they support public transit in the abstract and safer streets in the abstract. But there is one particular project in this district that distinguishes the candidates and that's the proposal for protected bike lanes on 30th street and North park. Speaker 6: 07:38 So the mayor is proposing eliminating parking on one side of the street. The latest design would keep some parking on 30th street but eliminated on the other side and then add protected bike lanes on, um, on both sides of the street. It's a very controversial, a lot of residents say that the parking loss would have a negative impact on the neighborhood. It might harm business activity in the area. The supporters on the other hand say this is what it takes to meet our climate action plan goals to reduce car dependence and give more people a safe and enjoyable way to get around the city on a bike. Chris Olson is the only candidate who unambiguously supports that project. He says the city could have done a much better job reaching out to the neighborhood, getting feedback from people. And he also said that he wants a comprehensive parking strategy for North park, you know, utilizing the parking garage there. Speaker 6: 08:27 But, um, he was a standout on that particular issue of the project on 30th street. So Andrew, where else can voters go to learn more about these candidates? Well, in the next week or two, KPBS will be launching its voter guide and that will have links to our reporting on this race. And uh, as well as a candidate questionnaire and, and some other races in the, in the city. I will also be moderating a town hall or a candidate forum with the district three candidates on February 13th. And that's hosted by the mission Hills town council. I would also recommend our listeners look at the union Tribune interviews that the editorial board did. They spoke with all of these candidates at length and publish those interviews, uh, info online. It's a lot to go through and I think voters can feel pretty overwhelmed by all the decisions they have to make. But you know, these are important choices and I think they're worth reading through. And you'll be bringing us a report tomorrow on the San Diego city council district one race. I've been speaking with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew, thank you. My pleasure.