A state agency wants a deeper dive into pollution issues at the site where Mayor Todd Gloria wants to open a 1,000-bed homeless shelter. Reporters MacKenzie Elmer and Lisa Halverstadt revealed that the state Department of Toxic Substances Control wants to work with the city on “additional investigation” into the ground below the former Middletown print shop that Gloria wants to turn into a shelter. The warehouse is next door to a shuttered chemical plant that years ago leaked chemicals. Still TBD: The state wants to clarify whether the spills affect the proposed homeless shelter site. A repor ..read more

At 10:55 a.m. on Tuesday, a chime rang over the loudspeaker at Logan Memorial Educational Campus.   “Attention students,” a young voice said, crackling with distortion, “we have a walkout at 11:00 a.m.”  Minutes later, students flooded into the quad. Their numbers grew into the hundreds before they walked through the campus’ bright yellow gates and onto the sidewalk encircling the school.   San Diego Unified School District pitched Logan Memorial as an innovative “cradle to career,” experience that would serve families even before children were born and students from ..read more

We’ll pay for your homeless programs, but only if you show us they’re working. That was Gov. Gavin Newsom’s message to cities across California, like Oceanside and Carlsbad, receiving homeless funding from the state.  Last week, we learned two North County cities, Oceanside and Carlsbad, received a $11.4 million grant to move homeless people camped along state Route 78 into shelter. But now new requirements will force the city to track spending or risk future state funding.   It’s part of a series of grants the state is handing out through a program called the Encampment Resolution ..read more

In 2015, we sent San Diego Unified School District a public records request for documents related to an educator we had been investigating whom former students had accused of sexually harassing and assaulting them. The district provided next to nothing in response.  We worked with district officials for the next six months to try to get more but nothing more came.   We had many public records requests in front of San Diego Unified and it was taking them an average of 399 days to respond. When we learned that the district was adopting a plan to destroy emails that were over six ..read more

The state says Mayor Todd Gloria’s team needs to dig deeper into the property he wants to make into a mega-shelter, citing concerns there could be unknown contamination from a shuttered chemical plant next door.  California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control says it will work with the city to do “additional investigation” into the ground below the former print shop Gloria wants to turn into a shelter along Kettner Boulevard, according to an email Tuesday from spokesperson Elizabeth Leslie-Gassaway.   Two properties neighboring the shelter site leaked a multitude of chemicals i ..read more

Escondido has been grappling with a serious structural budget deficit that left the city digging through couch cushions for temporary fixes. But that hasn’t led to long-term fiscal health. Officials estimate the city’s average annual deficit over the next 20 years will be $18.2 million. So, the city’s digging through more couch cushions. Our Tigist Layne reports that the city is eyeing big changes to the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.  The Center, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is owned by the city. But the California Center for the Arts Foundation, a no ..read more

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, a longtime pillar of the community that’s often seen as the arts and culture hub of North County.   Since 1994, the Center has offered events, workshops, holiday celebrations, concerts, theater productions, gallery shows and more for the public to enjoy, often for free.  But this year could also mark the beginning of the biggest management change the Center has ever seen.  The Escondido City Council will consider making a request for bids for the management of the arts center. The proces ..read more

Look familiar? We pulled this post from the Morning Report. Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news. Click here. Many of the programs former city councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe championed as a member of the San Diego City Council are on the chopping block in the mayor’s proposed budget — and she has something to say about it.  “I cannot remain silent in the face of a budget proposal that fails to adequately reflect a commitment to equity and fairness for all residents,” Montgomery Steppe, now a county supervisor, wrote in a letter to Mayor Tod ..read more

Look familiar? We pulled this post from the Morning Report. Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news. Click here. The San Diego City Council had a lengthy closed-door discussion Monday on Mayor Todd Gloria’s mega shelter proposal and ended its meeting without any public announcements. As our Lisa Halverstadt previously reported, the City Council scheduled the closed session to discuss the costs and terms of Gloria’s plan to lease a Middletown warehouse and make it a 1,000-bed homeless shelter amid questions about the initial pitch. That discussion went so l ..read more

Many of the programs former city councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe championed as a member of the San Diego City Council are on the chopping block in the mayor’s proposed budget — and she has something to say about it.  “I cannot remain silent in the face of a budget proposal that fails to adequately reflect a commitment to equity and fairness for all residents,” Montgomery Steppe, now a county supervisor, wrote in a letter to Mayor Todd Gloria on Monday.  She identified four programs and two other funds she wants the mayor to preserve. The programs include: No Shots Fired, a gun ..read more