A Road to Nowhere at SANDAG?
Mario Orso, a chief deputy at CALTRANS covering the San Diego region, will be the new CEO at the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the agency presiding over the region’s long-term transit and highway plans.
SANDAG serves as a central resource for the region, collecting data on quality of life issues and the environment. The agency has, in recent years, acquired a reputation for bending the truth on financial projections, poor contract management of an existing toll system, and daring to consider a future less dependent on fossil fuel-based transportation.
Hasan Ikhrata, the former CEO, lasted for five years, advocating for a more transit-centric reason. Eventually, he tired of banging his head up against the brick wall of obstruction created by small-minded elected officials.
Representatives from all 18 cities in San Diego County, along with the county government, make up the SANDAG board, which has been split in recent years on the question of long term priorities. Briefly stated, (mostly) smaller cities want a focus on highway infrastructure, other cities are interested in improving transit options.
The decision making powers of the board changed in 2017 from approvals requiring a simple majority of the board to any four cities with a majority of the county’s population able to greenlight projects. This meant areas with a history of obstructing innovative and more environmentally sensitive projects lost power in the decision making process.
As a multijurisdictional entity, the planning organization is funded through state and federal grants and builds out projects funded through designated sales tax revenues. A scandal involving unrealistic revenue projections has muddied the waters for future voter approval of continuing or expanding tax collection.
A private group calling itself Let’s Go San Diego has qualified a ballot measure for 2024 instituting a half cent sales tax increase to fund transportation infrastructure. Because the group is not a government entity, only 50%+1 voter approval is required.
“After more than two years of organizing, Environmental Health Coalition, transit riders, and community advocates are proud the transit measure will be on the 2024 ballot. We worked hard for this moment,” Carolina Martinez, Climate Justice Campaign Director, said in a press release. “Currently, 70% of jobs are not reachable by public transit. This forces San Diegans into congested streets and highways which are leading contributors to climate change and air pollution in the San Diego region. By increasing service, frequency, and access, the measure will help build our economy, clean our air, and achieve our climate goals.”
A SANDAG developed plan for a sales tax increase failed to gain board approval. It would have required two-thirds voter approval, a level not likely to be obtained because of opposition from cities desiring increased emphasis on highway funding.
At the center of SANDAG’s planning (what should be, anyway, and is sometimes compromised) is a commitment to actions intended to lessen global climate change. And here-in lies the local manifestation of the biggest challenge facing agencies and governments nationwide.
Are highways the future? Should governments be planning for an infrastructure centered around individual modes of transportation? How much funding should be directed toward preserving or enhancing the status quo? Will people adapt to alternative transportation schemes?
Arguments about these and related questions take many different forms, but the bottom line is the same as the philosophical divide facing society; the needs of the individual versus the needs of the many… economic prosperity versus the future climate.
Yes, there are compromises to be had, but polarization has progressed to the point where basic facts are obscured by ideological outlooks. From where I stand, the future involves consideration of a climate suitable for a thriving (in every sense of the word) society and planet. It involves a sense of humility for our species place in the order of things as opposed to an outlook based on superiority.
We’re killing the planet, and some humans either don’t accept the premise or don’t care.
Which brings me back to SANDAG.
The new CEO comes from a world that’s traditionally had a highway-centric outlook. But is that who he is philosophically? Seeing Board of Supervisors Nora Vargas embracing his entrance into the agency gives me some hope that we can get past the point where a theoretical mileage tax is used as a bludgeon against saving the planet.
For now, it’s wait and see.
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Monday News You Should Read
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are men scarier than bears? - what one viral video reveals about women's safety and men's perception of it. Via Liz Plank at Airplane Mode
Why would women fear boys more than bruins?
Well for starters, it’s logical. To explain this, instead of a forest, let’s take an even higher stake situation like a battlefield. And instead of a bear, let’s go even bigger and use an army of people who have been trained to kill you. You’d assume that a woman would be less afraid of a man she’s stranded with, than the actual enemy right? Well, you’d be wrong.
According to data from the pentagon, male soldiers pose a more existential threat to female service members than war itself. Given that one in four women who join the military will be sexually assaulted by a man within her ranks, the fear of her fellow man (and in this case literal colleague) is a rational one. In fact, a woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow service member than to be killed by enemy fire. It’s a chilling statistic, but a crucial piece of evidence that shows that for women, the call is coming from inside the house, or in this case, her own barrack. "The worst thing for me is that you don't have to worry about the enemy, you have to worry about your own soldiers," Dora Hernandez a member of the U.S. Navy and the Army National Guard told NPR after she was raped twice while on the job.
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The Conspiracy’s The Thing - How a little-known NY election law code section could bring down the ex-president by Jay Kuo
Ever since the indictment first dropped, legal observers have been wondering how to make sense of how the pieces all fit together. Was District Attorney Alvin Bragg really going to rely on federal election law as the felony “kicker” on his state law charges? That seemed dicey because it would involve applying federal law in a state court, and the appellate courts might not like that.
But last Tuesday, Bragg’s office surprised the world. During opening statements, prosecutors made the centerpiece of the felony “kicker” not federal election law, but a fairly obscure New York state law, found at Election Code Section 17-152.
I should have immediately gone to check what that law actually says, because when I did this morning, a lightbulb went off.
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Hillcrest, hungry for park space, looks to the 163 freeway via Andrew Bowen at KPBS
The San Diego City Planning Department is preparing to rezone Hillcrest for a lot more high-density housing. And with the neighborhood already short on open space, some are looking to state Route 163 for a new park.
A decade ago, the Hillcrest Business Association began exploring the concept of covering parts of the freeway to create new public gathering spaces. San Diego already has one park over a freeway — Teralta Park in City Heights, built over one block of state Route 15. Cities including Seattle, Dallas and Washington, D.C. have also built parks, even convention centers, over freeways.
Glenn Younger, owner of Grah Safe & Lock and vice president of the Hillcrest Business Association, said the idea never took off. Freeway lids are complex and expensive, and the neighborhood opted to focus its energy on creating a new pedestrian promenade along Normal Street instead.
