Recent devastating flooding in San Diego was a critical part of the discussion when all four candidates for the District 3 seat on the San Diego City Council met for the first time in a debate setting on January 31, 2024.
Incumbent Democratic D3 councilmember Stephen Whitburn squared off with Democratic challengers Kate Callen and Coleen Cusack and Republican candidate Ellis California Jones.
The Candidate Forum was held in a packed Bard Hall in Hillcrest’s First Unitarian Church. The event was sponsored by Neighbors For A Better San Diego and moderated by the League of Women Voters of San Diego.
Just a week ago, flash flooding drenched the region. Areas like Southeastern San Diego were ravaged when storm drains overflowed into neighborhoods. Homes, cars and property were severely damaged.
Callen diverted the topic to flooding during a discussion focused on San Diego’s bike lane infrastructure.
“Imagine if we had taken all the millions we invested in bike lanes and invested those millions in a storm drainage system,” Callen said.
Later, the moderated discussion turned to opinion of a bond measure to fund stormwater infrastructure repairs.
Jones declared he was against new taxes. “We’re wasting enough money as it is,” he said.
Whitburn said any stormwater repair measures would require additional funding. “We have a huge backlog in the city in replacing and repairing and cleaning our storm drains,” he said.
More than $1 billion of work needs to be done, Whitburn added.
“This can has been kicked down the road for years now,” Cusack said, referring to past D3 council members who have not funded storm drain infrastructure needs.
“We didn’t see the flooding in the wealthy neighborhoods,” she added. “We saw the flooding in our Promise Zones. That’s where the city’s been neglecting the most.”
Callen was critical of the current administration’s perceived ability to responsibly fund city needs.
“Given the terrible devastation of the floods we’ve seen, it should be pretty easy to pass a bond measure to get the money to fix the storm drainage system,” Callen said. “But it’s not gonna happen because the public doesn’t trust City Hall with our taxpayer dollars.”
She pointed to the city’s complicated 101 Ash saga.
101 Ash Street is the address of a downtown building associated with a convoluted real estate deal that sucked up hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and included years of secret deals and political scandal. Here’s a link to extensive reporting on 101 Ash: La Prensa.
The January 31 Candidate Forum also touched on a multitude of issues, including: homelessness, housing costs, public safety, city review boards, developer influence, transit and more.
The whole debate is online and can be accessed HERE.
San Diego’s primary election day is March 5. SDSun
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