Today’s newsletter is presented by Kaiser Permanente.
Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- Race results we’re watching: With the latest vote count, Elias Velazquez, a registered Dem and DSA-endorsed candidate has overtaken incumbent Mayor of Escondido Dane White in an extremely close race.
- Two ringed seals rescued from Alaska are the latest rotund residents of SeaWorld San Diego.
- And shoutout to reader Bruce Wilbat, who correctly guessed yesterday’s “Step back in time” question. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and see if you got it right too.
Tessa Balc
Audience engagement producer
Top story
City Council approves $4.2 billion Midway District makeover
The San Diego City Council officially approved Midway Rising during a marathon meeting last night.
It will be a while longer until the massive project is finished. The first phase includes a new sports arena, on the eastern side of the nearly 50-acre property. That first phase, which also includes nearby mixed-use buildings and a public outdoor space, will take an estimated five years.
The city opted to forgo collecting large annual rental payments on the land, instead opting for the developer to build the arena, public space, surrounding infrastructure improvements and 2,000 affordable housing units.
After the developer provides those upfront features, the Independent Budget Analyst estimates the city will collect between $38.1 and $68.5 million over the life of the deal, not factoring in inflation.
Public comment on the decision stretched six hours, as opponents and supporters flooded the meeting to lobby for and against the project.
The only substantial change since it was first approved was an amendment from Councilmember Kent Lee. His change aims to keep the developer from using a recent city regulatory change that would let other developers build their mandated affordable housing units at Midway Rising. That would have meant the 2,000 affordable units weren’t entirely new units the city wouldn’t have seen built elsewhere.
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Stories you should know about
📝 Lawsuit alleges San Diego blocked its only female lifeguard captain from applying for chief position: San Diego’s second-highest-ranking guard is suing the city because she says after she inquired about the position, a new chief — who was was less qualified than her —was announced before she could apply for the position.
🏗️ Construction crews arrive, parking woes follow. Golden Hill Cafe is latest local business to feel the pain: Longtime staff of the neighborhood staple Golden Hill Cafe are saying that they are losing customers because nearby construction of an eight-story complex is reducing the amount of parking spots in the area, which has been a prevalent complaint from businesses as new developments crop up across the city.
🎶 Dead set on making good music: Oh He Dead’s CJ Johnson talks songwriting, a film in the works and the band’s return to The Casbah: Music contributor Donovan Roche chatted with Washington, D.C.-based indie-soul quintet ahead of their return to the Casbah Wednesday to recap how their fourth studio album came together.
⚽️ ‘Lot of difficult moments’ doomed SDFC’s sophomore season. The club has many decisions to make heading into 2027: Coming off of an extremely impressive inaugural season, SDFC’s second time around wasn’t so pretty and came to an end Saturday against Sporting KC.
What else we’re reading
🔥 A commercial building in San Diego’s Mountain View neighborhood, which has caught fire at least three times before, set ablaze Monday leading about 70 firefighters to show up on scene to extinguish it. (NBC 7)
💻 Google has given San Diego County’s school districts an ultimatum: decide whether to opt in to the company’s artificial intelligence features or lose access to the search engine. It’s an all or nothing deal, meaning if a district decides to disable the AI features, they’ll no longer have access to a basic search. (NBC 7)
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Step back in time…
This is a photo of Fiesta Island. Did you guess correct? Want to read more, check out this article.
