Dear Neighbor, 

Last week, I was one of twelve mayors from California’s big cities gathered at the State Capitol in Sacramento who stood united in calling on State leaders for permanent, ongoing state funding for homelessness so we can continue addressing dangerous encampments and help get unsheltered people on the path to permanent housing. 

We were in Sacramento as part of the California Big City Mayors, a bipartisan coalition of leaders from the state’s 13 most populous cities, which I chair this year. Together, we met with State leaders and shared the positive outcomes from the State’s Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) and Homekey program funding. This funding has helped our cities create 15,755 new emergency shelter beds and interim homes, placed about 19,500 people into housing intervention programs and created about 5,101 permanent homes. 

But even with our success in deploying the funding, our challenge remains enormous, and our actions at every level of government must reflect that. 

That’s why we need State leaders to help us be even more successful in the future by making HHAP funding permanent, which would allow us to better plan our long-term approach on homelessness, more efficiently fund programs and ensure accountability for progress on reducing homelessness. We also asked that the state approve funding for all the project applications in the current round of the Homekey program, which provides state funding to local governments to quickly establish new housing through rapid-delivery models such as hotel conversions or manufactured housing. 

Homelessness must be treated with the urgency this crisis deserves by all levels of government. Big cities like ours are doing the hard work to address homelessness, and our coalition is committed to collaborating with the state, counties and other cities to ensure real progress on the issue. 

As always, it’s an honor to serve as your Mayor.

Major League Soccer is Coming to San Diego  

It's official – San Diego will be home to a new Major League Soccer team. And they will play at Snapdragon Stadium starting in 2025

The new team will be owned by Mohamed Mansour, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, and Padres third baseman Manny Machado.

his past year has been truly a great time to be a San Diego sports fan, with the San Diego Padres winning the National League division championship, the Loyal making the playoffs, the San Diego Wave breaking National Women’s Soccer League attendance records during their wildly successful inaugural season and the Aztec Men’s Basketball Team making it into the NCAA Finals this year.

San Diegans are showing up and showing our pride in our teams, and we can’t wait to cheer on our new MLS team to victory soon.  

Mayor’s “Getting It Done” Budget Moves Forward 

My Fiscal Year 2024 “Getting It Done” budget proposal is moving closer to the finish line.

Last week, we released the May Revise, which makes changes to the initial budget as we receive more information on the incoming city revenues. My May Revise continues to maintain a balanced budget and provides essential core community services, including funding to address homelessness, fix our streets and keep our communities safe.

The May Revision is fiscally prudent amid the ongoing deficit for the General Fund with the goal of ensuring a structurally balanced budget in the future. We have revised the original proposal to cover salary increases to bring City workers’ compensation up to the median for local municipal employees, which will help us recruit and retain the employees who provide services. Increases in the May Revise will also fund sidewalk improvements and other infrastructure, plus fund the Police Department’s recruiting efforts.

There are just a few more steps in the budget process leading up to the final City Council vote  on June 12.

A Safe, Car-Free Space in the Gaslamp Quarter

We celebrated a major milestone in our effort to create a permanent, pedestrian-only promenade in the heart of Downtown’s Gaslamp Quarter. 

City crews recently completed the construction necessary to place steel bollards at intersections along Fifth Avenue to block vehicle traffic and create a series of pedestrian promenades on Fifth Avenue from Broadway to K Street. 

The bollards will be up between noon and 2 a.m. daily, creating safe and walkable promenades along Fifth Avenue while also allowing cross-street traffic on east and west streets to continue. 

The bollards will replace temporary gates that we have been using since the pandemic, when the City helped restaurants create outdoor seating and temporary plazas to reduce indoor crowds and help stop the spread of COVID-19. 

Largely because of that effort, San Diego’s downtown has rebounded from the pandemic faster and stronger than most other U.S. cities. Closing Fifth Avenue was one of the main factors that helped our Gaslamp Quarter restaurants and shops keep going. 

The Fifth Avenue Promenade will promote a bustling pedestrian atmosphere and help keep the Gaslamp Quarter a vibrant and exciting place from lunchtime to closing time each day. We look forward to replicating this promenade on Normal Street in University Heights later this year! 

San Diego High Schoolers Are Engaging Civically  

Voting is an important act of civic participation and one of the best ways for young people to ensure their concerns are addressed by their elected representatives.

That’s why, in 2022, my office launched the Dr. Shirley N. Weber High School Voter Registration Challenge in partnership with Inspire2Vote. The challenge encourages San Diego high schools to help pre-register/register eligible students to vote.

Since launching the challenge, I am proud to report that hundreds of San Diego high school students have worked to get themselves and their peers engaged in democracy. This year, about 450 local high school students preregistered or registered to vote through the challenge.

My friend and mentor who this effort is named for, California's Secretary of State Dr. Weber, helped us honor some of those students in an awards ceremony at City Hall last week.

I loved hearing the student leaders talk about how they worked to get their peers interested in registering and taking charge of their futures. I am so thankful to all the schools and students who participated and can’t wait to get hundreds more students engaged in voting next year!