Council District 9 News

October 4, 2023

Hello Lydia,

Six-weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed our son to the world. His birth brought an immediate and immeasurably good change to our lives and my parental leave allowed me the opportunity to watch our baby’s incredible development and share unforgettable family moments. It also provided me the opportunity to think even more about the community and world I want our son to grow up in. I want to thank my team for holding down the fort while I was on leave and everyone who is working to make the future worthy of the hopes and dreams we have for all of our children.

With gratitude,

Sean

Council District 9 Updates

Budget Priorities

We’re only a few months into the City’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget, but over the last couple months the Council District 9 team has been working hard to ensure the City’s next budget reflects the many needs of our communities.

On September 27, each Council office submitted its priorities for the City’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, which will begin on July 1, 2024. The submission of our priorities marked the first step toward developing the 2025 budget, as these priorities will inform the proposed budget that the mayor will present to City Council in April 2024.

In our priorities, we included many projects, programs, and services that would serve residents throughout Council District 9 and citywide, including:

Housing and homelessness
Public Safety
Youth Services
Climate Action
Mobility and Infrastructure

To see a full list of priorities, please review our budget memo at sdd9.info/fy25memo

Don’t see your priorities? Don’t worry! Our office will be submitting an update to our priorities in January 2024. You’ll be hearing from us soon about that.

Welcome to the Team!

Sara Al-Agha | Pronouns: (she/her)

Community Representative

We are excited to welcome Sara Al-Agha to the team as a Community Representative. In her spare time, Sara enjoys traveling, nature walks, horseback riding, cooking, and spending time on the beach.

“I’m excited to work with such a vibrant and dynamic team and acquire new skills to best serve the community of D9!” - Sara

Join us in welcoming Sara to the District 9 Team!

State Awards Funding to City of San Diego

Working to move more San Diegans off the streets and into housing, the City of San Diego was recently awarded a $3.2 million grant from the State of California to help end people’s homelessness in a corridor along Interstate 15 in Council District 9.

As part of the grant application process, the City of San Diego’s Homelessness Strategies and Solutions Department and Council District 9, identified an area along the Interstate 15 corridor from Adams Ave. south to Thorn St. with a heavy concentration of encampments.

Our office will continue to work with Mayor Gloria, the Homelessness Strategies & Solutions Department, and other partners in the community to identify more opportunities to help us end homelessness.

Read the full press release at sdd9.info/news927

Community Safety

Central to our vision for community safety is the safety that community creates — the feeling that comes when you’re surrounded by friends, family, and people you trust to look out for you. Our office initiated some of these activities, such as the Castle and City Heights community walks, and we are looking to plan even more with YOUR help!

We are looking for community members who would be interested in partnering with us on coordinating a future community walk and/or other events focused on safety.

If you are interested in learning more, let us know here: sdd9.info/safety

Submit Your Interest

Mid-Autumn Festival in City Heights

People who visited the Mid-Autumn Festival enjoyed great food, lion dancing and Taiko Drumming and a sense of the truly diverse community found in District Nine. That’s why it was my pleasure to collaborate with Councilmember Kent Lee and my Council colleagues to proclaim Mid-Autumn Festival Day in the City of San Diego on September 30th.

This occasion has been celebrated for thousands of years in several Asian countries, so it’s only

fitting that we carry on the tradition of sharing good food and building community together.

Thank you so much to City Heights CDC and the Asian Real Estate Association of America for making this event possible. Thank you also to the Vietnamese American Youth Association and CCBA San Diego for your support.

College Area Mural

It was absolutely incredible to see community coming together! Children, youth, and families volunteered their time to help paint District 9’s newest mural in College Area.

So much gratitude to go around. Thank you to ArtReach San Diego for your beautiful mural design and management of the project. Thank you to Maria and Dale Grimm for opening up the wall of your business as well as Jim Schneider and the College Area Business District for pushing for and organizing this in our district.

Huge shoutout to the College Area Community Council for outreaching snd engaging the community for Saturday’s celebration and ribbon-cutting!

Recycling Resources

As we begin our last quarter of the year and prep for the holidays, we know that many folks dig into their storage space and start to dig out things they may need for this season. And we also know that, along that process, there’s probably quite a bit of items you realize you need to get rid of. We wanted to share some resources for you that could be helpful if this happens to be you!

There are two sites we recommend you visit before trying to recycle or discard items in the trash. These pages are extensively updated and track all that you need to know on recycling or disposing in San Diego. It provides information on where you can go, what they accept, and how many locations offer this service for a specific item.

Additionally, the City’s Environmental Services Department (ESD) also has their own page with information: www.sandiego.gov/environmental-services/recycling

You’d be surprised what can’t go in the trash and/or recycling bins – make sure you confirm!

What We're Reading, Watching, and Listening

In this section, Council President Elo-Rivera and our team share a few things we’ve seen and heard that have influenced or impacted us since our last email. Take a look and give these items a read or watch:

Read: "A Journey from Homelessness to a Room of One’s Own" - The New Yorker

Watch: "Escondido Union School District closes libraries for book audit as Banned Books Week kicks off" – KPBS (YouTube)

Listen: "What Have We Learned from a Summer of Climate Reckoning?" - The Ezra Klein Podcast