As Mayor Todd Gloria has prepared his budget proposal for the next year, the city says its leadership has factored in a range of considerations for what to prioritize — including the results of a recent survey that led San Diego residents to give their own input.

The survey, which launched in February and closed Friday, asked San Diegans to weigh in on which city services they care most about and which ones they would feel comfortable reducing, especially as the city faces a $146 million deficit for the coming fiscal year.

It was the first time the city conducted a budget survey. But the survey, built by the city’s Performance & Analytics Department, faced some limitations.

There was no set limit to how many times a person could take it, although residents were asked to respond just once. It was technically possible for people outside the city to respond, though they weren’t supposed to. And the city only offered it in two languages, English and Spanish.

Some community members questioned how the results could accurately represent city residents and their different needs.

“Survey data can sometimes be taken as the word, but it’s not necessarily always reflective of what the full community is saying,” said Erin Hogeboom, director of San Diego for Every Child, when the budget’s first draft was released last month.

The budget the mayor proposed last month included cuts to several services, including $11 million from arts and culture and reductions to funding for parks, libraries and youth services. He is set to release his revised budget next Wednesday.

The city closed the survey on Friday. It will share a final report of the responses with the mayor early next week before the revised budget is released, said city spokesperson Nicole Darling.

By the time it closed, the survey received more than 13,000 responses from across the city, and just over 12,000 respondents included their council district. The largest share of responses, at about 2,600, came from District 3 — which covers the neighborhoods around Balboa Park and downtown. It was followed by Districts 2, 7 and 1.

The fewest responses came in District 8, which includes Barrio Logan, Grant Hill, Shelltown, San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, at 572.

Respondents were asked about which city services they most want to protect. They could also identify city services — from parks and open space to homeless programs to graffiti removal — that they would feel comfortable reducing, on a scale of very unacceptable to very acceptable.

The latest results through Wednesday show respondents are most concerned about poor street and sidewalk conditions, homelessness and housing costs. They want to protect street repairs and resurfacing, police and fire-rescue services from funding cuts, according to the city’s survey data.

Responses show that the biggest share of survey takers — 40% — prefer to see a mix of some service cuts and some new revenue to address the city’s financial crisis. Slightly fewer, 37%, said they preferred eliminating some city programs to preserve others.

Over 70% said they wanted to see new revenue come from hotel or tourism taxes. Just 15% said they want new revenue to come from additional parking fees.

The priorities recorded in the survey, centered around the city’s core services, haven’t changed in the months that the survey has remained open, Darling said.

But Bob Lehman, executive director of San Diego Art Matters, says he feels that the survey guided takers toward certain responses and didn’t provide enough context about the impacts of cuts.

The bulk of the questions listed groups of city services that survey takers could rate on whether or not they thought cutting funding for that service would be acceptable.

“It kind of shapes what your response is, when core services are listed alongside arts and culture,” Lehman said. “Without any context, people are nudged towards protecting the obvious essentials.”

The city says the groups of categories were random and that there was no limit to how many times the survey taker could select one of the ratings on the scale for those questions.

Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California, said it’s a good sign that the city has asked for feedback from the public, especially when big financial decisions must be made. But he stresses that analyzing the survey should go beyond the top-line results.

“You have to be careful that it’s going to be representative and … that you’re looking at different age groups, different income groups and different parts of the city, to make sure that you’re not missing any important details about how city services need to be delivered in times when the budget is in stress,” he said.

The city’s survey included optional demographic questions, including a respondent’s age, income level and race and gender. But Darling says the survey wasn’t meant to be a “statistically representative sample, but rather a snapshot of resident perspectives.”

Most of the survey questions were optional. The only required response was a respondent’s ZIP code, though the survey could be submitted with a ZIP code outside of the city limits. In late April, the city said that fewer than 1% of responses were invalid or from outside the city’s ZIP codes.

On its webpage, the city asked respondents to take the survey only once — but there was no way to prevent them from submitting a response multiple times, which the city acknowledges was a limitation.

The city says the survey is just one of several factors informing the mayor’s budget decisions — with others including legal obligations, economic conditions, departmental needs and the city’s responsibility to maintain services like public safety, infrastructure and homelessness response.

“The survey is one tool to understand how residents are thinking about tradeoffs in a difficult budget year,” spokesperson Joya Patel said. “It does not drive decisions on its own.”

San Diego FC are currently mired in an eight-game winless run in which they’ve collected just three points. But this is still largely the same team that looked dominant both last year and in the early stages of this season. To help us make sense of that, we asked Dmitry Ansimov of SDFC Nation to provide this scouting report:

Notable injuries

Jeppe Tverskov, the heart of SDFC midfield is most likely out until after the World Cup due to a leg injury he suffered on April 25 in a 1–0 loss to the Portland Timbers. Goalkeeper CJ Santos has also been ruled out after a collisionwith.

Team form

The team has been in dismal form. Winless in their last seven and having lost five straight, they finally got a point at home when they tied LAFC’s rotated squad due to their CCC matchup against Toluca. However, SDFC was leading 2–0 and squandered points on a last-minute equalizer at home. Ever since the loss at Toluca, SDFC has not been the same. Toluca exemplified a gameplan that worked well to break down the SDFC high-possession, play-out-of-the-back style and MLS teams followed. Head coach Mikey Varas refuses to change tactics and lives and dies by his 4–3–3 system which makes the team very predictable. SDFC has squandered decisive late goals in back-to-back matches.

Key players

The key players to watch for are Marcus Ingvartsen, who’s found his form this season at the 9. After being out most of last season, Ingvartsen is leading the team in goals scored (7). He’s been clinical in the air and on the ground. The other player to watch for is Anders Dreyer. Dreyer is having a good season again, leading the team in goals+assists (10). Last season’s league MVP candidate is not quite where he was last year, but remains the pillar in SDFC’s attack. Defensively — Manu Duah and Luca Bombino. Duah (CB) just got his first call-up to the Ghana national team and has been fantastic this season. SDFC has seen the difference of when he’s on and when he’s off the field (due to the couple of red cards he’s received this season due to sloppy challenges). Luca Bombino patrols the LB position where he’s been extremely effective. Breaking into the team last year, Bombino has been a regular starter for SDFC since. He’s dealt with an injury that forced him out of two matches – when he came back last match, SDFC looked much better on defense, further clarifying how important he is to the team.]

One thing opposing fans should know

If San Diego wants to get a result, they’ll need to be far more clinical in the final third and far more composed in the closing moments of the match. Possession alone won’t be enough; turning control into goals is the next step. More than anything, this match is about mentality. SDFC has shown they can go toe-to-toe with top teams, but now they need to prove they can finish the job—especially away from home in a tough environment like Seattle. If they can build on the positives from the LAFC performance, stay disciplined defensively, and avoid the late-game lapses that have cost them points, this could be the moment their season finally turns back in the right direction.

Projected lineup

4–3–3: Furree; Bombino, Duah, McVey, Verhoeven; Vazuez, Godoy, Valakari; Morgan, Ingvartsen, Dreyer.

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — If home is truly where the heart is, then Rocio Delgado’s home is in Puerto Rico.

“I grew up in Ciales. It’s a town in the middle of the island, green, full of mountains. It’s a very pretty town that I invite everybody to have the opportunity to go visit,” Delgado said.

Everything in her house, from the sugar cane painting to the cafecito, reminds her of the island.

“The best way to drink the coffee,” she said as she warmed milk on the stove.

But, she doesn’t live in Puerto Rico anymore.

“Especially in the beginning, it was super hard because my family is there, my friends as well,” Delgado said.

She moved to San Diego more than 20 years ago to continue her education. “That was a hard transition.”

Through her time in her art studio, you can see the longing to connect with her homeland in each brush stroke. “Painting was a way to heal,” she said. “I feel like it was a therapy.”

That feeling produced her painting: “Corazon Boricua.”

“I let myself go in a way,” Delgado said.

She painted the blue, white, and red heart with oil on a large canvas.

“I feel that the heart is not broken. It’s just expanding,” she said, adding it symbolizes the resilience of Latinos.

That’s what caught the attention of the San Diego Padres.

“They sent us a deck with several different design options, things that are important to the culture,” said Emily Wittig, the Vice President of Marketing with the San Diego Padres.

In collaboration with the award-winning artist, the Padres will feature her artwork on the limited-edition game hat during their fourth Puerto Rican Heritage Game.

“I was finishing my heart, and that’s the one that they chose,” Delgado said.

What started as a painting on her wall became a digital graphic design she shared with the Padres.

This hat became a reality after several drafts — a tangible way to share her culture at the Puerto Rican Heritage Game.

“We want it to be authentic,” Wittig said. “We want it to be true to the culture, so it’s important for us to work with these local community groups to see what’s important to them.”

The team designed every part of the hat with intention.

“Our Puerto Rican celebration hat is the colors of the Puerto Rican flag,” Wittig said.

It includes authentic details in even unexpected ways.

“The fun thing that people might not notice right away, but on the inside we have the coqui, the tiny frogs, which are so cute, so it’s a really fun nod to Puerto Rico while also still celebrating and showing your Padres pride,” Wittig said, showing the details of the hat.

The Padres donate $5 from every ticket sold to the House of Puerto Rico, which Carmen Acevedo says keeps the cottage operating.

“It’s also going to keep the international cottages alive for the rest of the generations,” Acevedo said.

Acevedo says the cultural museum relies solely on donations, receiving more than $4,000 from the game last year.

“This one is a fundraiser with a lot of fun,” Acevedo said.
Delgado is one of thousands of Puerto Ricans who left the island in recent years.

“I was thinking it was going to be a short transition, just come study, having an opportunity to do that, and come back, but things change,” Delgado said.

According to the Pew Research Center, since 2004, more than 600,000 Puerto Ricans have left the island to live in the mainland United States, so events like this offer a chance to reconnect with other Puerto Ricans.

“We want people to feel included and welcomed here,” Wittig said.

While Delgado no longer calls Puerto Rico her physical home, you can see the home in her heart through the ‘Corazon Boricua.’

“The Padres are doing something so nice to recognize the Puerto Rican community in San Diego, and not too many teams do that,” Delgado said.