San Diego, CA
Newsom wanted encampments off state land. Fires by San Diego highways show there’s a long way to go.
The woman woke up feeling hot. That’s how she discovered her hair was on fire.
The 47-year-old slapped at her head and scrambled from her tent, which sat beneath a bridge in southern San Diego, she recalled Wednesday during an interview at the site. Her Yorkshire terrier made it out, too. But the insulin she uses for her diabetes was lost.
“It went up fast,” said the woman, who spoke on the condition that only her middle name, La, be published. “I’m now scared to sleep.”
Fire department records show that the blaze at La’s tent began before sunrise on March 21. Two days later, a tree ignited near a different San Diego campsite. Both locations appear to be on land overseen by the California Department of Transportation, and the fires highlight the difficulties of keeping Caltrans property free of encampments when there are few places for homeless people to go.
Last summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order demanding that agencies quickly clear tent camps on state land. “It’s time to move with urgency,” Newsom said in a video. “There are no longer any excuses.” Yet in some cases there now seem to be more tents near San Diego’s highway on- and off-ramps, which are generally managed by Caltrans. Advocates for homeless people have pointed out that this shift happened after local governments passed camping bans that boosted penalties for sleeping on city sidewalks.
Rachel Laing, a spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria, estimated that since the start of last year more than 60 local fires had begun by encampments next to roadways. That total went up dramatically if you looked at all blazes within 100 feet of streets monitored by Caltrans, Laing wrote in an email, citing information from the fire marshal. (Fire department data previously shared with The San Diego Union-Tribune do note a number of incidents near highways, although records available to the public do not always specify the exact origin point.)
San Diego is negotiating with the state about potentially giving city crews more authority to clear encampments on California property. A sticking point may be who pays for what as collecting debris can be expensive. The city of San Diego needed a helicopter on Thursday to remove several tons of material from one abandoned encampment in La Jolla.
The state has given the region millions of dollars to aid homeless people and public data show that Caltrans has boosted sweeps in recent years. In 2024, the agency removed 943 encampments and about 4,600 cubic yards of debris from around San Diego, according to spokesperson Aaron Hunter.
But homelessness countywide continues to grow and there are nowhere near enough beds for everybody asking, despite ongoing efforts to launch additional shelters. And in a tough budget year — California faces a large deficit — it’s not clear whether Caltrans will get significantly more resources to monitor state land.
“Caltrans is responsible for protecting and maintaining the state’s highway network and regularly assesses potential safety and infrastructure threats on all of its state right of way properties, including fires,” the agency said in an emailed statement from Hunter. Caltrans didn’t yet have a record of blazes at the two San Diego sites that burned in March, although Hunter wrote that those locations had been “addressed nine times since 2022 and are scheduled to be cleaned again.”
The March 23 fire began around 3:30 a.m. on a steep hill overlooking Interstate 5, according to a fire department incident report obtained through a records request. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze in about 20 minutes before any houses were damaged.
Part of the hillside was still black when a reporter visited the area Wednesday. A pile of burned wood sat at the base of a pepper tree, its bark charred and ashy, and nobody was inside a nearby structure made out of tarp. Caltrans’ online map shows most of that land falling under the agency’s jurisdiction.
The same goes for the blackened plot where La’s tent burned earlier in the month. Several people appeared to still be sleeping at the site, including La, who wore a wrap around her head. She and a friend believe the fire may have been intentionally started by another person living outside, although suspicions were hard to prove.
La said outreach workers and police did come by, yet shelter was scarce. “Most of the time they don’t have a bed — not on the female side.” La added that she was on a list for housing.
Her friend, Thadius Wright, 64, said he does have a unit downtown, but was in the area to check on people he’d gotten to know during the years he slept at the site. Even though cleaning crews periodically moved the group out, the overpass offered too much protection from rain to fully abandon, Wright noted. “There’s nothing like being out here in the wintertime and being wet.”
Wright was convinced that most people would happily trade their tents for housing — if it was affordable. “They think we want to stay out here,” he said about frustrated neighbors. “Not true.”
Originally Published:
The San Diego Community College District said Monday it is battling a major cyberattack that began on Saturday and led the system to take some internet, email, websites and registration platforms offline while it is in the midst of enrolling students for summer classes.
“The attack was detected immediately by the district’s IT security systems and no data has been compromised,” said Jack Beresford, a spokesperson for the district.
“All the district’s (four) colleges remain open and most classes are continuing as scheduled. However, some operations such as bookstores and cafeterias may be closed as are some offices with employees working remotely,” he said. “The district is keeping students and employees informed via text, updates on the SDCCD Safe app, Canvas, and social media.”
About 60,000 students will take classes during summer sessions at San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar and Continuing Education colleges. Later this month, the district will award its first bachelor’s degree-level diplomas to students studying cybersecurity.
SAN DIEGO, CA — A 12-year-old boy riding an e-bike suffered life- threatening injuries this weekend after colliding with a car in Carmel Valley, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The crash happened in the 5500 block of Del Mar Heights Road at about 5:40 p.m. Saturday, when the boy attempted to make a left turn from the westbound bike lane onto southbound Old Carmel Valley Road and was hit by the front passenger side of a Tesla, police said.
The unidentified boy suffered life-threatening injuries including a fractured collarbone and multiple brain bleeds, which required surgery, police said in a statement.
A 64-year-old man who was driving a 2023 Tesla Model Y westbound in the number one lane of Del Mar Heights Road was not injured and alcohol was not a factor in the collision, police said.
The SDPD’s Traffic Division is handling the investigation. Anyone with information related to the crash was encouraged to call SDPD or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
SAN DIEGO – Thomas Wolfe once wrote you can’t go home again. “You cannot return to the past, childhood, or places you once knew,” he said, “because time, change, and memory alter them.”
That wasn’t true this weekend for Will Venable. The White Sox manager returned to Petco Park where it all began for him as a young player, and it felt like home.
Venable was picked by the Padres in the seventh round of the 2005 draft, and he played there for the first seven-plus years of his nine-year career. Sitting in the visiting dugout down the third-base line, he glanced around at Petco and its familiar surroundings.
He arrived in San Diego in 2008, only four years after the Padres moved from Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley to the new $450 million ballpark downtown.
“It was my whole career playing here for the Padres,” Venable said in an interview. “I spent two months with the Rangers and two weeks with the Dodgers. Other than that, my whole career was with the Padres. I grew up in the organization and made my debut. Everything good that happened to me in baseball happened in a Padres jersey.”
He arrived just as veteran Bruce Bochy left for San Francisco and Bud Black took over the club’s reins. Venable played almost eight seasons for Black. Many of his old friends came by to visit on Friday as the Sox opened the three-game series against the Padres, outscoring them 12-2 to win the first two games.
Black is back with the Padres as a front office consultant. Tony Gwynn Jr. is a club broadcaster. Phil Nevin works for the Sox now as a minor-league coordinator. Chris Denorfia is Chicago’s big-league field coordinator.
“I got to see a number of guys,” Venable said. “The big thing about being here at that time was this was a special group, a pleasant group. So, to see Buddy, to see Tony Gwynn, I get to see Nev pretty frequently now that he’s in the organization. It’s been special to see some of those guys.”
The ballpark still looks pretty much the same. Some of the dimensions are different. The video boards have all been upgraded. The neighborhood and downtown skyline beyond and north of the outfield seats is certainly much denser, altering the wind currents.
In Venable’s early years as the Padres struggled on the field and the glow of the new ballpark opening began to fade, home attendance hovered at about 2 million and the Padres averaged about 27,000 a game.
Not now. The ballpark rocks as the Padres challenge the Dodgers for the National League West title and as always short of that for at least a Wild Card playoff berth. Last season, they drew 3.4 million, averaging 42,435 a game, second in the Major Leagues behind the Dodgers in both categories.
This year, they’ve sold out their first 13 home dates, already drawing 752,626 and averaging 41,979, again both figures shy of the Dodgers. It’s not like the old days, Venable acknowledged.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “What [general manager A.J.] Preller and the group have done here, bringing in all these great players and creating this environment has been incredible. More than everything I’m just happy for the fans. After a phase where we had a couple of good years, we were unable to generate the excitement they are creating now.”
It’s a road map for where the now 16-17 White Sox are heading. More wins mean more attention and better attendance.
After 121 and 102 loss seasons, if Venable learned anything from his first year in this job, it’s that it all takes incessant work to turn it all around.
“Oh, I learned something new every single day,” he said. “We learned a ton of meaningful things along the way. There’s been tons of help from baseball ops, which is what I signed up for. I have a great partnership with that group and they’ve been very supportive. Just look around you at what’s happened [in San Diego].”
You can go home again.
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