The San Diego City Council on Tuesday afternoon gave police the greenlight to move smart streetlight technology and license plate readers without approval.

In a commanding 7-2 vote, city councilmembers granted police the freedom to relocate streetlight cameras and plate readers within two blocks of approved sites. Supporters say it just cuts through red tape, but critics worry this undermines the council’s oversight of public surveillance.

“Everything has been transparent,” one person said during public comment. “It’s a waste of your time, as you know, and the police time if they have to come back over and over.”

“We can’t have this ambiguity of where this surveillance technology being placed and then having them being shifted, and we learn afterward,” another said during public comment. “We need to know ahead of time.”

When the city relaunched this surveillance tech last year, San Diego police proposed 500 locations. But the department says dozens of those sites don’t work, leaving about 60 surveillance cameras and readers sitting in storage. Site hang-ups include power and voltage issues, blocked camera views and mistaking Caltrans light poles for city poles.

And in some cases, streetlights don’t exist. Under the city’s ordinance, police needed to go through council approval to relocate those some-odd 60 sites — a process the department said took seven months.

For that reason, police asked the council for the right to relocate any of its surveillance cameras and plate readers within a two-block zone of a previously approved site.

SDPD said those two-block zones will be chosen based on violent crime statistics and will uphold the current standards of avoiding sites near reproductive health centers, worship centers or immigration centers.

But Councilmembers Vivian Moreno and Sean Elo-Rivera expressed reservations.

“I need to be able to look at my constituents in the eye and tell them that I know how the information that the city is collecting will be used,” Elo-Rivera said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “I still cannot do that, and for that reason, I am voting no.”

“That’s a lot of bureaucracy to go through,” Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert said. “Six to nine months just to move the location of previously approved technology that we already said you can use.”

Police said after a camera is relocated, they will update the interactive map of streetlight locations. You can sheck out that map on the city’s website.

Since the city relaunched the program a year ago, police say plate readers and streetlight cameras have helped police recover 210 stolen cars, 10 firearms and make 206 arrests. The cameras do not record audio or use facial recognition.

One of my favorite things to do online is watch YouTubers who travel the world. It looks so luxurious. And the ones I watch sometimes find drop in at a credit card or airline member airport lounge to hang around in before their flights. I was at a Delta lounge once 25 years ago, because a friend gave me a guest pass. I remember being wowed at the espresso machine in the half hour I got to spend in there.

I still don’t own any credit cards – or have any airline status – granting me access these types of lounges. However, I was able to visit the brand new Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club SAN at the San Diego International Airport this week before a trip to Hawaii. The club just opened earlier this month. It was described as offering a unique aesthetic for an airport lounge experience. With surfboards designed by local muralist Hanna Daly and a digital wall that displays drone footage of the picturesque local coastline, it’s indeed a Southern California-inspired space.

Located in Terminal 2, the 10,000+ square-foot space offers a wellness area with bookable private rest pods, on-demand digital meditations from Devi Brown and facial treatments from Face Haus. In addition to having full access to an array of food and the full bar available, cardmembers can order a la carte from a curated menu by Oscars Mexican Seafood – a local destination for fresh, flavorful San Diego dishes – and coffee selections from California’s Groundwork Coffee. The San Diego lounge also features curated wines from Parcelle.

I visited early in the morning, so I was more into the breakfast and coffee offerings. It was pretty spectacular – and every bit as glamorous as the YouTubers make it look. The coffee machines particularly stuck out to me – I was able to choose from about 20 different drinks on a screen. And roughly half of them were decaf, which is a great thing. The coffee came out hot and quickly, and perfect. I should know: I think I tried three or four different drinks. The food was great, too. And I even custom-ordered an omelet from the QR code on my table. It brought up a food menu on my phone, asked for any special additions or subtractions, and a waitress delivered it within a couple of minutes. Very cool.

In fact, I loved how teched out this lounge is. There are USB chargers and wall plugs everywhere to charge up your phone, right down into the private little lounge areas. I could be wrong, but they seemed to be next to every seat or table.
There was also a private phone room.

I did book a sleep pod room for a half-hour. It was fine. I had pre-pictured one of those Japan-style chambers with a bed, but this was instead a small curtained-off area with a very comfortable chair and ottoman overlooking the taxiing airplanes outside. But there are plenty of private little spaces and nooks everywhere, and even a nursery room.

I thought afterwards that if this is the way airport lounges are, maybe I will upgrade my credit card soon because I think it’s a great way to spend time if you show up early for your flight. Not sure about you, but I like getting to the airport early anyway. I find it way more stressful to be late in traffic, hoping I have enough time to get through TSA and to the gate. This can help remove the stress, and you can grab a meal and relax.

The Chase lounge is already so popular that on my way back into the airport after my trip, I noticed a lineup of 15 people just to get in.

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