San Diego Has a Housing Crisis, Not an Arena Crisis

Earlier this yr, Voice of San Diego printed an article on the historical past of the Frontier Housing Venture, a as soon as thriving numerous group situated within the Halfway District.

The article shared the historic fact that simply earlier than World Battle II, the Navy and federal authorities made plans to construct hundreds of items within the Halfway neighborhood to accommodate the numerous staff supporting the army and protection contractors and producers. That got here out of issues that they didn’t have sufficient shelter, as many households have been homeless and dwelling in squalor, Voice reported. 

This rediscovered historical past shared how Halfway as soon as contained one among solely two built-in communities in San Diego, as follows:

“… Solely two neighborhoods in San Diego allowed and accepted folks of coloration in any important focus outdoors of southeastern San Diego earlier than the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Frontier was one and Linda Vista was the opposite.”

The Frontier Housing Venture would finally present low-cost housing for 20,000 residents – Black, Brown and White – with three faculties to serve the brand new group.

However Level Lomans, who had lengthy derided the development of Frontier Housing requested that the brand new racially built-in group be “separated by a ten or 12-acre strip.” In the meantime metropolis leaders referred to as the group a “nugatory slum” and an space with the best deterioration. By the Fifties, town of San Diego had bought a lot of the Frontier land and “was actively plotting to eradicate the neighborhood as quickly as doable.”

The Metropolis instructed taxpayers that it will resell the property later for a substantial revenue. However for probably the most half, it by no means did. The town discovered a developer who constructed the present Sports activities Enviornment and leased it for $1 per yr in lease.

At present, town of San Diego is utilizing the California Surplus Land Act – which goals to attach builders who’re thinking about constructing extra inexpensive properties on surplus native public land that’s each accessible and appropriate for housing growth – to lease the 48 acres of taxpayer land inside the Halfway District.

The aim of the CA Surplus Land Act is “to extend the provision of actual property in California for inexpensive housing growth by requiring the prioritization of inexpensive housing when promoting or leasing public lands not essential for company use.”

Public lands must be used for the best public good – which in San Diego means housing, housing, and extra housing. Metropolis leaders have articulated the significance of housing however the true take a look at can be their choice at Halfway.

As San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has stated, “Residents who grew up right here and need to stay right here to lift households of their very own. We can’t lose our resolve to deal with our personal kids within the face of people that worry change. That’s not how a thriving metropolis works.”

San Diego Metropolis Council President Sean Elo-Rivera was equally unequivocal on the significance of housing when he wrote in a press release in regards to the metropolis’s eviction moratorium, “Housing is a human proper.”

I agree.

No matter which grasp plan is chosen for the Halfway redevelopment venture, town should concentrate on constructing as a lot housing as doable.  The 48-acre website is primed and able to go for inexpensive housing with prepared entry to transit, faculties, procuring, and different facilities.

Merely acknowledged, San Diego has a housing disaster, not an enviornment disaster.

It was not too long ago reported that metropolis workers eliminated one of many 5 ultimate builders as a result of they didn’t have an “enviornment associate” and couldn’t show the “capacity to renovate the present sports activities enviornment.”

For the metropolis to provide precedence to a state-of-the-art leisure complicated, supposed to draw extra concert events and minor-league sports activities groups, can be a gross instance of misguided public planning.

With out adequate housing, San Diego can’t appeal to new jobs. Larger training can’t appeal to college students.  

I strongly encourage the Metropolis Council and Mayor Gloria to match their rhetoric and prioritize the creation of expansive inexpensive and middle- revenue housing within the Halfway district.

It’s been 60 years because the ultimate 254 eviction notices have been despatched out to the final of the Frontier residents, placing the tip to an period whose shameful legacy lingers right this moment. Now, town has the chance to do the best factor – present the 48 acres for housing.

Don’t let historical past repeat itself.

Members of the Metropolis Council and Mayor Gloria should not repeat the errors of the previous. They have to discover a new path ahead to a extra equitable and inclusive future for San Diego and particularly the Halfway District.