Feeding SD adapts to law banning food waste
Alimentando a San Diego, the county’s leading hunger relief and food rescue organization, will be working with a new type of food donor this year: large-scale businesses that serve up massive quantities of purchased and prepared foods. As outlined by Senate Bill 1383, California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Law (which first went into effect for tier 1 businesses on January 1, 2022), as of January 1, 2024, the following businesses must donate edible surplus food to food recovery organizations like Feeding San Diego: hotels, restaurants more than 5,000 square feet or with 250+ seats, health facilities with onsite food facilities and 100+ beds, state agency cafeterias, local education agencies, and large venues and events.
Feeding San Diego has long prioritized food rescue to source the food that’s distributed out into the community. In its last fiscal year, 76% of the food distributed was rescued from local food donors and then distributed throughout the community to people in need of food assistance. The zoo and Hotel del Coronado are large organizations that already donate their food waste voluntarily.
California is just one of a handful of states across the country that has passed legislation to curb food waste to mitigate climate change. According to CalRecycle, organic waste in landfills emits 20% of the state’s methane, a climate super pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. California has a goal to redirect 20% of edible food currently thrown away to people in need by 2025.
Calif. hunger soaring
According to USDA food insecurity data — a way of measuring food hardship analyzed by Hunger Free America — across California, 11.5% of residents, or 4.4 million people, lived in food insecure households from 2020-2022. This includes 15.3% of children in the state (1,325,451), 8.8% of employed adults (1,589,299), and 7.6% of older California residents (642,976).
Hunger Free America attributes the surge in food insecurity to the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit and universal school meals. Many federal benefit increases have either gone away entirely, or are being ramped down, even as prices for food, rent, healthcare, and fuel continue to soar.
Government and policy
City of San Diego hourly minimum wage increases to $16.85
Many San Diegans saw an increase in their pay when the City of San Diego’s minimum wage went up in the new year. Effective Jan. 1, 2024, employees who perform at least two hours of work in one or more calendar weeks of the year, within the geographic boundaries of the City of San Diego, will receive a minimum wage increase from $16.30 to $16.85 an hour. The change is in accordance with the city’s Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance, approved in 2016.
Mid-Cities Communities Plan update
To plan for the long-term growth of the Mid-City communities, the City of San Diego has begun the process of updating the Mid-City Communities Plan.
The Mid-City Communities Plan Update will comprehensively update the 1998 community plan, which includes City Heights, Eastern Area, Kensington-Talmage and Normal Heights. It will identify priorities and create opportunities for new homes, businesses and infrastructure for the next several decades, along with needed investments such as parks, public spaces and safe and enjoyable places to walk, roll and bike.
The Plan Update effort is expected to take up to three years, during which San Diegans will have opportunities to engage throughout the entirety of the process. It will ultimately go to the full City Council for consideration.
People to watch
North Park author releases sequel
Following the resounding success of his Lambda Literary Award Nominated debut novel, “The Scheme of Things,” Tim Parks has announced the release of its sequel, titled “The Best Laid Plans.” Building upon the compelling storyline of Henry Dodge’s coming-of-age journey, the sequel delves deeper into the challenges that occur after the traumatic events of the first book. In The Best Laid Plans, readers re-enter the world created for Henry Dodge, the protagonist whose life takes a pivotal turn when he claims his sexuality at the age of 16. The sequel picks up where the first book left off, offering a captivating continuation of Henry’s survival story.
Parks has also partnered with The Trevor Project, a non-profit organization that helps LGBTQ youth who are in crisis, as this is a major plot point in “The Best Laid Plans,” which is based on his own experiences as a teenager and attempting suicide. Five percent of proceeds from the sale of the new novel on fawkupress.com will be donated to The Trevor Project.
Local author to release children’s book 
In San Diego author and artist Pam Fong’s new book, “Hedgehog and the Log” on sale Jan. 30, an adorable purple, flower-loving hedgehog is about to move into his new log – but before he can settle in, a falling tree crushes his new home. But obstacles are opportunities, as Hedgehog learns, and soon he discovers that perhaps with a different perspective, the fallen tree will make a lovely home after all.
This is the artist’s fourth book. Find out more at www.pamfong.com.
Paul Rodriguez appointed San Diego County public defender
The County of San Diego has appointed Paul A. Rodriguez as the new public defender. The aim of the position is to ensure that people charged with a crime in state court who are financially unable to retain private counsel receive a rigorous defense.
Prior to assuming this position, Rodriguez served as the El Cajon branch supervisor of the Public Defender Office, where he provided support to more than 50 attorneys and staff. He joined the Public Defender Office as an intern before graduating from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Molly Teas named Outstanding New Attorney
Higgs Fletcher & Mack attorney Molly H. Teas has been selected as the Outstanding New Attorney by San Diego Defense Lawyers (SDDL), and she will receive the award at the organization’s 39th Annual Installation Gala on Jan. 27, 2024. The Outstanding New Attorney award is presented annually to one outstanding defense attorney in recognition of their success and overall achievements in law.
Teas’ practice primarily focuses on the transportation industry, where she defends trucking and rideshare companies in personal injury litigation. She also has experience in premises and product liability defense as well as representing individuals in trust litigation. Additionally, Teas is admitted to the Intertribal Court of Southern California where she defends local federally recognized Indian tribes in injury and premises liability cases.
Gregory Smith named SDCCD Chancellor
Gregory Smith, who has served as acting chancellor of the San Diego Community College District since March, has been selected by the SDCCD Board of Trustees as the district’s new permanent chancellor.
Smith’s appointment is pending final approval of his employment contract, to be considered at the next Board of Trustees meeting on January 25, 2024. He is set to become the district’s seventh chancellor in its 50-year history.
Comida y bebida
Dry January mocktail offerings
Some use Dry January as a time to reset from holiday celebrations, while others opt to avoid alcohol for health reasons – more energy or better sleep, among many more. But choosing to forego drinking in January doesn’t mean people can’t enjoy a deliciously crafted mocktail from these San Diego spots.
Karl Strauss, San Diego’s longest-operating post-Prohibition brewing company, has released its first ever non-alcoholic beer on the brink of its 35th anniversary in February. Non-Acoholic Red Trolley is available in 12-oz cans exclusively at Karl Strauss’ five San Diego County locations, including the new San Marcos Outpost beer garden concept. The alcoholic Red Trolley Ale (5.8% ABV) is one of the brewery’s core beers, an Irish Style Red Ale that is an 11-time Gold Medal winner at various regional, national, and international brewing competitions. This new take on the beer is “non-alcoholic, still iconic.”
Louisiana Purchase, in North Park, mixologists have hand-crafted several mocktails available for your sober enjoyment. The Fant-astic Fun includes Strawberry Fanta and lemonade garnished with a dehydrated lemon, the Blue Raspberry Bash features Blue Raspberry Koolaid with lemonade garnished with maraschino cherry and orange wheel, and the Grape Year mixes Grape Koolaid with lemonade topped with maraschino cherry and mums.
Mocktail company to be sold at Sprouts, Whole Foods
!MPROV Booze-Free Cocktails, the brainchild of craft beverage veterans James Murray and Alex Brooks, is making a splash in the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage market as they launch at Sprouts locations nationwide and Whole Foods in Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona starting Jan. 1, 2024.
Murray and Brooks boast strong backgrounds in beverage with brands like Ballast Point Brewing Company, Coronado Brewing and Latitude 33 Brewing. Drawing on their expertise, they introduced !MPROV in July 2022 to cater to individuals seeking an alternative to alcohol at social gatherings, celebrations, or simply for relaxation.
Para más información visite https://improvcocktails.com/.
The Original 40 Brewing Company announces new releases
The Original 40 Brewing Company has released Big Tings West Coast Double IPA and Baja Negra Mexican Dark Lager at its North Park brew pub. Both beers will be available on draft and in four packs of 16-oz cans. Big Tings has a 9.0% ABV (alcohol-by-volume), and it was brewed with Mosaic, Citra, and Centennial hops. Baja Negra has a 5.2% ABV, and it was brewed with Mexican lager yeast and a touch of caramel malt.
Real Estate news
Home sales down
San Diego County home sales took another dive in November, according to the Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS® (SDAR) which compiles data on the current home sale market through the San Diego Multiple Listing Service (SDMLS). This is typical during the holiday season.
Single-family resale home sales fell by more than 17% in November, compared to October, while attached properties (condominiums and townhomes) were nearly 15% lower than the previous month. Homes were spending an average of 28 days on the market in November prior to close of escrow.
The median price of single-family homes ticked up by 2% in November to $980,000, which is more than 11% higher than a year ago.
Meanwhile, SDAR announced the new CEO of SDMLS, Saul Klein. Klein has spent nearly 50 years in real estate and is most notably known as the father of technological integration and internet adoption in the residential real estate industry. He was the creator of one of the first online real estate communities, RealTalk, and an original member of the REALTOR.com team.
Record lows in San Diego’s industrial market
Kidder Matthews Quarter 4 report had some major findings about San Diego’s economy, including that leasing volume dropped to a new 15-year low of 1.8 million square feet (SF) while rental prices are at a record high of $1.59/SF NNN. Meanwhile, sale prices fell 27% YOY to $286/SF.
Concurrently, sublease availability reached a historical high, almost a quarter of the total available inventory. This uptick can be partly attributed to Amazon giving back approximately 600K SF since 2022.
Moderation in the San Diego industrial market is expected to continue into the new year due to high interest rates and economic concerns. Rent growth will continue to slow, and although vacancies and availabilities have been rising, it is predicted that it will max out and hit its peak in the coming quarters.
The report also found San Diego’s unemployment rate at 4.2%, higher than last year’s estimates but not a change from the previous month. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.9% for California and 3.5% for the nation during the same period.
Positive projection for restaurant, retail space
Urban Property Group (UPG), a real estate services firm specializing in urban and coastal commercial property, observed interesting trends for the local commercial real estate market in 2023 and has insights for what CRE can expect in 2024.
In 2023, San Diego’s Downtown, especially the Gaslamp and Little Italy neighborhoods, as well as the North Coastal neighborhoods saw strong metrics for restaurant and retail leases. UPG has executed 38 leases in San Diego totaling over $31 million in consideration and 12 sales totaling over $44 million, with the most recent sale in Gaslamp of 951-955 5th Ave. for $4.9 million.
“Throughout this year, we noted a consistent flow of small-scale development and repositioning deals,” said Joe Brady, Principal of UPG.
Looking ahead to 2024, UPG anticipates a shortage of space to lease and expects the slow pace of large projects and developments coming to market to persist.
Non-profit updates
Red Cross seeks volunteers
The American Red Cross of San Diego and Imperial Counties asks readers to resolve to make a difference and support their community by becoming a volunteer in 2024. The request comes as the Red Cross is responding to more extreme weather disasters due to climate change.
“We’re seeing both the frequency and intensity of disasters increase due to extreme weather,” said Debbie Pari, Regional Volunteer Services Officer for the American Red Cross Southern California Region. “Across the country, the Red Cross is responding to nearly twice as many large disasters as we did a decade ago to help people. This uptick in responses means we need more volunteers. The need to help has never been greater.”
Visita redcross.org/volunteertoday to sign up for opportunities with the Red Cross.
Music nonprofit Resounding Joy hosted 20th anniversary event
In a Dec. event attended by 160 people, supporters of Resounding Joy raised $125,000 to provide musical therapy to the community. Founder and CEO Barbara Reuer was honored ahead of her retirement, with incoming CEO Kerri Fox in attendance. Board chair Sylvia Imm, who lives Downtown, and other board members including Chelsea Hill of Hillcrest, will oversee the transition between leaders.
$22 million grant to help fund climate-resilient projects
San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition have been awarded $22 million by the California Strategic Growth Council for their Transformative Climate Communities application to help fund climate-resilient projects that will preserve, protect and strengthen San Diego’s central historic barrios.
Financial Wellness Wednesdays return
From January through March, SDCCU will host complimentary financial webinars aimed at improving the financial health of those in our community in partnership with the county library’s Live Well San Diego program.
In another partnership in October, SDCCU collected and donated 11,058 books to help support the efforts of the San Diego County Library (SDCL) to promote literacy throughout San Diego County.
Financial Wellness Wednesdays webinar topics rotate weekly. The current schedule is located at sdccu.com/fww.
Economy and business
$100 million impact seen for 2025 World Road Run Championships
San Diego will host the World Athletics Road Running Championships Sept. 26-28, 2025 — a foot race extravaganza patterned after the Carlsbad 5000 and Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. And possibly a major windfall for the local economy — rivaling the $165 million brought in by Comic-Con. A mile race, 5K road race and half-marathon will be contested in and around Balboa Park, with “peoples” races for all age groups and abilities, say local organizers.
Study: San Diego Community College District has a $4.5 billion economic impact
A recent estudio found that the San Diego Community College District has a $4.5 billion economic impact on San Diego County, with massive advantages to students, taxpayers and society from the education students receive at the district’s four colleges. The study was by Lightcast, a leading provider of economic and labor market data, and was based on data from the 2021-2022 academic year.
The district’s $4.5 billion economic impact supports 42,121 jobs, or one of out of every 53 jobs in San Diego County, the report said. The district’s economic impact is reflected in the jobs that graduates attain in high-demand industries because of their education, the cost of running the institutions, and the costs of construction at the college campuses. The district’s $4.5 billion economic impact supports 42,121 jobs, or one of out of every 53 jobs in San Diego County, the report said. The district’s economic impact is reflected in the jobs that graduates attain in high-demand industries because of their education, the cost of running the institutions, and the costs of construction at the college campuses.
Google search annual report
For a look into the San Diego psyche, Google released a report of the top searches from San Diego IP addresses in the past year. On a range of topics, this gives insight into what San Diegans want to know more about. The top concerts searched for were of course Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour. Tours from co-headliners Drake and 21 Savage, Peso Pluma, and Modonna took up the remaining top five spots.
As for places San Diegans wanted to go, “Pickleball courts near me” was the top search – highlighting the growing popularity of the sport. Locals also wanted to find optometrists, pawn shops, pilates and barber shops. The top five tv shows searched for in order are: “The Last of Us,” “Beef,” “Daisy Jones & the Six,” “The Idol,” and “Shrinking.”
Searches with “vs” in the bar demonstrate some of the one-time sports events most watched by locals. Al Nassr vs PSG, Japan vs Mexico Baseball, Dillon Danis vs Logan Paul, Inter Miami vs Cruz Azul, and Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury Time made this list.
Evofem Biosciences acquired for $100m
Evofem Biosciences, the San Diego-based pioneer of the only FDA-approved, hormone-free birth control gel, has been acquired by Aditxt Inc. for $100 million.
Aditxt is an innovation activation company dedicated to building an ecosystem of emerging healthcare innovations, especially for conditions, diseases, and health matters that are underrepresented.
Sempra named to Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America
Sempra has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the 13th consecutive year, earning recognition as a high performer in risk management, stakeholder engagement, policy influence, and information security/cybersecurity, among other areas. Sempra released its latest annual corporate sustainability report in May 2023, highlighting 25 years of advancing sustainable business practices.
Transit and driving
Hit-and-run driver who killed toddler sentenced
A defendant who drove drunk, struck and killed a 1-year-old child has been sentenced to 15 years-to-life in prison plus an additional four years in prison for fleeing the scene. Margarito Angeles Vargas, 47, was driving with a blood-alcohol level of more than double the legal limit on September 24, 2022, when he fatally struck the young girl as she crossed a residential street with her sisters and grandparents. A jury convicted Angeles Vargas on November 15, of second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, DUI causing injury, hit and run causing death, and driving on a suspended license. Judge Amador handed down the sentence in San Diego Superior Court.
On the day of the incident, the defendant was leaving a baby shower when he ran a stop sign and nearly struck a parked truck before barreling down the 3900 block of Redwood Street in City Heights. He struck the victim in broad daylight as her family was walking in an unmarked crosswalk.
Although residential surveillance captured the collision, none of the cameras clearly captured the driver’s face or his license plate. A witness chased after the defendant and confronted him. Eventually, the license plate information and cell phone video taken by the witness helped police locate the defendant and arrest him.
Due to a precious DUI conviction after which he signed a Watson advisement, Angeles Vargas was able to be charged with second-degree murder because he signed a form stating he understood the consequences of drunk driving could injure or kill others.
Transportation measure to be on ballot
El Let’s Go! San Diego Coalition announced that the campaign’s recent signature drive has successfully qualified the regional transportation measure with more than 125,000 projected valid signatures from San Diego County residents. The coalition received official notice from the Registrar of Voters and the campaign to push for passage on November 5, 2024 is already in full swing.
If approved by voters, Let’s Go! San Diego will fund much-needed repairs and updates to transportation infrastructure throughout all of San Diego County, including fixing roads and potholes; adding carpool lanes; expanding bus and rail services; fixing the crumbling coastal rail line; adding an airport rail connection; making safety improvements to bridges, sidewalks, and bike lanes; and ensuring transit passes are affordable for seniors, youth, and the disabled. These investments will also create thousands of local union jobs in construction and transit operations.
City adopts complete streets policy
The San Diego City Council has adopted the City’s first-ever Complete Streets Policy, which reflects and guides the City’s commitment to provide a safe, comfortable and accessible transit circulation system that meets the mobility needs of everyone. This policy is intended to provide guidance to improve mobility governance and implementation in the City aligned with the City’s General Plan and Climate Action Plan.
“Complete Streets” refers to a concept that roadways should be designed with all users in mind, not just motorists. Making travel convenient and accessible for people of all ages and abilities, regardless of their mode choice continues to be a citywide priority.
