Hard Truths about Donna Frye

I want to strongly recommend Carl Luna’s column in this week’s issue of City Beat regarding Councilwoman Donna Frye. Luna puts down on paper what I know a lot of people have been thinking about her for quite sometime now. He argues: “In trying to best serve her constituents in District 6 as well as the city at large, Frye has often–this observer would argue too often–forfeited her own judgment in favor of some ill-defined vox populi.” [Link]

Many of us admire and respect Donna Frye for the leadership she has demonstrated in trying to change the way politics is conducted here in the city of San Diego. Donna’s problem as so pointedly described by Carl Luna is “[her] often admirable but also sometimes extreme commitment to doing what the people want runs the risk of demagoguery.” [Link]

This I think gets to the core of the problem with Donna Frye. She has not been a truly effective politician, because she has not been able to or is unwilling to find that area between maintaining your core principles and compromising on some of them to achieve some accomplishments. Go read the whole column and come back and comment. [Link]

Half of San Diego County households live in unaffordable housing

That’s the headline from a new issue brief from the Center on Policy Initiatives here in San Diego. A study of 2006 Census data released this week discovered that “about 53% of both renters and homebuyers in this county can’t afford their housing, according to federal standards.” Those numbers according to CPI add up to more than 500,000 households countywide.

Perhaps coincidentally, FoxNews last night ran a story aimed at revealing the “human side” of the foreclosure crisis throughout the county. The story ultimately focused on analysing all the mistakes people make on the way to foreclosure, conveniently blaming those who end up losing in all of this rather than getting particularly ruffled about predatory lending practices or subprime mortgages that have disproportionately hit Latinos and African-Americans with foreclosure (also touched on in the CPI report among other places).

More than half. That’s not an ingredient for economic growth, improved test scores, higher health standards, public safety, or anything else generally considered desirable for a community. The San Diego housing market is already in decline, with dozens if not hundreds of condos sitting vacant and unsold. Where exactly is this county going and why are we in this handbasket?

Cross posted at Calitics

Lack of Leadership from The Mayor Again!

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders held a press conference today to again voice his opposition to water reuse. Now, I am the first to admit that the cleverly coined “toilet to tap” sounds disgusting, but science consistently shows that highly treated waste water pumped into reservoirs is completely safe. In fact, we are already drinking it from the Colorado River! Apparently, the Mayor doesn’t argue with the science, but doesn’t like the “yuck” factor. Now that is leadership when we need it. As we face severe water cutbacks, we will stop the smartest, most environmentally sound water source available, because it sounds gross. I might suggest a play date for Mayor Sanders with my two-year old niece. She doesn’t care about science either, and she would agree that it just sounds “yucky” .

Sen. Ducheny Votes Down Protection for Children and Firefighters

AB 706 was introduced and championed by Assemblyman Mark Leno and named one of the six must pass bills of this legislative session by the LA Times, yet it failed to escape the State Senate yesterday. It was supported by children’s advocates and firefighters as a vital step towards eliminating dangerous fire retardants which release toxic, cancer-causing smoke during fires. The manufacturers of these fire retardants spent millions of dollars on a group they called “Californians for Fire Safety” and promptly sent out glossy mailers with pictures of firefighters but not their actual support, whipping up a veneer of false public pressure over the bill.

In the end, it was enough. Republicans in the Senate didn’t even matter because so many Democrats broke ranks when push came to shove over protecting corporations that poison our children and public servants. Democratic Senators Correa (Orange County), Ducheny (San Diego), Florez (Bakersfield & Fresno), Machado (Stockton), and Vincent (LA) all voted nay, providing the razor thin 20-19 defeat (1 abstained).

This one really wasn’t ever controversial. It’s very basic protection for firefighters, for children, for pregnant mothers. It might not have been sexy, but it was very necessary. Senator Ducheny appears to have found the concerns and the money of the chemical manufacturing industry more compelling than public health and safety. I haven’t seen or heard any statement from her or her office on this vote and can’t call this morning. I welcome the Senator’s explanation in any forum and would be happy to update this post, but it would have to be quite compelling to explain this away.