WARD: I WANT STATE TO DO FAR MORE ON HOMELESSNESS
Q:What more can be done to limit the financial and environmental damage of climate change and wildfires especially? A:
As the last few months in California have again proven, we must act with urgency on climate. We are at the start of the fire season and already we have experienced the largest fires in our history, resulting in hundreds of homes destroyed, over 238,000 people evacuated, and air quality along the West Coast that ranks worst in the world. We cannot ignore the fact that without a comprehensive shift in our approach to climate, this will be the unacceptable norm.
Just as we see with wildfires, weather events are becoming more frequent with increased intensity. Coastal f looding and erosion threaten California’s entire coastline and our droughts are more pronounced.
We need more robust policies that move us away from burning fossil fuels — the root cause of the crisis. Policies must reduce vehicle emissions, increase green energy shifts like battery storage and solar, and support building electrification. Interconnected to these actions is improving vegetation management, preventing building in the backcountry, supporting rural microgrids and holding to higher fire prevention standards.
Q:
Has the pandemic and so many people working from home made you rethink housing and transportation policies? If so, how?
A:
The pandemic’s forced experience to endure shifts to telework has shown we can reduce daily trips and maintain productivity in many sectors, while keeping commute travel below critical volumes and reducing congestion-related emissions and delays. Individuals are getting time back in their day, walking their neighborhoods with family instead of commuting. This is worthy of remembering as offices reopen — but a fundamental element should not be lost: We need to keep housing, employment and daily activities closely linked.
But Californians now out of work because of the pandemic also remind us how housing is a necessity that too many have lost or are on the brink. We need to expand affordable housing and have sufficient supply to ensure middle income housing. Prioritizing in-fill development around public transit with multi-modal, walkable communities helps housing and climate goals simultaneously.
Californians need safe, reliable transportation options, which is apparent as essential workers depend on public transit.
The state should help expedite local transit projects. Land use may be deferred to local government as a first right, but where critical resistance to smart growth opportunities is significantly suppressing housing attainability, the state has a role to ensure barriers are reduced where local government is not responding, or worse, displacing pressures onto other communities.
Q:
What specific policy changes do you support after months of racial justice protests to improve law enforcement practices or racial equity?
A:
I support Black Lives Matter and have supported a comprehensive evaluation of law enforcement funding. Black San Diegans and communities of color are dealing with higher infection rates of COVID-19, higher rates of unemployment, limited access to child care and generations of systemic racism exacerbated by the current pandemic. The San Diego community understands this and has been showing up in force to make it clear we have not done enough. Racism has no place in government, in our Police Department or in the communities we call home.
We need to be proposing policies that reform systems of intolerance that we all know exist — not just in law enforcement but education, health care, employment and community development. Peace comes not just from response and suppression, but more rightfully and more cost-effectively from proactive support and empowerment. That is why I asked for the reallocation of resources from the San Diego Police Department toward programs and initiatives that will come from San Diego’s new Office of Race & Equity. I was the only council member to vote against this year’s budget, in part because of community calls I was echoing to use federal CARES Act dollars not for police overtime but to a COVID-19 rental assistance fund I created.
All officials need to build back better their relationship with communities of color across California. Only then will there be a foundation for meaningful and lasting models for community-oriented public safety and equity across all areas of public responsibility.
Q:
What more should the state be doing to improve student distance learning and public education overall?
A:
I have two young children, one in elementary school. I am frustrated at the situation that COVID-19 and the insufficient federal response has placed upon
families as we try to balance work, child care and the success of our students.
Remote learning hasn’t been easy for my daughter or any of our neighbors. It is, rationally, the most prudent option we have available to keep our communities safe: Too many schools that have experimented with opening up quickly when community spread of disease is too high are proving to become outbreak centers themselves, and cause disruption to students through closure again. To improve student learning, California needs to address the digital divide that creates opportunity deficits.
State officials must help districts provide 700,000 laptops and at least 300,000 personal hotspots to meet our students’ need for devices, while also delivering affordable, quality broadband services to our underserved and rural communities. Also, California must enact uniform curriculum guidelines for remote learning.
Addressing equity and aligning the needs of districts with state decisions will improve the ability of all students to learn, and allow us to focus on creating guidelines that will keep our children, teachers and staff healthy in physical school environments for eventual return to in-person learning when it is safe.
Q:
Should taxes in California be increased? If so, which ones?
A:
A paradox of government is that more support is needed and asked for by constituents during times of recession and reduced revenues. But to even maintain services, a combination of cuts, new taxes, borrowing, closing loopholes and mixed solutions are often debated. Jerry Brown’s proposal for Proposition 30 (2012), for example, was wise: a temporary measure to sustain education funding that had a sunset — which he honored — to get through a difficult period, paired with leaner budgeting.
Targeted tax increases which fund a specific, upfront investment to save us greater public expense on the back-end and prevent compounded hardship is rational. Today, my strong support for Measure A is rooted because it not only creates thousands of units to solve homelessness now and help fulfill our city’s validated plan, but it will save even more in future years’ medical, public safety and other spending as studies have time and again shown.
Our tax structures need to be reviewed holistically to balance income, property, sales and other streams to shift burden away from those further disadvantaged from the possibility of a successful future.
Q:
What is the most important issue we have not raised and why?
A:
Notwithstanding other priority areas like health care, water, jobs, child care and more, I’ll highlight California’s homelessness crisis.
As chair of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, I have updated systems of care, secured funding streams, improved coordination and increased the housing supply for our most vulnerable San Diegans. This is particularly important for people of color and LGBTQ youth as they are disproportionally impacted by homelessness.
I will fight for a permanent stream of homelessness revenue to end our reliance on one-time funding which inhibits our ability to make long-term decisions. I will push for legislation to require cities develop and align Homelessness Strategic Plans the same way they are required to analyze housing or climate in decisions.
I will make sure policies prioritize affordable, attainable housing, and that a range of solutions from light-touch assistance to intensive supportive systems ref lect the complement of solutions California must deliver for the range of needs of those experiencing homelessness.