DISTRICT 1: MOORE

In San Diego City Council District 1 — which includes La Jolla, University City, Torrey Pines, Carmel Valley and Pacific Highlands Ranch — voters can choose between two strong candidates with long histories of civic involvement to succeed incumbent Barbara Bry, who is running for mayor. Before the primary, The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board wrote that Democrats Will Moore, a small business attorney, and Joe Lacava, a civil engineer, deserved to advance from a crowded field to the general election based on their achievements, background, character and demeanor. Voters agreed.

In pre-primary interviews with the board, Moore and Lacava displayed broad knowledge of big issues both in their districts and citywide. Both spoke thoughtfully about the city’s need to fulfill its Climate Action Plan, to figure out long-term responses to homelessness and to come up with transit options that would be widely used.

We endorsed Moore in the primary because we considered his views on certain policy issues — starting with the housing crisis and problems with short-term vacation rentals — to be more nuanced and constructive. Pandemic health risks and closures and an overdue racial justice reckoning have created an entirely different campaign, city and United States, and Moore retains our recommendation. Both Lacava and Moore seemed informed and insightful in June commentaries they wrote about their positions on “defunding” the police, a lengthy joint interview and written responses to an email survey we each candidate last month, but Moore seems better suited for this moment and beyond.

Both say the right thing about the need to add privately built housing stock instead of just relying on absurdly expensive governmentsubsidized affordable housing. But Moore is more receptive to concrete ways to make that happen on a significant scale. He’s open to state laws that hinder NIMBYS’ ability to get local authorities to block construction and amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act to make it tougher for housing foes to use CEQA lawsuits to block projects by creating mountains of paperwork and years of delays. Lacava draws a harder line at state involvement and calls CEQA reform “kind of a non-starter.”

Lacava also says it’s time to heed the letter of city law and “shut down” short-term vacation rentals. Moore thinks primary residents of a home should be able to rent it out for part of the year and that Mission Beach, where short-term rentals have been ubiquitous for decades, should receive a carve-out. We think Moore’s view on this and other issues is both fairer and more balanced.

We recommend a vote for Will Moore.