San Diego Summarized | 3-26-18
Welcome to San Diego Summarized where each week we examine headlines from around the city:
This week we open up with the bombshell story that broke over the weekend in which Councilman Scott Sherman's Thursday memo to City Attorney Mara Elliot called into question the legality of the use of the San Diego State University name in the SDSU West Campus Research Center, Stadium and River Park Initiative.
The logic is a bit muddled, but basically, there exists a California state law that prohibits the use of names linked to the California State University system.
“No person shall, without the permission of the Trustees of the California State University, use of this name, or any abbreviation of it or any name of which these words are a part, in any of the following ways,” the law reads.
Sherman's memo can be found in full here.
In it, he also highlights the fact that in addition to the name of the initiative itself potentially being illegal, the alias under which the organizers of the initiative are flying under may be illegitimate, as is the presence of Jack McGrory on the California State Board of Trustees.
More details to come on this story certainly, but at this point, the best-case scenario seems to be that the initiative and the group of people backing it will have to rebrand. Worst case scenario includes the possibility that the entire initiative is rendered null and void.
Also over the weekend, Club Tijuana hosted Club America at the San Diego County Credit Union Stadium in Mission Valley. Chronicle contributor Cesar Hernandez was on site to take in the match itself and also speak to attendees to gauge the appetite for Major League Soccer from within one of the league's most criminally neglected populations.
One of the surprisingly high hurdles that SoccerCity will have to leap is connecting with the Latino, Mexican and Mexican-American fans who already have loyalties to existing clubs such as Club America or Club Tijuana. San Diego may be the perfect region for that cross-border blend of support though, as Cesar learned.
The match on the field was notable for the last-gasp heroics performed by Sweetwater High graduate Joe Corona, playing for Club America against his old Tijuana teammates. Details on the game should be learned from East Village Times' Fransisco Velasco.
We wrap up with an examination of an agreement that allowed San Diego Gas & Electric to put equipment on public property that is about to expire. Voice of San Diego's Ry Rivard reported that environmental activists see renewal negotiations as a chance to force wholesale changes in how the company operates.
The city of San Diego has a fairly ambitious Climate Action Plan in place that many with even remote knowledge of the process in place and the progress thus far, understand is nearly unattainable without significant course-correction in the immediate to near future.
"SDG&E pays San Diego each year to put its equipment — including poles, wires and underground lines — within city rights of way. A few other utilities, including cable companies, have similar deals, known as franchise agreements," Rivard explains.
"The last time SDG&E negotiated a whole new franchise agreement was in December 1970. The 50-year deal expires in three years.The city can either do another deal with SDG&E, do a deal with someone else, or take over SDG&E’s equipment and become its own power company."
The ability to leverage SDG&E into a less G and more E existence is a rare one. If San Diego is successful, it could simultaneously improve its chances of reaching its emission goals and also perhaps earn more money to replenish a city budget much in need of reinforcements.
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