🎙️ SAN DIEGO — WE’RE IN THE STUDIO! 🎙️
The brand-new SAN DIEGO UNITED COMMUNITIES PODCAST is officially underway, and we’ve been busy in the studio recording conversations about the issues that matter to OUR neighborhoods, OUR families, and OUR future.
This podcast is about giving San Diegans a microphone. From development and housing to seniors, infrastructure, public safety, elections, neighborhood concerns, and everything in between — we want to hear directly from the people living it.
📣 DO YOU WANT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD’S VOICE HEARD?
Join us in the studio! Bring your concerns, your ideas, your experiences, and your solutions. Community leaders, neighborhood groups, advocates, residents, and local organizations are all welcome.
No neighborhood should feel ignored. No community should feel silenced.
🎧 More episodes are coming!
🎤 Want to be a guest?
Reach out to San Diego United Communities and come join the conversation.
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. YOUR VOICE. YOUR SAN DIEGO.
CHECK OUT OUR OFFICIAL MIDWAY RISING TAB UP TOP ON OUR WEBSITE
Ralph Teyssier: ‘Is It Midway Rising or Is It Midway Sinking?’
Eric Law has discussed the legislative promise of affordable housing, and Patty Ducey-Brooks has addressed the environmental concerns around Midway Rising and Senate Bill 958. I’d like to spend just a couple of minutes discussing the engineering realities of delivering affordable housing.
As a structural engineer, I support affordable housing. But we also need to recognize that SB 958 extends well beyond the Midway Rising project. If enacted, it could influence how future coastal developments are evaluated throughout California. That makes it all the more important that we fully understand the engineering realities, geological conditions, and economic consequences before establishing a statewide precedent. Political will alone does not create affordable housing. Engineering, geology, construction, and economics all play important roles. Nor should we assume that simply allowing taller buildings automatically results in more affordable housing.
In fact, when increased building height is removed from meaningful CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) review, it becomes more difficult to fully evaluate the engineering and economic consequences associated with that increased height. In that sense, it works against one of CEQA’s fundamental purposes—providing informed decision-making.
The project’s own geotechnical reports describe this site as a former estuary with artificial fill, shallow groundwater, and a high potential for liquefaction. They identify strong ground motion, liquefaction, seismic compaction, and tsunami hazards that require engineering mitigation.
Those are not overly generalized conclusions— they are definitive specifics directly from the project’s own geotechnical engineers. None of those challenges make the site unbuildable. California engineers successfully design projects on difficult sites every day. But difficult sites are expensive to develop.
Every engineering solution is achievable—but every engineering solution also has a cost.
Ground improvement, deep foundations, settlement mitigation, flood protection, utility improvements, and long-term resilience all add engineering complexity, and every one of these items will be required at this site. All of this engineering complexity adds significant construction cost. Those costs do not disappear simply because the project is intended to include affordable housing.
The original geotechnical studies evaluated an earlier concept of approximately eight to twelve stories. Today, substantially taller buildings have been discussed. As buildings become taller, structural demands, foundation demands, and construction costs generally increase as well.
That leads to a very simple question: If the primary justification for eliminating the coastal height limit is to create affordable housing, has anyone demonstrated that this is the most economical engineering solution for delivering that affordable housing?
While these engineering realities are specific to the Midway Rising site, the broader policy implications are not. SB 958 would establish a framework that could influence future development decisions on other complex coastal sites across California—many of which may present similar geotechnical, environmental, infrastructure, and resiliency challenges.
As engineers, we don’t begin by asking how tall we can build. We begin by understanding where we’re building, what the site requires, and what those requirements will ultimately cost.
Public policy should follow that same disciplined approach. Before establishing a statewide precedent that could shape future coastal development throughout California, we should first understand the engineering realities, environmental constraints, infrastructure capacity, and long-term consequences of those decisions.
Good engineering— and good public policy— don’t begin with what we hope to build. They begin with understanding where we are building.
🎙️ SAN DIEGO UNITED COMMUNITIES PROTECTS OUR SAN DIEGO SENIORS 🎙️
GO TO OUR PODCAST PAGE (DROP DOWN) TO VIEW ALL EPISODES
🎙️ MT. ETNA SENIORS SPEAK OUT — THEIR VOICES MATTER 🎙️
In this powerful episode of the San Diego United Communities Podcast, senior residents from Mt. Etna Apartments in Clairemont joined us in the studio to share their firsthand experiences of flooding, poor living conditions, and how they say they have been ignored and mistreated by the San Diego Housing Commission and Chelsea Group.
Our seniors deserve dignity, respect, and safe housing — NOT silence and neglect!
Hear their stories firsthand as they speak up and demand accountability.
WATCH • SHARE • SUBSCRIBE • SPEAK UP!
San Diego United Communities — For the People, By the People of San Diego.
protecting our san diego senior citizens!
Press conference at balboa park to repeal the fees 01/24/26
Emerald Hills & Encanto press conference rally 01/10/26
Ocean Beach is following our tagline
REPEAL THE FEES
WHY REPEAL THE TRASH FEE...
Voters approved a 2022 measure based on misleading estimates of $23-29/month, but now face new trash fees of $43.60/month and rising to $55 - the highest in the county. San Diego should contract with private trash haulers like every other city in the county to save the City and taxpayers.
THE STORY OF PAID PARKING
WHY PARKING FEES SHOULD BE REPEALED...
New paid parking at Balboa Park. New paid parking at the Zoo. Increased parking at meters throughout San Diego. "Surge" pricing to $10/HR in the Gaslamp. Paid parking on Sundays. Attempts for new paid parking at beaches...when will it end?
The City estimates these new parking rates will generate nearly $30M annually in new revenue.
These increases aren't primarily about encouraging transit use or improving parking turnover; if that were the goal, the city would have raised rates years ago.
This is fundamentally about addressing a staggering $250 million budget deficit, driven by years of overspending, excessive staffing, and financial mismanagement, all passed onto workers, visitors, and residents through higher everyday costs.
Paid parking is not meant to be a city profit-center. At most, the public purpose of paid parking is to recover the nominal cost of parking stall maintenance and generate turnover to create better access to desirable public spaces.
But these news fees are bailing out the city's poor spending and management decisions while making access to the best part of San Diego more expensive for everyone.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRH3oG0Eeif/
CLICK AND SIGN TO REPEAL THE FEES TODAY
"Testimonies"
Eric Law
In our struggle, I cite Benjamin Franklin often: "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
Margaret Virissimo
Fighting against the destruction of a city is important for preserving human life, cultural heritage, economic stability, and environmental health. The reasons span humanitarian, social, and practical concerns.
Jane Rodrigues
Grass Root Efforts seems to be the only way to be heard in San Diego. I hope this group can get through and mke a huge difference with some wins.
mark inglewood
The destruction of one's home and neighborhood causes significant psychological trauma and disrupts social networks. Restoring the original environment can help minimize this trauma.
james kennedy
Grassroots efforts can succeed against city governments primarily because they derive immense power and credibility from authentic community engagement and a deep, localized understanding of the issues. This focus on the "lived experience" of everyday people creates pressure that elected officials, who are accountable to voters, find difficult to ignore
albert jones
I am so thankful for this group, uniting San Diego neighborhoods through one platform.