The Facebook comments are unsparing.
“What’s it going to take? Someone getting injured, or worse, dying, before something is done?” wrote Chula Vista resident Juan Arteaga on the Eastlake Chula Vista Residents Facebook community page recently.
“Seems like teens are out of control…so dangerous!” wrote Alexandra Wyman.
“Did you call the police?” asked Zainab Al-Khabbaz.
The comments go on for pages. “Shame on their parents.” “These kids need to be held accountable.” “They are an accident waiting to happen.”
The subject of this outpouring of community angst: Children and teenagers, some appearing as young as 10 or 11 years old, rampaging through the streets of eastern Chula Vista on high-powered electric bicycles, or e-bikes.
Videos accompanying the litany of online comments show kids weaving through traffic, taking over roadways in wheelie-popping swarms, riding straight at oncoming cars, blowing past pedestrians on sidewalks and rocketing alongside cars going what looks like 30 or 40 miles per hour. The videos play like outtake reels from a pint-sized biker gang movie.
“Oh my [expletive], what the [expletive]?” one driver calls out as she films two girls perched precariously on an e-bike riding straight at her car in the left lane of a six-lane roadway.
On Tuesday, Chula Vista city leaders took action to address what City Councilmember Michael Inzunza, who represents southeastern Chula Vista, called one of his constituents’ top concerns: The danger posed by small kids on big bikes with no rules.
Without a single public speaker in opposition, the Council voted unanimously to adopt the strictest e-bike regulations in San Diego County.
The new rules, set to take effect next month, ban children under age 12 from riding e-bikes, require riders under age 18 to wear helmets, forbid riders under 18 from carrying passengers and require all riders to obey traffic laws and stay off sidewalks in business districts and other designated areas.
“We’re doing this to keep our kids and families safe,” said Inzunza, who spearheaded the new rules after hearing repeated complaints from residents while campaigning for City Council last year. “There is no reason on God’s great green earth that a fourth or fifth grader should be going down the sidewalk at the speed of a motorcycle.”
Inzunza said the law was “not meant to be punitive, but to educate kids and keep our community safe.” He cited research compiled by city staff showing that e-bike injuries are on the rise and are more severe than regular bicycle injuries.
In just the past 12 months, he said, 16 people in Chula Vista were injured in e-bike accidents, 12 of them requiring emergency room care.
Assistant City Manager Tiffany Allen said the city will partner with local school districts to inform students and parents about the new regulations. For the law’s first 60 days, she said, police will issue warnings to violators.
Starting in late October, police can issue $25 tickets, which riders can waive by completing an online safety course. Repeat violators will be subject to increasing fines up to $250 and could have their bikes confiscated by police, Allen said.
“When we were little kids, we rode those little Tyco Barbie bikes,” Inzunza said at Tuesday’s Council meeting. “E-bikes are not that…This measure is to protect our children and communities.”
Shuttle Aims to Connect Gaylord Hotel, Downtown Chula Vista
Chula Vista Mayor John McCann holds a pair of oversized scissors as he prepares to cut a red ribbon in front of a shuttle on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. / Photo by Jim Hinch
It’s getting easier to get to the Chula Vista bayfront.
On Wednesday, wielding a giant pair of golden scissors in front of the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center on Chula Vista’s redeveloping waterfront, Mayor John McCann cut the ribbon inaugurating a new shuttle service that will connect hotel and other bayfront visitors to destinations elsewhere in the city, including nearby transit hubs and Chula Vista’s Third Avenue shopping and dining district.
Joined by other city leaders and representatives from the Gaylord resort and the Metropolitan Transportation Service, McCann said the free shuttle service marks a small but crucial step forward in his city’s ongoing effort to transform its once industrial bayfront into a world-class waterfront district.
“We are thrilled to launch a new service that reflects our city’s commitment to sustainability, accessibility and economic growth,” McCann said.
The shuttle, which starts running this week, will take riders on two routes from the Gaylord resort to stops at trolley stations on E and H streets, Third Avenue, the Chula Vista Center shopping mall and the Living Coast Discovery Center wildlife sanctuary.
The 12-passenger electric Ford vans will depart every 15 minutes and currently are free to ride. The city initially will pay for the service using $2.7 million in revenue generated by billboards along an MTS right-of-way within city limits. Future funding mechanisms are under discussion.
City Councilmember Cesar Fernandez, whose district includes much of the bayfront, said the shuttle is part of an ongoing effort to leverage tourism generated by the Gaylord resort and boost business activity in west Chula Vista.
“This is a working-class community,” Fernandez said. “The idea they can get access to the bayfront, that’s what it’s all about.”
McCann said the shuttle would further cement the bayfront’s role as an economic engine during what he often calls “Chula Vista’s decade.”
“This is going to be the jewel of San Diego,” he said.
In Other News
One of our partner news organizations, inewsource, published an in-depth story this week showing how a powerful labor union used revenue from an affordable housing complex it owns in National City to fund political campaigns and other efforts to wield influence in San Diego politics. The story sheds light on San Diego’s recent shift from generations of Republican leadership to dominance by Democrats and their union allies.
U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas on Thursday joined other San Diego and California Democrats in introducing legislation that would empower the Environmental Protection Agency to manage water quality in the Tijuana River and expedite solutions to the river’s ongoing sewage crisis.
In other Tijuana River news, two recent Union-Tribune stories spotlight studies showing the environmental effects of the river’s sewage crisis. The studies show that sewage in the river causes elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide gas and has led residents to report rising numbers of health problems, including headaches, nausea and difficulty breathing.
Ahoy, Pepper Park visitors in National City: Starting July 23, Port of San Diego construction crews will begin work to transform the park’s current playground into a pirate-themed play space featuring a splash pad, picnic facilities and a bayfront overlook. The playground will remain closed during construction until early next year.
Family Health Centers of San Diego today announced it is partnering with the city of Chula Vista to offer mobile monthly mammography screenings at the city’s Civic Center Branch Library on F Street and the South Chula Vista Branch Library on Orange Avenue. A mobile mammography van will offer onsite mammograms and other screening services at the two libraries during the second and fourth weeks of each month.