It\u2019s time to pay up.<\/p>\n
That was Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera\u2019s message to tourists and wealthy San Diegans at Politifest on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It apparently struck a chord. Elo-Rivera\u2019s pitch won the most votes in a Solutions Showdown against Mayor Todd Gloria and center-right political consultant Aimee Faucett on creating a San Diego we can all be proud of.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elo Rivera\u2019s pitch centered on generating revenue in two new ways: charging tourists fees for access to places like Mission Bay and Torrey Pines golf course, as well as taxing second homes and vacation homes at higher rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor did not make new taxes and fees central to his pitch. I asked Gloria whether forcing people to \u201cpay their fair share\u201d \u2014 as Elo-Rivera phrased it \u2014 was a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that the concept, I think, is sound. The devil is in the details,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gloria argued it is important to remain competitive in the tourism marketplace, by not increasing tourism fees so much that people, for instance, choose to hold conferences and events in other cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera argued, however, that the city and its beaches are world class and shouldn\u2019t be sold short.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that San Diego is as attractive a tourist destination as it is because it\u2019s the cheapest place in town,\u201d he said later in the day during the taping of Voice of San Diego\u2019s live podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera encouraged San Diegans to think of its beaches and its draw for tourists as a natural resource, like gold or oil. The resource, he argued, is currently being extracted without many residents getting the full value.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cVisitors don\u2019t pay their fair share for accessing these places. They don\u2019t pay their fair share when lifeguards are saving them or preventing them from drowning. They don\u2019t pay their fair share for the roads that they drive on and the impact that that has on your commute,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from charging fees to tourists \u2014 Elo-Rivera suggested an entrance fee for Mission Bay Park and charging for parking at beaches \u2014 he also said his office plans to bring forward a tax on vacation rental homes and second homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose homes are sitting empty while people sleep on the streets. That\u2019s not okay,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is something morally abhorrent in my mind about the idea of 5,000 homes in the city of San Diego sitting empty \u2014 luxury homes sitting empty \u2014 while people are sleeping on sidewalks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plan is still in the works, but Elo-Rivera said the proposed tax may be based on the number of bedrooms in each house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to pay up. That was Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera\u2019s message to tourists and wealthy San Diegans at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":283664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,146172,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-283663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-politifest-2025","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}