{"id":505077,"date":"2026-01-10T02:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505077\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T02:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:01:10","slug":"if-gloria-thinks-parking-program-is-going-well-why-did-he-suspend-fees-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505077\/","title":{"rendered":"If Gloria thinks parking program is going well, why did he suspend fees? \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first step toward addressing San Diego\u2019s dysfunction is admitting it exists. That\u2019s why Councilmember Raul Campillo\u2019s call for reforms<\/a> in November in response to City Hall\u2019s tawdry bait-and-switch scheme to get more than 220,000 San Diego homeowners to pay trash collection fees was welcome.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s why Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera and Kent Lee\u2019s joint criticism<\/a> of Mayor Todd Gloria\u2019s implementation of new parking fees at Balboa Park as \u201chaphazard\u201d was appreciated. In a Tuesday memo that called for suspending the fees until many problems had been fixed, they detailed how hard it was for residents to get the sharp discounts they were promised because of the city\u2019s confusing, complex and poorly explained program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that San Diegans can only qualify for the resident discount if they register their vehicles 48 hours before their first visit to Balboa Park, and purchase passes in advance of each subsequent visit, underscores why ample time for public education is so important,\u201d Elo-Rivera and Lee wrote. They also noted the indefensible failure of the city to have put up signs by Monday \u2014 the day the new rules took effect \u2014 that let visitors know they could park for free for three hours in the lower Inspiration Point parking lot.<\/p>\n

This led to a sharp rebuke<\/a> from Gloria, who said Thursday that the City Council had \u201cshaped, amended and approved\u201d the program now being critiqued. As the U-T reported, he argued that \u201cthe new system is functioning well and being \u2018actively adopted\u2019\u201d and that calls to suspend the program reflected \u201cerratic decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huh? The fact that Gloria himself had suspended the issuing of citations for parking violations until next month shows that the program is not functioning well and confirms the accuracy of Elo-Rivera and Lee\u2019s assessment. And that he would fault someone else for the quality of their decision-making is rich.<\/p>\n

Remember, Gloria denies that charging residents far more for trash collection than they expected to pay when passing a 2022 ballot measure allowing the fees was a bait and switch. Last February, he even argued that the higher fees reflected the higher level of service that residents said they wanted at \u201chundreds of community meetings\u201d<\/a> held since Measure B was narrowly approved. And even though outsourcing trash collection to private contractors is an obvious, voter-approved and legal way to save money \u2014 believe the City Charter<\/a>, not City Attorney Heather Ferbert \u2014 the city instead might hire up to 130<\/a> new employees \u201cto boost efficiency and handle new services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was this also demanded in all those community meetings \u2014 that the city make its crippling pension burden even bigger?<\/p>\n

When Campillo, Elo-Rivera, Lee and other city leaders begin supporting trash service outsourcing, then San Diegans will finally have substantial reasons for optimism.<\/p>\n

The fact that this is considered unthinkable is a comment on the union-first decision-making of everyone at City Hall \u2014 Gloria and his critics alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first step toward addressing San Diego\u2019s dysfunction is admitting it exists. That\u2019s why Councilmember Raul Campillo\u2019s call…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":399530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,6083,1269,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-505077","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-editorials","12":"tag-opinion","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115868341732685950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505077","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=505077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}