On the latest VOSD Podcast episode, our hosts get into the rise and fall of a Poway councilmember and how San Diego Unified has been unable to keep kids enrolled in their neighborhood school. Also, will the city of San Diego’s most ambitions development project in Midway rise? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.…

This weeks edition of the Voice of San Diego Podcast has some big decisions being made in the city of San Diego. The San Diego City Council approves a water rate hike for two years instead of four. How does that affect you? The county supervisors are trying to balance the budget behind closed doors. Jakob details the approval of safe parking by San…

The newest fight at City Hall is a doozy. It’s about that new tax announced at Politifest. It could be up to $5,000 per bedroom for a second home or vacation rental and it’s going to be a fascinating political battle. We’ll explain The big development at Sports Arena is once again falling apart because of the city’s inability to not trip over itsel…

The Registrar of Voters has made a dramatic change to how it evaluates signatures on petitions. A bunch of high-profile signature gathering campaigns have fallen apart in San Diego and it may not have been just because they were incompetent. This is a big change. One of those campaigns was to raise a tax to fund an expansion of the Convention Cente…

This week we revisit the Politifest 2025 Showdown awards at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theater on the beautifual campus of the University of San Diego. We have games, and plenty of solutions for our beleagured and beloved city on this week's podcast. SHOW NOTES Here are all the videos from last weekend's Politifest 2025 Scott Lewis, C…

SHOW NOTES SEGMENT 1 - POLITIFEST Buy Your Tickets for Politifest 2025 Politifest is back on Oct. 4, and this won’t be our usual public affairs summit. This year, we’re bringing together community leaders to go head-to-head in our first ever Solutions Showdown. Hear their ideas and cast your vote on which proposals you think could solve the biggest…

Next week the San Diego City council will vote on a series of new water rate increases. But city hall is abuzz that they may not have the votes to pass them. If they don’t, we’re entering uncharted waters. We have an update on San Diego Unified School District’s decision to close the middle school portions of some K through 8 schools. They’ve alrea…

This week on the most popular public affairs podcast in San Diego: Nathan Fletcher reappeared. We’ll review his first public comments since he went from the most prominent politician in San Diego to just gone. San Diego Unified School District is changing some kindergarten through 8th grade schools to just kindergarten through fifth grade.They’ve a…

Violence against outstretched palms – as in hands not the trees. The curious case against Encinitas City Councilmember Luke Shaffer. San Diego County Water Authority leaders may have thought the chatter about dissolving their agency may be in the past then came LAFCO. The funny agency nobody knew about is making headlines again. And guests to the Z…

The Voice of San Diego team is embarking on an ambitious pursuit: Developing a public policy for how AI should and shouldn't be used in our newsroom. And we're bringing our listeners along for the ride. Tap in for an unfiltered conversation where co-hosts Scott Lewis, Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña, Jakob McWhinney, Will Huntsberry and Bella Ross grapple…

It’s dealmaking season at City Hall. The push for a new $25 minimum wage for some workers in the tourism and entertainment industry in San Diego is heading to a City Council vote Sept. 16. Here’s what we know about all the entities trying to get out of having to pay workers that. Prop 50 mailers are hitting mailboxes and the ads are on TV. We’ve ta…

San Diego’s Sunset Cliffs are crumbling. The city’s plan to save them is … a one way street? The County Board of Supes has officially voted to tap into previously off-limits county reserves, but thanks to a labor agreement nearly half of those funds are already spoken for. Also, why an aging north county dam has one company saying “Damn!” And final…

Were you hallucinating too or do you also remember the city of San Diego saying pizza boxes could now go in the green bin. Also, a lot of people do not understand how to use the green bins, apparently. We haven’t had a chance yet to talk about it but we should: A judge dismissed the sexual harassment case against Nathan Fletcher that ended his care…

This week, the Padres are getting into politics. The team just took first place in the National League west for the first time this late in the season in 15 years. Success on the field could help them in the field of politics. We’ve got a special guest host today, former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey is in the studio. He’s now become something of a…

RVs are all over Mission Bay. Why the city now feels OK about cracking down on them. Mack is Back! Mackenzie Elmer our environment reporter is dropping in to discuss bobcats that have been terrorizing the Wild Animal Park. And why the big news about a big Mexico/USA deal on the border sewage crisis is deja vu. Finally hospitals used to panic that S…

You may be shocked to learn that of San Diego County cities Encinitas is closest to meeting its housing goals. That’s right. The bad boy of North County with a history of failing to follow housing laws is actually building homes. Housing, or lack of, is among the top issues in our region and senior investigative reporter Will Huntsberry has spent m…

There’s officially a new county supervisor and so there’s a new chair of the board of supervisors and they’re wasting no time making big changes. El Cajon police have stopped responding to calls when a person says they’re going to hurt themselves. They blame lawyers but it’s complicating the response of civilian teams as well, we’ll explain. And we…

The mayor is just flat ignoring the budget the city council passed and will not fire the top managers the Council cut. And you thought budget drama was over. Local water managers are demanding an apology from one of their colleagues. Apologies after demands for apologies are always the best apologies. We’ll explain why this matters. And Jakob publi…

We’re drowning in education news this week. The Trump administration’s grant freeze has put millions of school funds in jeopardy. The decision has some school leaders scrambling. Our Jakob McWhinney got nerdy and figured out just how much money San Diego County stands to lose. Also, a San Diego Unified Board Trustee is calling it quits after one te…

The county is back in the hands of Democrats. Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre is set to fill the vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The county has so much going on – there are big questions around the sewage crisis, homelessness, housing, budget, immigration. The list goes on and on – and South County reporter Jim Hinch j…

The city has a new budget. There was a veto. A veto override and then an Instagram slam. We have a special guest, Councilmember Vivian Moreno is here. She’ll give us the insider take. And the push to raise the minimum wage for hospitality workers is going forward. And, the mayor has a new job! SHOW NOTES INTRO 00:00:00 SEGMENT 1 00:00:39 - Support …

The mayor does not want a chief operating officer gosh darn it! The most dysfunctional budget cycle in the city of San Diego continues with a big list of vetos from Mayor Todd Gloria. And the biggest political battle in San Diego is finally nearing its end. Our reporter Jim Hinch went to a debate between Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chul…

Federal immigration agents are trying to hit their quotas of people to arrest and deport and it’s causing some distressing scenes across California. On the eve of big protests, where are we headed? We’ll grapple with it. For the first time in more than 100 years, owners of single family homes in the city of San Diego will have to pay for trash pick…

An immigration raid in the early dinner hours at a popular restaurant in South Park has led to a week of backlash among local leaders. We’ll talk about what we know. We’re in the final days of this epic budget process at the city of San Diego. Will the beloved fire pits survive??? And finally, the giant water agencies based in San Diego and Los Ang…

It’s memorandum time in the city of San Diego’s budget saga. Councilmembers may be headed for a historic standoff with the mayor. We’ll do a little history lesson to show how interesting it could get. Only 58 percent of San Diego Unified high schoolers are on track to graduate. Rather than get them on track, they’ve decided to create a new track Se…