[ad_1]
Four of the main Republicans who aspire to become the next governor in an upcoming recall election gathered this week for a televised debate. Naturally, they spent a great deal of their time disparaging Gavin Newsom.
But in trying to stand out in front of voters, several of the candidates also punched out former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the claims he made during the election campaign.
Faulconer, for example, took credit for a drop in homelessness in San Diego. But it fails to mention changes to the annual homeless count and its methodology, as well as a city crackdown to make homelessness less visible.
During his tenure as mayor, writes Lisa Halverstadt, Faulconer dramatically increased the services available to the homeless, but he also strengthened law enforcement to try to get people to participate in these programs.
If you missed the debate, AP reports that Faulconer stood out other ways.
He criticized the state’s efforts to extend health care to people who entered the country undocumented. He also encouraged people to get vaccinated, “something none of the other contenders on stage repeated,” but did not give a clear answer on whether he would ban schools from. impose mask mandates.
We delved into Faulconer’s tenure as mayor late last year, specifically looking at his leadership (or lack thereof) when it came to homeless, police, real estate and development.
There is more rent assistance money to distribute
The city of San Diego has allocated more relief money to people in difficulty pay rent and utilities due to the pandemic.
As of August 3, writes Maya Srikrishnan, the Housing Commission has only distributed $ 66 million of the $ 135 million set aside. In May, housing officials said they would not be able to spend all the funds due to limits set by the state.
Some of the new funds are due to be spent early next year, with the rest being spent by the end of next summer. In the meantime, Housing Commission CEO Rick Gentry said it would help to allow people to use the funds to pay off housing debt.
“Some households that have taken on debt through high interest credit cards or payday loans to pay their rent are not eligible for emergency rent assistance because they have no overdue rent, ”writes Srikrishnan.
Mission dioramas are a thing of the past
If you lived in California as a kid, you probably remember your history assignment in grade four building a state mission diorama. You would need a lot of hot glue and corrugated paper, not to mention the milk cartons and clay. But as contributor Randy Dotinga explores in the latest Learning Curve newsletter, completing missions is now (mostly) history.
“The change is tied to a changing understanding of the ancient history of our state,” Dotinga writes. “The Spanish colonization of California is no longer romanticized, and we now recognize the brutal treatment of Native Americans by European invaders.”
This year, local authorities changed the name to Junipero Serra High in the Tierrasanta neighborhood after students objected to honoring Father Junipero Serra, founder of the mission system. And while elementary schools have been urged to ditch dioramas, an official who oversees the San Diego Unified Curriculum told Dotinga that what teachers can do instead is help kids learn. a general understanding of the mission era and competing goals.
In other news
- Baja California has allocated more than 1,300 vaccines vaccinate migrants and asylum seekers in shelters in Tijuana. (Union-Tribune)
- NBC 7 reports that residents of Pacific Beach in the 1940s tried to stop William Payne from teaching at a San Diego school because of his race. A park will now be named in honor of him and his wife, a pair of pioneer black educators.
- According to a new report from the SDSU Institute of Public Health, the company the county hired to run its COVID-19 hotel accommodation program was unqualified and had poorly trained staff. The results show that workers forced residents to endure long delays for medication and allowed gaps in services that may have led to overdoses and suicide. (new source)
The Morning Report was written by Jesse Marx and Megan Wood, and edited by Sara Libby.
[ad_2]
