Morning Report: City Severs Ties With Southeastern Business Group

By Voice of San Diego

August 17, 2023

Business districts are designed to make different parts of the city more attractive to shoppers. In the city of San Diego, nonprofits run them and now, one organization is on the outs with the city.

City officials have decided to cut ties with the Diamond Business Association, which covers southeastern San Diego, our Andrea Lopez-Villafaña learned.

The officials didn’t say it outright, but they implied the Diamond Business Association was providing poor service to its members.

Why it matters: The neighborhoods previously covered by the Diamond Business Association have high poverty and unemployment rates. A thriving business district could help.

The association’s president declined to comment.

In the meantime, the city’s Economic Development Department will take over the functions of the business district.

Read the full story here.

Early results from Tuesday’s special primary election had San Diego Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe in first place and Republican Amy Reichert in second. The next update will happen today at 5 p.m.

Democrat Janessa Goldbeck is behind Reichert by three-points. She’s a little more than 2,900 votes short with 20,000 left to count, so she’s not out yet. Here’s what she had to say on Wednesday.

“While we’re behind, and the margin to make up is significant, I want to take a moment to express how proud I am of our campaign,” Goldbeck wrote on Twitter.

Who showed up for who: Three maps created by an independent elections analyst on social media caught our attention. These results reflect the early voting numbers the county released Tuesday night. But here’s what they showed:

We want to hear from you: Our professional chismosa, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña polled her Instagram followers on the race. This very unscientific poll showed similar results to the county’s early numbers. If you voted in this race, and feel like sharing your reasons for supporting a certain candidate, email her here.

She’ll feature your response in her next Cup of Chisme.

The pandemic upended education as we know it, and schools are still far from digging themselves out of the academic hole it left them in. As a new school year is set to dawn, education reporter Jakob McWhinney details some of the stories he’ll be paying attention to in the coming year in his latest The Learning Curve newsletter.

Read the whole story here.

Free info sessions on our Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools are back. Voice of San Diego Reporters and editors will breakdown the information in the guide on school choice, special programs, and other factors to consider when enrolling your K-12 student.

Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

For more details and to download the Schools Guide for free, click here.

This week has been plenty sunny, but we desperately needed a dose of musical sunshine.

Armoire, “Rochelle”: Armoire is songwriter Ariel Iribe’s synth-laden new wave solo project and the self-titled debut album carries an air of nostalgia. It’s at times carefree and light and at others dark and hypnotic and always twirling, twirling, twirling. “Rochelle,” a bouncy and playful ode to young love and companionship is decidedly the former and sure to defrost even the iciest of hearts.

Like what you hear? Catch Armoire at Whistle Stop on August 22.

Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion? Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists!

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.