Voice of San Diego Podcast

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 months analyzing housing data. H...

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 talked...

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 published an extraordinary analysis a...

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 term. We’ll explain wh...

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 joins us toda...

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 VOSD  ...

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 Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and he’ll te...

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 pickup. It almost didn’t happe...

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 Angeles have resolved...

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 See omnystudio....

There had been some controversy about whether the Mayor and San Diego City Council would have to dip into reserves to handle their budget deficit – now it appears they have no choice. We’ll explain how bad the city’s finances are getting.    South County is now home to a massive hotel and convention center many years in the making. The mayor of Chula Vista like all sout...

The city of San Diego is officially at legal war with La Jolla separatists. Why a ballot measure push a couple years ago is related.  The mayor’s revised budget is still pretty ugly and still gets rid of beach bonfire rings. And finally the budget also has set up an nasty little standoff between the city and county over a homeless shelter in the Midway area. They have stopped letting pe...

This week the crew brought their notes and their game to Soda Bar where they recorded the podcast before packed house, as Scott, Andrea, Jakob and Bella welcomed Keene Simonds, the Executive Officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission, to the lively LIVE podcast recording session. Recorded live at Soda Bar, Wednesday May 7, 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we sat down for an in depth interview with San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham. He filled us in with some deep water knowledge during this week’s show.   SHOW NOTES:  (Links to VOSD articles mentioned during the show and links for further reading) VOSD: San Diego Council Bashes County Water Authority Over Costs Councilmembers say they want to see s...

We have another guest this week. Hot off her state of the county speech, County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is joining us.  Our South Bay reporter did a deep dive into what happened after Chula Vista Mayor John McCann helped secure the release of a woman convicted of fraud several years ago. She’s being sentenced today on another charge.  And we had a story this week out of Encin...

We have a guest co-host today, Congressman Mike Levin is here with some reports from D.C. where things are normal and not very interesting at all. He was supposed to bring a hot take.  Jakob did a story about how some classrooms in local colleges are filled with fake people. We’ll break down how that works and how much it’s costing.  And we have more trash talk. The new fee f...

The South Bay County Supervisor runoff is set. Two mayors will race for the future of the county.  An effort to set aside an area for homeless residents near the airport has hit another snag as the developer of Liberty Station takes the city to court.  And the U.S Secretary of Education was in town. Jakob went to see her.  All that and another Dear VOSD.      SHOW NOT...

On Sunday, March 31st, 1985, a group of young Black men drove back to southeastern San Diego after visiting Balboa Park. It was just after 6:00 PM and the sun was retreating into the horizon. As a truck driven by 23-year-old Sagon Penn pulled into a driveway on a quiet street in Encanto, they were followed by two police cars. What happened next would leave one officer dead, another officer and a c...

Coming up on the show, we are in the final stretch of the District 1 County Supervisor race.  The mailers are getting SPICY, and one especially pissed off a lot of people.  Last month, Mayor Todd Gloria announced he was eliminating the position of chief operating officer and taking over the gig himself. Now, former COO Eric Dargan is suing Gloria and the city for discrimination and for b...

The Padres are playing their opening game as we record. We’ll explain a new minimum wage increase they are fighting. We’ve got a few updates on what the city is doing to get you to pay for parking. Why San Diego is on the hook for monthly rent payment on an empty homeless shelter. And the historic San Diego Taxpayers Association has no leadership.  Also, the hospitals are fighting...

We’ve got a Dear VOSD response finally on the city’s history of charging for parking.  Grossmont Union School District has had some very tense meetings. We’ll talk about a hot mic moment that went viral.  And as part of our 20th anniversary talk, we have reflections from several of the journalists and former writers at Voice of San Diego who made a difference here. SHOW...

There was a surprisingly tense conversation about water rates at the city. The reality that they’re going to soar is starting to set in and we’ll discuss.  Finally, we’ve got a guest, I have been on his show many times but he’s never been on ours. Darren Smith, the best unemployed radio guy in town is here to explain us some sports and more.  We’ll go throug...

What exactly happened at City Council this week? We have one of them here, Councilmember Henry Foster joins us to talk about housing, ADUs, land use, the city’s deficit and more.   SHOW NOTES INTRO  00:00:00 Intro SEGMENT 1  00:02:09 San Diego Football Club opening day drama AXIOS SDFC confronts fans' homophobic chant that's plagued soccer for years   NBC San Diego Homoph...

SHOW NOTES INTRO 00:00:00 Intro Parent’s Guide on  Instagram!   SEGMENT 1 00:00:57 Parent’s Guide on Instagram! The wait is OVER This year’s A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools is here and ready to help answer all your local education questions! The Guide explains school choice opportunities and enrollment deadlines, what’s available for after-school care,...

If you listened last week, you were set up for the big news this week. The mayor is flexing his muscles.    We’ll explain the difference between eliminating a position and firing someone and what happened to the now former top bureaucrat at the city.    And the parents guide is coming out. Jakob and Andrea here have been working hard on it. We’ll talk. SHOW NOTES IN...