As VOSD podcast nerds who flock to Midway's Modern Times Beer + Coffee outpost, our pod crew was ready to dive headfirst into big-city projects, taxes, and fees.
But first, we feature Voice environmental reporter Mackenzie Elmer and the residents she recently profiled.
Jesse Preciado actually dove headlong into the rising floodwaters at his Southcrest Street home. The Jan. 22 storm threatened homes in his neighborhood. So he removed his clothes and set to work unclogging a vital storm drain. “I think I did my job for the city,” Preciado told the audience.
Right now, he says, local media doesn't accurately capture what's happening in the neighborhood. “We are struggling with [housing] Vouchers and food,” he said. Preciado said he now spends much of his time delivering groceries to his neighbors.
Elmer, who covered the area, and Preciado, who tried to save it, spoke to VOSD Podcast host Scott Lewis about Jan. 22 and asked questions that the city of San Diego still hasn't answered.
Keats Gonna Keats
Mr. Lewis became obsessed with the idea of taxes and fees this week. His co-hosts Andrea López Villafaña and Jacob McWhinney acquiesced. Our first audience game was the soon-to-be trivia mainstay “Tax or Fee?”
Throughout the show, our crew joined Axios San Diego (formerly The Voice) journalist Andrew Keats to discuss the big tax ideas facing voters this year. Mayor Todd Gloria's “Penny for Progress” general sales tax. And San Diego City Council President Sean Elo Rivera pushed for a new tax to fund stormwater infrastructure.
Record scratch: Keats announced some news during the show. The so-called “mansion tax,” which imposes higher taxes on home sales over $5 million, was introduced by the San Diego Housing Federation.
Returning to the stormwater topic, Keats rehashed details from a highly relevant 2021 article that concluded that San Diego's infrastructure deficit is primarily due to a lack of rainwater. When I asked him, “What do you mean by infrastructure deficit?'' he answered in pure Keatsian fashion:
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