When New York University professor Jay Rosen dreamt up “The Citizens Agenda,” his vision was to center election coverage not on the people in power, but on the people the politicians are supposed to be serving.
That is the inspiration behind the San Diego City College Community Agenda.
The Community Agenda compiles the responses to a survey completed by students, faculty, staff and community members. It is designed to identify issues and elicit questions that City Times Media reporters use to engage political candidates and focus their election reporting.
City Times Media developed the pilot version of the survey with a set of issues from initial interviews completed in April and August, categorizing the responses. The responses were then collected using online forms in English and Spanish beginning in September.
The online surveys were built to allow the community to select from these issues, suggest others, as well as provide questions and add further elaboration.
Every week, City Times reporters will share updates and reporting focused on these issues on the City Times Media website and its other platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and social media.
- Read, view, and hear community members from April 2024 here.
- Where did the City College Community Agenda come from?
- Updates
City College Community Agenda – Issues and Questions
Civil Rights and Inequalities
- “Civil rights, personal rights.” Sandra Santivanez, 20, Business
- “I would just ask their opinion about the (LGBTQ) community themselves so I can determine who is safer to vote for.” Genesis Martinez, 17, Marketing/Business
Climate Change and Environment
College Affordability and Access
- “A lot of these babies being born (and) a lot of these other adults that’s coming up, we need to really show them the way. What we all need to know is education and how we get along with each other.” Nappy Howard, 66, Communications
- “Making sure everyone has access to education. What are your plans to make student life better?” Sandra Santivanez, 20, Business
Criminal Justice
- “I would like to hear them talking about the homelessness in the city and how we can better the safety for just everyone in general.” Isabel Lafuente, 19, Engineering
Economy and Taxes
- “I also want to (hear) about the debt … just close that because it’s a national debt.” Ramon Almaraz, 19, Pharmacy
- “I’d like to hear how we’re going to bring back our economy, bring interest rates down and just make it more affordable all the way around with groceries, housing. What would you do directly to make this happen? What kind of timeline would we be looking at to see the results?” Lori Wivart, 52, Photography
Election Reform and Politics
- “The thing I don’t like is that you have only two candidates. I would like to see more. The ones I have seen in the past years, were not giving us what they talked about. I see a lot of discussions and a lot of destroying each other. It’s not a good example.” Alina Ramirez, 40, Small Business Management
Foreign Policy
Gun Control
Healthcare and Reproductive Rights
- “What is stopping us from being more compassionate for people that cannot access health(care) very easily?” Ramon Almaraz, 19, Pharmacy
- “I live in Imperial Beach. We have an issue with the smell, and I see the people that are working, talking when they have the elections. Oh, we do this or this, but you’re not fixing the problem. People were getting sick.” Alina Ramirez, 40, Small Business Management
Housing and Homelessness
- “The low-income housing, the homeless that are out here in San Diego … When are they going to put more money into the low-income housing?” John Hallman, 59, Drug Counseling
- “California has another issue with the homeless. Governor Newsom said that he’s gonna work on that for many years. When we get off the freeway, (there are) a lot of homeless, and it’s not fair for the people.” Alina Ramirez, 40, Small Business Management
Immigration Reform
Transportation
- “What are the ideas for education in San Diego? I feel like there should be more opportunities for students to have lower rates for trolley and transportation.” Sara Ortega, 31, Visual Arts
Where did the City College Community Agenda come from?
The City College Community Agenda is modeled on The Citizens Agenda, “a guide for generating more responsive, inclusive and useful news coverage for voters.”
New York University professor and media critic Jay Rosen and “social impact consultancy” Hearken developed it to improve political reporting by moving from a polling-centric approach to reporting on the issues important to communities.
The Citizens Agenda model of campaign reporting elevates the public and uses the newsroom as a conduit and a translator between the public and the politicians they elect.
City Times Media has specifically used the name “Community Agenda” instead of “Citizens Agenda” to reflect the importance of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens in the San Diego City College community.
Updates
- Sept. 19, 2024: Published the initial version of the City College Community Agenda here.
- August 27 and 30, 2024: Published the online forms for collecting data in English and Spanish at sdcitytimes.com.
- August 26, 2024: Collected inputs to the agenda data during community interviews at the Student Services Resource Fair & Club Rush.
- April 3, 2024: Published initial inputs to the agenda collected during community interviews: VOICES: What do you want the candidates to be talking about as they compete for your votes? (with audio)