Coleen Cusack, left, challenges incumbent Stephen Whitburn, right, for representation of District 3. Source: campaign websites.

ANALYSIS: Did San Diego District 3 City Council candidates tackle the issues San Diego City College values most?

Coleen Cusack, Stephen Whitburn discuss their distinct visions for the future of District 9 and San Diego

Keila Menjivar Zamora, Andrea Valdez, Gina Stevens, Daniela Luna, and Ryan Matthysse

October 24, 2024

Incumbent Stephen Whitburn and challenger Coleen Cusack attended a community forum moderated by the League of Women Voters on Sept. 25 to discuss their campaigns for the District 3 seat on the San Diego City Council.

Throughout the roughly 45-minute forum, they answered attendees’ questions, contrasting their plans for the district and discussing topics such as housing, homelessness and public transit.

Cusack expressed her commitment to “safe, sane and voluntary shelters,” criticizing the current system’s effectiveness in addressing homelessness. She emphasized the need for a reevaluation of strategies to better support individuals in need.

Woodburn highlighted his achievements, citing a 9.5% reduction in encampments and the creation of safe sleeping sites that he said have housed over 1,300 individuals.

Both candidates acknowledged a need for improved public transit. Woodburn proposed increasing the sales tax to fund transit services, while Cusack called for enhanced bus lanes and the implementation of 24-hour transportation service to better meet community needs.

The candidates expressed differing views on short-term rentals and the preservation of historic districts.

City Times Media listened to this debate and identified statements from the candidates that describe their plans if elected. CTM has organized these statements based on issues raised in the City College Community Agenda and listed them below.

CTM did not include statements by the candidates that were not directly related to their plans. The goal is to identify what the candidates want to do.

The City College Community Agenda is an ongoing survey of City community members, in both English and Spanish, asking what issues and questions they want candidates to address as they compete for their votes. If you have not submitted your issues and questions to the survey, please do so today.

CTM has analyzed the presidential and mayoral debates using the same format. Look out for upcoming breakdowns of the San Diego District 9 candidate forums.

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Housing and Homelessness

Cusack:

“I’m not saying people can go wherever they want and set up an encampment. I’m saying that the shelters the city provides should be safe, sane and voluntary, not forced with the point of a gun. … There are entire populations of people that can’t even bother asking because there are no beds for them. There are no beds for caretaker couples. There are no safe beds for seniors. (Seniors) are required to be on a bottom bunk and most of the beds that open up on a daily basis are top bunk, so they’re not eligible for them. There is a waiting list of 300 people. There are people that want options: safe, sane and voluntary, and so it doesn’t make any sense that we’re we’re paying police $28 million a year to force people into shelters when there are no beds.”

Whitburn:

“I hope you noticed that there was not one word in that answer about what my opponent would actually do to address homelessness. We’re not going to solve homelessness with a chronic naysayer on the city council. We’re going to address homelessness by putting forward real proposals, real action like I had done on the city council, including the safe sleeping sites, which have gotten over 1000 people off the streets and into safer and healthier places. And with the encampment ordinance that I got through the city council, by one vote mind you, that has reduced the number of encampments citywide; including here in District three, by 9.5%. We have a lot more to do, but you will recall it wasn’t that long ago when we were seeing more and more and more and more encampments. We have turned the corner. We are seeing a reduction in the number of encampments. We need to continue that work”

Climate Change and Environment

San Diego City College students Tanner Frank and Dahlia Davis walk along campus during the first of two storms that will hit San Diego beginning Thursday, Feb. 01, 2024. Photo by Marco Guajardo/City Times Media

San Diego City College student Melissa Zuñiga, 24, reaches for cooked white rice in the Knight’s Table Food Pantry, Tuesday, January 30, 2024. This is Zuñiga’s last semester at City College. Photo by Keila Menjivar Zamora/City Times Media

Economy and Taxes

Cusack:

“We would have all of those resources right now if it weren’t for Ash st., $32,000 a day we pay for a building we can’t enter. $233 million, and we got a mayor who did this for personal grift, and a council that backed him up and didn’t protect us, (instead) protected the mayor. So when you’re talking about a deficit, anything less than $233 million is Todd’s tax for Ash Street. Now, the other way we can be transparent: there was $155 million dollars that the mayor authorized without going through city council, and city council should be outraged about that. City Council should have come in between sessions and held hearings about why they were cut out of the process, why the checks and balances were circumvented, and they should be having holding rehearings about those those funds right now, so the transparency is that they’re not going through the regular system, and our council is not holding them accountable.”

Whitburn:

“The city of San Diego right now has a 7.75% sales tax. It is lower than the surrounding jurisdictions. If you go to National City, you’ll pay more in sales tax. If you go into Chula Vista, you’ll. Pay more. If you go up into del Mar, you’ll pay more. So when we go and buy something in those other jurisdictions, we’re paying more to support their cities than those folks when they come to San Diego are doing to support our city. If we were to increase the sales tax by one penny, which would just bring it up to the average of what other jurisdictions here in San Diego County are doing if we brought it up to that average by increasing it by a penny, that would bring in $400 million a year that we could use for programs, for services, for making sure that our streets are paved, our infrastructure is solid, our street lights are replaced; I mean, all the things that we struggle with right now, we’d be able to make a big dent in much faster if we had those resources.”

San Diego City College student Melissa Zuñiga, 24, reaches for cooked white rice in the Knight’s Table Food Pantry, Tuesday, January 30, 2024. This is Zuñiga’s last semester at City College. Photo by Keila Menjivar Zamora/City Times Media (Keila Menjivar Zamora)

Students explore information booths set up to answer questions at the San Diego City College Open House, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Photo by Samantha Griffen/City Times Media

Transportation

Cusack:

“We’re not going to get people to bicycle here with the bicycle lanes that we have because they’re not connected … Everybody that’s riding right now, are bicycle adventurists. They’re taking their lives into their hands. Because while we may have a few short protected areas, there’s a lot of unconnected areas. And what the city’s done has been very haphazard, and it hasn’t listened to residences about where these get placed, and it’s pitted car drivers against bike riders. And that shouldn’t be. We all want to be safe. We all want to get to where we’re going. I appreciate the bicyclists because they are freeing up space and lowering congestion. MTS ridership is lower than it’s been in years. We still haven’t reached the level of ridership that we had before the pandemic before (Whitburn) took office. We have bicycle-bus lanes that aren’t fully realized.”

Whitburn:

“I currently serve as the chair of MTS, the Metropolitan Transit System, which is our bus and trolley system, and what we need to do is make public transit more convenient, faster and something that people want to take. We’re never going to force people out of their cars and force them to take public transit. That doesn’t work. The only way you’re going to get more people to take public transit is if you make it safe, attractive, convenient, efficient so that people realize they can get from where they are to where they need to go in about the same time. Get there safely, get there comfortably, maybe get some work done on the way and not be contributing to the traffic problems and everything else. We are making real progress. We are seeing ridership increase on our buses and trolleys. We are adding service. We’re adding frequency, and you’ll see more of that here. And I am optimistic about the future public transit in this city. We’re approaching it the right way now.”

Students explore information booths set up to answer questions at the San Diego City College Open House, Thursday, April 18, 2024. Photo by Samantha Griffen/City Times Media

What about the rest of our most important issues?

Civil Rights and Inequalities

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

College Affordability and Access

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

Criminal Justice

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

Election Reform and Politics

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

Foreign Policy

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

Gun Control

The candidates did not address this during the debate.

Healthcare and Reproductive Rights

The candidates did not address this during the debate

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