San Diego’s Democrat City Council, led by Democrat Mayor Todd Gloria, has failed to live up to its promises on climate action and basic governance. The city has struggled to implement its climate action plan, facing criticism from climate advocates who argue that the city has not provided a clear timeline for reducing emissions. The city’s leaders have failed to address rising homelessness and have faced lawsuits from constituents for violating their own climate action plan.
The Mayor’s Office promised to provide a timeline for climate action by February, but the preliminary timeline released so far has been too complex for the general public to understand. Climate advocates have pointed to the city of La Mesa as an example of how a city can provide a clear list of actions, their costs, and timelines for reducing emissions.
The city’s independent budget analysts have provided the City Council Environment Committee with a spreadsheet organizing climate actions into four categories of “action timing,” but this has still not satisfied climate activists, who are now suing the city for lack of action.
The city’s failure to act on climate change is not only detrimental to the environment according to its own plan, but also to the quality of life for its residents. It is time for San Diego City Council, under Mayor Gloria’s leadership, to prioritize basic governance and take concrete steps to reduce emissions and address issues such as homelessness without burdening even further the taxpayers. The city must provide a clear and actionable timeline for its climate action plan, and must do so in a way that is accessible and understandable to the general public. It is time for the Democrat leadership to show that they are able to do the job they were elected to do.
