{"id":449651,"date":"2026-09-01T06:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449651\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T06:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:10:15","slug":"two-years-after-his-first-campaign-andrew-gade-says-coronado-is-stuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/449651\/","title":{"rendered":"Two years after his first campaign, Andrew Gade says Coronado is stuck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been two years since Andrew Gade lost a run for City Council.<\/p>\n

During that time, he engrossed himself in local government to learn as much as he could so he could run again. He\u2019s changed in the last two years, he said \u2014 why hasn\u2019t Coronado?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the focus on this election?\u201d he asked, before listing topics he suspects every council campaign will touch: the sewage crisis, Cays Park, the Winn Room remodel, infrastructure, public safety, fire stations. \u201cTwo years later, not much has changed, for better or worse. It seems like Coronado is stuck and not able to get anything moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He offered as an example the most recent City Council meeting, during which much of the discussion centered on beach testing methods. He said he understands the reasoning \u2014 water quality tests should be accurate, and frequent beach closures impact business \u2014 but thought the council was missing the point.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s sewage in the water, regardless, he said. That sewage is coming from Mexico, regardless. Tijuana will continue to grow in population (and, therefore, in sewage output), regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we going to sit here and point the finger and never go on the beach?\u201d he said. \u201cOr are we going to sit and address how to fix this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gade said he\u2019s been busy learning as much as he could over the last two years. He served on the city\u2019s mobility committee, is a board member for the Coronado Fourth of July, and a member of both the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. And, of course, he says, he\u2019s a proud member of the Island Beer Club.<\/p>\n

Gade said each brush with city government has taught him how bureaucratic pieces fit together. He\u2019s been attending council and board meetings simply to watch and listen, and has been meeting with local leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what I\u2019ve learned is procedural,\u201d Gade said, adding that the mechanisms of local government can be frustrating compared to the pace of decision-making he takes as a small business owner. \u201cOnce you get through all the procedure, though, you learn how you get through to targeted, pointed action.\u201d<\/p>\n

That translates into a specific critique of how the city operates day to day: He wants a better answer for how the council can make recommendations \u2014 and how to ensure those recommendations are actually executed. He pointed to the city\u2019s heavy use of outside subcontractors rather than in-house staff as one place to look.<\/p>\n

Government isn\u2019t a business, he said, but it can still be run more efficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to accept that things are this way, just because of that\u2019s how they are now,\u201d Gade said.<\/p>\n

More aggression and creativity with Tijuana\u2019s sewage<\/p>\n

Practically, he wants to apply that philosophy to the sewage crisis. His proposed fix has three prongs: first, he said, a planned extension of Tijuana\u2019s ocean outfall pipe, which channels sewage into the ocean, is not enough. He thinks it should stretch farther and deeper into the ocean to keep the sewage away from South Bay shores.<\/p>\n

Second, he would like to invest in water reclamation rather than sewage treatment alone. Finally, he wants to get more creative about funding for solving the problem instead of waiting on the federal government. While Coronado can\u2019t simply hand money to the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which oversees sewage infrastructure on both sides of the border, he believes there are other mechanisms the city hasn\u2019t tried.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t rule out a county-level referendum or revisiting Coronado\u2019s local tax structure to help pay for sewage infrastructure. He raised the idea of a lawsuit against Mexico as one option if diplomacy stalls.<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent increases in San Diego County\u2019s budget, saying there is plenty of money to address the problem if local governments are willing to get creative about how to fund it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the richest country in the world,\u201d Gade said. \u201cWe could say that we stole the land from Mexico anyway. We\u2019re sitting here in our castles crying about the water when so many people in Mexico don\u2019t even have homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Empty storefronts, possible solutions<\/p>\n

As a small business owner himself, Gade said business closures along Orange Avenue and on the block between First and Second streets bothers him as much as anything on the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019m hearing, rent is so expensive that it\u2019s very difficult for businesses to just run a business,\u201d he said, pointing to the required sales volume needed to account for overhead.<\/p>\n

He said some buildings aren\u2019t in a hurry to fill vacant space, which has pushed him toward an idea he said he wouldn\u2019t have considered before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an anti-tax, anti-fee person,\u201d Gade said, \u201cbut I\u2019m getting to the point where if businesses aren\u2019t going to rent out their properties, maybe we start looking at a business vacancy tax. The goal isn\u2019t to tax anyone \u2014 it\u2019s just an incentive to get things moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

No shortage of ideas<\/p>\n

Gade is an idea man. Mention a problem, and possible solutions or angles to consider start to tumble from his mouth as though he can\u2019t wait to start trying things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of what made his business a success, he said. If he sees a problem, he fixes it, then moves on to the next.<\/p>\n

But he said a big takeaway from his first campaign was to slow down and listen, to invite people into a conversation rather than presenting conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people want to talk about solving problems, let\u2019s talk about it,\u201d Gade said. \u201cThere\u2019s no limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gade moved to Coronado five years ago, after living in San Diego for 20. Coronado, he says, finally feels like home in a way San Diego never did.<\/p>\n

His affection for the city comes with reciprocity. Nearly every morning, he said, he picks up trash on his way to get coffee in the park, and he\u2019s noticed other residents doing the same as they walk their dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what makes Coronado, Coronado,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s the most important thing \u2014 that\u2019s how we protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been two years since Andrew Gade lost a run for City Council. During that time, he engrossed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[165455,35072,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-449651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-city-council-2026","tag-election-2026","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}