finished first in the primary with 5,375 votes<\/a>. He\u2019s been endorsed by the county Democratic party.<\/p>\nRamirez, chief of staff to outgoing Moreno, finished second in June and has been endorsed by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Association and a large construction labor union.<\/p>\n
In response to a question about how they would differentiate themselves from their opponent, Ramirez called Martinez a career politician, while Martinez painted Ramirez as a city bureaucrat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need any more career politicians,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cWe need more community leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a city bureaucrat, and the fact is my opponent has worked at City Hall for 10 years,\u201d said Martinez.<\/p>\n
Many of the questions\u00a0focused on what could be done to bring development and activities to the area.<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-d8-forum-015.jpg\")
Gerardo Ramirez, chief of staff of termed-out incumbent Vivian Moreno, speaks during a candidate forum at the Otay Mesa-Nestor Library in Otay Mesa West on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Ramirez said he often hears concerns about parking in the area, but also a lack of business corridors. He said that District 8 hasn\u2019t received the same degree of help as northern parts of the city.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cAnd we continue to have corridors that have been looking the same for the past 20 years, the past 25 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Martinez said that San Ysidro Boulevard is\u00a0a \u201cghost town,\u201d but should be a thriving\u00a0border crossing. He said there could be mixed-use development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to work with the San Ysidro Economic Corp. and see how we can start creating a catalyst to create more economic development along the corridor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
District 8 is one of the areas most impacted by the Tijuana River sewage crisis and candidates discussed the impact in response to various questions through the forum.<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-d8-forum-016.jpg\")
Antontio Martinez, longtime San Ysidro school board trustee, speaks during a candidate forum at the Otay Mesa-Nestor Library in Otay Mesa West on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Martinez said the crisis should have been tackled \u201cyesterday\u201d because the toxins being breathed in have the potential for long-term health effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the fact that the city hasn\u2019t done anything, hasn\u2019t collaborated with the county, for me is unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ramirez said the region is impacted by both the sewage crisis and the air pollution from trucks idling as they cross the border. In the northern part of the district, the waterfront is polluted by ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cDistrict 8 is one of the districts that suffers the most out of pollution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Martinez said maintenance in northern parts of the city in other council districts have a funding mechanism in place. His commitment is to put similar funding mechanisms in place for District 8 so it gets its \u201cfair share\u201d from the city.<\/p>\n
Ramirez proposed that rather than asking people to go downtown to city hall, that they instead send letters indicating whether they like something.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to make it easier for people to get involved and easier for people to work together and push back against City Hall and the system because divided, we\u2019re not going to get anywhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-d8-forum-011.jpg\")
Antonio Martinez and Gerardo Ramirez speak during a candidate forum for the District 8 seat on the San Diego City Council at the Otay Mesa-Nestor Library on Wednesday. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
In his closing remarks, Martinez said he wanted to work with other cities in the southern region to get their \u201cfair share\u201d from agencies like the San Diego Association of Governments and the Metropolitan Transit System. He said that if voters are satisfied with their neighborhoods, roads and the city, then they should vote for his opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you\u2019re going to get eight years of the same, but if you see what I see and you smell what I smell and you feel the way I feel, then it\u2019s time to vote for change and we\u2019re ready for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ramirez said that politicians promise everything, but asked if people want someone who has been at City Hall and actually balanced a budget for years. He also pointed to growing income inequality as a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not actually saying anything, and we\u2019re done with that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to change the system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two City Council candidates vying to represent some of San Diego\u2019s most polluted neighborhoods near the U.S.-Mexico…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24815,7,181,23,205,100,13,74,84,76,75,4067,182016,3055,1696],"class_list":["post-461753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-barrio-logan","tag-california","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-ysidro","tag-shelltown","tag-south-county","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461753","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=461753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-d8-forum-003.jpg\")
Antonio Martinez, longtime San Ysidro school board trustee, and Gerardo Ramirez, chief of staff of termed-out incumbent Vivian Moreno, speak during a candidate forum for the District 8 seat on the San Diego City Council at the Otay Mesa-Nestor Library in Otay Mesa West on Wednesday. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n