{"id":93526,"date":"2025-12-13T18:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93526\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T18:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:26:11","slug":"are-we-really-satisfied-with-life-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/93526\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we really satisfied with life in San Diego?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Downtown<\/a>Downtown San Diego looking west. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Mayor Todd Gloria is spreading the word about a national survey <\/a>that shows 76% of San Diego residents are \u201cvery satisfied\u201d or \u201csatisfied\u201d with their city.<\/p>\n

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

According to Gensler Research<\/a>, San Diego ranks second in \u201csatisfaction with their city as a place to live,\u201d trailing only San Antonio with a 78% score. <\/p>\n

But Axios<\/a>, which published the results, cautioned that \u201csatisfaction\u201d is a \u201cbroad\u201d term, defined as \u201ca general vibe check on how people are feeling about job opportunities, housing costs, safety and other key urban issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the survey\u2019s methodology reveals a very significant\u00a0\u2014 even disqualifying \u2014 limitation: The poll was conducted more than a year ago, from July 18 to Nov 24,\u00a02024.<\/p>\n

Since then, there\u2019s been a flurry of activity at City Hall, and most of it is having a negative impact on our personal finances.<\/p>\n

New fees and costs include:<\/p>\n

Paid parking in Balboa Park, the Zoo, and the streets around the park.<\/p>\n

A doubling of parking meter rates everywhere, to $2.50 an hour, and up to\u00a0$10 an hour\u00a0in the Gaslamp and other parts of downtown during \u201cspecial events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of \u201cdaylighting\u201d citations issued to unsuspecting motorists who\u2019ve parked. within 20 feet of a curb. Worse, many of those curbs are not painted red, and there\u2019s no signage warning against parking.<\/p>\n

The imposition of a monthly trash collection fee\u00a0double\u00a0the city\u2019s official estimate.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A 31% increase in the cost of water over the next two years, and an additional 31% increase in sewer fees over the coming four years.<\/p>\n

There are other, very credible barometers of the negative impact these new fees and costs are having on our \u201csatisfaction\u201d with local government.<\/p>\n

An Axios story about a possible ballot measure to increase the sales tax includes a recent survey<\/a> of San Diego city voters by FM3 Research<\/a> found that 62% of voters feel the city is \u201con the wrong track,\u201d compared to 22% who think we\u2019re headed in the \u201cright direction,\u201d and 16% who \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d.<\/p>\n

And a nationwide 2025 study<\/a> by the Milken Institute delivered similarly sobering results. Among cities with more than 275,000 residents, San Diego ranks 71st in \u201cbest performance.\u201d This analysis compares job and wage growth, housing affordability, high-tech concentration, and other economic benchmarks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s ranking in this Milken Institute<\/a> study is 34 places lower than last year, when we ranked 37th. (The top cities this year are Raleigh, NC, and Ogden and Salt Lake City, UT.)<\/p>\n

Lastly, a local activist shared with me the results of a recent poll by a reputable survey firm: 66% percent of local voters disapprove of the trash fee, and more than 80% reject the imposition of paid parking in and around Balboa Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Setting the polls aside and listening to the\u00a0vox populi, there\u2019s\u00a0overwhelming anecdotal\u00a0evidence that San Diegans forcefully reject the mayor\u2019s embrace of a year-old \u201cgeneral vibe check\u201d that portrays 76% of us as \u201cvery satisfied\u201d (or even just \u201csatisfied\u201d).<\/p>\n

Reviewing the \u201cmost relevant\u201d of the 169 comments on the Mayor\u2019s Facebook post<\/a>, not a single one gives the Mayor a shred of credit for any \u201csatisfaction\u201d they might have with our city.<\/p>\n

And those who reject the survey results posted some scorching responses:<\/p>\n

\u201cSatisfied with what?\u201d asked Ken McDonnell. \u201cA new $550 charge on property tax bills? Yeah, that should help with affordability. Increasing parking fees should too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heather Crichton told the Mayor, \u201cDon\u2019t take credit for the sunshine and ocean vibes, Todd!! We aren\u2019t satisfied with local government, roads, taxes, nor the cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Carlos Ayala echoed a prevailing sentiment: \u201cWe\u2019re satisfied with San Diego because of where it is on the map, not because of the clowns in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Krueger is a retired journalist and founding member of Neighbors for a Better San Diego.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown San Diego looking west. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego) Mayor Todd Gloria is spreading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29736,4752,51435,51436,17530,74,76,75,51437,11103],"class_list":{"0":"post-93526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-affordability","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-fm3-research","11":"tag-gensler-research","12":"tag-mayor-todd-gloria","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news","16":"tag-satisfaction","17":"tag-survey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93526","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=93526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}