Love how that fresh pavement looks! Recently, David St and Kramer St received slurry seal treatments, providing much-needed repairs.

As Steve and Betty Rodriguez said in the Linda Vista Update:

“It finally happened! One of the worse roads in Linda Vista was recently slurry sealed and it currently looks outstanding. David Street in Linda Vista—a short strip of a street located between Carson Elementary School and Holy Family Catholic Church was recently, along with several other LV streets, the beneficiary of the City’s busy construction crews.”

We’re delivering on the promise to improve our neighborhood streets, making them smoother and safer for all — including the many families who drop their kids off at Carson Elementary School every morning and all who use these roads.

More improvements to come to roads all across District 7!

If you've driven through Grantville lately, you might have seen the new powerful billboard that honors 24 San Diegans who lost their lives to fentanyl overdoses. With the message “Fentanyl Steals Families,” the display is part of a national effort to raise awareness and save lives.

You've heard me continue to beat the drum on this issue time and time again because we can't continue to let our sons, daughters, friends, and neighbors perish from this awful crisis. Together, if we work to provide prevention, education, and compassion for those who have been impacted, we CAN make progress in saving lives -- and in fact, the work of so many dedicated people is already having an effect across all fifty states and right here in San Diego to bring deaths down.

Thank you, Rachel's Angels, for raising awareness of those who have lost their lives to this terrible drug.

I’ve been proud to lead a number of important victories for San Diego throughout my time as Councilmember: repaving many important District 7 roads, passing a state law to crack down on hateful flyering in our neighborhoods, and breaking down barriers to behavioral healthcare and childcare, just to name a few.

But there is perhaps nothing that I've done that was more overdue than doubling the paid parental leave that the City of San Diego’s more than 12,000 employees are entitled to -- from four weeks to eight.

It was just about two years ago, in June 2023, that we made this change. My staff recently followed up with the City’s personnel department to ask for some of the stats:

• Total number of employees who have received Parental Leave under the new plan (July 1, 2023 – June 24, 2025): 834 employees
• Total number of hours awarded: 281,419 hours

Those are 834 parents that had the chance to spend more time with their babies. 834 children minimum (not counting any twins, triplets, etc) that will benefit from that extra care from Mom and/or Dad. 140,709 well-deserved hours that otherwise would not have been spent together.

And it's not just that we should be giving parents time to spend with their babies because it's the right thing to do -- better benefits also help us recruit and retain more talented employees that process permits, repave roads, staff our rec centers and libraries, and much more.

Proud to see this policy change have such a tangible impact.

Thanks to a grant from the San Diego River Conservancy (which I am proud to serve on the board of), Mission Trails Regional Park is seeing critical brush and invasive species removal to help safeguard both wildlife and surrounding communities from the threat of wildfire. Crews are working trail by trail—Cowles Mountain, Kumeyaay Lake, Oak Grove—and carrying heavy loads of cut brush across steep terrain to keep the park healthy and our homes safer.

Neighbors can help by providing access or thinning brush with the right permits; find more information here under "How You Can Help."

Just a month after the devastating plane crash that upended so many lives in Murphy Canyon, San Diego FC honored the heroes who stepped up when our community needed them most with a tribute at last Saturday's home match.

Firefighters, nonprofits, and volunteers who comforted families, found them shelter, and helped them begin to heal were recognized on the stadium’s big screen. Battalion Chief Erik Windsor spoke about the night dozens of neighbors fled their homes with only the clothes on their backs.

If there could possibly be a silver lining to this tragic moment, it would be the reminder that in the face of heartbreak, San Diegans stand together with compassion and resolve. Thank you, San Diego FC, for this important gesture -- and thank you to the many people who stepped up to respond to this tragedy.