Dear Neighbor, 

San Diego is mourning after the horrific act of violence at the Islamic Center of San Diego.  

This tragedy is especially painful for our Muslim community because it came at the beginning of Dhul-Hijjah, one of Islam’s holiest periods leading into Hajj and Eid al-Adha. This is a sacred time centered on faith, reflection, charity, and unity.  

We remember Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, and Nadir Awad, whose courage and selflessness helped protect others during the attack. Their actions were nothing short of heroic and countless lives were saved because of them.  

As your Mayor, I’ve been clear: hate has no home in San Diego. Violence against any community because of how they pray, who they are, or what they believe is an attack on all of us.  

San Diego is a city where people from every background, faith, and neighborhood live alongside one another and call this place home. In moments like this, we show who we are by how we care for each other, protect one another, and stand together in the face of fear and violence.   

Let there be no doubt: acts of hate and violence have no place in San Diego, and those responsible will be held accountable. 

As always, it’s an honor to serve as your Mayor. 

My May revision of the City budget reflects updated financial information and what we heard throughout this budget process.  

That input came from residents, community advocates, and City Councilmembers. Also, more than 13,600 people participated in the City’s first-ever online resident budget survey, and the message across all of that feedback was clear: focus on the fundamentals.  

San Diegans are saying that they want us to keep neighborhoods safe, fix roads and sidewalks, reduce homelessness, and build more homes to bring down housing costs. So those are the priorities continuing to guide this budget and the work we’re doing every day to keep San Diego moving forward. 

The revised proposal restores targeted neighborhood services and community investments where fiscally possible while maintaining a balanced budget during a difficult financial year. Updated financial information and new legal guidance related to the Golf Enterprise Fund gave us additional flexibility to make responsible restorations where we could. That includes protecting some library and recreation center hours in historically underserved neighborhoods, restoring funding for youth programs and violence prevention, and continuing investments in the services residents rely on every day. 

This budget still includes difficult choices. Every department made reductions, and no part of City government was fully exempt from the impacts of our budget deficit. At the same time, we continued looking for responsible ways to protect neighborhood services while staying focused on the priorities San Diegans told us matter most. 

The reality is that San Diego’s budget challenges did not happen overnight. They are the result of decades of decisions, rising costs, aging infrastructure, pension obligations, and structural issues that cities across California are now confronting. The San Diego Union-Tribune recently took a deeper look at how we got here and the factors contributing to this moment. 

Addressing years of structural financial challenges will not happen in a single budget, but this proposal puts us on a more sustainable path forward by keeping us focused on the fundamentals. 

As your Mayor, my top priority is always protecting what matters most to you—ensuring our neighborhoods are safe, and our city services remain reliable. That is why I want to share an important update regarding a comprehensive settlement to safeguard San Diego’s fiscal future. 

We have agreed to a global settlement that successfully resolves legal disputes and upcoming ballot challenges regarding our trash collection fees and the Balboa Park paid parking program. 

Under this agreement, we are:

• Ending Paid Parking in Balboa Park: By January 2027 at the latest, we will eliminate all paid parking across Balboa Park. Details are still being worked out, but you can get the latest information at www.sandiego.gov/parking/balboapark.  

• Lowering Scheduled Trash Fees: Beginning in July 2027, we are lowering the trash collection fees for applicable single-family homeowners. 

The settlement is a compromise that resolves existing threats that could have forced more than $150 million in additional cuts to city services. A hit of that magnitude would have forced devastating, deep cuts to the core services you rely on every single day—including police, fire protection, libraries, and neighborhood parks. 

As we move forward, we must be entirely honest about the broader financial realities facing our communities. As a recent article from The Honest Economic Developer rightly points out, there is a profound disconnect in local government today: everybody wants the pothole fixed, but nobody wants to pay for it. When our city experiences hits to its baseline revenue, those losses aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet—they are felt directly by San Diegans in the form of fewer roads paved, deferred neighborhood projects, and eroded public services. 

This compromise successfully averted an immediate financial disaster, but we must remember that we cannot protect and maintain the high-quality infrastructure our city deserves without a sustainable way to fund it. 

Since releasing the City’s draft budget on April 15 and the May Revise, I’ve continued hearing from residents about the difficult choices in this year’s budget and how those decisions affect neighborhoods across San Diego. I’m continuing to answer the questions I hear most often as well as clarify some misinformation out there: 

Question: Some residents asked why so much funding continues going to the San Diego Police Department while other programs faced cuts. How do you respond to that concern? 

Answer: Keeping people safe is the number one job of city government. In fact, it is required under our City Charter.  

And I know San Diegans expect that when they call 911, a trained professional will show up quickly. It’s also important to point out that police is one of the few city services that has to operate 24 hours a day, every day.  

So, that requires us to maintain police services for a city of more than 1.3 million people. This budget maintains current emergency response services and staffing levels. 

To be clear, the police department did see a reduction of nearly $12 million; however, there is an increase in costs in things like salaries, healthcare, utilities, gas, equipment, and day-to-day operational costs are all more expensive than they were just a few years ago.  

At the same time, I know public safety is bigger than emergency response alone. It also includes safe neighborhoods, youth programs, libraries, recreation centers, homelessness services, parks, and community spaces that help people feel connected and supported. 

We heard clearly through the City’s budget survey and budget hearings that many San Diegans see those neighborhood services as part of community safety, too. That feedback helped shape changes in the May Revise, including restoring some library and recreation center hours, youth drop-in center funding, violence prevention investments like “No Shots Fired,” and other neighborhood services where fiscally possible. 

This budget reflects the reality that public safety is not just one thing. It is emergency response, prevention, neighborhood services, and making sure people feel safe and supported in their communities. 

Again, your voice matters as this budget process continues. The City Council will review the May Revise in public hearings, including at the Budget Review Committee on June 5, and City Council on June 9. More information about the budget timeline and opportunities for public input is available on Inside San Diego’s FY2027 budget timeline page. 

You can also find additional answers to frequently asked questions about the draft budget and May Revise, including libraries, parks, homelessness spending, arts funding, and neighborhood services, on the full FAQ page at Inside San Diego. 

What People Are Misunderstanding: 
Some are claiming that Pride Promenade in Hillcrest is a “pet project” of mine that is diverting money away from essential neighborhood services. 

What’s True: 
Pride Promenade does not use General Fund dollars — the part of the City budget that pays for libraries, parks, public safety, and other core neighborhood services. 

The project is funded primarily through local and regional transportation dollars as well as state grant allocation. These funds are legally restricted and cannot be used to pay for City services, even in a tight budget year. They can only be spent on mobility, transportation, and street improvement projects — exactly what Pride Promenade is. 

Approved by the City in 2018, this project has also been in development for years and has been requested by the Hillcrest community since their 1988 Community Plan, shaped through community input and funded well before the current budget shortfall. The City cannot redirect these dollars to other uses, even if it wanted to. 

Some confusion has come from timing. Construction began in January 2025 during a difficult budget year, which led some people to assume the project is competing with neighborhood services. It isn’t. 

Here’s More Context: 
Pride Promenade will convert a neglected section of Normal Street into a safer, more welcoming public space with better lighting, landscaping, walkability, and accessibility. It supports Hillcrest residents, local businesses, community events, and regional mobility goals. 

The project is also fixing decades of aging infrastructure, including adding over 40 parking spaces to the neighborhood, 3,000 feet of new stormwater lines, replacing poor soils underground, addressing flooding issues that occur during winter storms, adding new historic streetlights and shade structures, and repaving sections of University Avenue and Normal Street. 

Yes, Pride Promenade plays an important role in connecting bike routes from Downtown to Hillcrest, North Park, and Mid-City communities. It also supports the City’s Climate Action Plan through the planting of 150 new trees, creates new gathering spaces for families with a playground and street-front dining areas, and will feature public art installations throughout the corridor. 

The project will activate what is currently an underutilized space, supporting local businesses and generating economic activity by hosting community events, farmers markets, movie nights, weddings, and other neighborhood programming. 

Not only that, the Hillcrest community itself will maintain Pride Promenade through the Maintenance Assessment District — not the City’s General Fund. Having a thriving city means investing in quality public spaces, and that is exactly what this project is designed to do. 

What This Means for You: 
Pride Promenade is moving forward without taking money away from essential City services. It is built with restricted local and regional transportation funding that cannot be used for regular city operations – things like libraries, parks, or public safety. 

When completed, Pride Promenade will function as a year-round community gathering space for the weekly Hillcrest Farmers Market, festivals, Pride celebrations, family activities, outdoor movies, public art, bike events, weddings, performances, and neighborhood programming while also improving safety, mobility, climate resilience, and critical infrastructure in Hillcrest. 

More information about City budgeting and project funding can be found here. 

Construction is now underway on the new Oak Park Branch Library, a major investment in a historically underserved community that reflects our continued commitment to equity and expanding opportunity across San Diego.  

The new two-story, 20,000-square-foot facility will include an IDEA lab, podcast room, multipurpose spaces, reading areas for all ages, and outdoor gathering space with views of the San Diego skyline. 

The project, which has been at least 10 years in the making, is fully funded, with more than $29 million coming from state library grants. This is how the City can continue to move forward on long-planned community investments even as we navigate a difficult budget year. The existing library will remain open during construction, which is expected to be completed in spring 2028. 

Last week’s question: Which of these parks is NOT located at least partly within the City of San Diego? 

Here’s how you voted: 

▪️ San Diego Zoo Safari Park — 19.49% 
▪️ SeaWorld — 0.74% 
✅▪️ LEGOLAND — 79.78% 

The correct answer: LEGOLAND. While SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park are both located at least partly within the City of San Diego, LEGOLAND is located in Carlsbad. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is in the San Pasqual Valley, which falls within San Diego city limits, and SeaWorld is in Mission Bay Park. Honestly, I’m impressed so many of you got this one right because most people don’t realize part of the Safari Park is technically within the City of San Diego!

This week’s question: How many Medal of Honor recipients are interred or memorialized at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma? 

• 3 
• 13 
• 23 

Answer below or send your guess to AskTheMayor@sandiego.gov and check back next week to see if you got it right. 

The City is currently delivering new light blue recycling bins to households eligible for City-provided trash and recycling service. The updated bins are more durable, easier to identify, and equipped with scannable tags to improve service reliability and accountability. 

Deliveries will take place on regular collection days and continue citywide over several months, with some households receiving their bins later this year. Crews will also remove older dark blue bins, which will be recycled and repurposed. Residents can expect notifications ahead of their delivery and can look up their estimated timeline online. 

After customers receive their new light blue recycling bins, the City will collect only from those new bins. Until then, the City will continue servicing old containers to avoid disruption in customer service. Collection of recycling materials will remain bi-weekly.

Downtown’s Civic Center Plaza is getting a vibrant refresh with Plaza Central — a new series of pop-up events bringing food, music, and art to the heart of the city. The activations are free and open to the public every Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., offering a lively preview of the area’s long-term revitalization. 

 
Learn more about Plaza Central events.