Tommy Hough

Surfrider Art Gala Racks Up Another Success

Thanks and congratulations to all the Surfrider members, supporters, volunteers and sponsors for making the 18th Annual San Diego Surfrider Art Gala and Auction such a huge success. With your support, the San Diego chapter surpassed their initial goal and raised almost $50,000 to fund advocacy for San Diego County's oceans, waves and beaches. If you were there, tag yourself in the photos on Facebook. Special thanks to chapter manager Mitch Silverstein, chapter chair Michael Torti and advisory committee chair Sunshine Johnson for inviting me to host this year's event.

ReWild Mission Bay Campaign

Thanks to San Diego media for covering the ReWild Mission Bay campaign, and filing stories on our effort to improve water quality at Mission Bay Park, increase climate resiliency, preserve and enhance habitat, and enable greater public access of our bayfront. Our ReWild coalition came out, again and again, to demonstrate the level of support in their neighborhoods for a fair hearing of our ReWild Mission Bay feasibility study. Thanks to Times of San Diego, Fox 5 San Diego (KSWB), CBS 8 (KFMB), ABC 10 (KGTV) NBC 7 (KNSD) and KUSI. Thanks also to Council President Gómez, Council President Pro Tem Bry and Councilmember Moreno for their wise votes.

Thank You for Your Supporting Our San Diego City Council Race

As our committee closes, I'm reminded again of how proud I am of our campaign team, and how grateful I am everyone who hoisted a sign, knocked on a door, made a call, told a friend about us or made a contribution. We were outspent 8 to 1 in the general election, yet we won over 21,500 votes in a record showing for a Democrat in a D-6 race. My final vote total exceeded even that of the winning candidates in the D-4 and D-8 city council races. We came up short, but we kept it close – and that's because of you. I am not discouraged.

Of All Our Broken Streets, None is Worse Than Gold Coast Drive

Thanks to Times of San Diego for running my piece on the disgraceful state of Gold Coast Drive in Mira Mesa in the wake of this winter's rains, laying bare the city's infrastructure neglect. We've been told again and again plans are underway to rebuild Gold Coast, in part due to my campaign making it an issue, but the emergency is now. The city should declare Gold Coast and other broken Mira Mesa streets like Parkdale, Port Royale and Carroll Rd. emergencies now that our winter storms have further reduced them to shock-breaking holes and soupy gravel unsafe for cars, transit or bicycles.