Yes on A – Stop Sprawl, End Backroom Deals, Promote Affordable Housing
Every major conservation organization in San Diego has signed on to the Yes on Measure A: SOS Initiative, which will provide county residents with a voice in how and where housing is built in unincorporated, rural areas.
Yes on A will preserve our backcountry, and give greater oversight to county residents by requiring voter approval of changes to the county general plan that would increase residential density in fire-prone areas.
Density belongs in cities, not our backcountry, and not in wild habitat. Yes on A will make a critical, smart difference in laying out and accommodating our region's housing needs. Save our countryside, end backroom deals, and vote Yes on Measure A on March 3, 2020.
Yes on A will preserve our backcountry, and give greater oversight to county residents by requiring voter approval of changes to the county general plan that would increase residential density in fire-prone areas.
Density belongs in cities, not our backcountry, and not in wild habitat. Yes on A will make a critical, smart difference in laying out and accommodating our region's housing needs. Save our countryside, end backroom deals, and vote Yes on Measure A on March 3, 2020.
Pints With Tommy at Longship Brewery in Mira Mesa on Jan. 30th
We love our District 6 craft brewers in the "Beeramar" areas of Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, and Miramar, and we're looking forward to our next Pints With Tommy event on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Longship Brewery in Mira Mesa. Longship founder Dan Jachimowicz has steered the brewery into becoming one of the area's most adventurous craft beer outlets, with bold takes on stouts, ales, bocks, and the classic west coast IPA. Wear your Tommy Hough shirt for Pints With Tommy on Jan. 30th, and reconnect with neighbors and friends as we look toward the future.
La Mesa Foothills Dems. Climate Change Panel on Feb. 5th
As an advocate for beaches and watersheds during my time with Surfrider, co-founding and leading San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action during its formative years, running as the "environmental candidate" for San Diego City Council in 2018, and serving as the coordinator for the ReWild Mission Bay campaign, I will be part of a special panel discussion at the La Mesa Foothills Democratic Club on Wednesday, Feb. 5, on climate change policy and how to address the effect of rising sea levels. Additional guests will be named soon. The meeting will be held at the La Mesa Community Center at 4975 Memorial Dr. from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
New ReWild Mission Bay Piece in Times of San Diego
Thanks to Times of San Diego for running a piece I co-wrote with San Diego Audubon conservation director Andrew Meyer about the opportunity for San Diego to do our part locally to curb the extinction crisis affecting birds by enabling greater habitat for wildlife affected by climate change. Additional thanks to San Diego media for covering the ReWild Mission Bay campaign and our effort to improve water quality, increase climate resiliency, sequester carbon, preserve habitat, and enable greater public access to our bayfront as our growing coalition continues to demonstrate strong neighborhood support for wetland restoration and park revitalization.
Union-Tribune Runs Del Mar Mesa Preserve Opinion Piece
My opinion piece on zoning changes to facilitate the construction of a multi-story, multi-structure office complex on an 11-acre parcel of land surrounded on three sides by the city-owned Del Mar Mesa Preserve appeared in the Oct. 2 edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Located far from transit, this needless project will result in a loss of habitat that will affect the preserve and its role as a wildlife corridor, enable an increase in invasive species, and further bite into our city's vanishing wildlands while doing nothing to advance our Climate Action Plan. Read more about this regrettable, unwelcome monument.
Revisiting My Grandfather's Labor Legacy
On Labor Day 2018, in the midst of my San Diego City Council campaign, I posted this essay about my grandfather's labor legacy with the United Steelworkers. A year later, I shared it again, in part because my family found long lost photos of my grandfather following my dad's death in December 2018. It serves as a nice reminder that weekends, child labor laws, health care, collective bargaining, paid sick leave, overtime, and so much more came about in the American workplace because workers demanded it as part of the labor movement. Good to remember on Labor Day – or any day.
Broken Streets and Broken Promises in Mira Mesa
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 last winter's rains, which laid bare the city's legacy of infrastructure neglect. We've been told again and again plans are underway to rebuild Gold Coast Dr., in part due to my campaign making it an issue in 2018, 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 they've been further reduced to shock-breaking holes and soupy gravel unsafe for cars, transit or bicycles.
Thank You for Your Supporting Our 2018 San Diego City Council Race
I can't begin to express how proud I am of our 2018 campaign team, and how grateful I am to everyone who hoisted a sign, knocked on a door, made a call, told a friend about our effort or made a contribution. We were outspent 8 to 1, yet we won over 21,500 votes in a record showing for a Democrat in a D-6 race, and forced the GOP incumbent to spend more to defeat us than he spent to first win office four years earlier. My final vote total exceeded even that of the winning council candidates in the D-4 and D-8 races. We came up short, but we kept it close – and that's because of you. I am not discouraged.
