Your Neighbor and Your Advocate
My name is Tommy Hough (it's pronounced "how").
I've enjoyed a great deal of professional success since arriving in San Diego, particularly during my years as a radio host at FM 94/9, KPRI, 91X, and with long-running shows like Brunch With Bob and Friends and Treehuggers International. I've also had the good fortune of working for several great area environmental organizations, including Surfrider and San Diego Audubon, and coordinating the ReWild Mission Bay campaign.
I've enjoyed even greater personal success in San Diego as I met my wife Cory while living in Bankers Hill, proposed to her at Sunset Cliffs, and married her at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy in 2006. In doing so I was welcomed into her family, and a few years later my father and sister relocated to San Diego from our hometown of Pittsburgh to make San Diego their home too.
Later, in 2014, I co-founded San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, and over the next two years grew it into one of there largest and most influential clubs in the San Diego County Democratic Party. I served as the organization's first president until I stepped down for my first run for San Diego City Council in 2018, and with the help of friends, neighbors, and a legion of committed volunteers and supporters who walked until we had holes in our shoes, we kept it a close race in District 6 to the end. And we're only just getting started.
I've enjoyed a great deal of professional success since arriving in San Diego, particularly during my years as a radio host at FM 94/9, KPRI, 91X, and with long-running shows like Brunch With Bob and Friends and Treehuggers International. I've also had the good fortune of working for several great area environmental organizations, including Surfrider and San Diego Audubon, and coordinating the ReWild Mission Bay campaign.
I've enjoyed even greater personal success in San Diego as I met my wife Cory while living in Bankers Hill, proposed to her at Sunset Cliffs, and married her at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy in 2006. In doing so I was welcomed into her family, and a few years later my father and sister relocated to San Diego from our hometown of Pittsburgh to make San Diego their home too.
Later, in 2014, I co-founded San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, and over the next two years grew it into one of there largest and most influential clubs in the San Diego County Democratic Party. I served as the organization's first president until I stepped down for my first run for San Diego City Council in 2018, and with the help of friends, neighbors, and a legion of committed volunteers and supporters who walked until we had holes in our shoes, we kept it a close race in District 6 to the end. And we're only just getting started.
Real Progress and Leadership to Meet the Needs of Our Neighborhoods
I stepped away from my broadcast career to run for San Diego City Council because our District 6 neighborhoods serve as the economic center of our city, but don't appear to receive comparable levels of service in return. We're forgotten about at City Hall. But when was the last time we had a councilmember independent of Downtown special interests fighting for us at City Hall?
My wife and I made San Diego our home, and I'm running for city council because I don't ever want to see a homeless kid doing his homework under the dome light of parked car again. I'm tired of seeing our streets, sidewalks, and park facilities fall into further disrepair. I want robust, effective public safety for my neighbors. While Downtown gives itself stadiums, symphony halls, and convention centers, we just want streetlights.
I'm ready to address the problems we know must be solved like homelessness, housing, pollution of our air and water, implementing our city's Climate Action Plan, adding fire stations, and keeping our neighbors and communities safe at home and in our public spaces.
My wife and I made San Diego our home, and I'm running for city council because I don't ever want to see a homeless kid doing his homework under the dome light of parked car again. I'm tired of seeing our streets, sidewalks, and park facilities fall into further disrepair. I want robust, effective public safety for my neighbors. While Downtown gives itself stadiums, symphony halls, and convention centers, we just want streetlights.
I'm ready to address the problems we know must be solved like homelessness, housing, pollution of our air and water, implementing our city's Climate Action Plan, adding fire stations, and keeping our neighbors and communities safe at home and in our public spaces.
I'm especially tired of the lack of action to restore our infrastructure and rebuild roads we know can't be fixed with a layer of asphalt – none more notorious in District 6 than Gold Coast Drive and Parkdale Ave. in Mira Mesa, or the north end of Limerick Ave. In Clairemont.
As I said throughout my previous campaign for District 6 in 2018, I'm not a creature of city hall. I'm not a product of wealthy or powerful elites. I'm not a rubber stamp for developers. Cory and I work for a living, and we earn our paychecks the same as you. We're your neighbors, and our neighborhoods deserve real leadership and advocacy.
As I said throughout my previous campaign for District 6 in 2018, I'm not a creature of city hall. I'm not a product of wealthy or powerful elites. I'm not a rubber stamp for developers. Cory and I work for a living, and we earn our paychecks the same as you. We're your neighbors, and our neighborhoods deserve real leadership and advocacy.
I'm committed to working San Diegans and our diverse set of communities, and I will never betray the business of our District 6 neighbors in Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Clairemont, Sorrento Valley, Miramar, and Rancho Peñasquitos to Downtown developers or moneyed special interests.
I'm ready to go to bat to implement a progressive vision of jobs, housing, infrastructure renewal, effective transit, walkable environments, a healthy and stable environment, effective and humane solutions to our homeless crisis, and the best, most adept city solutions at the least intrusive cost. These are the streets kids ride their bicycles on and the sidewalks our neighbors walk their dogs on. These are our neighborhoods. This is our time.
I'm ready to go to bat to implement a progressive vision of jobs, housing, infrastructure renewal, effective transit, walkable environments, a healthy and stable environment, effective and humane solutions to our homeless crisis, and the best, most adept city solutions at the least intrusive cost. These are the streets kids ride their bicycles on and the sidewalks our neighbors walk their dogs on. These are our neighborhoods. This is our time.
A Lengthy Relationship with Working San Diegans
Unless we work together for a common, collective, progressive vision for the future, nothing will change. The opportunities are before us, if we would only have the courage to pursue them and see them through.
Today, too many hard-working San Diegans are unable to afford to live and work in the city or neighborhood they grew up in, despite opportunities for housing in District 6 that have gone unexplored and dismissed by Downtown power brokers, who would rather meddle with coastal height limits and build more housing that's unaffordable and off-limits to working San Diegans, but vulnerable to those who would exploit our short-term vacation rental loopholes.
Today, too many hard-working San Diegans are unable to afford to live and work in the city or neighborhood they grew up in, despite opportunities for housing in District 6 that have gone unexplored and dismissed by Downtown power brokers, who would rather meddle with coastal height limits and build more housing that's unaffordable and off-limits to working San Diegans, but vulnerable to those who would exploit our short-term vacation rental loopholes.
As Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer's appointee to the San Diego County Planning Commission, a member of the Clairemont Town Council and Mira Mesa Town Council, one of your AD-77 California Democratic Party delegates, and my recent service as a San Diego County Democratic Party central committee member, former vice president of Citizens Coordinate for Century III (C3), and a former member of the Sierra Club San Diego conservation committee, I'm the most experienced District 6 candidate to move our neighborhoods forward on the issues that matter.
As your District 6 councilmember, I pledge to:
As your District 6 councilmember, I pledge to:
- Ensure our district's broken streets and sidewalks are rebuilt from the ground up, not asphalted over, so we can break the cycle of filling problem potholes again and again hoping for a different result.
- Ensure a smooth rollout of the Three Roots and Stone Creek projects, and the completion of Casa Mira View and final portions of Carroll Canyon Rd. as we head toward a new Mira Mesa Community Plan.
- Pursue long-term, effective, and compassionate solutions to our homeless crisis.
- Join councilmembers Elo-Rivera, LaCava, and Von Wilpert (and hopefully more) in fully exploring municipalization options for our city's energy franchise.
- Address our housing crisis by keeping people in their homes, encourage smart density development in conjunction with transit and parking infrastructure, repurpose existing structures for housing options, build within our established footprint, and stop the spread of short-term vacation rentals into our District 6 neighborhoods.
- End destruction of our open space and areas bordering our parks and nature preserves, especially projects that aggravate sprawl, enable upzoning, add nothing to the community, and make a mockery of our city's Climate Action Plan.
- Advocate for citywide internet so all San Diegans can get on-line, anywhere in the city.
- Add more fire stations to a city that remains dangerously short of them, and take the lead on establishing a countywide fire command structure.
- Enhance our community parks and open space, restore aging park infrastructure, and restore our canyons and watersheds to full ecological health, including wetland restoration in northeast Mission Bay.
- Whether stadiums or roller coasters, break the cycle of loser leases and franchise giveaways that land on the backs of working San Diegans and taxpayers.
Leading from the Front
Pandemic or not, you will always have my ear. As your councilmember I will never lead from the dark or hide in my office, and I will never drop controversial projects in your lap and hope you won't notice.
I will lead from the front on issues like housing, land use, public safety, parks, open space, and equity – and as a public figure in San Diego for the last 18 years I'm not one to shy away from my fellow San Diegans.
I'm easy to find around Mira Mesa, especially at Vons, where I continue to bump into neighbors and friends (it takes a little longer to recognize each other over the masks) who keep me up to date on family members, neighbors, potlucks, and the latest potholes.
And while in-person events are on hold due to the pandemic, we'll continue to highlight and celebrate our District 6 craft brewers, restaurants, and small businesses.
I will lead from the front on issues like housing, land use, public safety, parks, open space, and equity – and as a public figure in San Diego for the last 18 years I'm not one to shy away from my fellow San Diegans.
I'm easy to find around Mira Mesa, especially at Vons, where I continue to bump into neighbors and friends (it takes a little longer to recognize each other over the masks) who keep me up to date on family members, neighbors, potlucks, and the latest potholes.
And while in-person events are on hold due to the pandemic, we'll continue to highlight and celebrate our District 6 craft brewers, restaurants, and small businesses.
Photos by Jay Reilly, Jeremy Pritchard, Javier Pastrana, Steve Rivera, Josie Caballero, and Greg Hoxsie.
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