Your Neighbor, Your Advocate
Canvassing with Todd Gloria in Mira Mesa.
My name is Tommy Hough (it's pronounced "how").
The arrival of 2020 marks 17 years since I first came to San Diego from Seattle to work middays as part of the original FM 94/9 airstaff at the former Jefferson-Pilot cluster in Mission Valley.
Over the years, I've enjoyed a great deal of professional success on the air in San Diego via work at FM 94/9, and later, at 91X and KPRI, and in the service of environmental organizations like Surfrider and ReWild Mission Bay.
I've enjoyed even greater personal success in San Diego, as I met the woman who became my wife while we were neighbors in Bankers Hill, proposed to her at Sunset Cliffs, and married her at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy. I was welcomed into her family, and a few years later my father and sister relocated to San Diego from my hometown of Pittsburgh.
I co-founded San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action in 2014, and served as the organization's first president until I declared my candidacy for San Diego City Council in 2017, launching a 14-month campaign in District 6. With the help of friends, neighbors, allies, and a legion of committed volunteers and supporters who walked until there were holes in their shoes, we kept it close to the very end.
The arrival of 2020 marks 17 years since I first came to San Diego from Seattle to work middays as part of the original FM 94/9 airstaff at the former Jefferson-Pilot cluster in Mission Valley.
Over the years, I've enjoyed a great deal of professional success on the air in San Diego via work at FM 94/9, and later, at 91X and KPRI, and in the service of environmental organizations like Surfrider and ReWild Mission Bay.
I've enjoyed even greater personal success in San Diego, as I met the woman who became my wife while we were neighbors in Bankers Hill, proposed to her at Sunset Cliffs, and married her at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy. I was welcomed into her family, and a few years later my father and sister relocated to San Diego from my hometown of Pittsburgh.
I co-founded San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action in 2014, and served as the organization's first president until I declared my candidacy for San Diego City Council in 2017, launching a 14-month campaign in District 6. With the help of friends, neighbors, allies, and a legion of committed volunteers and supporters who walked until there were holes in their shoes, we kept it close to the very end.
Not Your Average Council Candidate
Advocating for better wages for health care professionals.
I took a break from my broadcast career to run for San Diego City Council because I had grown tired of our District 6 neighborhoods bearing the brunt of being the economic center of the city without receiving comparable services in return, in part because we still don't have a councilmember fighting for the interests of our neighborhoods at City Hall.
I ran for office because I'm tired of City Hall's failure to address the problems we know must be solved, like housing, homelessness, pollution of our air and water, implementing our city's Climate Action Plan, adding fire stations, maintaining infrastructure, retaining our trained police professionals for better public safety, and stopping the spread of short-term vacation rentals.
I remain especially tired of the excuses for our broken roads and sidewalks, and the lack of action to rebuild streets we know can't be fixed with a layer of asphalt – none more notorious in District 6 than Gold Coast Drive in Mira Mesa.
I ran for office because I'm tired of City Hall's failure to address the problems we know must be solved, like housing, homelessness, pollution of our air and water, implementing our city's Climate Action Plan, adding fire stations, maintaining infrastructure, retaining our trained police professionals for better public safety, and stopping the spread of short-term vacation rentals.
I remain especially tired of the excuses for our broken roads and sidewalks, and the lack of action to rebuild streets we know can't be fixed with a layer of asphalt – none more notorious in District 6 than Gold Coast Drive in Mira Mesa.
At the Clairemont Town Council.
Filtering the solutions we know must be reached for our homeless neighbors and broken streets through giant, needless capital projects that benefit a select few, like expanding the convention center, is even more absurd. The idea of using our city's most pressing issues as some kind of "carrot" to entice voters is shameful. So is the ongoing lack of transparency in corners of our city government.
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. My wife and I work for a living. We earn our paychecks the same as you. I'm committed to working San Diegans, and I will never betray the business of our District 6 neighbors in Clairemont, Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Sorrento Valley, Miramar, and Rancho Peñasquitos to Downtown developers or moneyed special interests.
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. My wife and I work for a living. We earn our paychecks the same as you. I'm committed to working San Diegans, and I will never betray the business of our District 6 neighbors in Clairemont, Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Sorrento Valley, Miramar, and Rancho Peñasquitos to Downtown developers or moneyed special interests.
A Unique and Lengthy Relationship with San Diego
On the air at FM 94/9 in 2010.
I've met so many of you at neighborhood events around our city, and spoken to thousands more of you on the phone during the morning or afternoons when I was on the air, or during my long-running Brunch With Bob and Friends show.
During that time, we built a community around shared experiences: our favorite songs and movies, stories of your kids growing up, their struggles in school and into adulthood, travel, traffic jams, births, deaths, illnesses, going from one job to another, working two or more jobs while trying to finish school and make it home to see your kids, joining the service or retiring from the service, and working day-in and day-out just to make ends meet.
What I've heard, and what I've learned, more than anything over the last 17 years, is that the middle class is slipping away for working San Diegans who have to make tough financial decisions not at the end of every month – but every week, and every moment.
During that time, we built a community around shared experiences: our favorite songs and movies, stories of your kids growing up, their struggles in school and into adulthood, travel, traffic jams, births, deaths, illnesses, going from one job to another, working two or more jobs while trying to finish school and make it home to see your kids, joining the service or retiring from the service, and working day-in and day-out just to make ends meet.
What I've heard, and what I've learned, more than anything over the last 17 years, is that the middle class is slipping away for working San Diegans who have to make tough financial decisions not at the end of every month – but every week, and every moment.
At the City Council Candidate Forum on Homelessness.
"Can we put money away for the college fund?"
"Can we get the car worked on this week?"
"What if I lose my job?"
Despite California's "on-paper" prosperity, you and I know the cost of living in Southern California has become unsustainable. Too many of our neighbors work two or three jobs while trying to make time for school or family or to catch the bus. And too many of our kids are unable to afford to live and work in the city they grew up in.
You and I know the financial uncertainty facing San Diegans is very real, and while City Hall and rich elites may not see it, that uncertainty follows us around at work, in the car, while picking up our kids at school, on weeknights and weekends, even while falling asleep. California's status quo isn't working, and the ability to survive, even with two incomes, is receding like an evening tide.
"Can we get the car worked on this week?"
"What if I lose my job?"
Despite California's "on-paper" prosperity, you and I know the cost of living in Southern California has become unsustainable. Too many of our neighbors work two or three jobs while trying to make time for school or family or to catch the bus. And too many of our kids are unable to afford to live and work in the city they grew up in.
You and I know the financial uncertainty facing San Diegans is very real, and while City Hall and rich elites may not see it, that uncertainty follows us around at work, in the car, while picking up our kids at school, on weeknights and weekends, even while falling asleep. California's status quo isn't working, and the ability to survive, even with two incomes, is receding like an evening tide.
Reconnecting and Moving Forward
At a Pints with Tommy event in Kearny Mesa.
I had a wonderful time reconnecting with neighbors and old friends, and making new friends during our District 6 campaign in 2018. We're continuing our Pints With Tommy events, with more to come as we continue to celebrate our District 6 craft brewers in 2020.
During the campaign I pledged you would have my ear, that I wouldn't lead from the dark or hide in my office, and that I wouldn't try to quietly drop controversial projects in your lap hoping you wouldn't notice. I pledged to lead from the front on issues like housing, land use, public safety, parks, open space, equity and other critical matters, and running for office or not, as a public figure in San Diego for 17 years I don't shy away from people.
I'm easy to find, often in the aisles at the Mira Mesa Vons, where I continue to bump into neighbors and friends from the area who update me on family members, neighborhood gatherings, potlucks, and get me up to speed on potholes and unkept City Hall promises.
My 2018 campaign may be in the rearview mirror, but I continue in my efforts to:
During the campaign I pledged you would have my ear, that I wouldn't lead from the dark or hide in my office, and that I wouldn't try to quietly drop controversial projects in your lap hoping you wouldn't notice. I pledged to lead from the front on issues like housing, land use, public safety, parks, open space, equity and other critical matters, and running for office or not, as a public figure in San Diego for 17 years I don't shy away from people.
I'm easy to find, often in the aisles at the Mira Mesa Vons, where I continue to bump into neighbors and friends from the area who update me on family members, neighborhood gatherings, potlucks, and get me up to speed on potholes and unkept City Hall promises.
My 2018 campaign may be in the rearview mirror, but I continue in my efforts to:
- Stop 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.
- End backroom deals to developers and corporations that land on the backs of working San Diegans.
- Break the cycle of loser leases and cronyism that leave San Diego taxpayers coming up short – like when Chris Cate offered Qualcomm Stadium to the Chargers for a dollar a year.
- Advocate for citywide internet so all San Diegans can get on-line, immediately, anywhere the city.
- Pursue long-term, effective, and compassionate solutions to our homeless crisis.
- Ensure the mayor and city services rebuild our district's broken streets from the ground up, not slurry-seal them over or fill problem potholes over and over hoping for a different result.
- Address our housing crisis by encouraging smart density development, and since we won't be getting the trolley in District 6 any time soon, do so in conjunction with transit and parking infrastructure.
- 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, and work to restore our canyons and watersheds to full ecological health, including wetland restoration in northeast Mission Bay as called for in the 1994 Mission Bay Park master plan.
Meeting with neighbors in Mira Mesa.
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Coffee with neighbors in Clairemont.
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Photos by Jay Reilly, Nick Serrano, Steve Rivera, Javier Pastrana, Jeremy Pritchard, Michael Kreizenbeck, Jose Caballero, and Tiffany Cuellar.
Copyright © 2007 – 2019 Tommy Hough