Saad Asad

📰 NEW op-ed from me on how more rental housing has slowed rent in SD, but the City needs to move on its Neighborhood Homes initiative to add more for-sale housing. 🎁 Gift link: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/07/09/o...

Del Mar asked prosecutors to probe ties between a developer’s broker and state officials. The DA refused, calling the referral “very irregular.” Del Mar still faces a state housing mandate and a stalled 259-home project. thecoastnews.com/das-office-r...

Oceanside got $3 million in state money for 17 tiny homes behind its 75-bed shelter. Small shelters can get people off the street faster than big projects, but only with services and a path to permanent housing. thecoastnews.com/blakespear-s...

El Cajon’s mayor, Bill Wells, turned down state homelessness grants that required housing first (homes before other services). He says the city spends more per person than others; that’s unverified. Challenger Alexander Kraft backs housing first. www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/e...

In Chula Vista’s mayor race, Francisco Tamayo would build entry-level homes for teachers and nurses on city land; Mayor John McCann stresses faster permits. Do both. Public land and quicker approvals cut costs. Ask each candidate for unit targets. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/10/11/m...

Essex Property Trust, which owns 5,311 San Diego County apartments, will pay $19.25 million to settle claims it docked security deposits using internal charges, not real invoices. timesofsandiego.com/housing/2026...

About 400 San Diego County households were set to lose federal emergency housing vouchers when funds ran short. A September stopgap moved them to another voucher program at the same rent. Funding still needs yearly approval. Congress should make it steady. inewsource.org/2026/10/16/s...

San Diego’s Housing Commission charges $163 per unit to monitor subsidized housing, though a 2024 state law targets duplicate fees. The commission says it’s exempt; the law’s author disagrees. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/10/16/o...

Pacific Beach and La Jolla have top schools and clean air but barely grew in 25 years; San Diego overall grew 18.5%. A fair housing nonprofit says build more coastal homes. www.axios.com/local/san-di...

San Diego law lets landlords who evict tenants illegally still get short-term rental licenses, turning homes into hotels. It’s been open nearly eight months. Councilmember Campbell, leading the fix, leaves office in under two months. inewsource.org/2026/10/13/s...

A developer is weighing a 400-MW data center on Navy land near downtown San Diego, where the city has no say. It also promises housing, maybe thousands of homes. Housing should lead, and the developer, not ratepayers, should pay for power upgrades. voiceofsandiego.org/2026/10/20/m...

San Diego would swap Sports Arena land for 4,254 homes (2,000 affordable) and a developer-built arena. The city gets little cash for years. That’s fair only if affordable homes arrive on time. timesofsandiego.com/community/20...

Midway Rising, San Diego’s Sports Arena redevelopment, promises 2,000 affordable homes. But developers elsewhere could pay it to host units they already owe, adding none. A council panel wanted new homes only. voiceofsandiego.org/2026/10/17/m...

San Diego’s implementation of SB 79 has been such a disappointment for a “pro-housing city”, they sure are pushing a lot of bad faith effort to avoid allowing more housing

Bloomberg’s grants fund two years of staff for cities copying San Diego, Austin, or Atlanta’s housing fixes. But city budgets are mostly locked into pay, pensions, and debt. Cities need a plan to keep these jobs after the grant ends, or gains fade. www.vox.com/policy/50574...

San Diego’s fast-permitting model is going national. Bloomberg Philanthropies will fund up to 30 cities to copy it, or Austin’s backyard-home or Atlanta’s strike-team fixes. San Diego reviews fully affordable projects in about 9 days. Speed cuts costs. www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/housing...

Prop. 37 would lend down payments for new homes to families earning up to 200% of local median, about $262,000 in San Diego. Buyer help only works if it adds supply, but unclear if more demand unlocks supply. www.ocregister.com/2026/10/19/b...

BRIDGE Housing paid $40.5 million, about $316,000 a unit, for a 128-unit Spring Valley complex. Buying older apartments for affordability can protect current renters, but it adds no new homes. The region needs new construction. www.multihousingnews.com/exclusive-br...

Villa Serena took almost 30 years from approval to completion in San Marcos. The developer says the redevelopment added just 12 more apartments than the site had before. thecoastnews.com/san-marcos-u...

A 550-home project near Escondido stalled over wildfire risk years ago. Now a land trust wants that land returned to the San Pasqual tribe, correcting an 1891 government error. Fire-zone sprawl was bad housing policy anyway. thecoastnews.com/former-escon...

Coronado's four council candidates want teachers and sailors to live there. Only Kelly Purvis names ways to build. The rest all oppose housing despite wanting middle-class families to live there. thecoronadonews.com/2026/09/qa-c...

Inside older diesel school buses, fine particle levels can reach 10 times outdoor air, and about 5 million U.S. kids have asthma. Oakland now runs an all-electric fleet of 74 buses. More California districts should follow. www.wri.org/insights/ele...

Measure A would let four of five county supervisors remove some top officials, including public health, emergency and public defense leaders, at any time, for any reason. inewsource.org/group-chat/s...

States with deregulated power markets can't count on prices alone to build nuclear, geothermal and long-duration storage. CATF says states should plan ahead and procure directly. Illinois enacted this in January. www.catf.us/2026/09/repo...

Forest Resilience Bonds let water utilities, insurers, and investors pay up front for forest thinning before fires hit. Projects span nearly 50,000 acres and support 600 jobs. A fire that reached treated land in Eldorado burned just 15 acres. www.wri.org/insights/for...

We in California could've had this starting in 2018, but a coalition of leftist glue sniffers and homeowner segregationists chose the terrible outcomes we all face today.

Father Joe's opened 33 single-room apartments at $842 a month, remodeled with donations, in a city where studios start at $2,000. San Diego once had thousands of such rooms. Zoning should make small, low-cost homes easy to build again in more parts of the city. fox5sandiego.com/news/local-n...

A super El Niño could temporarily raise sea level 6 to 13 inches, bringing erosion, bluff collapse and flooding at once. Funding gaps stall fixes at La Jolla Shores and Mission Beach. It could also spread South Bay's sewage pollution north. timesofsandiego.com/community/20...

96% of surveyed mayors name housing costs as residents' top affordability worry. San Diego's mayor says "the rent eats first." Cities must legalize more homes and speed permits. www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/afforda...

Midway Rising's 4,250 homes, 2,000 of them affordable, edged closer after Newsom signed SB 344. But one-project exemptions are a patchwork. California needs more CEQA reform so that we don't keep doing this every year. timesofsandiego.com/community/20...

Health and environmental groups sued to block EPA's repeal of power plant carbon limits. They say the 2024 rules would have delivered $370 billion in net benefits. Fossil plants emit about a quarter of U.S. carbon, so this fight matters. www.catf.us/2026/09/epa-...

Prop 45 will not streamline heavy industry yet that’s the cover photo of opponents‘ mailer. Haven’t made a decision yet, but why are the unions opposing prop 45 deceiving voters?

Old zoning splits homes from shops and jobs, which means more driving. Homes near transit, on streets safe to walk, help fix that. www.smartgrowthamerica.org/knowledge-hu...

The 2027 IBC has been officially published, and it allows single-stair apartment buildings up to four stories! See the new section 1006.3.3.2 codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2...

A regional docked e-bike system could close the "last mile" gap between transit stops and home. Past systems struggled with sidewalk clutter. One operator and buy-in from SANDAG, MTS and NCTD give it a better shot. fox5sandiego.com/news/san-die...

California gas averaged $6.18 on Tuesday, the nation's priciest, as the Iran war pushes prices up. Rep. Levin says Trump's promise to cut energy bills hasn't been kept. Regardless, clean power and transit shield families from oil shocks. www.axios.com/2026/09/22/m...

Hi Bluesky! I’m Brad Lefkowits. I’m a dad, small business owner, and candidate for Encinitas City Council. I’m running to make our streets safer, bring some sanity back to City Hall, and help us plan for the future instead of fighting about the past. I look forward to connecting here #Encinitas

One thing I hear constantly while knocking doors: people are worried about speeding and unsafe streets. Different neighborhoods have different problems, but the message is remarkably consistent. We can do better. Safer streets will be my top priority on City Council.

EPA repealed 2024 carbon limits on coal and gas plants. Evergreen Action estimates 1.4 billion more tons of CO2 and $390 billion in lost benefits to save industry $20 billion. With 100+ GW of data-center gas planned, limits still matter. www.evergreenaction.com/news/trumps-...

A diesel export ban could lower prices briefly near Gulf refineries but raise them on the West Coast, which relies on imports, says Third Way. It would also cut gasoline and jet fuel output. Walling off supply won't fix a war-driven shortage. www.thirdway.org/newsletter/o...

Spring View, 145 affordable homes at La Mesa's Spring Street trolley station, has broken ground. Homes by transit cut commutes and costs. Yet at about $790,000 a unit, we must also cut costs. www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/l...

i relinquish any creative rights to this flyer and allow anyone to use it against the data center proposal voiceofsandiego.org/2026/10/15/m...

In light of the news about the San Diego NAVWAR data center proposal, I have commissioned the official anti-data-center flyer for use over the next year:

I love SROs! Fyi to all the SRO haters: if we don't build SROs, young people will just pool together to split family-sized units, taking them off the market and bringing renters to single family neighborhoods. There's no escaping us!

San Diego has 4,762 dorm-style homes, down from thousands. Father Joe's turned part of its property into 33 homes in months. Cut permit fees and fund preservation, and developers can build more rooms people on low incomes can afford. timesofsandiego.com/opinion/2026...

AB 2074 would let San Diego and six other big cities build up to 150 feet, and 450 in some districts, near transit. More homes where trains already run cut commutes and emissions. The bill is now signed. www.multifamilydive.com/news/housing...

La Jolla's planning group backed six new homes on Pearl Street, a welcome step. timesofsandiego.com/community/20...

Power demand could rise 35 to 50 percent by 2040, says ClearPath, and slow permits hold up the power lines to meet it. Reform should speed every clean source, including solar, wind and geothermal. clearpath.org/our-take/bui...