Daily Business Report: June 9, 2023
Regional census tracks unprecedented
spike in homelessness
By Lisa Halverstadt — Voice of San Diego
San Diego County’s latest annual census shows the region’s already devastating homelessness crisis has gotten dramatically worse.
This January’s point-in-time count tallied 10,264 homeless residents sleeping in shelters or outdoors throughout the region, a 22 percent spike from last year. The total is the highest in at least 12 years – and likely the highest ever.
Half of those residents – about 5,171 – were sleeping outside, up 26 percent from a year ago.
Across some of the most vulnerable homeless populations, the count overseen by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness showed the situation is getting worse.
The number of chronically homeless people living outdoors more than tripled and the number of seniors sleeping outside spiked 46 percent. The federal government considers someone chronically homeless if they have a disability and have spent at least a year on the street.
The number of unhoused veterans also jumped 19 percent after years of touted reductions in that population.
Photo: Homeless encampment on 17th Street in San Diego.
Mayor urges City Council to pass
ordinance limiting homeless camps
By Chris Jennewein — Times of San Diego
Mayor Todd Gloria called Wednesday for the City Council to pass an ordinance restricting homeless encampments throughout San Diego if sufficient shelter beds are available. Gloria has pushed hard for the ordinance — written by City Councilman Stephen Whitburn — in recent weeks, urging citizens to sign a petition and speaking on the issue at news conferences.
He appeared with City Councilmember Joe LaCava at Fire Station 35 in University City to speak to the press about the ordinance.
The proposed change to the city code would prohibit tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available and would ban tent encampments at all times in certain sensitive areas — parks, canyons and near schools, transit stations and homeless shelters — regardless of shelter capacity.
The City Council is set to vote on the ordinance June 13.
Housing Commission launches first-time
homeowner pilot program for people of color
Grants and deferred, down-payment assistance loans are available now through a new San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) pilot program to help more people of color become homeowners in the City of San Diego.
The new pilot program continues SDHC’s collaborative initiatives to create more opportunities for homeownership for people of color, for whom homeownership rates often are significantly lower than other racial groups.
Households earning up to 150 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income, currently $175,200 per year for a family of four, may be eligible for the pilot program if they have not owned a home in the past three years.
Funding for the new pilot program consists of resources from a Wells Fargo Foundation Wealth Opportunities Realized Through Homeownership (WORTH) grant awarded to the Housing Commission, and a National Fair Housing Alliance grant awarded to a Housing Commission nonprofit affiliate.
Nationally, WORTH aims to create 40,000 new homeowners of color by the end of 2025, including 5,000 new homeowners of color in the San Diego region.
U.S. Army awards South 8 Technologies
and NanoGraf $550,000 to increase
battery safety for soldiers
Chicago-based NanoGraf, an advanced battery materials company and enabler of the world’s most energy-dense lithium-ion 18650 cell, and San Diego startup South 8 Technologies, developers of a novel liquefied gas electrolyte (LiGas) for the next generation of safe and high-performance lithium-ion batteries, announced a joint $550,000 award from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. The grant is to pair NanoGraf’s 3.8 Ah 18650 cell with South 8’s electrolyte for cold temperature and safety testing.
Soldiers carry upwards of 25 pounds of batteries during missions, and sometimes need to have backups as some batteries perform poorly in harsh weather conditions or after being physically damaged.
The award will fund a six-month project to make sure batteries with NanoGraf and South 8’s technology reduce or eliminate catastrophic failure when exposed to extreme temperatures or nail penetration.
Frontier Airlines begins nonstop
service from San Diego to Cleveland
Frontier Airlines on Thursday launched nonstop service from San Diego International Airport to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. With the new service, Frontier serves a total of seven nonstop destinations from San Diego International Airport.
Frontier is also currently offering the “Go Wild! All-You-Can-Fly Fall & Winter Pass” for a limited time at a special discounted price of $299.The fall & winter pass allows access to unlimited flights over the course of six months, from September 2023 through February 2024. Terms and conditions apply and are available on Frontier’s website.
U.S. sues City of San Diego over skydiving
plane that hit Marine Osprey at Brown Field
The federal government is suing the City of San Dieo over a 2020 incident in which a skydiving plane rolled and slowly crashed into a parked, unoccupied Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft at Brown Field in Otay Mesa.
The lawsuit, filed last week in San Diego federal court and first reported Tuesday by military.com, seeks more than $5.7 million in damages, claiming the defendants owe the federal government “for the value of the repair and transportation costs.”
The suit alleges that the city of San Diego and Brown Field Municipal Airport mismanaged the facility by failing to maintain adequate parking for the Marine aircraft on the first night of a three-day training. That forced the Marine Corps flight crew to park in an unsafe location where the Osprey, a large tiltrotor aircraft, was later struck by the skydiving plane, the lawsuit alleges.
Helen Woodward Animal Center hosts
35th Annual Spring Fling Gala
Helen Woodward Animal Center invites you to Saturday’s 35th Annual Spring Fling Gala– “Under the Tuscan Sun,” presented by Portia Metras and Jim Hooker. The black-tie evening, returns to the outdoor venue at theFairbanks Village Plaza in Rancho Santa Fe. As the center’s biggest fundraiser of the year, the evening includes drinking, dining, and decadence, and will be hosted by on-air celebrities ABC 10’s Megan Parry and Mark Mathis from KUSI News.
Guests who attend the fundraiser will enjoy wine and cocktails, along with a 5-star dining experience featuring tastings from 18 restaurants in San Diego. The evening’s entertainment will include live music by Haute Chile, impactful center stories on the big screen, and the live auction.
New director leads Office of Ethics,
Compliance and Labor Standards
The county has named Brandon Butler as the new director for the Office of Ethics, Compliance and Labor Standards. Butler joined the county in February 2022 as the first deputy director of the new Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.
Now he is taking charge of the office’s other wing. the Office of Ethics & Compliance (OEC). OEC is responsible for upholding and supporting ethical behavior and practices through the County’s Code of Ethics – providing training and awareness and investigating complaints on unlawful discrimination, fraud, waste and abuse.
Goodwill Industries named Nonprofit
of the Year for 39th Senate District
SAN DIEGO — Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) is recognizing Goodwill Industries of San Diego County as the 2023 Nonprofit of the Year for the 39th Senate District. In 2022, Goodwill San Diego employed almost 1,600 individuals, over half of whom were people with disabilities or barriers to employment, and assisted 5,330 San Diego County community members. Through the collection of donated items, Goodwill San Diego diverted over 65 million pounds of materials from landfills, and almost 6 million pounds of electronics were recycled.
General Atomics SeaGuardian
supports Northern Edge 2023
SAN DIEGO— As part of a U.S. Navy contract, an MQ-9B SeaGuardian Unmanned Aircraft System from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. supported the Northern Edge 2023
exercise May 8-19, 2023. The training exercise, which took place in the Gulf of Alaska, was one of a series of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercises that prepares joint forces to respond to crises in the Asia Pacific region. The SeaGuardian is a maritime derivative of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian.
World Trade Center San Diego honored
with President’s E Award for Export Service
World Trade Center San Diego has been honored with the President’s E Award for Export Service. Presented by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., the E Award recognizes the Trade Center’s commitment to growth of exports and jobs, especially through MetroConnect and Export SBDC. This is the highest recognition a U.S. entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports.
StratEdge Corporation to showcase
its line of semiconductor packages
SANTEE — StratEdge Corporation, a leader in the design and production of high-performance semiconductor packages for microwave, millimeter-wave, and high-power devices, will showcase its thermally-efficient line of post-fired and molded ceramic semiconductor packages in Booth 2628 at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS), being held in San Diego June 13-15.StratEdge packages operate across the spectrum from DC to 63+ GHz, while efficiently dissipating heat from compound semiconductor devices such as gallium nitride (GaN), gallium arsenide (GaAs), and silicon carbide (SiC).
Platform Science adds Aperia’s tire
inspection app to solutions catalog
SAN DIEGO — Platform Science, a leading connected vehicle platform, and Aperia Technologies Inc., a leading supplier of tire management technologies that improve the safety and efficiency of commercial vehicle tractors and trailers, announced that Aperia’s Halo Drive app will be featured in Platform Science’s solutions catalog. Halo Drive is the industry’s first automated pre-trip tire inspection tool to deliver comprehensive tire health insights to drivers. Platform Science’s innovative transportation solutions make it easier for fleets to develop, deploy, and manage mobile devices and applications on commercial vehicles.
San Elijo JPA wins top honors
for automated plume tracking
SAN DIEGO — The San Elijo Joint Powers Authority has received top accolades from San Diego chapters of the American Public Works Association and American Society of Civil Engineers. Both associations recognized San Elijo and its partners, Encina Wastewater Authority and City of Escondido, for their “Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Plume Transport Assessments of the San Elijo and Encina Ocean Outfalls.” Working together, the three agencies were able to efficiently comply with ocean discharge permit requirements through economies of scale and collaboration during data collection and analysis.
Point Loma High student selected for elite
U.S. Navy Summer Flight Academy
SAN DIEGO — Orianna Russell, a student at Point Loma High School, will complete an intensive eight-week U.S. Navy Summer Flight Academy aviation program at Delaware State University, achieving her FAA Private Pilot’s license upon completion of the training. The program takes place from June 12 to Aug. 3. Russell is one of just 28 high-ability 11th and 12th graders throughout the United States selected for the elite program, which was established in 2021 by the Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF) to increase diversity in Naval aviation.
SDSU’s JD Wicker named Sports
Business Journal AD of the Year
San Diego State Athletics Director JD Wicker has been named the Sports Business Journal AD of the Year. Wicker became the first athletic director from a Group of 5 school to win the prestigious award. Wicker is coming off one of the most successful years at San Diego State, which started with the opening of the new 35,000-capacity Snapdragon Stadium at SDSU Mission Valley, saw the Aztec men’s basketball team reach the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament, has had six Mountain West team championships and most recently announced that the San Diego Major League Soccer expansion team will be playing its home games at Snapdragon Stadium.
Artifact restaurant inside Mingei International
Museum earns Michelin Guide recognition
Artifact at Mingei, the globally inspired restaurant that opened in the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park 18 months ago, has joined the California Michelin Guide of restaurants. The Michelin Guide, which recognizes excellence in restaurants worldwide, added 10 California restaurants to its guide. Mingei’s Artifact is the only San Diego County entry. The rest are in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Besides being added to the Michelin Guide website as recommended spots to eat, the 10 restaurants are now eligible to be elevated to higher status this year with a Michelin Bib Gourmand or Michelin Star award.
