Daily Business Report: Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021
Housing commission constructs five ‘granny flats’
on San Diego property as part of pilot program
The San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) has completed a pilot program to construct five Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)—sometimes referred to as “granny flats”—and provide “lessons learned” from the program to help San Diego homeowners considering ADUs, an important source of new housing needed in the City of San Diego.
“The rising cost of housing is far outpacing people’s income and the dream of owning a home is becoming more and more unreachable for families,” said City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, who represents Council District 8, the location of the five ADUs the housing commission developed, and serves on the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee. “The findings from the pilot program will help homeowners throughout our city understand the process and costs associated with creating ADUs on their property, which increases housing in our region.”
SDHC developed ADUs in the available yard space at five single-family homes SDHC’s nonprofit affiliate owns and rents as affordable housing to households with low income.
The housing commission published its report about the ADU pilot program on its website.
TOP PHOTO: One of the five ADUs built by the San Diego Housing Commission.
City Council approves legal defense fund to help
tenants facing eviction due to nonpayment of rent
The San Diego City Council has approved Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposal to establish a $5 million legal defense fund to help struggling tenants potentially facing eviction due to non-payment of rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The legal aid program will use $5 million in federal CARES Act dollars to provide eviction-prevention education and legal assistance. It will be administered by the San Diego Housing Commission and open to undocumented residents.
The creation of this program supplements the city’s successful COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program, which has helped roughly 12,000 struggling San Diego households pay overdue rent and utility bills. As of the end of September, more than $103 million had been paid out. The remaining funds in the program have been fully committed to renters whose applications have received preliminary approval.
Salk team launches phase 1 clinical
trial for Alzheimer’s therapy
The investigational Alzheimer’s drug CMS121, developed and studied at Salk over the last 15 years, has now moved into a phase I clinical trial to evaluate its safety in humans.
Salk Research Professor Pamela Maher and Bill Raschke of Virogenics Inc. will receive $4.5 million over two years from the National Institute of Aging to support the trial, and they expect the first doses to be administered to healthy volunteers in early 2022.
In mice, CMS121 reverses signs of aging in the brain and prevents the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“CMS121 is acting through a completely different pathway than most people have been looking at for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Maher, head of Salk’s Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory.
“This drug could actually make a difference for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.”
To move CMS121 toward commercial use, Maher partnered with San Diego-based biotech startup Virogenics, founded by Raschke, to carry out the extensive preclinical and Investigational New Drug (IND) studies required before compounds can be tested in humans.
Making sense of California’s employment picture
CalMatters
On Oct. 25, state lawmakers are set to hold a key hearing on the state unemployment department’s progress on key reforms, according to a schedule posted on the state Assembly website and confirmed by the office of Assemblymember Petrie-Norris, who chairs one of the committees holding the hearing. The new date comes after the hearing was postponed twice in August and hung in limbo in September as lawmakers worked to find a room in which to hold it. It also comes at a critical time for California’s economy: As of Oct. 2, the Golden State accounted for 26 percent of new unemployment claims filed nationally and more than 179,000 jobless claims had been unresolved for more than three weeks at the state Employment Development Department — though that’s an improvement from prior weeks.
Pub and eatery to open at former
site of Hamilton’s Tavern
The team behind San Diego’s Bottlecraft bottle shop & bar concept has taken over the South Park space that long housed Hamilton’s Tavern and will open an Old World-style pub and eatery called Bock.
Following a fire last fall and abundant allegations of impropriety against its owner, Hamilton’s Tavern confirmed it would not be reopening last July after a 14 year tenure as a top beer bar in San Diego’s South Park. Hamilton’s Tavern was founded in 2006 and was long known as one of San Diego’s original craft beer bars. Ownership opened South Park Brewing Company in the neighboring space in 2014.
Photo and text from Sandiegoville.com
Ethnic studies becomes graduation
requirement for California students
After a years-long battle reignited in recent months by controversies over misunderstandings of critical race theory, California students will soon be required to take ethnic studies to graduate high school.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 101 into law on Friday afternoon, requiring California high school students to take ethnic studies to graduate, starting with the class of 2030. Educators and recent studies attest to the benefits of students learning the histories and cultures of marginalized communities, but a few parents still worry the requirement could create more tensions between students.
— CalMatters
National University appoints Eric Roe
as dean of the College of Professional Studies
National University announced the appointment of Eric Roe as dean of the College of Professional Studies. An engineer and educator, Roe has more than 20 years of experience creating programs and partnerships to make professional and workforce education relevant for students, employers and the economy through systemic reforms aligning competencies with talent development pathways.
Before joining National University, Roe served as the assistant dean of continuing education at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Roe was responsible for Texas Engineering Executive Education, the college’s continuing and professional education division, which included the executive engineering master’s degree and graduate certificate programs, engineering professional development and customized corporate training.
Prior to UT Austin, Dr. Roe was the director of applied technology at Polk State College and founder of the statewide Florida Manufacturing Talent Development Institute.
Roe held various positions in manufacturing, research, technical services and engineering before joining the education sector. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of South Florida.
Cannabis test kits marketed to
parents in advance of Halloween
Sales of Verifique, an at-home drug testing kit on the global market, went live the week of Oct. 5, and some parents are showing interest in the product in preparation for Halloween. Wondering whether their adolescent children are using cannabis, parents are turning to these at-home test kits made by Veriteque USA Inc., a San Diego company.
According to Veriteque, cannabis is aggressively marketed and sold to the underage youth market in products that are designed to be inconspicuous. Cannabis is made available in a wide range of edible products, many of which are copycats of popular branded food items and candy; there are cannabis enhanced drinks, baked goodies, chewing gum, and even potato chips marketed as cannabis drug delivery devices.
Vaping cannabis has become enormously popular with youth but remains a serious and dangerous risk to health. All of these products have one thing in common: they are designed to make it near impossible to detect the presence of THC-cannabis, the company said.
The Veriteque website advertises the kits for $19.99 each.
Koningsdam Marks Holland America Line’s return
to West Coast cruising with first San Diego departure
Holland America Line’s Koningsdam cruise ship set sail Sunday for its first West Coast departure since the start of the industry-wide pause. The Pinnacle Class vessel is the largest Holland America Line ship to be sailing from the West Coast, and Sunday was the first in a series of 23 seven-day cruises to the California Coast or Mexico that run through April 3, 2022.
In addition to Koningsdam, Zuiderdam also will sail roundtrip cruises from San Diego on longer Mexico explorations, a grand monthlong voyage to Tahiti, and Panama Canal departures. Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam each make one call in spring 2022.
Eurodam will make one four-day Pacific Coastal cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, departing April 25, 2022.
New Village Arts names new managing
director and new associate artistic director
New Village Arts, North County’s cultural hub, welcomes two new staff members who have just joined the management team. Rae Henderson is the company’s new managing director, and Joy Jones is the new associate artistic director in charge of education and community outreach.
Rae Henderson came to NVA after several years serving as the membership director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Carlsbad. Prior to that, she was the music director for LEGOLAND for four years. At NVA, Rae has worked in a variety of capacities, including (but not limited to) bookkeeper, front of house associate, actor, interim general manager, and controller.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Joy Yvonne Jones attended The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and went on to study at the University of Minnesota in the Guthrie Theatre BFA Actor Training Program in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As associate artistic director, Jones will focus on education and outreach while working to guide the company in support of its mission.
UC San Diego students make it to finals
of first autonomous EV GrandPrix Race
A group of UC San Diego engineering and data science students was one of three teams to make it to the final round of the inaugural autonomous EV GrandPrix go-kart race hosted by Purdue University in Indianapolis on Sept. 17. The team, spearheaded by student organization Triton AI, was among 12 university teams who registered to compete with an autonomous go-kart.
UC San Diego computer engineering student Jose Jimenez-Olivas, along with UC San Diego electrical engineering students Jesus Fausto and Dallas Dominguez, spent six weeks in Indianapolis this summer developing their go-kart. In addition, Triton AI members Siddharth Saha, Vladimir Rubtsov, Chris Jensen, Andrew Britten, David He and Haoru Xue (all data science or engineering students and recent graduates) provided key support leading up to the race.
Tickets for SDCCU Holiday Bowl
at Petco Park Dec. 28 go on sale today
Tickets for the 43rd annual San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl go on sale to the general-public today at 10 a.m. The inaugural game at Petco Park is set for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 28.
“Get ready San Diego,” said Bob Bolinger, 2021 president of the bowl game effort. “Our volunteers, partners and staff are working hard to prepare for the very best fan experience of any bowl game in the country.”
The SDCCU Holiday Bowl will feature powerhouse teams from the Pac-12 and ACC. The 2020 Holiday Bowl was cancelled due to the pandemic. The last Holiday Bowl was played in 2019 at SDCCU Stadium and featured the Iowa Hawkeyes defeating the USC Trojans 49-24. It was the last sporting event ever played at SDCCU Stadium.
Ticket prices range from $35 to $265. Click here for tickets.
San Diego County Water Authority wins national
2021 EPA Watersense Excellence Award
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the San Diego County Water Authority with a 2021 WaterSense Excellence Award for advancing water efficiency through its Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper, or QWEL, program. The Water Authority received one of 34 WaterSense awards last week at the national WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Water Authority pivoted its QWEL courses to a virtual format. The Water Authority partnered with San Diego Gas & Electric to install nearly 4,000 WaterSense-labeled showerheads for county residents and helped reduce outdoor water waste by using its WaterSmart Contractor Incentive Program to install more than 1,000 WaterSense-labeled irrigation controller stations, saving more than 6 million gallons of water.
