Issues
Where he stands
City Hall isn't out of money. It's out of ideas.
Nine years of results
He secured $107 million for District 8.
He also knows exactly where it stopped.
Nine years working for the community, and $107 million secured for parks, fire safety, road repair, and housing. He also learned which streets the formula skipped, which programs the Council wouldn't fund, and which policies need to be revisited because what worked 50 years ago may not work today.
The reality is that a few years of progress cannot undo generations of neglect. We built the parks. We built the libraries. But we still have so much more to go.
The city will help you rent. It won't help you own.
San Diego runs a first-time homebuyer program through the Housing Commission that covers the down payment and the closing costs. That lump sum is the actual wall between renting and owning, and for families down here, it's the only thing in the way. Residents are already paying rent every month when they could be paying a mortgage instead.
The program has never had a significant dedicated funding source behind it, which leads to only a few families receiving help every year. Nobody opposes it. It's just not a priority.
More housing is not enough. It needs to be paired with first-time homebuyer programs to give our communities a chance to become property owners.
“I grew up moving apartments often because they'd raise rent every year. My mom worked multiple jobs and owning a home wasn't even an option, because it wasn't available to us.”
Gerardo Ramirez
- Fund the first-time homebuyer program permanently, with a dedicated funding source behind it.
- Pair new housing with first-time homebuyer programs so our communities have a chance to become property owners.
- Expand homeownership opportunities for working families.
No more waiting for our turn.
The city spent half a million on a van to learn what streets need fixing, instead of listening to the residents.
San Diego spent half a million on a van with lasers on it and sent it down every street in the city to find out which streets need to be fixed. It measures the cracks and gives each street a score. However, a call from a resident requesting resurfacing is not logged and not considered as part of the overall score.
Our city shouldn't rely on technology just because it sounds cool. We need to go back to the basics and prioritize cost savings. Every single tax dollar should be tied to real results.
“They bought a half-a-million-dollar van with a laser on it to tell us which streets are bad. I can tell you which ones are bad. So can you. They need to fix the streets instead of wasting money on more analysis.”
Gerardo Ramirez
- Log every resident call requesting resurfacing.
- Count those reports as part of the street's condition score.
- Go back to the basics: fix the streets instead of paying for more analysis.
The city is measuring the wrong thing and wasting your tax dollars.
San Diego grades its homelessness response by how many people enter the shelter system, never by how many successfully leave it without returning. So when intake goes up, the city says it's scaling up. When it goes down, the city says homelessness is declining.
However, when we walk outside we all know the real story.
- Tie every dollar to a real outcome.
- Require a cost-benefit analysis for every program.
- Fund programs that show a positive success rate, and replace the ones that don't.
- Measure how many people get off the streets for good, not how many are put inside at night.
No more blank checks.
Ten months. That's how long the city takes to fix a streetlight.
The city's own average response time on a streetlight outage has run over 300 days. Most of a year of dark neighborhoods while families walk home at night. A streetlight out is a public safety issue, not a work order.
The lights aren't a new program. They're an existing city obligation that has been left behind. Eleven electricians are in charge of every streetlight repair in this city, and there are more than 55,000 streetlights. That's not enough.
- Fund streetlight repair like the public safety issue it is.
- Treat a streetlight outage as a public safety issue, not a work order.
- Fix the staffing: eleven electricians for more than 55,000 streetlights is not enough.
The fire goats work in Mission Valley and Clairemont. Why not down here?
SDG&E runs a herd that clears dry brush along its transmission corridors. It started as a pilot in 2021 and it worked. San Diego Fire-Rescue calls them nature's wildfire prevention team and puts them on the city's own social media.
They graze in Mission Valley, Clairemont Mesa, Oceanside, and Chula Vista, on the other side of our own canyons.
The open space along the eastern edge of this district is overgrown. Four feet of dry brush against back fences. Insurance is going up every year, and we only have a couple of options when it comes to providers. People here have been calling about it for years, and we still have overgrown vegetation that's a fire risk.
- Bring the brush-clearing program to the overgrown open space along the eastern edge of the district.
- The program already exists and already runs north of Interstate 8.
- Answer the residents who have been calling about fire risk for years.
Thirty years of hearing the Tijuana River will get fixed. We still smell it.
“Our kids know what the Tijuana River smells like every summer. I lived next to it for years as a teenager. Thirty years of hearing it will get fixed, but we still smell it. One councilmember can't fix it, but I will be the loudest voice, because I don't want other families to suffer what I suffered.”
Gerardo Ramirez
The fix lies with more investment from the federal governments on both sides of the border. This decades-long issue has many challenges, including the continuous growth of the City of Tijuana that's outpacing its infrastructure.
- Be the loudest voice on the Council for fixing the Tijuana River.
- Push for more investment from the federal governments on both sides of the border.
- Keep the pressure on until families down here stop smelling it every summer.