All right, are we ready to rock and roll?

Good afternoon.

I now reconvene and call the special city council meeting of Thursday, January 15th, 2026 to order.

I am San Diego City Council President Joe Lacava, representing Council District One.

My colleagues on the San Diego Council who are here with us in attendance, representing Council District 6, City Council President, Pro TAM can't lead.

There we go.

I'm sorry we didn't have cue cards for you all in the audience.

Representing Council District 2, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell.

Representing Council District 3, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn.

Representing Council District 4, Councilmember Henry Foster III.

Representing Council District 5, Councilmember Marnie Von Wilpert.

Representing Council District 8, Councilmember Vinnie Vivian Moreno.

And representing Council District 9, Councilmember Sean Eloh Rivera.

With council members present in chambers, a quorum is established, and we are reconvened.

We'd also like to acknowledge City Attorney Heather Ferbert.

Independent budget analyst Charles Monica, City Clerk Deanna Fuentes, and City Auditor Andy Hanow.

I welcome all of you here in City Council Chambers and everyone watching at home to the 2026 State of the City addressed by our mayor, the Honorable Todd Gloria.

In addition, and I ask you to hold your applause, I know it will be difficult.

We have a number of elected officials in attendance, including California State Senator Catherine Blakespear, County Supervisor Paloma Geary, County Supervisor Joel Anderson, County Assessor Recorder Clerk Jordan Marks, San Diego Unified School District Trustee, Shauna Hazen, and Sandy San the Sidro School Board Trustee, Martin Arias.

We also have representatives from the offices of Governor Gavin Newsom, U.S.

Senator Alex Padilla, U.S.

Senator Adam Shift, Congressman Juan Vargas, Congressman Mike Levin, State Senators Brian Jones and Steve Padilla, State Assembly Members David Alvarez, Tasha Berner, Le Shea Sharp Collins, Darshana Potel, and Chris Ward, and also a representative for District Attorney Summer Stephen.

I also recognize our international friends in attendance, including and sonata mayor Claudia Agron Muniz, Council General of Mexico, Ambassador Alicia Kerbert Palma, Representatives from Tijuana and the state of Baja California, and honorary council generals representing Brazil, Philippines, and Portugal.

To our elected officials and representatives, if you would please join me in standing and give them a warm round of applause and a welcome to City Hall, again, thank you all for being here for the 2026 State of the City Add.

Just a reminder, as we are in City Council Chambers, and this is an official city council meeting.

We have these practices and procedures to protect the rights of speakers who wish to address the council and to allow the city to conduct the public's business.

At this point, if any person or group of persons engages in behavior that disrupts, disturbs, or impedes the orderly conduct of the meeting, they will be in violation of state law and the rules of counsel in the municipal code and will be removed from the meeting.

Once again, we have these practices and procedures to allow the city to conduct the public's business.

To begin today's ceremony, we respectfully acknowledge that we are on Native American land.

So please rise and join me as I lead us in a land acknowledgement.

We respectfully acknowledge that Kumaye Nation are the original inhabitants of the unceded land now known as San Diego.

Despite enduring the horrors of genocide and colonization, the Kumaya spirit remains unbroken.

We honor the resilience of those ancestors who fought to protect their culture and land.

And today they carry their legacy forward, ensuring that their traditions continue to thrive in gratitude and strength.

We stand with the Kumae Nation connected to our past and committed to a thriving future.

Please remain standing.

And with that, San Diego is proud to be one of the safest big cities in the country, and that is thanks to our brave public safety professionals, including our very own San Diego police and fire rescue departments.

To provide today's invocation is Chuck Price, the chaplain for the San Diego Police Department.

Chaplain Price.

Will you please bow in prayer with me?

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this moment together to reflect on where we have been and to look ahead on where we are going.

As we consider the work that has been done and the work still before us, may we not overlook the foundational gifts we so often take for granted.

The breath in our lungs, the hearts that be within us, the capacity to think and reason, the blessing of loving and being loved, and the full range of human experience from joy to sorrow that shapes who we are.

As we move forward, we ask that you grant wisdom and understanding to our elected officials and all leaders throughout this city.

May they serve the people of San Diego with humility, integrity, and honor.

Guide the mayor, the city council, and all who carry responsibility to lead with servants' hearts, placing the needs of others above their own.

Grant them discernment beyond their years, experience, and training, and empower them to use their God-given talents to cultivate a city that is safe, strong, and thriving.

Bless our time together today.

The words of the mayor will share this remarkable city and all who are proud to call San Diego home, and we pray all these things in your name.

Amen.

Thank you, Chaplain.

Here today to present the colors is the San Diego Fire Rescue Department on our guard.

I ask you to continue, remain standing, if you're able, for the presentation of colors and for the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.

Honor guard, please present the colors.

Many of you may know that at the age of 10, Mayor Gloria was runner-up for Mayor Maureen O'Connor's Mayor for a Day contest.

Now, as the 37th mayor of the city, Mayor Gloria relaunched the contest to inspire young leaders to become more civically engaged and hopefully pursue careers in public service.

Leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance is this year's Mayor for a Day Contest winner, an eighth-rate student from Montgomery Middle School, and a resident of Linda Vista Aubert.

Please place your right hand over your heart and begin.

To perform our national anthem, please join me in welcoming actress and San Diego Film Consortium Ambassador, April Pahe.

Oh say can you see by the dawn's what's so proudly we at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perless vite or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockest ran collars bursting in gave proof through the night that our flag was still there's that or the land of the free and the home of the thank you.

As you see them doing, honor guard, please retire the colors.

You all may be seated.

Thank you.

It is now my tremendous honor to introduce the 37th mayor of the city of San Diego, the honorable Todd Gloria, to provide today's state of the city address.

Mayor Gloria.

Thank you, Council President Lacava and members of the City Council, City Attorney Ferber, an honorable regional, state, and federal elected officials, our friends from Mexico, and the consular corps from around the world, and most of all, my fellow San Diegans.

Five years ago, when I took the oath to be your mayor, I did so with open eyes.

I knew that our city faced tough problems, and I knew that we had long deferred responsibilities.

But I also knew this.

San Diego was ready to stop running from its problems.

Not just big ideas, but real results in neighborhoods in every corner of San Diego.

And I also believed something else.

Today I speak with you in that same spirit, with clarity about the work, confidence in our direction, and a deep belief in what this city can be.

Because the city of San Diego is a major American city, the eighth largest in the United States, and the second largest in California.

We are a vibrant, diverse, and dynamic place that people from all around the world are choosing to visit, to invest in, and to call home.

And that demands that we don't shrink from our challenges, but instead rise up to meet them and rise up to match the scale, the responsibility, and the promise of who we are.

And that's what we've done over these last five years.

And as a result, the City of San Diego is moving with intention.

We are building with purpose, and we are governing with responsibility.

We are a city in transformation, and you can see it.

Today I'm going to walk through what the transformation of our city looks like in our finances, in housing, homelessness, public safety, infrastructure, and in the global standing of the city that we are becoming.

I'll be honest about the challenges that we still face, and I will prove our progress with results that you don't have to imagine.

They are results that you can see.

To understand why these results matter, it's important to understand what we were up against and how this city has operated for too long.

You see, historically, San Diego has not always acted like the big city that it is.

Avoiding hard conversations, dodging necessary choices, and pushing problems down the road for somebody someday to solve.

Meanwhile, the warning signs were in plain sight.

Costs rising, demands for services growing, infrastructure aging, and a city budget that simply did not keep up.

That brought us to one of the most significant fiscal challenges in our city's modern history, a $318 million structural budget deficit.

A deficit that did not appear overnight, but accumulated over decades of underfunding, undercharging, and undermining the city services that you rely on.

So my administration did what we have always done, and what I believe leadership requires.

We faced it directly.

And I set the bold goal of trying to close the structural deficit in one year.

We reduced spending, restructured leadership, eliminated nine city departments, and cut $35 million in outside contracts and management positions.

We moved city employees out of rented office space and into city owned spaces, saving $13 million.

We made the tough calls to bring our financers closer to long-term stability.

Because if we're going to deliver on the basics that you expect, we have to fund the city that we are today, not the city that we were 30 years ago.

As a result, this year alone, we solved for 270 million dollars of that deficit, a major step towards restoring long-term financial stability and closer to true structural balance.

That does mean we will have more tough decisions and cuts this year to solve the remainder of the deficit, as well as the unanticipated economic challenges posed by the Trump administration's tariffs and budget cuts that are beyond our control.

I know that that's not easy to hear, and I know that none of it has been easy to live through.

I hear the frustrations and I share them.

But the truth is that we cannot build a stronger San Diego on a fragile foundation.

First, you stabilize the ground beneath your feet, and then you build something better and higher.

If you want to understand the future that we are building in San Diego, look at housing.

It is the thread that runs through everything, the economy and jobs, the cost of living, traffic, homelessness, climate action, and most of all, the ability for families to put down roots.

I've always said a great city cannot be a place just for the very wealthy who can afford to live here while the rest of us get priced out.

A great city is one where anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can afford to live here.

Where the people who teach our kids, protect our neighborhoods, attend our universities, and power our economy can live and thrive here.

And that's why housing remains at the center of my administration's agenda.

Because building housing is not ideological.

It is one of the most basic responsibilities of a city.

And what San Diego is doing right now represents one of the most ambitious housing agendas in California.

A recent UC Berkeley study highlighted how San Diego has become one of the state's leading cities in reforming housing policy to build more homes.

Saying, quote, San Diego's recent efforts do provide a roadmap for cities seeking to increase housing production and expedite housing projects.

We've reformed outdated zoning to make room for new housing where it makes sense.

We've streamlined approvals, reduced bureaucratic delays, and modernize building standards so that projects can move faster while still meeting the safety and design standards that San Diegans expect.

We have completed community plan updates in Mira Mesa, Barrio Logan, Claremont, the college area, university, and Hillcrest, adding the capacity for 105,000 new homes.

This year, according to preliminary data, the City of San Diego permitted roughly 7,500 homes in 2025.

For context, during the two decades prior, the city permitted on average 4,300 new homes.

We have nearly doubled our historic performance.

And through our through our bridge to home program, free telephone, free telephone.

IOF voters are getting paid for ice.

Through our bridge to home program, we help fund 2,676 new affordable homes.

And in a matter of a few weeks, we will be making funding available for hundreds more.

Through our affordable housing permit now program, we have greenlit 4,300 more homes with another 2,000 in the pipeline.

And you don't need a chart to understand what that means.

You can see it.

And as a result, we are starting to see what happens when you build more homes.

For the first time in 25 years, we've started to see promising trends in rents declining year over year.

We're also pairing production with protections, strengthening tenants' rights, expanding rental assistance, and preventing evictions.

Still, I know that even with all this progress, the cost of living remains too expensive for too many families.

And until more San Diegans can look at their rent or mortgage without cringing, our work is not finished.

The City of San Diego will continue to do its part to build locally.

But I will continue to push regionally and statewide to build more homes.

This crisis will not be solved city by city.

It is high time that we nationalize this conversation.

Later this year, I will have an opportunity to help lead that effort as I assume the presidency of the United States Conference of Mayors, the bipartisan voice for America's mayors for nearly a century.

For the first time, San Diego will lead this organization, and I will do so with a laser focus on building more homes and bringing costs down.

Because this is not just a San Diego problem.

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What the fuck are you needing?

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If you're afraid of us, oh, we're trying to do meet with you, you won't be with us.

You won't meet with us.

You won't be with us, huh?

You're scared of our voices.

Oh, we're gonna try to do meet with you.

We're denying our request to be with you.

This is not just a San Diego problem.

It's an American problem.

And the federal government needs to get into the game.

The Trump administration must strengthen, not gut the tools that communities use to build and to make the American dream real again.

And we must make it real again, not just by preserving the version that we inherit it, but also by making it work for this generation of Americans.

Because for some, homeownership is seen to exist only as a single-family home, when for many, it can look like so much more.

It can be row homes, town homes, condos, homes that fit families and budgets and fit into existing neighborhoods.

That's why this past year I introduced my neighborhood homes for all of us initiative, designed to create more kinds of housing for working and middle class San Diegans.

That initiative aims to allow the kinds of homes that I just described in places where they are prohibited today.

We are currently conducting public engagement on this initiative.

And my administration will bring forward a proposal for the City Council's consideration later this year, and I urge their adoption of it.

In addition to these policy changes, this year we will be pairing that with another key priority: transforming underused city land into housing at a scale that is necessary.

And that includes the Sports Arena property.

Now, legal challenges have caused some to doubt the future of the project known as Midway Rising.

So let me be very clear.

The redevelopment of the sports arena will be moving forward.

We will be getting this done.

This 48-acre site of underutilized public property can be transformed into over 4,200 new homes with quality affordable housing, 14 acres of new parks, and a world-class arena to attract more events and talent to our city.

Public land should serve the public.

And right now, serving the public means building more homes.

So this spring, I will bring this project forward for public hearings and a vote from the city council.

Let me also say this.

And my office will continue to work diligently with the community and the Prebis Foundation on advancing the broader vision for this property this year, which will ultimately allow for housing, public spaces, and the revitalization of our civic core.

Because when we expand housing opportunity, it doesn't just change a skyline or improve a neighborhood.

It changes what is possible for people.

And when housing is scarce and unaffordable, you don't just feel it on the first of the month.

You see it and the consequences in human lives pushed to the edge and onto our streets.

My administration has approached homelessness with a clear understanding.

This issue is urgent.

It is complex and it demands action.

And the results of our efforts are becoming clearer.

This past year, the regional task force on homelessness reported a nearly 14% reduction in unsheltered homelessness in the city of San Diego.

And the downtown San Diego partnership has also recorded a dramatic decrease in tent encampments.

You can see it, and the data confirms it.

Together, we are expanding shelter, strengthening outreach, creating real pathways off the streets, and we've done it by insisting on a simple truth.

A sidewalk is not a home.

In 2025 alone, we connected more than 1,350 people to housing, which brings us to nearly 7,000 people housed over the five years of my administration.

And we've expanded options for people living in their vehicles.

As promised, we opened the city's largest safe parking lot at H barracks near the San Diego International Airport, offering 190 spaces for cars and RVs.

As a result, we're able to resume enforcement of the city's oversized vehicle ordinance, which had been legally challenged, allowing RVs to proliferate with no recourse until the lawsuit was resolved.

With H barracks, we now have a safe alternative for people living in their vehicles, and that is what has made enforcement fair and possible again.

We've applied that very same approach to another area where the city's hands have been tied for years.

Encampments along our freeways.

Thanks to the good work of our government affairs team and with support from State Senator Catherine Blakespeer, who is here with us today.

We reached an agreement with Caltrans that has allowed us to clear encampments along select freeway on and off ramps.

We have cleared 208 tons of trash, and we've connected 95 people living on state property with to shelter or services.

And we are seeing another important result.

Preliminary data shows encampment-related fires along our freeway corridors are down 48%.

That means fewer dangerous fires, fewer road closures, fewer risks to public property and our first responders.

And I want to thank our fire rescue chief Rob Logan for his leadership and partnership in driving that progress.

Chief, thank you very, very much.

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All right.

It's back to running the city.

These outcomes are real, and you can see them.

And we can also see that there's so much more to do.

And I want to do more.

Because this agreement with Caltrans has proven so successful, I am urging state leaders to expand it and allow city crews to cover more areas next to freeways where we know tent encampments exist.

And I'm making that ask because the momentum and the progress are real, but it's not permanent unless we can maintain it.

The work that we've done depends on maintaining partnerships and funding.

And right now, I need you to know I am concerned that that stability is at risk.

At the federal level, the Trump administration's illegal and reckless policy changes to HUD funding have created a real vulnerability for cities like ours that could push people out of our shelters and back onto the streets.

If those federal dollars are delayed, reduced, or eliminated, you will soon see the results in your neighborhood and on your sidewalk.

And at the state level, California's budget instability has cut funding to the how homeless housing assistance and prevention program that fund our city's shelters, creating the risk that we could lose momentum right when we need to accelerate our successes.

We need to stop treating HAP like a short-term fix and instead elevate it to the dependable ongoing resource that this crisis demands.

And that's why I'm calling on anyone running to lead this state as our next governor to pledge to make HAP a permanent staple of our state budget.

As we fight for stable funding to keep people sheltered, we also need renewed partnership from all levels of government to confront what remains the most visible thing on our streets: severe mental illness and addiction.

I see it.

I know you see it too.

The people screaming, shouting, and acting out, the people folded over, lost in the grip of illicit fentanyl.

People standing in the middle of oncoming traffic, the people openly lighting up on our sidewalks.

The truth is that many of the people still living on our streets are not just unsheltered, they are untreated.

We need more treatment capacity, more psychiatric care beds, more detox and long-term recovery options.

We need faster pathways from the street and into care.

And the responsibility for treating the mental illness and addiction that we all see on our streets by law and by funding belongs to the county of San Diego.

Now, last year, you may recall I said that pretty clearly.

And this year, I'm going to say this just as clearly.

That does not mean that the City of San Diego steps back.

It means that we must all step forward together.

This challenge is bigger than any one agency, and it will only be solved if we operate as one system.

And we're already proving what's possible when we do just that.

The city, the county, the San Diego Housing Commission, and the U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs are partnering right now on a home key plus project to create 82 new homes for people struggling with behavioral health challenges, a model that pairs housing with services that gets people off the streets for good.

That project moved forward with unanimous support from our county board of supervisors.

And I want to acknowledge Supervisors Joel Anderson and Paloma Aguirre who are here with us today for their support in getting this done.

Supervisors, thank you so much for stepping into this fight and helping us.

I want you to know as the county advances applications for the state of California's Proposition 1 funding, which will help them build more beds and treatment facilities, the city will continue to support those efforts because our region can simply not sustain the status quo on mental illness and addiction.

So yes, the city does the county has the responsibility for treatment.

And the city has the responsibility to insist that treatment exists while continuing to do everything we can to bring people inside and connect them to help.

Because when a person is suffering in the open, unhoused, untreated, in crisis, it affects not only their life, but it shapes whether people feel safe in our city.

And the truth that I need you to know today is that San Diego remains one of the safest big cities in the United States.

They want us to invest in smart crime fighting strategies, and because we support the people who protect and serve our neighborhoods.

Murders down by 22%.

Sexual assault down by 7%.

Vehicle thefts declined by 22%.

In addition, thanks to the overwhelming approval of Proposition 36, a measure that I supported, that gives law enforcement and prosecutors stronger tools to hold repeat retail thieves accountable.

We are now seeing progress in curbing retail theft.

Local authorities do, however, still need resources to fully implement the law as voters intended.

So today I call upon the state leaders to appropriately fund the full implementation of Prop 36.

This measure was approved by nearly 70% of California voters.

It is the will of the people, and the state must fulfill it.

A key part of upholding public safety means restoring dignity in communities that have endured harm for far too long.

In Barrio Logan, along Dalbergia Street, residents and businesses have faced the unchecked impacts of sex trafficking because state law wasn't strong enough to hold traffickers accountable, leaving exploitation to play out in front of the eyes of our children and families in front of schools and businesses.

That is completely unacceptable.

So we took action and went to Sacramento and passed a new law to crack down on traffickers and protect victims.

And I want to thank State Assembly members Nick Schultz and Maggie Krell for authoring that legislation and thank Governor Gavin Newsom for signing it into law.

Restoring dignity and safety in our neighborhoods also in this time requires us to recognize a hard truth.

Sometimes the threat to our public safety comes from decisions made far away from us, in our nation's capital, and carried out in ways that are designed to instill fear here at home.

That is exactly what we are seeing from the president and his administration.

And through its ICE operations, the Trump administration is waging a campaign of fear that is terrorizing communities across this country.

And I know that you can see it.

In the families that have been torn apart, in the neighborhoods thrown into chaos, in innocent bystanders put at risk, and in local police officers forced into volatile situations that they didn't ask for and didn't create.

And most recently, our entire nation saw this firsthand in the murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota.

A life that was lost because of the callous and reckless actions of a federal agent which outraged all of us.

California law is clear.

Local police are prohibited from participating in federal immigration enforcement.

San Diego will follow that law fully and without exception.

That's why last July I signed an executive order, making it unmistakably clear, directing that the San Diego Police Department will not participate in ICE enforcement operations.

SDPD is here to protect and serve our communities, all of our communities, including our immigrant communities.

And I want to thank our police chief Scott Wall for his leadership and for standing firm in that commitment.

Chief, thank you very much.

My friends, we are a border city, a proud binational city, and that is part of what makes us America's finest city.

And as your mayor, I will do everything I can to protect the people of this city, to keep our families safe, to protect and support our officers, and to uphold the public safety for everyone who calls this great city home.

Now safety is not just about policing.

It's also about the condition of the city that is around us, the roads, streetlights, sidewalks, and basic infrastructure that shape our daily lives.

San Diego is a city of extraordinary beauty, but we can't just get by on our looks.

We have to also be a city that functions well.

And that means roads that are smooth, sidewalks without trip hazards, street lights that work, and storm drains that do what they're supposed to do.

For years, residents in every corner of this city have said the same thing.

Take care of the basics, and that is what we are doing.

This past year, we resurfaced or repaired 468 miles of roads.

We also filled more than 44,000 potholes.

That means that my administration has repaired 2,161 miles of roads to date, one-third of all city-maintained streets.

And this year we're on track to complete even more, over 370 additional miles of road repair in the coming year.

Now, I understand I'm gonna get you off, I'm gonna head you off at the pass.

We all know our roads are not where they need to be.

Anyone who drives across San Diego knows that we have a lot more work to do.

But the truth is we need more sustained resources to meet the standard that you expect and deserve.

Now, of course, our infrastructure isn't just roads, it's also street lights that actually turn on.

Because when a streetlight is out, it's not a small thing, everybody.

It changes how a neighborhood feels.

It changes whether or not a parent feels comfortable walking with their child down the street or whether a senior feels safe crossing the sidewalk.

Thanks to the City Council's support of redirecting parking meter revenue to city crews, we have done record work to repair streetlights in neighborhoods across the city.

And I know that you can see that.

This year we are on track to complete more than 2,000 streetlight repairs.

And right along streetlights is the need to repair our sidewalks.

This past year, we replaced replaced the most sidewalks in city history.

Over 1,500 locations, nearly tripling the previous record of 565 back in 2021.

And there's another powerful infrastructure investment that we are making in the future of San Diego.

It's an investment that strengthens our neighborhoods, an investment that supports our residents, an investment that is paid for by the visitors who come here to endure our great city.

After nearly five long years of legal obstacles, Measure C, which was approved by the voters of San Diego in 2020, has finally been upheld.

And with that victory, we can now move forward.

Measure C increase the tourism tax on visitors so that we can reinvest those dollars right back into our city, into our roads, into addressing homelessness, and into modernizing one of the most important economic engines in our city, the San Diego Convention Center.

Since last May, Measure C has already generated 35 million dollars.

And today I can announce that I will be asking the City Council to approve a five-year 118 million dollar modernization plan for the convention center and to approve the first 21 million dollars to launch this work almost immediately.

A project that will strengthen our tourism economy and a project that will create opportunity for thousands of San Diegans, generating more than 3,000 union construction jobs and over 7,000 permanent jobs right here in San Diego.

This is about growth, this is about opportunity, and this is about building a stronger San Diego for the next generation.

My fellow San Diegans, when you pair stronger infrastructure with increased housing production, and then combine it with a commitment to safety and dignity for all of us, something important happens.

This city becomes more than a place that people visit.

It becomes a place that people choose again and again for events, ideas, innovation, and opportunity.

A place where you can see a bright future ahead.

San Diego has always been a special place.

You know it, we all know it.

Not just because we live here, because when we tell someone that we're from San Diego, their response is often, I love San Diego.

The difference now is that more of the world is seeing it and choosing it.

As reported last month, the world renowned TED Conference has chosen San Diego as the new home of its global gathering beginning in 2027, bringing innovators, researchers, creators, and leaders from all around the world to our city.

This past November, the WWE chose to bring a premium live event to San Diego for the first time in a decade, drawing more than 46,000 fans from around the world to Petco Park, showcasing our city on a global stage and bringing customers to our local small businesses.

This June, NASCAR will do the same thing.

Right now, we are one of just three cities and the only American city under consideration to host the 2029 Invictus Games, a global sports competition for wounded and injured veterans.

These things matter not just because they're exciting, but because they signal something bigger.

The San Diego is a world-class destination, a hub of talent, a city with an economy that attracts investment, a community that welcomes newcomers with a quality of life that other cities envy.

And when you connect all those dots and step back and take it all in, what you're seeing is more than progress on individual issues.

You're seeing a city that is aligning its ambitions with its action.

You're seeing a city that is matching its responsibilities with its resources.

You're seeing a city that is finally choosing long-term strength over short-term comfort.

You are seeing a city that is becoming what it has always had the potential to be.

Because the truest of stories about who we are as a city are told in what is built and what is repaired and what is protected and what is finally made possible.

It is a city choosing to do the hard work instead of the easy excuse.

Choosing to fix what has long been deferred, choosing to build what has been denied, choosing to face what has been avoided, and then choosing to keep going.

That is the story of our city in this moment.

That is who we are as San Diegans.

And when we make those choices, over time, progress stops being abstract, and it becomes visible.

You can see it.

So keep your eyes on the city that we are building and hold us accountable to build it.

Keep your faith in the work that is transforming our great city for the better.

Keep your belief in the people who make this city run, our city employees, our first responders, our educators, our entrepreneurs, volunteers, and neighbors.

Because San Diego is moving forward.

We are building, we are leading, and we are a city in transformation.

My friends, if you want proof, you don't have to look far.

The markers of our progress are all around.

And I'm here to tell you that there are even more ahead.

All we have to do is choose to see it.

Thank you.

May God bless you, and may God bless the great city of San Diego.

And with that, we will now adjourn council to the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Monday, January 26th, 2026 at 10 a.m.