Table Talk: A La Mesa Podcast Manuel Gomez

Were you hoping to make your comment at the next city council meeting by Zoom? Well friend, that’s not an option.  To learn more about this, we’re joined by 30-year La Mesa resident Wendy Mihalic.  She’s a volunteer with San Diego 350, which works to prevent the worst effects of climate change.  She’s worked on La Mesa’s climate action plan in 2018.  She’s also an advocate of switching from gas to electric.  She lives in a fully electric home and is a member of the San Diego Building Electrification Coalition, which promotes electrification of buildings.  And because of all that, she’s a frequent commenter at our city council meetings, often remotely.
Here are some links Wendy recommended:
California Common Cause Study
https://www.commoncause.org/california/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2024/01/CA-Remote-Accessv2.pdf
Anti-Defamation League Toolkit
https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/2023-08/ADL-COE-City-Council-Recommendations.pdf

From repurposing an old motel to shipping people off to Campo, we've heard a lot of ideas for addressing homelessness in La Mesa. In this episode, we'll talk to the coordinator of the East County Homeless Task Force, Bonnie Baranoff. She'll share her thoughts on the HOME program here in La Mesa and how you can get involved in the effort to address homelessness in our town.
Here are some links you may be inclined to visit after listening:
East County Homeless Task Force - https://www.facebook.com/ECHTF/
Point in Time Count: https://www.rtfhsd.org/about-coc/weallcount-pitc/
Op Ed: My family was homeless for two-and-a-half years. - https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2023-12-13/opinion-family-homeless-san-diego-kids-affordable-housing-crisis

La Mesa, we have an opportunity to make some big money for our city.  We can fund police, fire and arts programs.  And all we have to do is replace some billboards with a different kind of billboard.  Is it worth it?  To find out, we'll talk with Gerda Holmstrom and Janet Castaños.
Here's a link to the "Compendium of a Decade’s Worth of Research Studies on Distraction from Digital Billboards" by Jerry Wachtel from the Veridian Group.
And here's link to the No Digital Billboards in La Mesa petition.

On September 12, two school boards were filled to the brim with attendees.  Nearly every one of the scores of public comments at both the Grossmont Union High School board and La Mesa-Spring Valley board meetings focused on one issue: policies toward the LGBTQIA+ community. This episode, we talk to teacher and longtime school advocate, Jay Steiger, about the mental health care controversy at Grossmont.

Batteries are back on the menu.  The first episode of Table Talk focused on the large batteries that are going to be installed on El Paso Street.  Those batteries brought a lot of rather interesting concerns to a city council meeting in February.  But the project is still going forward.  We to talk to two of the people who’s responsible for installing those batteries in our neighborhood, James Beach, managing partner of Enersmart and Skyler Tennis, Vice President of Operations.

Our County Board of Supervisors District is holding a special election right now (the deadline is August 15). Manny talked with the candidate endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party, Monica Montgomery Steppe. If you've ever wanted to hear from Monica in more than just soundbites, this is your chance.