San Diego County District 2 Supervisor Joel Anderson is seeking a second term on the Board of Supervisors and is running against Gina Jacobs. Anderson, R, 64, is a former California state senator and assembly member.
From Alpine, Anderson said he is the only supervisor that lives in unincorporated San Diego and his biggest challenge is that all his colleagues live along the coast.
“The likelihood of them knowing where Lakeside is, let alone Boulevard or Pine Valley is little to none,” he said.
Anderson said he believes it is remarkable what the county has been able to accomplish, but many people, because they live in a city, do not understand what a supervisor does.
“While we have some impact on the city, our number one job, is we are the only government for the unincorporated, and 600,000 people live in the unincorporated. Whether it is Bonita, Spring Valley, Ramona, or Fallbrook, these are all unincorporated areas. And yet, we are excluded from any regional governments. Look at SANDAG. Eighteen cities have a vote, and we did not even have a seat at the table. Supervisor Nora Vargas lives in Chula Vista, Monica Montgomery Steppe lives in San Diego, Jim Desmond lives in Oceanside, and Terra Lawson-Remer lives in Encinitas. I am the only one that lives in Alpine, and the only one that lives in unincorporated,” he said.
Anderson said if he were not elected in 2020, there would be no representation in the unincorporated San Deigo.
“The challenge I have all the time is all they can imagine is what is in their city. They have no idea what is in our rural communities. Lakeside is roughly 54,000 people, Del Mar has 4,000, and they have a vote at SANDAG. There are six cities smaller than Lakeside and they all have a vote. In my first two years it was my goal to get us a seat on the advisory board. Now, we have a seat there, and if reelected I am going to focus on changing the law to give us a vote,”
Anderson said this is why unincorporated areas have no real bus services, trolley, or mass transit even though the county and the state say without mass transit, you cannot build homes.
“When I got elected, my district had 50,000 homes by right that we could have built, but my colleagues voted with the Climate Action Plan to reduce us to zero. And we all know we need housing. And yet, there is not going to be housing in the areas that make most sense. Building skyscrapers on the beach, I do not think is the best way to go. Many folks I represent are blue collar, and they must drive to their worksites, and there is no bus service to those worksites. They are only looking at this from an inner-city standpoint. They are not looking at it to serve the whole region. So, my voice has been important,” he said.
Anderson said he lives in an area where he endured the Cedar Fire, Horse Creek Fire, Witch Creek Fire.
“All these fires impacted it. In the Cedar Fire,20 years ago, we lost 2,000 homes in my old senate district and a few people died. One of the first things I did was get a 19-99 helicopter for San Diego that fights fire at night. We never had night capacity. Whenever the sun went down, firefighters could only fight on the ground. Now, we have the capacity to fight it by air 24/7. For me, that was a huge victory for those who live in the unincorporated,” he said.
Anderson said his goal as supervisor was to help the homeless crisis.
“I am proud to announce that in the point in time count, the only tool we have in fighting homelessness, my district is the only district that reduced homelessness by 27%. We made huge inroads in reducing homelessness. Is it finished? No. Is there more work to be done, absolutely. But nobody got double digits in reduction. I am very proud of those things I have done in just three short years, and I am the minority on the board. It is three Democrats, and three votes control everything on the Board,” he said.
Anderson said in his senate district, he had the most refugees west of the Mississippi. And the same is with his seat on the board of supervisors.
“We have been doing this a long time. Traditionally, the county until they came into the community, and then they started to prepare, and it was horrible. But when the last round of Afghans came here, and we received 2,000, and we had a community of 4,000, I wrote a board letter to the county to prepare, and put in place, all the resources we were going to need. For the first time ever, it was the smoothest transition because I had gone through it before. And I knew when they brought in the Afghans, they were going to come to my district. That made sense. If you are trying to assimilate into a new country, and new culture, people will go where they have family and friends that understand them and can help them transition,” he said.
Anderson said he has lived in Alpine for 35 years, and the Alpine County Park was promised to his children, who now have children.
“They say there are a whole bunch of parks in Alpine, but there are none. Zero. Some of the schools open their playgrounds, but we do not have a park. The same people who said we want to have a high school, and the high school was going to go in that area. They were hammering me when I was in the Legislature that I had to support the high school. My position is that I was not elected to the school board. But now, you are telling me you do not want a park, but you wanted a high school. We cannot have a bunch of naysayers hurting our community as a whole. The numbers are not close. The vocal group, the group all over social media, are opposed to it. If I were to knock on all the doors in my community, nine out of 10 would say they want the park. The Alpine Community Planning Group, under Travis Lyon, had a budget and used that budget for some recreational space next to Joan MacQueen school. During COVID, the school district controlled it, and they shut down all the playgrounds when they shut down the schools. So, no kid had any place to play in Alpine. After the park is built, kids will have a place to play whether we have COVID or not. That will never close. The things that people say, and the reasons they oppose it are just gibberish. They are clawing at any kind of excuse. They say it will bring in the homeless. It will not. We are going to have rangers living there. They say it will start fires. That is ridiculous. There is a BBQ area. It is well regulated. But we are not telling people they cannot BBQ in their backyards, so what is the difference. We have a large population that lives in apartments. Their kids should have access to a park. I get it for the communities that are rich and sitting on two to four acres, they can do anything they want in their backyard. But that is not all Alpinians. They only care about themselves. I care about the whole community,” he said.
Anderson said if the park is not built there, the county will declare the land a surplus, and all land declared surplus, the first right is low-income housing, which would go right in front of the $1 million homes.
“They think they are special, privileged. There are no privileged people in my district. We win when we all cross the finish line together,” he said.
Anderson said he wrote the board ordinance for the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation.
“That allows you to make up to $100,000 cooking from your home kitchen. If you are a single parent and preparing food for your family, not only can you prepare it for your family, but several of your neighbors. You know it will be high-quality food and not filled with preservatives, like going through a McDonalds. We empowered many of these folks to test out if they had recipes if they wanted to go commercial, open their own restaurant, or just augment personal income by helping their neighbors. These MEHKOs do not really compete with restaurants because they have caps on what they can do. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember. We were doing it in the grey illegally. What I did was give them a path to do it legally, so there are food inspections, and we have good quality. I support boutique food preparation, whether it is jams, cheese, or whatever it is that you make. While in Legislature, it was my bill that made Ramona a wine region, just like Sanoma County, just like Napa. And we have seen a growth in Ramona wine, which is a delicious product,” he said.
Andersons said the unincorporated area has had great success, but his challenge is that when people complain, his colleagues have no idea.
“I offered to give them a tour of my district. If they saw it, they would understand why I want an ordinance so that a homeless encampment does not burn down all our backland. If someone went to Wright’s Field and started a fire, that would get out of control in no time at all. If they saw what the district really looked like, their response was they know what my district looks like because they have been to Julian.
“That is my challenge. And my opponent, I am sure is a lovely person, works for the Port of San Diego, and lives in Del Cerro. I do not know if she has been east of La Mesa. I do not know if she could name one street in Alpine. Lakeside, Descanso, Pine Valley, or Ramona. If you have never been there, you have no ability to represent because you do not know what the people need,” he said.
