A tight race for San Diego's open District 8 council seat
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Antonio Martinez, left, and Gerardo Ramirez. Photos: Courtesy of the Martinez and Ramirez campaigns
One of two open seats on the San Diego City Council is in District 8, and the candidates are running a tight race.
The big picture: San Ysidro School District board member Antonio Martinez is facing off against the current councilmember's chief of staff, Gerardo Ramirez.
This interview has been edited for length.
Axios: What is the biggest issue facing the district?
Martinez: There are infrastructural needs that are putting District 8 lives in danger that I want to address immediately.
- In the north part of the district, the flood that happened in 2024, a lot of neighbors in Southcrest and Shelltown pretty much lost everything.
- So that's one of the issues that I feel that we need to address immediately because now with El Niño storms looming, a lot of the neighbors are concerned it might happen again.
- In the southern portion, it's the sewage crisis in the Tijuana River Valley. I've been working with Supervisor Paloma Aguirre to address it at the local level, but I feel the city needs to play a bigger role.
Ramirez: For decades, our communities have not received their fair share of basic city services, from street resurfacing to sidewalk repairs, and we are now living with the results of that neglect.
- Additionally, San Diego's high cost of living continues to squeeze working families. The city needs to increase housing production and support pathways to homeownership.
- You cannot talk about issues in District 8 without talking about the Tijuana River Valley sewage crisis. This is personal to me. I lived less than a mile away from the Tijuana River Valley and have firsthand suffered the consequences of its pollution.
- I will make ending the Tijuana River sewage crisis a top priority, working across all levels of government, in addition to the Mexican government, to push for real solutions and deliver the relief our communities have long deserved.
What would you do about housing and affordability?
Martinez: I think the city needs to start by not nickeling and diming residents.
- For example, there's a senior center in one of the communities in District 8 in San Ysidro. Now the city's charging them in order to participate, and some of them, because they have fixed income, they can't do that anymore.
Ramirez: The city should expand access to expedited permitting programs and reduce approval timelines.
- Additionally, the funding for first-time homebuyer programs needs to be prioritized. We currently have the program available, however, there is no designated funding source.
How should the city address its budget problems?
Martinez: Doing an independent audit on our budget and seeing what's being efficient, what's not.
Ramirez: A combination of budget cuts, improved efficiency, and additional revenue.