It's National New Friends Day this Monday! Maybe try meeting new people over chess, a short run, or at the next Axios Social Club.

🌤️Today's weather: Coast — Fog then sunny, 75; Inland — Fog then sunny, 84.

🎧 Sounds like: "Cabin By The Sea" by Dirty Heads

Today’s newsletter is 986 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Building homes along the coast is about more than ocean views and mild weather, according to a new report.

Why it matters: It's not really a surprise that living on the coast is desirable, but the report uses data to make it clear what exactly draws people there, and makes the case that building more housing there makes sense, author Wesley Morgan told Axios.

• His report was published in August by the San Diego Fair Housing Lab, a housing research nonprofit.

State of play: Pacific Beach and La Jolla score well on the state's economic measures and have lower pollution levels than 90% of California census tracts, according to the report.

• All 21 census tracts in both neighborhoods also fall in the top two tiers under state metrics for schools, economic opportunity and pollution, compared with 55% of tracts citywide, according to the report.
• Eleven of Pacific Beach's 13 tracts also scored above average on schools, as did seven of La Jolla's eight.

Case in point: Those high-performing schools draw students from all over the region, according to the report.

Meanwhile, neither neighborhood saw much of an increase in the number of people living there over the last 25 years.

Yes but: That does not mean nothing was built along the coast. Both PB and La Jolla added housing units, but not enough to offset homes that are only used seasonally or left unoccupied.

The goal, according to Morgan, is to open the coast's schools and clean air to more of us, including the many people who already drive there every day for work and school.

The other side: More construction doesn't necessarily make the coast more affordable, Karen Ventimiglia of Neighbors for a Better California told Axios.

• "For us, access means more than increasing the legal capacity to build," she said. "It also means giving working people and families a realistic chance to live in the communities where they work."

The caveat

School districts across the country are struggling as surging gas prices make busing kids more expensive, but not here.

The big picture: A combination of things have helped San Diego Unified largely weather the costs, spokesperson James Canning told Axios.

A few of the reasons are:

💸 The district buys gas on the cheap from the county.

⛽ District fuel stations hold 60,000 gallons, so they can buy when prices are low and wait out spikes.

🚌 The district's fleet includes 43 electric buses, 23 other EVs and 315 diesel buses, with more EVs coming.

🎒 Only 4,651 of nearly 95,000 students use district transportation daily.

💰 The district has a roughly $1.5 million annual gas budget.

Zoom out: Nationally, the Iran war is sending diesel costs higher just as districts are grappling with a yearslong bus driver shortage.

More details

📈 San Diego County's unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in September, according to new state labor data. (10News)

👀 Amazon is keeping a San Diego facility vacant while it evaluates changes to its logistics network plans, raising questions about local jobs and development. (CBS8)

🌊 Local leaders are ramping up pressure to clean up the Tijuana River ahead of a potentially wet El Niño winter that could worsen cross-border pollution in South Bay communities. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

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.

Axios: What is the biggest issue facing the district?

Martinez: 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.

• 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.

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.

More from the candidates

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🚽 Claire is really hoping you don't make her dress up like a closed bathroom.

👩🏻‍🍼 Kate is on parental leave.

This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.