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The Broken Windows That San Diego Won't Fix:

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San Diego residents seek curfew for Colina Del Sol Park  When "No Response" Becomes Policy New York's proven approach to urban disorder contrasts sharply with San Diego's paralysis, raising questions about political accountability ahead of November elections TL;DR: The Broken Windows That San Diego Won't Fix The Core Problem: San Diego parks have become centers of crime, drug use, and violence after dark. At Colina del Sol Park, residents have endured three years of escalating disorder—public drug use, vandalism, trespassing, defecation in apartment stairwells, a stabbing, and a fatal shooting—while city officials refuse to implement even basic remedies. New York Did It Right: In the 1990s, New York used "broken windows" policing—strict enforcement of minor offenses to prevent escalation to serious crime. The approach worked: NYC transformed from America's most dangerous city to one of its safest. The core principle: address disorder early befo...
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San Diego's $119 Million Budget Deficit Is Only the Tip of a $4.5 Billion Pension Iceberg

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City backs away from making San Diegans pay to drive to Mission Bay Park as budget fix – San Diego Union-Tribune City abandons beach parking fees while pension costs devour 27% of budget—and grow by $1.2 billion annually. True cost of workforce delay: $5 million per month. TL;DR San Diego faces a $119 million budget deficit for fiscal 2025-26, but this masks a far larger crisis: the city's $4.5 billion unfunded pension liability grows by approximately $1.2 billion annually as employees age and salaries rise. City leaders have backed away from controversial beach parking fees, instead proposing audits, management cuts, and lease renegotiations—but avoid addressing the core problem. Every city employee adds roughly $238,000 in annual costs when lifetime pension obligations are included, yet pension formulas based on "final compensation" mean delaying workforce reductions costs the city approximately $5 million monthly in lost savings. Expert analysis suggests only immedi...
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THE DOWNSTREAM COSTS:

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How K-12 Failure Imposes Trillions on Universities, Employers, and Democracy Itself The complete failure cascade from classroom to economy to civilization—and how a 2-year problem became a 50-year catastrophe BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) K-12 education's failures don't end at the schoolhouse door—they cascade through every institution downstream. Universities spend billions remediating students who arrive with diplomas claiming competency but performing at middle school levels. Employers waste billions training workers in basic literacy and numeracy that high schools should have provided. Democratic governance suffers as civically illiterate citizens make uninformed political decisions that perpetuate the very educational dysfunction that undereducated them. The system we have produces the system we have—a self-reinforcing failure loop that may be the most expensive policy disaster in American history. The pandemic learning loss response crystallizes the complete failure ca...
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