Residents in Southcrest awoke on Monday morning to tow trucks hauling away vehicles parked on their street — an unwelcome surprise to many.
The work was part of the city’s effort to clean up the neighborhood after last week’s severe, damaging flooding, and ahead of more rain that could bring more. But several residents in Southcrest say the city didn’t give them advance notice that their vehicles would be towed, leaving some to push their flood-damaged cars off the street to avoid being towed.
“Obviously all the cars are not working, but that doesn’t mean that they’re junk,” said Elvira Paulin, who rents a house on Beta Street, on Monday morning. “We can’t even bring mechanics to check the cars [because of road closures]. We’re dealing with taking things out of our homes, and you expect us to move our cars in 30 minutes?”
Along with cleaning up from last week, the city is also preparing for another storm expected to drop at least 2 inches of rain on San Diego later this week. City officials say the vehicles need to be removed from the street in order for crews to clear mud and debris from the road so future storm runoff can flow properly.
Crews have been clearing about four miles of channels between last week’s storm and the coming one, city officials say — work that is both recovery cleanup and preparation for rain expected later this week.
“They go hand in hand,” city spokesperson Jose Ysea said. He said crews have collected 3,100 tons of storm debris from the affected areas across San Diego, including Southcrest, Encanto and Mountain View, and that the city was having cars towed if they were a hazard or impeding city cleanup work.
Officials say they followed procedures to notify residents about the towing, posting no parking signs on the curb 24 hours in advance and going door to door. Police also then ed ed owners of vehicles, said Lucero Maganda, a community representative for Mayor Todd Gloria, in what Ysea called “an extra step.”
But residents like Paulin say city communication was lacking and late, and that crews handed out information on Monday after the crews had already started towing.
She and her neighbors managed to push her car onto one neighbor’s property.
Some Southcrest neighbors are trying to stay connected with each other. Many are in a WhatsApp group chat, where they share announcements and resources, such as where to find warm food and free transportation, says Karen Moran, who lives on Beta Street. Although her own home was damaged, she is offering meals with donated food to neighbors in her driveway.
Moran said one neighbor posted about the towing to notify others, but not everyone in the neighborhood is in the group chat.
The city said it is working with neighbors to help spread information. “It’s very hard to get in touch with everyone,” said Maganda, adding later that they are “trying to work with trusted community leaders to share the information.”
This isn’t the first time the city’s towing policies have come under scrutiny.
More than a year ago, a city audit found that towing practices by San Diego police disproportionately affected low-income people and recommended changes to city policies, including a “text before tow” program, parking “boots” or offers of community service instead of fines.
Last January, city officials said they were exploring implementing those changes. But the city auditor, Andy Hanau, said Monday that no changes have since been made.
“We follow up on all of our audit and investigative recommendations every six months,” Hanau said in a statement. “As of our most recent review, all of the recommendations from the towing audit were still in the process of being implemented.”
Southcrest residents say that the towing is just their latest frustration with how the city has responded to the devastation in their neighborhood.
It’s “an understatement” to say that the cleaup has been slow, said Koko Fajardo, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years.
“It’s a Black and brown community, so time and time again, we’re the people that kind of (bear the brunt of) it,” Fajardo said. “Thankfully we have each other, but it’s ridiculous. We cannot count on anybody.”
Ramon De La Mora and his wife have felt “bewildered” by the whole situation. They lost everything in their Birch Street home, including important documents. He could barely read the policy information on his car insurance paperwork due to water damage.
“It feels like we are abandoned,” he said. “Someone’s going to have to be responsible for all of this.”
Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed reporting.
