In the past few years, many La Jolla residents have felt that they should split off from San Diego. Multiple similar attempts have been made to break off in the past, with the idea on their mind since the 50s, but never came through fully.
The La Jolla residents have many reasons that they feel they should secede. Voice of San Diego expresses how factors like poor road quality and unreliable services have made residents feel that their tax money has not been used well, where if they split, “these problems could be solved.”
But La Jolla residents also have more reasons that are not as tangible. Many people who live there feel like they are separate from other places in San Diego due to factors like a higher average income.
The average La Jolla income is “about 30 percent higher” than in other San Diego communities, which helps with the area’s separate feel.
La Jolla has a different ethnic demographic of people compared to the rest of San Diego, which some residents believe is also a factor for splitting.
Eric Han, a Sage Creek student who has family in La Jolla, says, “it has always felt separate from San Diego to me.”
While many in La Jolla believe that they should break off, people from other parts of San Diego have different opinions on it.
“Being their own city comes with a lot of issues and costs, as San Diego provides for police, firefighters, parks, education, etc.,” said Stephanie Castaneda, a resident of San Diego, and that “once they are on their own, the cost would be considerably more.”
If La Jolla split from San Diego, they could allocate more funds to their own problems, but it would, in turn, drastically raise the cost of living for residents.
Former La Jolla resident, Marie Rosser, has a different perspective, though. When asked about the rise in price, she said, “even if taxes went up, the people would gladly pay them if the issues in things like road quality were fixed.”
Although the cost of living may go up, the Association for the City of La Jolla still successfully collected enough signatures.
This process has not come without its issues, though, as problems like improper counting of signatures and lawsuits have caused delays to the process.
The Local Agency Formation Commission, which was responsible for reviewing the signatures, had issues, which led to the plan originally getting thrown out. Later, Executive Officer Keene Simonds reviewed and found that many were thrown out for “simple misspellings,” and after recounting, the vote would be able to go through.
The city of San Diego did not feel that they should be able to do that and sued the LAFC, but a judge denied their claim, according to Times of San Diego.
If La Jolla were to break off from San Diego, it would cause many social, political and economic changes in the city’s landscape.
