A banner indicates Torrey Pines High School’s new status. Gloria: “Some of these facilities are really first rate. And the teachers didn’t want to go back to in-person instruction, anyway.”

“It’s no secret that San Diego is facing a serious financial shortfall,” says San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. “With tourism reduced to almost nothing thanks to covid, we’re just not getting the tax revenue we need to do everything we need to do. So we’re going to have to improvise. My predecessor left me with a serious homeless problem, and not a lot of money to do anything about it as far as providing permanent housing. But every pandemic has a silver lining: covid has also left us with dozens of empty school buildings, equipped with shower facilities, commercial kitchens, and hundreds of empty bedrooms, er, classrooms. Plus, this gives the good people who elected me a chance to show that they’re serious about helping me enact my compassionate agenda. After all, their property tax dollars help pay for these places!”