National City Councilmember Marcus Bush is running for a second term, running against Victor Arreola and Daniel Perez. Bush grew up in National City, went to Lincoln Acres, Elementary, Granger Junior High, and Sweetwater High School.
“District 4 is where I grew up. I was involved in the community. Went to Jr. ROTC, ROTC, where we did many community service projects. That is also where I was exposed to city events,” said the 36-year-old Democrat. “I then went to SDSU majoring in City Planning and Spanish. I worked in city planning at SANDAG, Rick Engineering, a private consulting firm. In the 2008 election, I became more involved in politics and community service. In the year of President Obama, I was really involved in the Barack Obama campaign, and that was my first introduction to politics. I also volunteered for former National City council member Mona Rios because we had a lot in common. Rios is the one who encouraged me to get involved in National City. She encouraged me to go in the Civil Service Commission and was appointed in 2011. I then went on to the Planning Commission, something I really wanted because I am a city planner. I became the youngest chair of the Planning Commission. At the same time, I was involved with the National City Rotary Club and became president. I was on the board of the National City Chamber of Commerce working with our small businesses,” he said.
Bush got his master’s degree in real estate development, moved to Portland, Oregon for almost two years, and when he came back, got involved again and decided to run for City Council.
Bush said homelessness is one of the biggest issues in the region, state, and country, and on Council, what they have done, is taking a more proactive stance in National City.
“We opened a homeless shelter. It is privately owned. No public money. It has 170 beds and is operated by the nonprofit The Rescue Mission. It serves as an emergency shelter, 30 days for families, single homeless folks, then they get them into the program at is main facility where they can go to full rehab, job training, detox, mental health education, giving them the tools so that they can find permanent housing. It is right next to my house. I did not say, ‘Not in my backyard.’ There were some concerns from my neighbors about crime, safety, and homeless people being on the streets, and littering, but that is not the case. That is being addressed,” he said.
Bush said the city is getting more people off the streets now, hired a homeless outreach team. He said there is a big encampment residents call “The Jungle” over by Plaza Bonita, and that needs to be addressed.
Bush said the cost of housing is another big issue.
“We passed policies to allow more building, to build more homes, but I also believe that we need rent stabilization and rent control policies because rent is skyrocketing, with 70% of renters in the city, they are feeling the brunt when there are increases. The increases I have seen and know about are all about greed. It is not expenses and inflation. It is just landlords trying to make more money. It is not all landlords, but there are many out there and it is hurting our families and feeding the homeless problem. Sometimes, we have two to three families in one home,” he said.
Bush said another priority is economic development and supporting the small business community and bringing more small businesses to National City.
“Supporting Plaza Bonita and bringing more jobs there. Providing job training with Sweetwater High School for our youth are things we have started,” he said.
Bush said he believes Council has made some mistakes in its dealings with the Port of San Diego, but he believes they are not heading in the right direction.
“I think those mistakes are being divided by not letting outside folks who are okay with the status quo, okay with polluting our west side, and okay with the highest rates of asthma and cancer in the county. We are not accepting that anymore as a community and as leaders. We are demanding more from the Port. You are seeing it in Assembly Bill 2783 with Assembly member David Alvarez, even though that bill ultimately did not make it to the governor’s desk, it still showed that we need more transparency. That was something that I supported, but unfortunately our city council did not. The Port has not been transparent with National City. There were efforts that I brought to have Local Agency Formation Commission to oversee the Port to start providing oversight, particularly for our police and fire public safety, and the city council did not support that,” he said.
Bush said the Port might oppose them, sending them threatening letters, and he thinks council’s response in the past has been weak.
“And removing our commissioner Sandy Naranjo, who was fighting for National City, council could not say what she was doing wrong. They just removed her at the behest of the Port. I think that was a very weak move. Those have been strategic errors, but I feel right now we have momentum. There is unity. We just released a white paper led by our police and fire, our public safety is subsidizing the Port operations in police coverage, fire protection, and services to the tune of about $8 million. That comes at a cost. National City does not generate any revenue. Port revenue is estimated at $14 million and National City does not get any of that. National City has no hotels on our part of the bayfront, so we do not get any TOT taxes like San Diego or Coronado does. We are not getting any of the benefits of the Port, but we are getting all the pollution. We are the only city that does not have a beach at the Port. We have a beach, but it is not accessible to the public. San Diego, Coronado, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista all have access to the bayfront. The Port is not going to hand that over to us. We must make the people at the Port who are okay with that uncomfortable and confront them about what has been going on, and that we are not going to accept that. I think the Port plays divide and conquer a lot in our politicians and pitting us against each other, and they do it for a reason. But if we are transparent about it, educate the public about what is going on, once that message gets out there, the people will start demanding more,” he said.
Bush said if the city was not the poorest, the city with the most people of color at 90%, he does not think that it would be the same with the Port, and said they need to have that “uncomfortable conversation” with the Port as well.
Bush said if reelected, he will work on National City getting its fair share of public safety dollars from the Port.
“North of $8 million is what we are owed, so I am going to fight with our police and fire, and I have their support, to get as much as that as we can. I am all for industry, but there needs to be more of a balance. Industry should not pollute our communities. We need more public space. We need more economic development on our waterfront. We need to use less of our precious waterfront land on parking lots,” he said. “I am working on graffiti with our city manager and the nonprofit Vision Culture Foundation who specializes in murals. Instead of wasting so much taxpayer money on graffiti abatement just to get tagged again, let’s work with local artists and transform these into murals and give people something that they are proud to do, and find out who these taggers are. They need to respect their community, and we need to learn how to channel their graffiti to artistry, into something good the beautifies the community. We appealed the no cruising ordinance. That was one of my biggest victories because the lowrider community is a big part of our identity. It is part of my identity as an African American and Mexican American. Now, that community has started a youth bike program, teaching kids’ leadership and how to build their own bikes. There is a lot more that we need to do on housing, improving our public transit system, fixing our streets, more bike lanes, and traffic calming is important. It is a safety issue. We need to fix the problem and find the best places to do this correctly,” he said.
