Ditas Yamane owns Premium Real Estate Service, is 2020 President-elect for the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors and is running for city council of National City. She says she wakes up every morning and tells herself “Okay, Ditas, let’s do this”.
She said she is primarily running for city council because she believes her business knowledge is what is needed by the city right now.
She said the top three points of her time in office would be spent addressing what she says is a lack of housing in National City, creating local jobs and developing better public safety.
“We have to build more housing. It is important because it affects our quality of life. Actually being a homeowner motivates people. Having more homes would drive the city and drive investment in the city,” Yamane said.
Developers need to consider what National City residents can afford to own, and gentrification, she said, is not necessarily a bad thing. She would like city council and developers to take a strong look at blighted areas for possible redevelopment.
Although she did not specify which properties would make her list for redevelopment, she said it should not be that hard to create something low and middle-income residents can afford to own.
She takes issue with how the almost 19% poverty rate in National City is calculated and believes the comparatively low population, when placed side-by-side with the city of San Diego, generates a false high.
The business owner believes— regardless of how many people in National City are living below the national poverty level— poverty and homelessness exist because local policymakers aren’t creating jobs.
She did not identify in what sector those jobs would ideally exist, nor the processes she would employ to bring more businesses and potential job openings of any kind to the city.
“Economic development is needed, we should invite businesses to invest in us. We have to make sure people can build businesses here with reinvestment into the community,” Yamane said.
She also wants public safety agencies to better align with National City residents’ needs. Speaking to the general demand from Black Lives Matters affiliated protesters across the nation calling to defund the police, Yamane said she would not defund the National City department, but thinks funds might be better allocated across public safety agencies.
She sees both the Fire Department and the Police Department as pulling from the same pot of taxpayer dollars and thinks the distribution of funds deserves a close look.
“We need services for our residents but they expect us, policy makers, to lead prudently. In National City, about 70% of the budget goes to police and fire and we need to revisit that,” Yamane said.
The budget, while not broken down by percentage, does reveal both fire and police allocations within the approved National City budget, as publicly posted on the city website, saw an increase from 2019 to 2020.
Yamane proposes the city looks at public safety funding as a business owner would and reduce overall spending, as well as prioritize needs.
“As a business owner, I know how to tighten my belt, look at services and prioritize… For example, if you look at National City, we don’t have fires but have a need for emergency services,” Yamane said.
She also believes the relative small size of National City lends itself well to people taking care of each other and promoting environmental justice so every resident is better off.
“We need to take care of each other because if we’re not healthy we’re not wealthy. We need to make sure we’re at the table when discussing the environment to assert how we’re going to take care of people who are impacted by things like the recent Navy boat fire,” Yamane said, referring to a July fire aboard the Bonhomme Richard.
She points to Paradise Creek as a success story of National City working in partnership to transform a once-contaminated ground into affordable housing, providing a better place to live for some 200 families while also correcting an environmental mess.
Yamane said there is a real need for local elected leaders to create relationships with public agencies.
“We have to make sure our government is working so our city is a place where businesses can thrive with housing investment and community services. I say with my own business: ‘if you give good service, clients will come back,’ and it is that way in government as well. If you take care of your citizens they want to be there and give back,” Yamane said.
