Just a year ago, Councilman David Alvarez was a relative unknown.
The soft-spoken San Diego native regularly showed up at events and press conferences without staffers, and usually left without facing a single reporter.
As a councilman, he struggled to push forward even a modest ordinance to create a foreclosure registry amid a tense relationship with former Mayor Jerry Sanders. (It ultimately prevailed.)
But the mayoral race, where he was buoyed by his own compelling personal narrative and millions of dollars from labor groups, has catapulted him to a contender getting attention from the New York Times and President Barack Obama.
Neither was enough to propel him into the mayor’s office. Republican challenger Kevin Faulconer decisively defeated Alvarez Tuesday.
But the groundswell that emerged to support his candidacy – high-profile national Democrats parachuted in for campaign appearances, and more than 600 volunteers gathered the Saturday before the election walking door to door to rally voters on his behalf – marks a sudden transformation in Alvarez’s nascent political career.
It’s a reality even Alvarez himself likely couldn’t have imagined just months ago.
While Trump and other GOP presidential candidates push for a giant wall between the United States and Mexico, San Diego is literally building a bridge. In San Diego, Alvarez said, Republicans have changed. Although he is frequently critical of Sanders’s mayoral tenure and unsuccessfully ran against Faulconer for mayor, Alvarez agrees with their stances on the border. “We have a common goal,” he said.
Read MoreThe 15-acre Cesar Solis Park, off Del Sol Boulevard, is the result of more than a decade’s work. “It actually feels a little bit unbelievable,” Councilman David Alvarez said of the park’s opening. “It’s one of the most satisfying days of the eight years on the council.” Alvarez, whose district includes Ocean View Hills, was instrumental over the years in pushing for funding for the roughly $17 million park.
Read MoreLast weekend, hundreds of San Diego residents picked up shovels and paint brushes to successfully beautify and activate four alleyways in North Park and Logan Heights. Councilmember David Alvarez made an appearance and Radio Pulso del Barrio, the new grassroots community radio station, came with microphones and a recorder to collect stories from all the participants. Each site had at least ten different projects/activities happening at any given moment, too many things to list in this article.
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