Gloria: “Many people are rightly concerned about the unsheltered who live among us day in, day out. But what of the unsheltered who buy badges to Comic-Con and then find themselves unable to afford a hotel room? Don’t they deserve our consideration and care, they who have sacrificed so much and worked so hard to get here? I ask you: what happens if they stop coming, stop paying that sweet Transient Hotel Occupancy Tax? I’ll tell you what happens: our budget for taking care of the homeless goes right in the port-a-potty. Remember the words of Jesus: ’The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.’”

Today, Mayor Todd Gloria announced that he was repurposing his proposed 1000-bed facility at Kettner and Vine. What had been intended as a permanent homeless shelter is now being pitched as a low-cost hotel for Comic-Con attendees. The Mayor was quick to stress that this sudden change had nothing to do with the convention’s recent comments that it had held successful gatherings in other cities, its complaints that San Diego was not doing enough to provide affordable places to stay for badge holders, or its refusal to sign anything beyond a one-year extension to its current contract with the city. Rather, he cited a desire to “forge a new and stronger-than-ever partnership” with Comic-Con, “strong like Iron Man’s armor, or Captain America’s shield, or Vision’s artificial body. Gee, that makes the whole Wanda thing kind of…never mind, love is love. My point here is that I’m not about to let San Diego’s biggest cultural signifier slip away on my watch — certainly not in an election year.”