San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo here: Happy Valentine’s Day!

Welcome to this week’s Raul Roundup, your go-to source for the latest news, updates, and insights from our community and City Hall. Have a look at this week’s Valentine’s Day edition:

Need Last Minute Valentine's Day Plans?

One thing I love about San Diego is our incredible arts and culture scene. If you’re in need of some last-minute Valentine’s Day plans, it just so happens that February is Museum Month in San Diego.

You can pick up a free Museum Month pass at any San Diego Public Library, which gives you half price admission for up to four people at 70+ museums around San Diego County. Nadia and I love taking our son, Rafael, to the San Diego Museum of Art.

The Museum Month pass is valid through the end of the month. Click here to learn more about Museum Month and to view a full list of participating museums.

Tierrasanta School Creates Safe Space for Students

A heartwarming story out of Tierrasanta this week:

“Miller Elementary School in Tierrasanta has unveiled a new space on campus, ‘The Lighthouse,” to enhance students’ mental health.

The re-purposed room, created through a partnership with Social Advocates for Youth San Diego and a two-year grant from the Prebys Foundation, has been set aside to provide support for youngsters dealing with social and emotional issues, and more.”

Being a student is difficult enough already; being a student with today’s harmful impacts of social media, competitive academic environment, and trends of isolative behavior make it more challenging than ever. I’m inspired by the work of Miller Elementary School and Social Advocates for Youth San Diego (SAY) to support the emotional needs of their students.

Programming like Miller Elementary’s Lighthouse Project highlights the benefit of continued private and public investments in our education system. A big thank you to Prebys Foundation for making innovative projects possible!

Tour of Illumina

Another thing I love about San Diego is our economy; our steadily growing biotechnology and life sciences industries are huge drivers of the San Diego economy. There are a handful of companies that, as the industry was budding, planted their roots here and established San Diego as a premier location for biotechnology. I had the opportunity to tour Illumina, one such company, last week.

As chair of Economic Development Committee, I recognize the importance of working with, and understanding the needs of, our key industries. My tour of Illumina’s San Diego campus was incredibly insightful, as we covered not just the critical genetic analysis work they are doing, but what the City of San Diego can do to support their continued success.

This Is One of the Worst Flu Seasons in Decades

This week, I got hit hard by the flu—so hard that I missed council meetings. Unfortunately, my experience with this flu season is not an uncommon one. Time Magazine reports that This Is One of the Worst Flu Seasons in Decades:

“Nearly 8% of U.S. outpatient medical visits recorded during the week ending Feb. 1 were related to respiratory illnesses including the flu, which is among the highest percentages documented by the CDC over the last two decades, according to the agency’s data.”

Thankfully, I am recuperating and beginning to feel better. If you have not already, I encourage you and your family to get the flu shot. Stay healthy and check on your friends and neighbors who you haven’t seen in a while who might have caught it—we all need to look out for each other because this flu is no joke.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I’ll leave you with a picture of the valentine in our lives, Rafael.

“"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition." --Alexander Smith