Mayor Todd Gloria plans to give the first State of the City address of his second term on Wednesday at an unusual location: City Hall. In the past, Gloria and other mayors often have delivered the annual speech at night in the ornate Balboa Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter, at a cost of several thousand dollars. This time, the city will stage, in Gloria’s words, “a stripped-down, bare-bones” event at 3 p.m. in the City Council chambers. San Diego faces a growing deficit of around $300 million in a $2.2 billion general fund budget and, thus, potential deep cuts. “It is intended to be symbolic, but we’re also going to save some money, and that’s good,” Gloria said. “And I hope that message will be received by council members, city executives and the public.” In a wide-ranging interview this week, Gloria spoke about the speech and his new four-year term. He said he will focus on four basic concerns — all familiar, some with tweaks — amid the all-encompassing budget challenge: homelessness, housing, public safety and infrastructure. On housing, Gloria said he wants the city to give greater priority to helping create homeownership opportunities for middle-income families, in addition to encouraging construction of units for lower-income residents. That’s a tall order, given that numerous state and local efforts to build more homes and reduce high housing prices have had limited success. “We spend a lot of time focused on the roughly 6,000 people who are homeless in this city, for good reason,” he said. “But I don’t feel like we talk nearly enough about what has to be hundreds of thousands of people who struggle. . . and can’t foresee buying a home in this city.” The cost of living, housing prices in particular, is often cited among the reasons people consider leaving San Diego. Campaigning for re-election in the fall, Gloria said he heard the same concerns everywhere. “It didn’t matter where I was — Mira Mesa, North Park, San Ysidro, Otay. People want to be safe, they want to fix the damn roads, do something about homelessness and they want to be able to afford to live here,” he said. The city budget picture has become critical as spending rose in recent years, in part because of workforce pay increases, and voters in November narrowly defeated Measure E, a proposed 1-cent sales tax increase that was expected to add about $400 million to city coffers annually. The mayor is still hunting for additional revenue through potential fee increases, reduced subsidies for organizations and businesses, and the reworking of leases for city-owned properties. Gloria wants city staff to “make sure our assets are performing as well as possible.” He also said San Diego will join other California cities to lobby the Legislature for tort reforms that help local governments, which frequently are found liable to pay hefty damages for a variety of reasons. Gloria said he wants to take aggressive action quickly to put the city on more solid financial footing in the long run. That won’t be easy – politically or financially. San Diego is facing deficits totaling $1.5 billion or more over the next five years, according to David Garrick of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We need to take care of it this year, then start rebuilding,” the mayor said. Midyear cuts in the current budget are likely, with broader action in the coming budget year. “We can’t resolve this on the margins,” he said. Gloria is moving toward a hiring freeze and is asking most city departments to propose 20 percent cuts in their budgets. Smaller cuts are suggested for transportation, police, fire and homeless services. City Council members have discussed cutting the number of high-salaried middle managers, which has grown significantly in recent years, and raising parking fees, among other things. For many years, city leaders have talked about fixing a “structural deficit,” where spending outpaces revenues, but have ended up patching through one year to the next. Often, tax increases have been suggested as the long-term solution. “The bottom line is, I think the city of San Diego will do fewer things well rather than a bunch of things poorly,” Gloria said. Regardless, the mayor said, “We must continue to expand (homeless) shelter capacity.” Gloria said he is still sticking with a proposed 1,000-bed shelter in an empty warehouse just east of San Diego International Airport that has run into neighborhood opposition and skepticism on the City Council. But he stressed the city is pursuing other options, both on public and private properties, for shelter buildings, authorized campsites and safe parking facilities. Despite a legal challenge, he expects a 200-spot safe parking site to open in the spring at the former Navy H-Barracks southwest of the airport. The mayor said he is not proposing reductions in the police force, which has long been unable to meet full staffing levels. While the number of officers leaving on a monthly basis has dropped, Gloria warned that a retirement bubble is looming. He said the use of cameras on “smart streetlights” and license plate readers has been a “force multiplier,” though not a replacement for officers. He said the relatively new technology already has boosted public safety, and he insists there are adequate privacy safeguards, though critics disagree. “This has been a home run for the city,” he said. Gloria’s goals for addressing the city’s long list of infrastructure needs have been lowered because of budget concerns. He hopes potential savings from cuts can help defray some maintenance costs but acknowledged a multibillion-dollar infrastructure deficit problem “is still there.” Despite the challenges, Gloria said, “I can’t emphasize enough the optimism I have for the situation. It’s a lot of work, but we’ve been here before. I’ve done this before.” As mayor and as a City Council member, he has been involved with 12 municipal budgets. “I know how to navigate through this,” he said. He pointed out he has served as mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic and a recession. “We got through it,” he said. Speculation that he might have been in line for, or was seeking, a federal appointment have faded with President Joe Biden’s pending exit and Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump. Gloria pledged to serve out a full second term. After that, he said his options may depend on one thing. “I will have no choice if I don’t do a good job as mayor,” he said.