Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Week in Review: An Underwater Convention Center?

The $500 million Convention Center expansion could be flooded with seawater by 2050 if climate change predictions are accurate, investigative reporter Amita Sharma reports.

Yikes. Her story includes maps showing sea level rise projections for 2050 and 2100 that have been making the rounds at the San Diego Port Commission.

“If we’re going to make an investment like this on our waterfront, we need to be ready for sea level rise,” Port Commissioner Scott Peters said.

Advertisement

Speaking of Peters, he is now officially the representative for the 52nd Congressional District. His opponent, six-term Congressman Brian Bilbray, conceded yesterday.

Other Stories this Week

During the mayoral race between Bob Filner and Carl DeMaio, one poll was not like the others. While most surveys showed Filner leading, a poll commissioned by U-T San Diego put DeMaio 10 points ahead.

There was talk when the poll first came out that it seemed fishy. This week, a woman who took the poll (and a former journalist at the newspaper) told KPBS she thought the questions had an agenda behind them. “As I was listening to the questions,” she said, “I thought, ‘this sounds like a Republican-leaning line of questioning,’ – just the way the questions were formulated.”

The U-T San Diego building.
Nicholas McVicker
The U-T San Diego building.

There was a lot of news this week about politicians taking new jobs. City Council President Tony Young told KPBS he is resigning from the council to become CEO of the San Diego chapter of the Red Cross. This means there will be a special election within 90 days to replace Young, and our metro reporter Katie Orr has already identified one likely candidate.

Advertisement

State Assemblyman and former mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher is taking a corporate development job at Qualcomm and state Senator Christine Kehoe has been named executive director of the California Plug-in Vehicle Collaborative, which promotes all-electric cars.

San Diego Hospice, the largest hospice program in the county, is dealing with a federal audit over possible Medicare violations, potential layoffs of hundreds of employees and the sudden departure of two top executives.

The hospice says the executives’ resignations have nothing to do with the audit.

We also found out this week that San Diego’s temporary winter homeless shelter will not open on Monday as scheduled.

"We're praying that we'll be open by Thanksgiving," said Alpha Project CEO Bob McElroy, who runs the shelter. "But right now it looks like we're going to have to have a miracle to do that."

Here’s hoping.