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Economy

Roundtable Looks At Mandatory Water Restrictions, Unlimited Taxi Permits, And A New Start For The Padres

Roundtable Looks At Mandatory Water Restrictions, Unlimited Taxi Permits, And A New Start For The Padres
Roundtable Looks At Mandatory Water Restrictions, Unlimited Taxi Permits, And A New Start For The Padres
Water Restrictions, Taxi Permits, Padres Opening Day HOST:Mark SauerGUESTS:Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Megan Burks, KPBS News Jay Paris, Mighty 1090

Mandatory water restrictions

For the first time in the state's history, California cities and towns have been ordered to reduce their water use by 25 percent. The governor's not messing around with voluntary restrictions anymore.

He delivered his edict Wednesday on a brown field where, had the state not been heading in to its fourth year of drought, he would have been standing on five feet of snow.

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"It's a different world, we have to act differently," he said.

State reservoirs have a year's worth of water, and with record low snowfall over the winter there won't be much to replenish them.

Critics complain that farms, which use about 80 percent of the water in the state, are mostly exempt from mandatory conservation. The order is in effect now through next February.

San Diego lifts cap on taxi permits

For the first time since the early 1980s, San Diego has an open taxi market. That means, as of this week, there is no cap on the number of permits the city will issue to cabbies who want to work for themselves.

Who will this affect? The 993 permit holders who heretofore enjoyed being the select few, and who paid, in some cases, thousands of dollars for the privilege. Why so much? Because a limited number of permits caused an underground market to emerge with permit holders selling their taxi-driving rights for as much as $150,000. With an open market, those permits are now worthless and those with them are bracing for financial ruin.

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The city pushed the change through after a San Diego State study found many drivers who leased cabs from permit holders were earning less than minimum wage.

Hopes of Padres fans are high

This could be the year! The Padres open their season on Monday in Los Angeles. The team has made drastic roster changes, dumping dead weight, and spending about $10 million more on payroll than last season to acquire some top shelf talent. And it's giving fans something they haven’t had in years: hope.

Corrected: March 18, 2024 at 10:14 PM PDT
Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly claimed some San Diego taxi permit holders paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for permits. The figure has been corrected.