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Politics

Roundtable: Trump And Women, Gaspar And Roberts, Measure A, Lilac Hills

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop in Indianapolis, April 20, 2016.
Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop in Indianapolis, April 20, 2016.
Roundtable: Trump And Women, Gaspar And Roberts, Measure A, Lilac Hills
Trump, D-3, Measure A, Lilac HillsGUESTS:Sara Libby, editor, Voice of San Diego Maya Srikrishnan, reporter, Voice of San Diego Andrew Bowen, metro reporter, KPBS News Alison St John, North County reporter, KPBS News

Will take a look at the measure to allow 1700 homes on 600 North County acres. I'm Mark Sauer. The Roundtable starts now. Welcome to our discussion. Joining me at the Roundtable are Sara Libby , editor, Voice of San Diego. And Maya Srikrishnan also of Voice of San Diego. And a reporter, Anthony Bowen and Alison St John. Elite recording of Donald Trump ragging about sexually assaulting women has rocked the already presidential campaign. Trump dismiss the locker room talk and assisted -- insisted he never did such things. Here's Anderson Cooper raising the question. Are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss women without consent? I have great respect for women and nobody has more respect for women than I do. So you are saying you never did that? You hear these things. I was embarrassed by it may have tremendous respect to women. Have you ever done those things? I will tell you no, I have not. Since then several women have come forward saying that Donald Trump did kiss a grope them. It prompted women to reveal their own personal experiences with the sexual conduct. Go back to the recording when it leaked. What was your reaction? It's a little bit of a mix because we are only just now starting to get this outrage once we heard the tape. I've heard a lot of these allegations before and lawsuits from different people web come forward over the years and said these types of inks happen to him. So I think a lot of women actually were not shocked when they heard this. They're probably saddened and disgusted and a little confused by the fact that we are only so outreach now that we are hearing it from him. As we've said, it's been fast-moving a lot of developments day by day since that thing happened last week. One of the things and this was a major story was about some of the social media reaction. Tell us about that. Kelly shared her own story of an experience that she had with some unwanted touching and groping and encouraged other people to share their stories and I think even she was shocked by the enormous outpouring and thousands and thousands of women sharing their stories and it just piled up and really became like this massive snowball effect of women saying that these types of things that happen to me. Are you shocked at the reaction and some of the personal experiences? A bit -- I think it is interesting. Seems like really it is Donald Trump that's putting a big cornet of women's issues. That's what's really creating a lot more dynamic discussion about how women are being treated I think part of the reason why it is coming up is because his opponent is a woman and I do think at the very least that it is good that now the discussion is at the forefront of a national and presidential campaign. We are having -- where having discussions about what women are dealing with. It does not seem like were happy the discussion in the right direction and not talking about all of the things that we can be doing to make things better for women. We are just getting our minds around how terrible they actually are. Would could we be doing to make things better for women? I think Clinton has been talking about lot of proposals about childcare in the workplace and paid leave policies and things like that to sort of how that burden shared. So the difference between those policies and should a woman be able to take a bus without being groped are very different conversations. Yesterday we had two speeches one was Donald Trump saying this is never have been and it is a lie and then Michelle Obama the first lady speaking on behalf of the Clinton campaign. This is disgraceful and it is intolerable. It doesn't matter what party you belong to Democrat, Republican, independent, no women deserves to be treated like this. What of his points was it's been years ago and these women did not come forward and that does -- that is a case in similar situations. One thing that's important to remember is when it happens to you it happens in isolation so I think it is easy to say maybe there's something that I did to about this on and you think it is an isolated incident and then when it is on a public stage and he is on video saying that he does this all the time it's only then that you start to realize this happened to a lot of people. I think him denying that it had ever happened in reality on that debate stage really a lot of these women have said that's what sparked them to come forward and just having that experience denied publicly by someone who is running for president I think was the last straw for a lot of them. I wanted to bring in -- this is affecting racism because Trump is at the head of the Republican. Duncan Hunter Junior was on KBS and talking about this. I'm sorry we don't have a recording. He said he's been to war and he recorded this stuff. They were talking about not seeing a woman for seven months but just leave it at that so I find this completely unfair. I don't think -- where not talking about Marine sitting there talking around the campfire. We are talking about a man who is running beauty pageants and running shows in celebrity apprentice and the sorts of workplaces. Yes, absolutely. I think there's a difference tween whatever you think appropriate locker room talk is an sexual assault. What he's talking about was something that's a crime. I think dragging the military into it is a little bit offensive especially in a town like this. I am a military wife myself and I don't want to be associated with that type of behavior. I do think there is a danger in the terms of media that we watch because it might be easy to think that this kind of behavior disqualifies him as being a presidential candidate. If you choose to watch different medium it is really important to get a broad understanding of what everybody is watching because some are just spending their time attacking Clinton or previous candidates. So we may think that this is a feeling sweeping the nation but -- they thought people would vote logically and the Pope did not turn out as expected. Last question before we made this topic is there a Silverlight to do this because it is creating a national discussion on women and men in power? I was going to say that this is happened before in America. This is not the end of the discussion. Maybe we will make progress here but is going to have been and continue. We will certainly watch and may be on the air more news is breaking on this. Who knows. It is usually a cakewalk to reelection for San Diego County supervisors but not in district 3 this year. Dave Roberts is in a tough battle with in Salida's Mayor Kristin Gaspar. What is the main vulnerability here for the Democrats? Dave Roberts had a scandal in his office and the county ended up being a little over $300,000 to be able for issues for that. So that would explain why Kristin Gaspar wants to express ethics and Roberts want to put that away and focus on issues. Yes. He's really been stressing that the DA has chosen not to take criminal charges against him and I think Kristin Gaspar's point is a should not have even gotten that far anyway. What about Kristin Gaspar she is the mayor of that city of Encinitas. What are some of her weaknesses? I think speaking of Trump I think whatever big weaknesses was after the primary she said that she supported Trump and she is a very polarizing figure. She has since rescinded that endorsement and her favorite bowl -- favorable opinion and public. Then also in the coastal part of that distric people tend to be a little more environmentally friendly so I think that Kristin Gaspar is seen as being really does with developers and a little bit to development front of her some people. There is evidence that those hundreds of thousands of dollars being thrown into her campaign and you might say she is fortunate to get all the support, but on the other hand, think this is creating a problem because in people say what are all these interest going to expect from her? We do have a clip from the candidate. The only way to resolve some of the affordability crisis is to diversify the housing options that are available throughout the region and one major role is to make sure that we do diverse of I the housing opportunities throughout the region. She is talking about housing and homelessness in affordable housing. That is a key issue here. Basak about both candidates addressing that and they both agree. I think everyone in San Diego County will agree that affordable housing and homelessness is a huge issue. It is something that we see every day and in terms of the County supervisors. One biggest roles is providing social services. Homelessness is a huge thing and they have really been starting to gear up on that front with project one for all which is been helping homeless veterans and projects that are tying mental illness funding. Kristin Gaspar has also recently started a pilot program to deal with homelessness in that city. To what extent do they have a role in helping build new housing or diverse of find the housing market? Isn't that decided by the city's? Yes, that there is a lot of unincorporated land that is still undeveloped and most of the cities are pretty built out. So that's one of the big debates right now is are we going to stick to development and building housing with is already housing and infrastructure or we just went to build where there is space? That's one of the big debates. You can understand people's thinking. Look at all that open space in the backcountry. That is the area that the supervisors have authority over. I think they're making a point that there was a general plan that has places for new development. That is a nice segue. -- Segue. We have a general plan and the county I believe that they are concerned about quality of life issues and they are as concerned about congestion, concerned about over development, and they won a supervisor that's going to stand up and say enough is enough. That's really what I've been doing is really making sure that we look at our communities and we don't have rampant over development. That will development thing starts -- seems to clash what we were talking about. Yes, the general plan lays out development along places where there is public transit and close to major highways and it's close to where there's already development and infrastructure. That is where they plan to build future housing. Some of the problem is that neighbors or it is more costly and no -- neighbors don't want development in those areas. That is why some of the people who are just prodevelopment or think that we need to build more housing would prefer to build other development because you can just get it done. The way that California law has been working for the past several decades is really encouraged that. When you do an impact report, it encourages more development out in the back country because there is no less of the impact on traffic. If you go to urban development you are assuming that all those extra people will be driving cars and slow down traffic in those areas. They are sort of a shift in California as a whole to encourage less sprawling development and sort of shift our frame of thought in how that development affects environment. Will shift to a first cousin of that and -- Measure A calls for increase in sales tax to be spent on transit, freeways, and infrastructure. How much money would raise and how will it be spent? So the tax would last 40 years. It is expected to raise over $18 billion and the largest share of the money would go to public transit and 42% would go to that. Both capital improvement projects including transit line and also continuing transit operations. The next biggest share will go to local infrastructure. And that would basically just give cash grants to cities to use pretty much however they want. They can use it for local infrastructure, road repair, bridges, including transit. Then the third share goes to highways. Mostly HOV and manage lanes but a few purpose lanes. And then there is money for open space reservation as well. As we said, this has people on all sides of the fence. Let's start with San Diego Councilman talking about how this whole thing came together. That is Republicans who are supporting tax increases. Or Democrats who are willing to say we will agree to finance some freeway expansion in order to get a massive increase in public transit for community. So losses backing Measure A There is a campaign that's mostly funded by the people who would benefit from all of this tax money. So carpenters, laborers, and the businesses that want to see these tax dollars.'s also been endorsed by that County taxpayers Association, Chamber of Commerce. And organizations circulate San Diego and they saw as the best that we can get at this time. Tax measures are very difficult to pass in California. You have to sort of look at the political realities in see how many people are writing transit and how many people want to tax themselves in order to give more money. Let's get the other side. Todd Gloria -- There is money for transit in this measure for sure. It is not how much money is there. What this measure actually does is a increases freeway capacity and some of the most communities already in the South Bay but also in other areas a North County where we get more cars, which means more pollution. So he is talking about his area. I take his point and it seems like there is a minority of the funding is going towards freeway construction but there are people that feel like even that is too much. You talk about the political realities. My question is if we have billions I go to the transit, then how long is it going to take for the political reality to change? That is a big question. I think there is a lot of discussion about if these groups oppose Measure A what is the next plan and what are they going to do to build out the transit network that they admit is very necessary? David Alvarez told me that he's interested in exploring attacks through MTS that they don't planner find transit themselves, but they may or may not have the legal authority to impose a tax on those communities that they cover, which is really just the city of San Diego and South County communities. These tax measures basically need two things. They need a presidential election to happen because that's where the most numbers of professors go. And then we need a good -- economy. I've not heard a very serious and politically alternative to what Measure A on the ballot. As we saw the terrible wildfires we had here something like 1900 homes destroyed and it fell short. That is a measure for firefighting equipment. It did not get their. What are the chances of this when a passing? The last point that I've seen was done by sandbag and they are -- Sandag. The polling company told them that if there's a funded opposition campaign than that can really sink this measure. It's been bankrolled by a union that wanted certain concessions to union labor here. So the chances of passing at this point seems fairly slim. Since we are talking mostly about send you County. Will check back in on the controversial measure -- Measure B . Remind us again what is it. So Lilac Hills is up Interstate 15 North of Escondido. For many people that's like way up there. The plan would build 1700 homes in some retail and an area that the general plan call for only 810 homes. So this is like a major shift of a mini city in the middle of some role Agerter -- agriculture. So that is not the plan out there. I think this is one thing that all voters need to about. You are miles and miles away and may not have ever heard of it. The thing to think about it really is -- if it happened to your community and if you have a general plan that you spent years in this case it did spend years on this plan and then the developer decide that they were not getting the okay from their local jurisdiction. It could happen to you so it is worth thinking about the process as well. I think in addition to this pattern that project is a first the many that are in line looking for permission to build out there and this is the place of the county has not planned to fill in previously. So voting on this their deciding on how they see the future of our County and where we want housing to be built. Opponents complain that this is a leapfrog development. What do they mean by that? It is pretty easy to visualize. You are building a community inside a rural area. It does seem to be close to 15 but quite a stretch. There is a road which is wide and brought that we spent a lot of money to build but that is 7 miles to the east and that's what the general plan is calling for growth. In this area it would be leapfrogging into an area where the infrastructure does not currently supported resulting in major expenses for taxpayers. If they seeing -- if this community is going to be plagued by traffic than what it that just decrease the value of the homes? I think that all homes everywhere traffic isn't as big of an issue for a lot of people I think that this community -- they are saying that they will provide homes that are like for hundred thousand dollars, which is pretty affordable in San Diego. So I think that the market is such that traffic and distance might not matter so much. The fact is that they probably are both fairly cheaply. There likely to be able to make a profit after all the extra spending on this initiative. I don't know how they will make a profit without raising the price of those houses be on what they're saying. Can you really expect voters way away from this to really know much our care especially when we have this phonebook ballot? I think that is what the recording on -- they are counting on. There's no guarantee of that in once it gets built, it's likely they will be over half $1 million. The signs really only say housing. I think that is intentionally misleading. It will not provide housing for people in City Heights. With all you see is housing -- Like you were saying it's what are the first in the pipeline some people might think finally 17 her -- 1700 homes might help. There are other projects in the pipeline and conform to the general plan. So I think there will be more housing in that area. Any idea if it will pass? We've seen the developers and the opposition is much less. I don't know if money is a key issue. That doesn't wrapup another week of KPBS Roundtable. I would like to thank Sara Libby, Maya Srikrishnan , Andrew Baldwin -- and you bow in -- Anthony Bowen and Alison St John.

Donald Trump, women, and San Diego races

The tape that emerged last week of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women registered a 10 on electoral seismographs across the country, creating more havoc in the flailing Republican Party.

The tape became a catalyst for women in the tens of thousands to share publicly their own stories of everyday sexual assault and to call Trump out.

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Why did the other stories of assault by Trump or his hateful remarks about Mexicans, threats to Muslims, mocking of the disabled not gain this kind of traction? Some pundits thought that it was because women heard him brag about it in his own voice.

Cong. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), while deploring Trump's words, said on KPBS Midday Edition on Wednesday that he will vote for him.

Cong. Duncan Hunter, Jr., (R-Alpine), said in an interview with the Washington Post this week, "It has nothing to do with people's choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and their differences in policy. And it has no impact to me whatsoever."

VOSD: What We Learned This Week

Supervisor District 3: Roberts vs. Gaspar

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Supervisor Dave Roberts, the only Democrat on the five member San Diego County Board of Supervisors, is not having an easy time running for reelection.

His first year in office was a rocky one, blemished by accusations of abuse of power by former employees, which led to his uniquely bad performance in the primary where he got 39 percent of the vote.

His opponent, Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar, received 34 percent. She has also raised significantly more money than Roberts, much of it from developers.

Issues in this race are how the county tackles homelessness, whether San Diego County Measure A is any kind of answer to the area’s transit woes, and, perhaps most important, whether the county’s new General Plan, crafted over several years, will survive.

KPBS News: Candidates For District 3 Supervisors Seat To Face Off In San Diego

VOSD: Roberts Thinks Measure A Is "Good" — But Can't Say Whether He Supports It

Taking the measure of Measure A

The San Diego Association of Governments spent two years creating Measure A, a countywide half-cent sales tax increase to fund several major transportation, infrastructure and open-space projects.

The compromises involved in this process were enough to get it on the November ballot, but the measure is controversial.

Supporters include San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria and other elected officials, unions, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and, unusually, the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

Lined up against the measure are environmental and progressive groups, both political parties and Councilman David Alvarez, whose district is slated for an expansion of I-5, which runs right through it.

Although the final version of Measure A on the ballot calls for 42 percent of the $18.2 billion raised over 40 years to go toward transit, as contrasted with 14 percent for roads and highways, some environmentalists perceive the measure as backward looking.

KPBS News: Measure A Tax Increase Divided Conservatives, Liberals Alike

KPBS News: San Diego Vs. Los Angeles: A Tale Of Two Tax Measures

Traffic on a San Diego freeway is shown in this file photo, Nov. 22, 2011.
Associated Press
Traffic on a San Diego freeway is shown in this file photo, Nov. 22, 2011.

Is Lilac Hills an answer to housing shortage?

There are several thorny problems posed by Measure B, the Lilac Hills Ranch initiative on the November ballot.

The county is short of housing – of all kinds -- and Lilac Hills Ranch will provide some 1,700 homes.

On the other hand, the developer wants to build those homes in a rural area where just 100 homes are allowed by the county's General Plan.

The project is perceived as an end-run around the plan, the Board of Supervisors who crafted that plan, and the county planning commissioners.

If Measure B passes, many feel it will wave a green flag for all developers to go directly to voters and thereby avoid planning restrictions.

KPBS News: Lilac Hills Initiative Gives Voters An Important Choice

Area in Valley Center where Lilac Hills Ranch project is planned, Aug. 30, 2016.
Alison St John
Area in Valley Center where Lilac Hills Ranch project is planned, Aug. 30, 2016.

The 2024 primary election is March 5. Find in-depth reporting on each race to help you understand what's on your ballot.