San Diego's Politifest 2019 Will Focus On Housing And Transportation
Speaker 1: 00:00 This year, housing and transportation will top the conversation at Politifacts, which is a public affair summit hosted each year by voice of San Diego. What so many pressing issues facing the region and nation organizers. Hope people walk away more. Civically engaged here to talk about that is Scott Lewis, editor in chief of voice of San Diego. Scott, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, uh, election season will be here soon and you want Politifacts to help people move into that season and formed a, what can people expect with this year's summit? Speaker 2: 00:31 Well, you know, every year we used to, uh, host it as a debate about the mayor's race and other political actual debates. This year it was kind of an off year. And so we thought of a way to make it still relevant and we realize that everybody's talking about housing and transportation constantly. And so we said, let's focus on that. And I have never had more interest in this event and more, you know, people that want to come and people who want to speak. And uh, it's been fantastic. So we were going to have a whole track of discussions about homelessness, including, uh, S some support from KPBS, his own Andrew bone. And we'll be talking about, uh, where we're at with homelessness and then another panel on what other places are doing, uh, with homelessness. So we brought some people from all across the country and then we'll have a discussion about what our plan is. But there'll be a debate for the mayor's race, a debate about the hotel room, tomb tax increases, a lot of other things like that. Speaker 1: 01:22 And you know, I know there's a mix of academic experts and candidates who will be speaking at this year's summit. Who are some of the headliners? Speaker 2: 01:29 Well, like I said, the, there'll be a debate with the mayor's race. So we'll have Barbara Brie and Todd Gloria and Tasha Williamson there a, there's also going to be a visiting podcasts that gimme shelter podcasts from Cal matters and they'll be interviewing Katherine Blake's peer and Todd Gloria. And then there'll be a big panel on transit. So we'll have, you know, big question is, can Western cities like San Diego be retrofitted for transit? And I think that's a really interesting question. So we'll have Georgette Gomez, the head of the uh, SANDAG Hassan Hassana Karrada and then uh, you know, Richard Bailey, the mayor of Cornetto has a much different take on that sort of thing than those two. So it'll be past name. Speaker 1: 02:08 Yeah. For as long as you've been hosting this public affairs summit, holding these conversations and even covering the issues. I'm curious to know if you think the issues have changed over time or are we faced with the same problems and having the same conversation? Speaker 2: 02:21 There's a lot of the same conversation. We'll have a debate about the whole hotel room tax increase for the convention center expansion and that thing. I've been writing about that and talking about that for 15 years now. But there are a lot of new ones too. You know, these, the housing question wasn't nearly on the tips of everybody's tongues the way it is now. Homelessness has always been an issue, but not like it is now. So I think a lot of old problems have really reached a point of like, you can't ignore them the way that they might have been in the past, but you remember I started PolitiFact is this like kind of field day. There was going to be like tuggers of war and, and like dunk tanks and stuff like that. And we've really realized that people want to see good conversations. And so we've really morphed it into that. And now there's, you know, so many great sessions, uh, that you, whatever you want, gentrification, homelessness, uh, or just a marriage debate. Do we need solutions come out of these conversations? No, I'm kidding. No, there, there'll be a lot of ideas. You know, I think that hopefully people are better prepared to, to act on some of the ideas that they come out with. Speaker 1: 03:21 Uh, you know, since the nation is so polarized and national politics and local issues even, does that change the way you approach the conversations and even the debates at PolitiFact? Speaker 2: 03:30 No. But I think it makes it more attractive to come to something like this because you know, you local politics and local public affairs is something you can actually really tangibly influence every day. You know, you can get involved, you can support candidates, you can hear about somebody you never heard about before and get behind them or you know, otherwise form your opinions a little better. And, and you, and the tension and the lunacy on the federal level is just, is, is a real difficult thing for people to process. A lot. Local politics offers a respite from that and it's, you know, it's just as important to our quality of life, to the quality of schools, to colleague housing, to the infrastructure, all these things we care about. And so I really believe, you know, there's a lot of people handling the federal discussions right now. Let's control what we can control and we can have a major influence on local issues. Speaker 1: 04:19 And the, I know the voice of San Diego has been organized in Politico Fest since 2011 why is it so important Speaker 2: 04:25 to hold it now? I always wanted there to be a day that was just about debates and that celebrated debates, you know, like a conflict isn't a pejorative. It's not a bad thing inherently. Like we have to learn to live with conflict, to debate, to argue in a way that helps us advance, uh, all of the ideas that we think they do, or to really just confront the problems that we have to face. And, you know, like, we can't look around at our community and see people living in the street, uh, and see some of the disparities in, in, you know, at schools or in, in infrastructure across the city. We can't look at that and just live with it. You know, we have to be willing to have tough conversations about how we're going to deal with it. And, you know, there's no reason that that can't be fun sometimes, that, that can't be accessible and conversational, but we just need to live in it and feel it and be okay with it. And rather than say like, Oh boy, that's, you know, that's, that's really negative news, you know, or that's really negative discussion. Well, you know, I think San Diego is strong enough to face some of its hardest problems and rally towards solutions for them. And, and that's a form of optimism. Yeah. Speaker 1: 05:31 I have been speaking with Scott Lewis, editor in chief of voice of San Diego. Scott, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much. Belinda Fest happens this saturday@theuniversityofsandiegofromelevenamtilsixthirtypmforticketsvisitvoiceofsandiego.org Speaker 3: 05:54 [inaudible].
