S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. Today , a recent study looked into the impact school cell phone bands are having on student performance and well-being. Plus , we take a look into how San Diego schools are tackling the issue of phones during the school day. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. It's been two years since the city came out with its initial street improvement plan , but cracks in that plan appeared almost immediately when residents pointed out concerns about equity in their neighborhoods. The city council was set to discuss updates earlier this week , but that didn't end up happening. Joining me more is KPBS racial justice and social equity reporter Katie Hyson. Hey , Katie. Hey , thanks for being here. So before we get into the details of the plan , the , you know , the council was set to to hear an update on Monday , but that that didn't happen , Right. What's the latest there ? Yeah.
S2: They didn't end up getting to it. During the Monday meeting , it was returned to staff , so I guess we might see it again on another meeting agenda soon. But the plan update itself is already published in public.
S1: So , you know , it's been two years since the original pavement management plan came out. What can you tell us about that initial plan ? Sure.
S2: So San Diego's roads are not in good shape. I'm sure most drivers already know that they need a lot of repaving and maintenance. And so the city came up with this big ten year plan to get them to what's called satisfactory condition overall , and to do that on a limited budget. They plan to take what they called a best value approach , so it's cheaper to maintain and repair roads that are in better condition than it is to try to fully repair roads that are more deteriorated. And so the plan kind of against what some people might think , prioritize roads in better condition. And that was to stretch these limited budget dollars the farthest and get that overall average score of roads to satisfactory.
S1: And residents in district four shared concerns when that plan first came out.
S2: And the plan had a different score goal for each district of what condition the roads would be in by the end of the ten years. And so district four , that's southeast San Diego neighborhoods like Encanto , Emerald Hills. These are neighbors neighborhoods that are low income , majority black and Latino. Many of them were formerly redlined. And if you've ever driven in some of those neighborhoods , it can be a bumpy ride. Some roads are just riddled with cracks and huge potholes. And in the city's plan , at the end of those ten years , district for roads would still not be at the condition score that wealthier district five started at. And again , that's because of that best value approach. And residents felt like this plan was leaving their neighborhoods behind and in their words , was redlining them again.
S1: So the city has since made changes to that original version , like focusing on streets and what it calls communities with equity needs.
S2: Um , they could be eligible for community development block grant funds or they're in what the city has identified as promise zones , I believe checked me on this , but I believe that communities with equity needs is the phrase they're using to replace communities of concern , which I would be glad to have different wording for that now.
S1: Um , so in the story , you make the distinction that the city's strategy is more representative of equality than equity. I mean , you know , break that down for us. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So one way the city is formalizing , trying to ensure more equity is to make sure that at least 43% of the streets selected for improvements are within these communities with equity needs. And that's because 43% of the city's street network is located there. I would argue that's more equality , which would be allocating the same resources to everyone , versus equity , which would be recognizing that different districts are starting with different road conditions and allocating the resources needed to achieve equal outcomes. So in this case , equity would mean that at the end of ten years , everyone's roads would be roughly the same condition , regardless of the neighborhood's demographics or income level.
S1: So when talking about , you know , city streets got to talk about potholes. Um , you know , tell us a little bit about the current strategy for addressing potholes in the city. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. This was , at least to me , as a nerd. This was very interesting. So people can report potholes through the get it Done app , and the city says they address all potholes reported through that app. But of course , that can mean that neighborhoods that tend to report more often get more attention regardless of actual need. And so now , whenever the backlog of service requests is low , they're sending a dedicated crew into what they call underreporting communities to proactively identify and repair potholes. And they say they've always proactively repaired potholes , but that it's new that they have a structured program and that they're tracking it in a measured way. So that could result in more equity between what neighborhoods are getting their potholes repaired. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And in your story , you make the connection between potholes on our streets and the pretty big one in the current budget. Um , you know how big of a pothole Is that at this point ? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So the city is facing a $118 million budget deficit. And so this puts just a huge caveat asterisks on all of these equity changes. Because the the ten year pavement plan has been consistently underfunded. They don't have enough money to carry out that original plan. And so now they're lowering their overall road condition goal from satisfactory to just fair , which is still like picture cracked roads. And in the presentation that's supposed to go before the city council , they say they're still short funds even to make that a fair goal. And so actually , at the current funding level , we're looking at deteriorating roads that in ten years are going to be in what's labeled poor condition and even more expensive to fix. And to give you an idea of just how big this funding gap is , they anticipate right now for the over the ten years that the funding is just $0.7 billion to maintain just fair condition. Staff say they need $1.8 billion and to get up to satisfactory , they would need 2 billion. So that's a little over a 1 billion deficit just for roads funding , when we already have this big deficit in the budget overall.
S1: And just this morning , San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria released his his latest , you know , may revised budget. So we'll see. You know he continues to to emphasize repairing roads as a major priority. I'm guessing you know , Katie , I'm wondering how you think where the city stands on its equity goals currently.
S2: As far as roads or in general.
S1: More generally , I guess , as well. Yeah. You know , obviously starting with the roads , but but just more broadly we have about , you know , 40s left. Okay.
S2: Okay. Sure. I would say , um , unfortunately in general during times of budget deficit that programs geared towards addressing equity tend to be the first ones cut. And a lot of the cuts we're seeing proposed are affecting negatively affecting progress toward equity in the city. So there's a lot to keep an eye on there.
S1: I've been speaking with Katie Hyson. She's KPBS racial justice and social equity reporter. Katie , thanks so much. Thanks.
S2: Thanks.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm Andrew Bracken. KPBS Midday Edition airs on KPBS FM weekdays at noon , again at 8 p.m.. You can find past episodes at KPBS or wherever you listen. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day.
