S1: Welcome to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott Rod. California voters will weigh in on a ballot measure this November that would increase the state minimum wage to $18 an hour. While some cities already have higher minimum wages , it would boost pay for many workers around the state.
S2: The proposition that's on the ballot this fall would mostly affect workers in other regions , inland areas in particular , where they have seen substantial , you know , rent increases and , you know , rising cost of living themselves.
S1: Then we discuss an ongoing series from KPBS highlighting volunteering in the San Diego region , plus soccer scouting in Tijuana , eminent domain for shelter beds , and other stories from this week in the roundup that's just ahead on KPBS roundtable The cost of living across the US is top of mind for many voters , especially heading into the general election in California. The price tag for getting by is higher than just about any other state. With that in mind , Californians will vote on proposition 32 in November , which would increase the minimum wage to $18 an hour. If it passes , it'll take effect across the entire state in every industry. Opinions on the measure , predictably , are divided. Here to talk more about her recent reporting on this topic is Jeannie Kwong. She's a capital reporter with Calmatters. Jeannie , welcome to roundtable.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: Right now , California's minimum wage is on track to go up to $16.50 an hour in January , but voters will decide in November if it should go up even higher to $18 statewide. So tell us more about proposition 32. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Proposition 32 would , as you said , raise the minimum wage to $18 in January , and then for smaller employers there would be a delay for till January 2026.
S1:
S2: He has for many years been pushing for policies to benefit the working poor. Um , and in late 2021 , Sandberg decided to try to qualify this measure for the ballot. He poured a lot of his own money into gathering signatures for it , and it did qualify for the ballot in 2022. But there was a deadline that was missed , and so it got bumped to the 2024 ballot instead. Now , when it qualified , the language included a steady ramp up , you know , starting from 2023 onward , up to $18 next year. Um , but obviously because it didn't get voted on that year. That language is irrelevant now. And so we're looking at voting on and , you know , an immediate increase to 18 come January.
S1: So the minimum wage increased in 2016 and has sort of steadily been increasing in recent years. So why is there now this additional push to see the minimum wage increase even further ? Yeah.
S2: When California passed a minimum wage increase back in 2016 , it was to set it on track to get to $15 an hour. And that was kind of a big deal at the time because , um , you know , low wage workers , particularly in the restaurant industry , had been organizing for a long time around the idea of $15. Um , but , you know , by the time $15 was actually reached in 2022 , that was a year of record inflation. You know , we had also seen the cost of living just absolutely skyrocket. Um , and so a lot of advocates just felt like that wasn't enough. And at that point , you know , inflation had already eaten away a lot of those gains. So , you know , unions and other worker advocates have already been pushing for higher wages even beyond the state minimum wage for a long time. And a lot of big cities have also passed their own minimum wages. So the idea that $15 isn't enough has been pushed around for for some time. Right.
S1: Right. And in recent years , on that point , we've seen workers in a few specific industries in California secure higher pay minimums. That includes fast food workers who now make at least $20 an hour , and health care workers who are supposed to start making $25 an hour.
S2: Um , unions that represent health care workers that are advocating for fast food workers. They've taken this other approach , and that's kind of where they've put all their efforts towards doing these industry specific minimum wage increases. I'll also point out that hotel workers have one pretty high minimum wages in certain cities , too. And so that's kind of just where a lot of the efforts have gone towards instead. Um , it's it is harder to pass a statewide minimum wage increase , especially at the legislative level , just because you're balancing the needs of a lot of different regions , you know , much different industries. Um , and so , you know , passing a minimum wage is just a different game now than it used to be. And so there was a question for a while this year of whether or not this was even going to stay on the ballot , just because there didn't seem to be as much excitement around it as as there once used to be for raising the state minimum wage , but it did stay on the ballot. Um Joe Sandberg said he did believe that it would still make a big difference for for working people.
S1: You had mentioned that the minimum wage in some California cities is already at or near $18 an hour. Those cities sort of taking it upon themselves to make increases.
S2: A lot of them are in Los Angeles County. San Diego is one of the cities that has a higher minimum wage. I think it's at 1685 right now. So an inflationary bump is likely to push it above 17 next year. Most of these places are obviously some of the highest cost places in California. So the proposition that's on the ballot this fall would mostly affect workers in other regions , inland areas in particular , where they have seen substantial , you know , rent increases and , you know , rising cost of living themselves , too.
S1:
S2: You know , for example , obviously with the health care workers increase , it was a specific union that was really pushing for that. But but when we're talking about the statewide minimum wage , some of the workers who would benefit the most , who currently make the minimum wage or just above it , include some people who work in restaurants , um , retail workers , grocery store workers , you know , some of the childcare providers in the state. And different like home health type workers have also historically made quite low wages. I also spoke with a warehouse worker who makes just above the minimum wage. So these are the kinds of people that we're talking about as far as industry specific. You know , the entire state chamber of Commerce is against this , as well as the restaurant association and the grocers Association. So that also points to some of the types of businesses that might be the most affected.
S1:
S2: It's not only those who make the lowest that they would have to give raises to , but they often feel pressured also to raise the wages of others that they employ. And it also affects overtime rules and things like that. So it does pose cost increases for businesses , and they often worry that they'll have to either cut back on employment or raise prices for customers. And I think this is a particular concern in the restaurant industry right now , where a lot of restaurant owners are still recovering from the pandemic , and they're recovering from , you know , high food prices the past few years. So they are expressing heavy amounts of concern that this is going to cause them to have to raise their prices to the point where they put themselves out of business. Now , I don't know how much of that is borne out in the evidence , but there is a lot of concern that with the cost of living just being so high right now that people might be really sensitive to price increases. So that's kind of one of their arguments.
S1: Yeah , absolutely. We started at the top of this segment talking about the cost of living. And you know , that's money spent on housing , transportation , utilities , food. Those price increases have outpaced wage growth for for many workers. How do you think that's going to impact voters decision making in November ? Heading to the ballot box.
S2: You know , it's it's just interesting because the proponents believe that they have a really simple , really attractive message to voters like , who doesn't want to give themselves a raise that they , you know , voters are going to naturally support this because everybody feels how expensive it it is to live in California. And the opponents are kind of trying to adopt parts of that into their own message. You know , they're trying to say , look , we know it's really expensive to live here. Don't make us raise our prices so that it becomes more expensive. And yeah , I don't know which which one of those messages is going to win out.
S1: Has there been any research into how much someone needs to make in California to to live comfortably ? I'm sure it varies depending on where you are in the state.
S2: There's been recent federal data showing that the rough cost of living annually in California is over $50,000 , and what the current minimum wage is , that makes you much less than that per year. Um , the MIT Living Wage calculator is another source I go to where researchers for every county in the country they put together. You know , how much somebody needs to make , depending on how many kids they have and how many people are in their family and where they live , to comfortably afford the basics and and be self-sufficient. And their average figure that they calculated for California , for a single person with no children was $27 an hour.
S1: I've been speaking with Jeannie Kwong , Capital reporter for Calmatters. Thanks , Jeannie.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: When roundtable returns , we dive into an ongoing KPBS series highlighting the work of small scale volunteers making an outsized impact in their communities.
S3: It just kind of shows the power that predominantly these volunteer organizations have , and then indirectly , the power that KPBS has in amplifying those stories.
S1: That's just ahead on roundtable Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott Rodd. The news can often feel like a swirl of negative headlines about our local community and the world at large , but there are plenty of positive stories out there , too. KPBS recently launched an ongoing series about volunteers in the San Diego region , which highlights the many ways people are trying to make the world a better place. Sometimes those efforts are unconventional , or maybe hidden from the public eye. But KPBS wanted to showcase them. To dive into the series , we have a team of KPBS reporters here that includes investigative student assistant Caterina Portela , border reporter Gustavo Solis , and South Bay and Imperial Valley reporter Cory Suzuki. All of you. Thanks for being on roundtable. Hello.
S4: Thanks , Scott. Thanks , Scott.
S1: All right. To start , Catarina , let's go to you. This volunteering series at KPBS officially kicked off this summer , in large part thanks to an idea that you brought to the table. Tell me about the beginnings of this series.
S4: Well , I was a big fan of last year's series of the Public Arts , and I really liked the idea of something that brought the community together. I grew up volunteering. It was something that I did a lot when I was a kid , and I felt like it made me feel so much closer to my neighbors and the people I was around. And I feel like volunteers are kind of the unsung heroes of a community , and sometimes they don't get as much attention , especially if they're in like smaller organizations. So I was thinking of that when I thought of this , and I really wanted to connect to that. And so when people were throwing around ideas for the next theme , my first thought was volunteering because it was just immediately something that had so much depth and so many little stories and individual reasons of why would somebody do this ? Like , why do people volunteer ? I feel like there's so many reasons why and so many things that people volunteer for. So I just felt there was so much to tap into there , and that it was something that brings a lot of people together.
S1: I was in some of those early meetings discussing this series , and one of the things that emerged early one , everyone loved this idea to begin with because I think you're absolutely right. Volunteers are the unsung heroes of many communities. But we started to tour with this idea of , you know , let's look at volunteers that maybe don't get as much attention. Maybe they're not part of a big organization. They just kind of do their own separate thing. Or maybe it's a smaller organization that has carved out a niche that hasn't really gotten a lot of attention. So why did you think that was important ? To maybe not highlight those big organizations that already get a lot of attention , but look at those folks who are kind of doing their own individual efforts to improve the community.
S4: I feel like there's these really unique niche volunteering stories that people would be interested in if they had only heard about it. So I think that first and then second , I think they are the ones that need the most attention Because a lot of them are just somebody's idea that they wanted to put into action and really make it into something. In the beginning , they might not have as much support or as much people who know about them. But I think once an idea starts to affect people in a positive way and it starts to snowball , that's when it can really , you know , make the most change. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. And you actually did one of the first stories in this series. Tell us about the organization you profiled.
S4: They were really fun. They're named UN colors , and it's a group that is basically bringing surfing lessons to kids from underprivileged communities and families that wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford something that's considered a luxury , like a surfing lesson. But what I really liked about them is that it wasn't just surfing , it was also like life lessons and mentorship , because what it does , it brings in kids for I believe it was a whole year program where they're mentoring them , not only teaching them to surf , but also teaching them about the environment and sustainability. And a lot of these kids were between the ages of , like , I believe , 6 to 13 , which is a very impressionable age. When you learn about things like that , about the environment and makes you widen your perspective , it really stays with you. So I just really loved how they were working with them and not just giving a one off surfing lesson and then sending them out into the ocean , but really taking them on this sort of yearlong journey. And the leader of it , Mario , he was really excited to talk about his organization. You could tell he's very passionate about it. So it was just such a joy to be around him. And I got to go along one of their final days with the group of kids that they had at that moment. So they had been with them for a long time , and it was their little sendoff ceremony. And I was with this video journalist named Carolyn Corliss , and she's super talented. And so we just had a lot of fun recording the kids surfing , getting to talk to kids who are like , I love the. Water.
S5: Water.
S4: And who had never gotten to surf before , and now it's something that they're excited about. And their parents were there too , saying like , we want to continue this. So you could just see how it was just planting the seeds and these kids brain and letting them kind of grow into themselves and grow their confidence more. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. There was so much about that story that I loved something that you mentioned , the fact that it was over a long period of time. It wasn't just one afternoon in the water. It was over an extended period of time that they were giving kids this access to the water , but also just how enthusiastic these kids were to go out in the water , splash around , learn about what it means to be in the ocean , about being environmentally conscious , all of that. So just one more time , give me the name of the organization again so that people , people can hear it one more time.
S4: They're called in water colors. They're based out of Encinitas right now , and they're also trying to expand to like South Bay. So they're a really good organization and people can apply and hopefully get their kids into this mentorship program. And it's really , really cool opportunity. Corey.
S1: Corey. So far we've aired four stories highlighting volunteers in the community. Yours was the most recent. Tell us a little bit about the volunteer that you chose to highlight. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. Thanks , Scott. Um , the story that I worked on came out earlier this week , and it was about an Imperial Beach resident named Ron Peterson. Ron is a retired scientist and engineer who worked in the Navy for decades. Um , and when he retired , he moved to Imperial Beach and he started volunteering at , uh , the Tijuana River estuary , which is not too far from where he lives. Um , maybe a 15 minute walk. And , um , Ron has always really loved nature. Uh , and so , you know , going to the estuary , spending time there , um , clearing away invasive plants and , um , and keeping the estuary , um , clear for the native plants , um , was something that he , uh , really enjoyed. But then five years ago , Ron started , um , started losing his eyesight. Uh , he has glaucoma. And , um , in over the last recent years , um , it's it's gotten a lot worse five years ago. Uh , finally , Ron lost most of his vision and went blind from what Ron told me. That was a really hard time in his life because , um , you know , someone who enjoyed spending time in nature so much , he , um , really struggled with that. It was a really huge loss. But what Ron found as a way is something to help him move forward from this time was going back to the estuary and and continuing to volunteer. He started this tour that , uh , from what I understand is , is pretty unique in California. He takes people out into the estuary. And what he did was he started learning how to identify the native plants that are in the region through the other senses. Um , so not sight , but through touch and taste and smell and sound. So now Ron is able to to get around the estuary , at least the northern part of it. And , um , he , he leads to this tour every month where he , he takes people around and he sort of teaches them both sighted people and blind people , and he shows them , sort of introduces them to different native plants in the way that he has gotten to know them through all of these different senses. So some examples are there's the the lemonade berry , for example , which is has these really thick leaves that he compares to leather. And um , that also attracts a lot of bees. So you can you hear that really that that strong buzzing sound when the berries that they have get ripe and then um , there's also the , the , the cottonwoods , the Fremont cottonwoods , um , which are a , a tall tree that has kind of this thick bark and then also , uh , the spade shaped leaves that flutter when a breeze passes through and that creates kind of this shimmering or whispering sound. So that's kind of how Ron introduces people to the estuary. It's through these sort of small moments and these these different things that now stand out to him. Um , since he's since he's lost his sight , uh , teaching people to connect with native plants in a different way.
S1: Something that I loved about your story , was it profiled beautifully how this individual who loves nature encountered such a tremendous personal challenge of losing his eyesight in a and he talked about how it instilled in him a sense of uncertainty and fear. But he , you know , overcame that by finding a way to get back into nature , but also to give back to people. And , you know , the story also profiles how this unique way of being in nature allows other people to also appreciate and enjoy nature in a way that you probably typically wouldn't if you just went out and walked along the estuary yourself. How did you find Ron and and what about his story piqued your interest most ? Yeah.
S6: Ron. Um , you know , I've been wanting to , um , to do some reporting , um , at the Tijuana River estuary for a while. I've been really interested. I've spent some time there , just , you know , on my on my own time , uh , exploring. And I've really been been interested in finding different stories to tell at that estuary , which , um , as I'm sure many of our listeners know , is often at the center of , um , of other stories , particularly because of the sewage , the cross-border sewage crisis. And I've been interested in seeing , um , what what other stories the estuary has , um , what what other people are experiencing the estuary and what other kinds of life is happening there. So I had my eye on on that. And when the volunteering series came up , when we started working on these stories , after Katrina pitched the idea , I reached out to the volunteer coordinator there at the the Estuary Reserve , which is sort of the government organization that oversees the estuary. And I started to , um just ask around , and they sent me some names. And , um , Ron was one of the first people that I reached out to. And I mean , from the moment that I , that I started talking to him , sometimes I feel like , you know , when you meet someone and you can just tell that they have a story to share. Ron , um , was I think , uh , had a , had a particularly poetic way of , um , of talking about the estuary and talking about his experience. And he had had found kind of this , um , had this way of talking about , uh , about what it meant to give his time. The way he puts it is that , um , giving to others , um , for him is a way to , in some ways take the focus off of himself and to to think about spending time on other people and on his neighbors , as opposed to , um , in the case of the , uh , the personal tragedy that we talked about losing his sight , um , feeling sorry for himself. So I think that , um , Ron's story was really powerful. And , um , I also feel like what that experience of reaching out to the estuary showed me is that , like Katarina said earlier , like you and Catarina were both talking about. I'm sure there are so many Rons out there who , you know , are doing doing what they do and are changing the the lives of the people around them. But , um , maybe just haven't gotten a chance to , um , to share their story on a , on a wider platform yet.
S1: And you said that Ron had quite a poetic way of speaking the end of your story , the radio in particular , because sort of listening to it provides a certain , um , experience with understanding his story. The ending of it is beautiful and brilliant , so I won't ruin it for anyone. I just encourage anyone listening right now to , uh , after this show , go listen to Cory's story , because it really is wonderful storytelling. Gustavo , your piece has the headline. This bike co-op helps the City Heights community get their own wheels. Why did you want to profile this co-op ? And what's the name of the co-op ? Well , let's start.
S3: With the name. The co-op is Bikes Del Pueblo and City Heights , and it kind of fits all the boxes that Katerina and Cori have been talking about. And part of the reason I was so excited to be part of this project with volunteering , I was really drawn to the community building aspect of it , right ? Especially coming out of Covid , right ? People want to be engaged in the community , but they may not know how. Uh , San Diego is a unique place where there's a lot of people who live here who didn't grow up here. And it can be a little bit intimidating to find your place in San Diego if you don't already have it. And by El Pueblo is something that does that and kind of caters to that community , but also to locals as well , specifically in City Heights , um , you do get a lot of transplants from other cities , but also from other countries. You get some big immigrant community historically. So all of that is kind of what drew me to it. And then its mission of just empowering people , you know , the , the , the Christian cliche of teaching someone a fish instead of giving them a fish , that's what they do , right ? They don't just fix your bike for you. They teach you how to do it so you can do it yourself. I mean , it's not a good business model , right ? Because you don't have to go back once you know how to fix it. But that's what they want. They want people to be self-sustained. So like , that's kind of what inspired me to to go out and do it.
S1: One of the goals of these stories in the series is to tell them in a non-traditional way , and we're doing that through non narrated stories. And essentially what that means is letting the people themselves , the volunteers , and also some of the participants tell the story , let their words share what they're doing.
S3: And even before coming to KPBS , I was a print reporter for ten years. So I'm not super experienced in radio , but I was excited that we got this challenge and kind of proud of the fact that the editors here still push us to learn and grow in that sense. And it's something I've been wanting to do , but I kind of needed somebody to , like , kind of kick my butt a little bit and encourage me to do it. And it's the type of media I consume right now on there is almost like , uh , like mini documentaries , right ? Or like a radio documentary. When I started radio , I didn't like listening to the sound of my own voice. So the idea of having a whole story where my voice is nowhere in there sounds awesome. Uh , but it was tough. It was a really tricky challenge. We had to do like , pre interviews. You really have to plan everything out ahead of time. Um , I think actually Katrina , Corey and I all worked with Carolyn , the video journalist here at KPBS who's really , really talented and was able to capture a lot of what these sources were saying. She was just kind of showing it. And I think that marriage worked really , really well. There's no way I could have done it on my own.
S1: And your story has some pretty cool impact recently through social media , right ? Tell us about that.
S3: Yeah , it's pretty wild. And it was just fun to to report on. Right. Because El Pueblo is basically in an open lot. They have a bunch of bikes there , a bunch of equipment there , and anyone is welcome to stop by. There were a couple of , um , homeless people who had problems with their bikes. Uh , there were families , actually , a family of immigrants from Afghanistan who had only been here six months , were getting bikes for all their children. So you see all these wonderful situations play out. You see all these different groups from the community. Just use it almost like as a watering hole. Like if you hang out there , you're going to meet people that you wouldn't normally meet in , you know , your everyday , siloed life that we live. And then back to what you were saying just after the story aired , we posted it on on social media. Our social media team did a great job , and somebody from the community with a wheelchair was wondering , hey , my wheelchair is broken. Can could you guys fix it ? And they could he he went there. I think they spent a few hours on it. There were multiple volunteers on it based on on the photos I saw. But the great folks from El Pueblo were able to to bring their extensive bike knowledge. I mean , a lot of these guys work at bike shops or in mechanics , and they were able to help a guy in a wheelchair get his mobility back. I mean , it's a small impact , but it's a massive impact to that person , and it just kind of shows the power that predominantly these volunteer organizations have. And then indirectly , the power that KPBS has in amplifying those stories. Absolutely.
S1: And that's the goal of this is to try to amplify the stories of these volunteers , often who are doing work , maybe under the radar , but trying to connect them with more like minded people , people who are trying to get involved in similar ways.
S4: Something that I would love to see is for it to inspire more people to either volunteer with these groups or maybe start something that they've been wanting to do And make people think more about all the creative and unique ways that you can inspire others and help others , even if it's something that seems as small as as helping a man with his wheelchair. I mean , like DeSalvo said , it changes that person's life. I didn't know about that , so I'm really glad to see that it's already making , you know , some change here and there. I think there's something really awesome about the stories that are non narrated , kind of immersing you in that person's voice and in their life and kind of giving you a glimpse into somebody else's experience. And so I think when people hear these people voices themselves and these people's stories from themselves , it makes them think of them as a neighbor and as somebody just like them , and that they can do something like that , too. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. KPBS is going to be continuing this series. If someone wanted to submit an idea for a volunteer that they think we should profile Gustavo , how would they do that ? Well , they have.
S3: A couple of options. They can go to our website. We have a contact page for anyone to fill out , and they can also just send us an email directly at news at PBS.org. And I would encourage people to put volunteering in the subject line of those emails so we can flag them.
S1: Yeah , and we absolutely encourage anyone who has an idea. We would love to hear about it. It's a great way for us to try to find people to profile. So again , go to npr.org and check out the contact page or news@kpbs.org. I've been speaking with Catarina Portela , investigative student assistant at KPBS. Thanks for joining. Us.
S4: Us. Thanks for having me on.
S1: Also , border reporter Gustavo Solis.
S3: Yeah , happy to be here.
S1: And of course , South Bay and Imperial Valley reporter Corey Suzuki. Thanks , Corey.
S6: Thanks , Scott.
S1: When we come back , we discuss professional soccer scouting in Tijuana , questionable campaign spending , and a supposed car free Olympics in L.A.. In the weekly roundup.
S7: They were proposing , like 3000 buses that would be borrowed from all over the country to make this happen so people could take public transit. It sounds challenging to pull off.
S1: That's next on Round Table. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott Rodd. It's time for our weekly roundup , where we discuss some stories , big and small , that caught our attention this week. Joining me is Jacob Air , reporter and producer at KPBS. Hey , Jacob.
S7: Hey , Scott.
S1: All right.
S7: Gustavo Solis , our border reporter. He was in Tijuana and he was looking at this new MLS team , San Diego FC. They're going to start playing next year. But what caught his attention that he was reporting on is a youth scouting that was happening in Tijuana. And they were actually scouting , I guess , as part of the larger organization here. There was thousands of players on both sides of the border , in this case just in Tijuana for that specific day , who came out and were trying to become part of this youth academy.
S1: That's pretty interesting. I know a bit about , you know , soccer itself. I played it growing up , but not as familiar with the workings of professional soccer here in the US.
S7: They usually have a radius where they can kind of scout locally , like if you're in LA , to kind of have a bubble around there. We just happen to be , you know , a border region so we can kind of extend down into Tijuana and think of the youth academy kind of is like the farm system to develop potentially future professional players like other sports.
S1: Yeah , that's pretty interesting. I know people are hyped for San Diego FC to start playing next year , and it's it's pretty cool to hear that that , uh , scouting effort is happening on either side of the border. I did check out that story. I listened to the radio version. It was great. He got some really good sound in that story.
S7: It seemed like a lot of the individuals who were in Tijuana , they weren't all necessarily from there. Some of them drove. There was one individual Gustavo talked to who was actually from Los Angeles , came down with family. Just seemed like there was a lot of , you know , hope that this could potentially lead to something where maybe school is paid for. Maybe this does lead to a professional career. You know , you're putting out on the line. This doesn't necessarily guarantee anything. The odds are actually stacked against them. Because these San Diego FC scouts are looking elsewhere in a much bigger pool over a wider range. You know , 20,000 players to fill just 30 spots for this youth academy. But I think hope is kind of the main thing with these people who came to the tryouts.
S1: Yeah , that's amazing though obviously the odds , like you said , super slim , but still just the environment it sounded like from Gustavo's reporting was one of just a lot of excitement and kind of community rallying around that scouting effort. Changing gears , I want to talk about a story that builds off of a conversation that we had on roundtable a couple weeks ago , where we talked about the city's effort , in particular , the mayor's proposal to open a mega shelter here in San Diego that would house up to potentially a thousand people. It's a proposal that's got some pushback. There is some a lot of questions swirling around about it. This story from Voice of San Diego took a look at a competing proposal from City Council President Sean L Rivera. They would look at how the city could use eminent domain to seize private property for shelter sites. And just before anyone thinks that like houses or something are going to be seized , the eminent domain would target blighted buildings , abandoned buildings , things like that , but buildings that still have private owners nonetheless. And Ella Rivera argued , you know , we should use this tool that we have. You know , it's not just a seizure. You know , they pay for these buildings. It's not like they just take them. But this proposal has gotten pushback from the mayor , the mayor's office. Gloria's saying , no , we don't agree with this. We don't think this is the right approach.
S7: It's interesting to considering , I guess , the larger kind of state of homelessness in San Diego , that 1000 bed mega shelter , of course , kind of trying to really get pushed forward because there are other shelter sites that are closing , and there is going to be that shortage of beds coming up next year. I believe somewhere in the ballpark of 700 beds , they're going to be down by you Think of places like Golden Hall and then , yes , this , this eminent domain , whether you can repurpose them or not.
S1: You know , we use eminent domain for a number of other reasons. And it's it's a legal process that we have. So why not explore it ? That's the main argument that he's offered. Gloria's pushed back and said , look , this is a legal process. Sure , we can use it , but it's something that can get drawn out in the courts. It can also appear to be at times controversial. If it looks like , you know , this is sort of a grab of private property. So those are the competing debates. I mean , you know , there were all these memos going back and forth between the city council , president's office and the mayor's office , and then the city attorney's office got involved. So a real local government brouhaha in the form of memos over whether or not they should use this technique , this tool to try to develop more shelter beds.
S7: And I think the bigger conversation here is this doesn't end at shelter beds , right ? When you think of homelessness , yes , shelter beds are one aspect of dealing with it. But at the end of the day , if you're not getting folks permanently rehoused , it just becomes kind of its own , I guess , complex in a way where where you have these shelter bed systems that could become kind of cyclical. So I think permanent housing is that angle that we're going to have to figure out here. Absolutely.
S8: Absolutely.
S1: I mean , this is the first step in a long process of getting people back on their feet and into housing.
S7: This is regarding former San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher , who was using some funding from his abandoned state States Senate campaign to actually pay for his legal defense bills in a lawsuit that was accusing him of sexual assault. You wrote this story and you've been following it. Can you kind of give us the gist of what what's happening here ? Yes.
S1: This is a story that I've been following for a while now. To give a quick overview. Nathan Fletcher , former county supervisor , was running for state Senate , and last year he dropped out of the race all of a sudden. And then a couple of days later , a lawsuit emerged accusing him of sexual assault , and he then later resigned from the county board of Supervisors and sort of disappeared from public life. Although this lawsuit has continued to play out. When he dropped out of the race for state Senate , he had hundreds of thousands of dollars , I believe , upwards of $900,000 in his campaign coffers. And over the last year , plus , he's tapped into that money to pay for his legal defense bills. Last year , he paid over $300,000 in the first six months of this year. His law firm billed the campaign over $200,000. So a lot of money. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. On face value , it sounds like , you know , maybe a gray area.
S1: That was sort of a key question that I had. And I spoke to campaign finance experts. And one of them said , yeah , this seems like a legal gray area. You know , I think that this is something that the Fair Political Practices Commission , which is the state commission that oversees and enforces campaign finance rules , you know , this person said , I think they're going to have to take a closer look at this. I have confirmed that the Fppc received a complaint about Fletcher's use of campaign funds , and the Fppc told me , we are basically sitting on this and looking at whether or not we're going to investigate further. So it seems likely that the Fppc may take a closer look at this. If for nothing else , to try to figure out for future candidates who may find themselves in similar situations , can you use funds from a campaign , whether it's , you know , active or dormant to pay for legal bills in this way ? Hmm.
S7: Very interesting. Going to be looking forward to hopefully more reporting.
S1: I'll be keeping a pulse on it for sure. You've got another story that's Olympics related , but this one about the Los Angeles Olympics coming up in four years. Right.
S7: Right. The Olympics have wrapped up in terms of Paris , but kind of immediately we saw this torch passing happen in many ways. Uh , through some of the people who were involved. Snoop Dogg was very prevalent throughout the Paris Olympics and came right back home and alongside some other Southern California icons , passed the torch on to LA. They were performing. And along with this torch passing was this announcement. And we'll see if this happens. But LA is proposing in 2028 that they're going to have a no car games , meaning Supposedly no one's going to be driving their cars , but I find that a little hard to believe.
S8: I mean.
S1: LA is such a car dependent city. It's huge geographically. Trying to get around it is tough. I do know that they've made improvements to their public transportation system , but this to me seems kind of mind boggling. What do you.
S7: Think ? It seems ambitious. I mean , anything is possible. I think cities and entities that are involved in Olympics do pouring tons of money to make things happen , but they were proposing like 3000 buses that would be borrowed from all over the country to make this happen so people could take public transit. It sounds challenging to pull off , but we'll see , you know , kind of how this moves forward over the coming years.
S1: I don't know , borrowing buses from other places around the country , it does seem a little harebrained. Maybe. I think other cities may need those buses. If folks in those cities would like to get around for those two weeks , but I guess it'll be something worth keeping an eye on.
S7: And then there was one other story that you were really taking a look at that caught your attention. Is that.
S8: Right ? Yeah.
S1: This one's from The New York Times. The headline is how deepfake Elon Musk in quotes became the internet's biggest scammer. And this story looked at how deepfake videos , which are videos where real images , real videos are modified , in this case using AI to present something artificial. In this case , it was literally putting words into Elon Musk's mouth , using a AI generated voice that sounded like his , and even changed his lip movement in these videos to essentially pitch these get rich quick , kind of like crypto investment schemes , essentially. And the idea was these , you know , were in the form of videos that were floating around on social media , and these videos cost dollars to make a few dollars to make. But it's resulted in many , many millions of dollars in fraudulent stealing from folks who have seen these videos. Actually , it's kind of wild just how much money is being stolen from people through these AI deepfake videos.
S7: What I think about when I hear this is the state of artificial intelligence. Now , in the span of a few short years , the quality of artificial intelligence , whether it's text to image , video , or just written through programs like ChatGPT , it has grown exponentially. The quality is much higher , and it's getting harder to tell what is real or authentic from what is artificially created. It seems like people are getting duped because they believe what Musk has to say , but they can't separate.
S1: A.
S8: A.
S1: Collision of sort of an age old , you know , effort to try to prey on people's hopes and dreams of getting rich quick , but then also supercharged on steroids through AI and deepfakes and the ability to spread these messages far and wide on social media for very small amounts of money. But it's resulting in , you know , this New York Times article says that aid fakes are expected to result in billions of dollars in fraud losses every single year. And they profiled some just everyday people who got caught up in this , didn't realize it was fake and lost their savings as a result of it.
S7:
S1: It's not just financial scams , but you have to think about elections. You have to think about the impact on news , on the way information flows. I mean , this touches on so many things. The scary thing is the safeguards are not keeping up with the risks that AI poses. Well , we could talk forever about this and many other stories that have come across our radar this week , but we're going to have to leave it there. I've been speaking with Jacob Baer , reporter and producer at KPBS. Thanks for joining me.
S7: Thanks , Scott. Pleasure to be here.
S1: That's our show for today. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays and again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can email us at roundtable at PBS.org. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producers this week were Brandon Trevor and Ben Lusk. This show was produced by Jacob Air. Brooke Ruth is Roundtable's senior producer and I'm Scott Rodd. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend.
