S1: Hey , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. California Governor Gavin Newsom wants new congressional maps for California , as Texas looks to increase the number of GOP seats in that state. We take a closer look into the possibility of a special election and the reasons behind the effort from Democrats in the state.
S2: As it became very real what Texas was planning to do. It's become very real in California as well. And now the governor is talking about how you have to fight fire with fire.
S1: Then we hear about a new San Diego news outlet looking to provide news for San Diego's diverse communities , not just about them. All that , plus the weekly roundup of other stories from the week , is all ahead on KPBS roundtable. California Democrats want to take a red pen to the state's district maps to boost the party's chances in next year's midterms. It's in response to Republicans redrawing their lines in Texas to favor the GOP. Governor Gavin Newsom wants to bring in a new map directly to the public for approval and temporarily set aside the state's independent redistricting commission. Joining me to talk about the latest on the redistricting battle is Alexis Joseph. He's Capitol reporter for Cal Matters.
S2: After the census , we go through this process of apportioning the seats in the House to make sure that every state has the correct number of representatives , given its size , and then within those states , to ensure that all of the seats they have are about even. So after the 2020 census , California , like every other state , went through this process of redrawing not just its congressional seats , but also its legislative districts. And it reviewed all of the census data , saw where people were moving , where they were leaving , moved lines around , and came up with a map that has led us to this point where we have now 43 Democrats and nine Republicans in US Congress.
S1: And , you know , at the center of this is an independent redistricting commission here in California. Can you just talk a little bit about how that works ? Yeah.
S2: So this is a relatively new phenomenon in California , after many decades of very partisan and political and insider processes for redrawing these districts. Voters were fed up. And in 2008 and 2010 , they passed two ballot measures which created this independent redistricting commission and gave it the authority to draw the lines for both the legislature and Congress , and it pulls together Democrats , Republicans , and independent voters and tasks those people who are not politicians. They are , you know , citizens of the state with coming up with fair lines. And this is. You know , relatively unique within the country , there's fewer than a third of states that have handed over the process to independent commissions. But it's been a source of pride for California to say we're rising above partisan politics and doing this in a better way , in a fairer way , and encouraging other states to follow its lead.
S1:
S2: Normally , this would not happen again until after the 2030 census , but President Trump is looking at an election next year in 2026 where he's got low approval ratings. And historically , midterms tend to favor the party that's out of power. And he's worried that this very narrow GOP majority in the House could disappear and flip over to Democratic control , and that would make him vulnerable to investigations , impeachment , all kinds of things that he doesn't want. Tying up his last two years in the white House. So he's been cranking up the pressure on Texas to redraw its maps , eliminate Democratic seats , and draw more Republican leaning seats instead. And over the last few weeks , that plan has come to reality. The governor of Texas called a special session called the legislature back a few weeks ago , and they've been in the process of putting forward a new map that would add five Republican leaning seats to the state and take away five Democratic leaning seats. And it could be enough to basically cement President Trump and Republicans in power in Congress next year. So , um , you know , this has led to a lot of outrage across the country , a lot of frustration from Democrats about what they consider to be an unfair , you know , system. And the president putting his thumb on the scale in defiance of the will of voters. And so the Democrats in Texas this week actually fled the state to deny a quorum to the legislature there and try and prevent them from being able to pass these new maps into law.
S1: And so now , you know , taking that Democratic frustration , that outrage you mentioned there moves us on to Newsom's response to what's happening in Texas.
S2: But ever since Texas began talking about doing this , Governor Newsom has become maybe the most vocal Democratic leader in the entire country in terms of talking about how unfair it is , what Texas is doing and fighting back. And he's actually now proposed calling a special election in California in November and putting forward a new gerrymandered map that is more favorable to Democrats before the voters and asking them to temporarily set aside California's independent redistricting Commission and put forward and passed this new map , you know , adopted this new map that would benefit Democrats and offset the gains that Republicans would theoretically make in Texas next year.
S1:
S2: You know , this is a constitutional amendment that created the Independent redistricting Commission. You have to go back to the ballot. It's a very short timeline. But as it became very real , what Texas was planning to do , it's become very real in California as well. And now the governor is talking about how you have to fight fire with fire. And you know what ? We're doing this even though we support independent redistricting in theory here. You can't unilaterally disarm. You know , it's one thing if you had independent redistricting in every state , but you don't. And so if the Republicans are going to try and rig the system in Texas , we have to fight back and we have to respond in California to try and keep things fair.
S1: And I think also , he's trying to make the point that this would be a temporary change , and that independent commission would come back into the fold. Right ? Right.
S2: I mean , he has a very difficult , you know , balance to strike here because he's trying to maintain the moral high ground while at the same time doing essentially what he's criticizing President Trump and Republicans for doing so. What Newsom has tried to say is I support independent redistricting. I support it as a national model , and I support bringing it back in California in the future after the 2030 census. But for now , the stakes are way too high. And we can't , you know , we can't be focused on having the moral high ground. We have to be focused on preserving our rights and preserving democracy in the United States.
S1:
S2: And there's been discussion behind the scenes that hasn't been finalized about what exactly an alternative map would look like , but it seems like they're settling on a plan that could allow Democrats to gain five more seats in California and evenly offset what Republicans are gaining in Texas. And so , um , this would involve moving around some of the district lines in far northern California , where there's a lot of Republicans , but not very many voters , period. And then moving around some of the lines in the Central Valley , which is quite a swinging , evenly divided area and moving around some of the lines in Orange County. Riverside County and northern San Diego County. Where again , there's a lot of population that's quite evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. And what this would allow the Democrats to do is to not just drop new Democratic leaning districts , but also shore up some of the swing districts that they've won in the past few election cycles that have gotten to them , to this overwhelming majority in the state's delegation. And it would make it easier for their incumbents to hold on while also creating new , more solidly Democratic districts at the same time.
S1: You mentioned , you know , northern San Diego County there. I'm assuming you're mentioning you're referring to the 48th district is one of those seats that's represented by Darrell Issa , a Republican here.
S2: That's exactly right. That's a district that has been , uh , it was newly created after the 2020 census , and it has a slight Republican lean. Um , Darrell Issa has not really been in any danger of being voted out of office since he won that seat a couple of cycles ago , and now they're looking at breaking it up and moving some of the Republican voters from that district into a district in Orange County that would create a very heavily Republican vote sink so that they can free up. Then some of the Democratic voters in his district to be moved into other districts around it and shore those up and make them more solidly Democratic.
S1: So I'm just zooming out a little bit from just California now. I'm just curious , you know , is this effort likely to happen in other states , other blue states , or in other parts of the country that also might kind of play into this numbers game that it seems like , you know , Newsom's trying to match the lost seats in Texas with California.
S2: I mean , this is becoming a national battle. Now there's. It's almost like an arms race. Texas started it. California responded. And now Republicans and Democrats in many other states are looking at what they might do in return as well. So President Trump has been working behind the scenes , putting pressure on Republican lawmakers in states like Missouri , Ohio , Indiana , Florida , all places where Republicans think they could crack up at least one Democratic district and make it so that they can pick up a few additional Republican seats on top of Texas. Some of the leaders in those states have been a little more reluctant to go along with it. Um , on Thursday , the governor of Indiana actually kind of threw cold water on the idea. So it's not clear if they're going to move forward with it or not. But certainly the pressure is there and the conversations are happening on the Democratic side. It's actually a lot harder for Democrats to do this. Most of the Republican controlled states have maintained systems where their legislatures draw the maps for themselves and for Congress , and so they can just go back and basically redo their own work. But many of these states that have adopted independent commissions are the biggest Democratic states , like New York , like Washington , new Jersey. They have rules in place that in their Constitution that prevent them from doing that kind of political gamesmanship that would be needed to respond. So if Texas is successful in doing this , California might be just about the only place that Democrats can really counteract that. If things start to go crazy with other states getting involved , too. There's not a lot of other places that Democrats really have the opportunity to pick up seats.
S1: So really kind of putting the political pressure even more here in California. And , you know , let's talk about what comes next. I mean , Newsom , you know , trying to garner support for this. They're looking for a potential special election this fall.
S2: The legislature is actually on summer recess right now. They don't even come back until August 18th , and that only gives them a few days to act before there's basically not enough time to run a special election in November. I know it sounds like a long way off , but California has all these laws in place now you have to start mailing out ballots 30 days before the election. 15 days before that , you have to start mailing ballots to voters who are overseas or in the military. So that's already pushing your timeline to late September. And then you have to give all of the elections officials across the state enough time to actually print the ballots and prepare them and mail them out. So really , there's just not very much time to act here. And so the legislature has been meeting in private for the last couple of weeks , having discussions to get the ball rolling , writing up language , working on draft maps. And we're likely to see a race to get this on the ballot the week the legislature comes back on August 18th.
S1: So , yeah , I mean , it's still a lot of uncertainty there. And that doesn't even mention some of the news of Trump talking about a new census. So it's still a lot of moving pieces here to be following. I've been speaking with Alexi Kossuth. He's a capital reporter with Cal Matters. Alexi , thanks so much.
S2: Thanks for having me on.
S1: After the break , we hear about a new journalism startup looking to highlight San Diego's diverse communities in new ways. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. News outlets are struggling and the loss of local news outlets , particularly across the country , has deep implications. It can lead to lower civic engagement , increased polarization , even a loss of community connection , and whether it's your favorite local radio station or community newspaper , a shrinking pool of local reporters means a loss of local stories. But here in San Diego , a group of journalists are determined to fight that trend. They're introducing a new news outlet. It's called Daylight San Diego , and they're here to tell us more about it. I'm joined by three of daylight's co-founders , Brittany Cruz Ferrin , Lauren Jay Mapp and Kate Morrissey. So I want to welcome you all here to roundtable. So we know there are these challenges facing local news today.
S3: We also , a lot of us come from communities that have historically been underrepresented or misrepresented in the media. I'm black and indigenous , and storytelling has been a huge part of my life growing up. And so seeing that in San Diego , how we have the greatest number of individual federally recognized tribes , and there are very few people that are dedicated to covering those tribes , is what drives me to be a journalist and drives me to help with starting daylight.
S1: And you mentioned some of the other , you know , maybe more mainstream publications , you know , one of which , you know , both you and Kate worked at was the San Diego Union Tribune. Kate , I'm wondering what you feel is missing in San Diego journalism today and how , you know , daylight's looking to kind of fill that void.
S4: Well , I think , you know , from the community feedback that we've we've gotten , uh , doing listening sessions actually with community members because who are we to say exactly what's going on ? Right ? You don't know until you go and talk to people. There's several things going on , but I think one of the chief ones is , is that a lot of times issues aren't covered that are important to these communities like that Lauren was mentioning. But even when they are covered , it's often from a lens that doesn't really include those communities in the conversation. Um , oftentimes they'll be written about instead of written for. Um , and that's something that as , as a longtime immigration reporter , you know , it's something that hits very close to home for me because I want my journalism to be of service to the people I'm writing about , and not just about them for other people. Right. And so being able to think about the needs of the people who are in our stories just as much as as people who aren't in the story. Right. And how do we , um , provide that service beyond that ? One of the big things that we've heard over and over again from folks , and I'm sure that this is no surprise to you all or the people listening is the issue of news burnout because so much of the news is so heavy. And while it is extremely important to hold up , um , accountability stories with the government or other issues in the community so that they can be addressed , when that's all we talk about , we're actually missing a huge part of life in San Diego , which is the joy and the community and the people who are out there doing good work , trying to help their neighbors and and help other folks in San Diego. And so I think , you know , one of the big goals for us is to have a better balance of that information so that we're not just talking about issues , we're talking about solutions. We're looking at who's working on this , trying to make the situation better , what are possibilities that could be explored , and what are people celebrating , right. Even even in the hardest times. And that's something that I think , you know , having covered some of the most vulnerable people in in our region asylum seekers , refugees , folks like that. Like no matter what you're going through , no matter how difficult situations are , there are always opportunities for joy , even even in small moments. Maybe it's maybe it's a birthday. Maybe it's a friendship. You know , maybe it's our launch party next week. Right ? But there's there's always these moments that that we can , we can hold up and celebrate together. And it's important for us as journalists to recognize and and hold those up as well.
S1: So and I think that comes through Lauren , in just , you know , the naming of the outlet is daylight.
S3: You know , when we were having conversations about what we wanted to name the Newsroom , we had a very long list of everything under the sun , and we were thinking about things that are iconic to San Diego. Obviously , the beach is what a lot of people think of when they come here , but in our listening sessions and in our survey of of talking to folks , there are a lot of people that don't have access to the beach because they don't have the time to to go all the way out to the beach. They don't have the finances to be able to pay for gas to get out there. But one thing that everybody all across the region has access to is the sun. So we had played with sunlight and we played with daylight , and daylight was really what struck with us. But certainly it also reflects that we don't want to just be a harbinger of bad news and what's going wrong in the world. We also want to really highlight all the positivity that is in our region and what makes it special.
S1: And Kate mentioned , you know , looking for this balance between real , you know , making stories that matter , but also balancing it with those , you know , more joyful , positive side , like how do you look for striking that balance ? Kate.
S4: Well , just to to piggyback on what Lauren was saying a little bit , I think our name actually does that too , because daylight , as it celebrates the sun , it celebrates the access that we all have to sort of this joyful thing. And it also sort of tosses to that classic journalism like spotlight on things that need to be seen. Right. So even in the name , I think we're capturing that sort of duality of of what we're trying to do. You know , I think it's when we're when we're having content conversations , okay , what do we have coming next week ? Is everything that we have coming really intense ? Do we have something that we can put in our newsletter that is joyful ? Right. Like making sure that we're striking that balance. And I think , you know , we have things like the the weekend energy posts that we do. We have an events calendar that people can go and see how to get connected with other folks in the community who are interested in similar things. And then , you know , can look at our posts about what's coming up this weekend. And we have that set in our newsletter and in our our social media schedules every week. So it's always that top of mind , like what's happening in the community. Oh , that event sounds cool. Maybe one of us should go to that and cover it.
S1: Brittany , you had something to add.
S5: What I love about the way we cover our events is that they're not just events , they're there are ways that the community comes together and tries to solve an issue or cope with an issue. And when communities come together , that is the real impact that people can make around us. Because a lot of the time when you look at national news , everything is so out of control. And that is a big contributor to news burnout. And what we've heard from our surveys as well is that people do care. People really care about these issues , but they're not given ways that they can contribute themselves. So I think like events their way more than just like , let's let's go and have fun somewhere. Like let's , let's go have fun somewhere. Be with people who are like minded , who also care about these solutions , who are bringing awareness to these solutions and giving us ways to give back to an issue that we care about.
S1: So , you know , Kate , you obviously have been on the show before covering , you know , you cover immigration. Um , talked a little bit about that earlier , but I'm wondering what other issues are kind of , like bubbling up for you , Lauren.
S3: Whether it's through my coverage of the indigenous community , through coverage of the Chamorro community , which Brittany is a part of. Um , obviously we have our coverage of immigration , um , the immigrant community as well. I think not just going to communities and covering them and then leaving. Mhm. Um , it's really important to us that we build relationships with individual communities , which is why through our listening sessions , we've had conversations with folks from different organizations and different groups before we ever need to talk to them for a story so that we can see what they see as ways that we can work with them. Um , and what problems they've had with working with other journalists in the past.
S1: And we know , you know , news. You know , how news is consumed. Is is changing has been changing the last several years. Obviously , I think nearly half of American adults say they prefer they're getting their news online.
S4: Our sort of collective experience in newsrooms was that those aren't necessarily the target audience. People are still sort of thinking about older generations , which they also need to be informed. But there's sort of a gap in terms of of packaging things in a way that's easily accessible for the habits and lives of millennials and Gen Z. And so through our our surveys and through our listening sessions and some individual interviews that we did as well. What we saw is that folks really have very different ways of taking in information. And so we feel that our responsibility as journalists , much as when we're out in the field reporting , is to meet people where they're at. And so instead of asking somebody to make an entirely new habit in order to get the information that we're offering , our job is to gather the information and then package that information in several different ways. Be it , you know , the traditional articles on our website , our newsletter that goes out via email once a week , our Instagram where we have slide posts as well as reels , our TikTok where we're we're building up videos. Um , we're going to be working on doing some longer form stuff for YouTube eventually , which , you know , Brittany can probably talk more about that vision , but really trying to say rather than , okay , here's this one place where you need to meet us and consume what we have to offer , saying , we're going to come and find you where you are and offer this to you there , so that you don't have to restructure your life in order to be informed.
S1: And , Brittany , I want to turn to you. I mean , your area of expertise is , is in visual storytelling , in photojournalism. What does that look like for for daylight and particularly , you know , like as Kate mentioned there , we're hearing a lot of TikTok , a lot of Instagram. Right. So yeah. How are you approaching that challenge ? Yeah.
S5: So , um , it is it's a very big , um , it's a very big challenge to , um , to overcome. I think right now , what I can do with what I know now is I want to give every story we have a photo essay. When we give stories that amount of visual care , it allows people to , you know , easily access that , um , that story keeps them engaged and also gives them a much better look of what each story , each story is because you can you can read. But even for myself , honestly , like I , whenever I read a story , I look at the photos and then I read the story just because , you know , that's how I am as a photographer. But I feel like there are other people.
S1: Who there's a lot of people the way they consume information. It's more right ? Yeah.
S5: We like people do want to consume information quickly , and I rather I don't like seeing it as catering to like the quickness of how they can get that information. But how well can we tell the story to keep them engaged with with the photos that I have and social media wise , I'm doing a like a newsletter roundup I've been doing once a week.
S1: And that's a video of like kind of a roundup of summer stories.
S5: Yeah , yeah. So , um , I thought of the idea of like , hey , why don't we do , like , a little newsletter roundup about what we have going on ? Just so you know , people don't always look at their emails , but they can also see it on TikTok and Instagram. So it's just me going through the headlines and kind of on a TikTok green screen , going through like , what the story is about , giving a quick explainer and nodding to our newsletter for them to subscribe to it because it's free. And another like another thing that I was thinking of was even it doesn't have to necessarily be exactly about the story , but it can be kind of like a subcategory of what the story is about. Like we we did a newsletter story on 4th of July , which is hosted by Full Force San Diego. And it's basically this , this breakdancing community that they've been meeting like every summer for as long as , um , the breaking community can remember. But then those events kind of faltered and full force. San Diego , basically , they wanted to step in and keep that tradition going of having a breaking event in the summer. And I really love that. That's an example of the sub community that we've been talking about that we want to cover. And I was like , you know , maybe next time for an event like this , we could do a video of them showing us some breakdancing moves. Um. Let's see. It's like not necessarily like about the 4th of July , uh , dance battles that were going on , but it connects to the community. Absolutely.
S1: Absolutely. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1: And like , very visual and , like musical.
S3: Um , at California State University of San Marcos , they have a program that supports indigenous students. And I got to go and meet with the students a couple of weeks before their graduation , and then cover the graduation and tell this full story about how these programs have impacted their educational journey. Um , native folks are still among the minority when it comes to graduating from four year universities , and this program has helped to increase the attrition rate at Cal State San Marcos. Um , in doing the story , I got to see some of the ways that they bring culture into the the support system. So they have a powwow practice every week where they practice how to do powwow style dancing and drumming and singing. At the graduation ceremony , there were Kumeyaay bird singers that helped bring in a sense of place to the ceremony. So it wasn't just this very academic kind of experience. There was all of this culture that that came in. And so for the story , you know , we had the photos , we had the article , and then we we also did a little kind of mini doc almost on Instagram Reels and TikTok. And I think that was a really interesting way to bring in their whole story ahead of the new chapter for for the college , where they're opening up a native student center that will be setting up in the fall. Okay.
S1: Okay.
S4: Uh , so. And I think this kind of shows the range of of what we're working on a couple of months ago. I attended a cultural event for the Hazara community here in San Diego. They're , um , an ethnic minority from Afghanistan who have been persecuted historically and currently by the Taliban. Um , and we have a pretty large Hazara community here in San Diego. And they were joining this sort of international movement to have a day to celebrate their culture , to eat their traditional foods , dress traditionally , um , listen to their music , recite poetry. Um , and so it was a really cool day to , to get a slice of , of a culture that's here in San Diego , maybe more than folks listening might realize if they're not , you know , intimately a part of it. And one of the things that really struck me was like , they kind of had the same philosophy that we have of like , you know , we've been through so much. And , and it's important for us to keep fighting our fight for for our people. And at the same time , today is not about that. Today is about joy and celebration. And and being together in community. And so it was cool to just kind of see that theme happen naturally in the community that I was covering. Um , and then the second story that I'd like to hold up is my ongoing coverage of the situation for three U.S. citizens who were arrested while they were watching an immigration operation in Linda Vista at the beginning of July. Um , I was there when they were released from the federal jail. I've been going to their court hearings , and I'm going to be continuing to cover that. And part of that coverage has to do with San Diego police actually showing up on the scene and standing at the police perimeter that I set up. Um , and community members have a lot of questions about what police were doing there , and we've had some response from police in my reporting so far , but definitely look for more on that.
S1: Well , that just kind of shows the balance and the breadth that you guys are kind of illustrating here of what you want to do here. Um , I want to turn , you know , I hate to bring up the issue of money , but , you know , we're talking about news and the struggles of news , so I thought I'd bring it up. I mean , what vision do you have for daylight to be sustainable financially ? You know , given all the challenges that the industry is facing. Lauren. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So as a nonprofit newsroom , that means that we are able to be funded in a variety of ways , and we see all of this impacting our budget going forward. So we can apply for grants. We're getting ready to start applying for some of those. Now we can get donations. We've already raised a couple thousand dollars in donations through Give Butter. We also eventually will open up a membership platform. We we envision that our news will always be available for free , but just because it's free doesn't mean that there's no cost to produce it. Eventually , we all need to be able to figure out a way to still live in San Diego and cover these stories. So we'll have a membership option where people who have the means to support can pay , you know , a small monthly fee to do so. And we also have ideas for occasional merch drops. You know , these would be kind of special edition items , working with local artists to create branded t shirts or tote bags or things like that. But we're just getting started. So we're still thinking about a lot of those things. And I think the big the big effort to bring in some funding right now is that we have our launch party coming up next week.
S1: And I was just about to get to that. Kate was kind of foreshadowing that earlier. Um , and just to note , you know , Daylight San Diego is where you can find , you know , your stories thus far. You guys launched a few months ago , but you kind of want to hold off. And then next week comes the launch party. Tell us. Yeah , tell us more about it.
S4: So it's August 14th at Queen Bees in North Park from 630 to 930. We will have vinyl DJs Omega Watts and Yob who are both amazing local artists. Also good friends of mine were very grateful to them to be donating their time for the event. We have a silent auction and opportunity drawing items. You could win vinyl records , gift cards , whale watching beer. So we have a lot of cool opportunities there. If you're interested in donating and maybe winning something out of of of donating to the cause of journalism , we'll have a photo booth there. We'll have some interactive ways for you to engage with journalism or the , you know , talk about what you want to see in journalism. If you haven't had the chance to give us feedback yet , we're definitely looking forward to having conversations with you at our launch party about that. And it's going to be really fun night. We'll have drinks and snacks as well. We're all really excited to to see y'all there.
S1: Well , and it also seems like a nice antidote to that news burnout that you kind of mentioned hearing so much about in those listening sessions. So definitely cool to kind of take a moment and celebrate , celebrate the launch. So again , daylight's launch party will be Thursday , August 14th at Queen bees Art and Cultural Center in North Park. I've been speaking with Delight San Diego co-founders Lauren J. Map , Brittany Cruz Ferrin and Kate Morrissey. And again , you can find Daylight San Diego at Daylight San diego.org. Sign up for their email newsletter. Also , find them all over social media. We'll have links to that on our website. Thanks again for being here.
S6: Thank you. Thank you.
S1: Coming up , we catch up on other stories from the week on our roundup roundtables. Back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Okay. So it's time now for the Weekly Roundup , where we chat about a couple of other stories from the week. And joining me to do that is KPBS producer Ashley Rausch. Hey , Ashley.
S7: Hey , Andrew.
S1: And so I wanted to start today , just following up on a recent roundtable conversation we had with eNews sources , Crystal Niebla. It was about Chula Vista efforts to change the rules around e-bikes and kids. And that city now has officially , you know , put those changes in place. They had a second , like the final vote earlier this week on Tuesday. And now kids under 12 are banned from riding e-bikes , basically. And that includes class one and class two e-bikes. Class one is just pedal and then class two you also have a throttle. So there's kind of added power there. So children under 12 are now banned from riding those bikes. There's also some limits on riding bikes on sidewalks as well as some other limits there. So we had a previous conversation in like about a few weeks ago with Crystal on that. And now those laws are getting in place. And , you know , since we had that conversation , I kind of ran into just a bunch of , you know , hearing stories in my neighborhood , I don't know. Accidents or injuries and I know KPBS. Tom Fudge recently put out a call to kind of find out more about injuries related to e-bikes , and it's something that I'm curious to see where the story goes and to see if other cities follow through on what Chula Vista did here.
S7: Yeah , definitely. And I think we're already getting a lot of responses to that call out about stories and e-bikes. So if you have an experience with it , definitely reach out to Thomas Fudge. That's on our website at KPBS. Um , this next story that I have is also from one of our colleagues , Heidi DeMarco. She's the health reporter for KPBS , and she put out the story this week about internet scammers targeting seniors and new and advanced ways , which we know has been going on for some time. But it really centered on one man who was , you know , scammed by someone who seemed to be a friendly , innocent , pen pal type person. Um , they just wanted to have a conversation and he , um , you know , just engage with that conversation. and as soon as his daughter saw the messages , she was like , this is obviously a scam. And he felt very embarrassed and just kind of taken advantage of. So Heidi reports that in 2020 , for San Diego , seniors victimized by scammers lost an average of more than $30,000. Um , and it's just a really tough issue because , you know , especially with the problem of loneliness as folks get older , it's just disheartening to see this population get targeted. Trust also increases with age. So scammers are taking advantage of that. And I don't know , I feel like it just gets harder and harder to tell what's real , what's a scam. I get these texts like every day. I get.
S1: Texts and they're just trying to kind of like get a conversation going. With.
S6: With.
S7: You , right ? Or call and say , you know , and , um , I just was thinking , like the other day I fell for this AI video of raccoons , like , jumping on trampolines. And I was so I was like , this is so cute. And I sent it to a friend. And Then , you know , upon further investigation , it was clearly fake. And like , it's just getting harder and harder to tell what's real. And that kind of brings me to this next piece I wanted to bring up , which is , um , about community and kind of curbing that issue of loneliness , especially among the older population. This was a really cool , in-depth feature in The New York Times , and it centers on this group of 11 retired women that live in a tiny house village in East Texas called the Bird's Nest. They range from 60 to 80 years old. They come from all different backgrounds , different politics , um , religions , things like that. But it's a women only community. Most of them are single. Most are also divorced or widowed. Two of them are married to each other. And , you know , within the whole group , they have 21 children scattered across the country. And my favorite part is that they have nine dogs , which they call their babies. Um , and just it's a really cool story because , you know , it kind of is an example of people turning to like , chosen family and community to kind of curb , like we said , that issue of loneliness. The piece , you know , points to a 2019 study that finds that women with more social ties have a 10% longer lifespan and 41% higher odds of surviving to age 85 than women with fewer ties , regardless of their demographic characteristics or health conditions. So I just think this was a really cool story. You know , me and my friends often joke about , like , buying a big house one day and growing old together. And , um , what would that be like ? Because we all love living in each other's company. And I just thought it was , you know , a really unique approach to , um , prioritizing community and building that into people's livelihoods.
S1: And like that study you mentioned , I mean , I think we've learned a lot or seen a lot more evidence of the negative health impacts from from being isolated. And I know we're running out of time , but I just had one other story. It's a little stranger , I guess. Um , Andy Keates had this in Axios San Diego , and it's just I don't know if you've seen. There's this this giant yacht's been kind of parked in , you know , San Diego Bay for a few years. It was confiscated from a Russian oligarch after Russia invaded Ukraine. And it's been sitting there for a few years. Anyway , the the government's now selling it in auction. Its cost is $325 million. It's no joke. I mean , this is like if you look at a picture of it , if you've seen it downtown , I mean , it's multi-level. There's a helipad. It says , yeah , Andy Keats says it's like a movie theater in there , a sauna , all sorts of stuff. But , um , they're they're putting that for sale. And one of the reasons they say is that just just to upkeep this costs over 700,000 bucks a month. So that's that's a sight , I think when you pass by , if you've seen it in the Bay , it's kind of like you definitely do a double.
S7: Take tonight catcher.
S1: That'll do it for the round up. This week I've been speaking with KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Thanks , Ashley.
S7: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: Thanks so much for listening to KPBS roundtable. That'll do it for our show this week. You can listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM. Noon on Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any feedback on the show , today's show , any future shows you'd like to hear , you can email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Rooth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
