S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. On today's show , ballots are already being filled out for this year's midterm primary election. And there's more than just a governor to vote on for the June 2nd election. We take a closer look at some of the congressional races on the ballot this year , including the newly redrawn 48th district. Then how prepared is the city of San Diego for a federal immigration enforcement blitz we've seen in other cities ? Plus , new reporting found a big jump in e-bike accidents , many involving kids. We hear about efforts at the local and state levels to strengthen rules around a popular way to get around. That's all ahead on KPBS roundtable. Voters should have their ballots for this year's primary election by now , and maybe you even had a chance to look over the more than 50 candidates for governor. But there are a lot of other races also on the ballot , including congressional races. And one is particularly getting a lot of attention. That's the race for the newly redrawn 48th district. Here to talk more about it is Jake Gatta. He is the Public Matters reporter here at KPBS. You may also see him on social media quite a bit , often riding his skateboard. Hey , Jake. Hey.
S2: Hey. How's it going ? Good.
S1: Glad you could join us today. So this district was redrawn as a result of prop 50 that passed last year. Remind us what that did and how it changed the look of the 48th. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So the 48th district was one of the Republican held districts that was targeted by prop 50. There was five of them in California. And the change that happened was we redrew these lines to affect the impact or affect the voter registrations in that district. So before prop 50 , there were more Republicans registered in the 48th district. Now there's more Democrats registered in that district. And that's really changing the calculus for who's running and for how likely Democrats are to win that seat and pick up another blue seat for for their congressional race.
S1: But , you know , even with these new borders , it's not what I think a lot of people would consider a true blue district , right ? It's still has a fair share of Republicans.
S2: Oh , yeah. There's still there's still a good amount of Republicans. And voter registration numbers aren't everything. There's plenty of people who aren't necessarily registered with either party and who are going to pick one way or the other. They don't tell the whole story. And then , um , there's a pretty strong candidate , uh , still coming out of the other Republican side. So Darrell Issa , the current representative who holds that seat , he's choosing to retire rather than run for re-election in this redrawn district.
S1: But he's made that announcement like after it was.
S2: There was a few weeks or months there where nobody really knew. There's actually some some , uh , suggestion that he would move to Texas and run in Texas and try and take a Republican or Democratic seat there after they read you their map. Uh , that didn't pan out. He decided to not run for re-election. He announced he's retiring for a second time. And , uh , he endorsed , uh , County Supervisor Jim Desmond as his replacement. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So let's talk more about his candidacy and what he's been , you know , saying on the campaign trail. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Well , I mean , Supervisor Desmond is , um , pretty popular among his supporters in sort of East County and North County. I mean , he's been elected to be a supervisor. He's been the standard bearer for Republican governance at the county level on a lot of issues. Um , and as he's running to represent this district , he's sort of running the same line. He's saying a lot of the same things about how the government is getting in the way and about how we need to cut regulations and we need to cut taxes. Um , I actually tried pretty hard to get an interview with him , and he didn't respond to multiple requests for that , so I didn't get a chance to ask him these questions , and I would be more than happy to. But , um , yeah , his campaign website is pretty standard. We want to cut taxes , we want to cut regulations , and we want to get the government out of the way for , you know , for businesses especially.
S1: So you weren't able to speak with County Supervisor Jim Desmond , as you mentioned , but you did get a chance to chat with several of the Democratic candidates running. Right. So let's talk to about two of the more well-known candidates that's Amar campaign , Aja and Marni von Wilbur. Tell us about them. And you know what ? What they're saying. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Council member Marni von Wilbur , she's a city council member here in San Diego. Um , she flipped a red district blue when she ran for city council. I'm pretty sure she beat Carl DeMaio , actually , in that race , but don't quote me on that. Um , but she she won her district , and , um , has been city council person for a number of years , and now she's running to represent the 48th. And , um , she's really leaning on a lot of her experience in governance in the City council to say , we're going to do the same things that I've been doing at City Council. We're going to bring that to the to the national level. And , um , like a lot of the other candidates , her focus has really been on affordability and the cost of living here in San Diego and in California in general. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I want to talk more into that. But let's talk more about that in just a moment. But , you know , the other candidates getting a lot of attention. Amara Camp and Aja tell us about him and his candidacy. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Mark and Aja is a familiar name in San Diego politics. In recent years , he's run a couple other campaigns to try and win a couple different races. He ran against Darrell Issa and lost. He ran against Duncan Hunter in that same district of a few years before that , um , and he ran for mayor of Chula Vista and didn't win that one. Um , but so he's he's took a crack at winning these elections a couple of times now. He's ran for Congress a couple times. And so he does have experience in that area. And he's trying to trying to get over the hump for for the first time here with , with this election.
S1: Well , you know , there are more candidates on the Democratic side.
S2: Um , she's she's running , uh , a lot of on the same messages of affordability. Um , one of the things that she mentioned , though , that was interesting , is she has a real focus on , um , transit oriented development. And , um , that's also kind of unique for a district and a region that's not necessarily super transit oriented. And I think that's kind of what she's what she's saying is that we need to invest in better transit for these regions that are lacking , and then the way to not only do that and pay for it , but to support that transit in the long term is to build lots of housing nearby it. So the people who live in those homes can take transit , and they don't have to rely on a car that supports our transit agencies also , because then they're going to have more revenue and things like that. So yeah , one of the things that she mentioned was this focus on putting federal dollars into not just incentivizing , but actually building housing near transit , building more transit projects , building housing near it , and then using those two different things to support each other. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. There's also Brandon Riker. Tell us more about him.
S2: He again focused on affordability. That was really just the key message from all of these people that I. That I interviewed about or in this race. And so Brandon Riker is an economist. He has a Raise a lot of money from himself. His donated a lot of his own money to this campaign. He's a pretty wealthy individual , and I think he's donated close to or more than $1 million to his own campaign. So he has plenty of money to run. And his plans that he's that he's talking about , one of them is pretty unique , actually , as well. He was talking about how you can address Social Security taxes. And so we all pay Social Security taxes on our wages. There's apparently a cap at $184,000. So after that , you no longer pay taxes on your Social Security or Social Security taxes on your wages. So he wants to get rid of that cap and address , you know , Social Security's long term solvency in that way by , you know , making sure that it's going to have more money down the line to continue to pay out. But at the same time , he wants to raise like a floor to the first 50,000 on the on your wages. You don't pay taxes on those. And so that would be like a pretty significant boost of money back into a worker's pocket every paycheck , because it's cutting that tax right at the paycheck level. Not that you pay back. It's not a tax benefit. It's not like a voucher or something you have to file for or something. Yeah , it would just every worker would just be getting uh , he says about a 6% raise on their paycheck. Um , everybody who's making up to $184,000. And so that would be a pretty significant way to put money back into a worker's pocket and also pay for it by , you know , taxing the rich , which is kind of one of the common democratic themes. There's like more taxes on , on the wealthy , put more money back into worker's pockets. Right.
S1: Right. And we're seeing billionaires tax potentially being on the right. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. That was and that was what um , Amar and Aja had had mentioned as well. I mean , he he spoke about a wealth tax. He spoke about using that money to , you know , invest in our schools and our our roads and our communities. And it's really becoming a common , a common theme among Democratic politicians is to not shy away from this idea of taxing the rich , taxing , you know , the wealthy , taxing the powerful , taxing corporations especially , and trying to use that money to invest in our society.
S1: So , as you know , you mentioned a couple of times the word affordability. It seems to be the top issue in this race , like a lot of others we're seeing. But , you know , you touched on this a little bit. But , you know , tell us more about how some of the candidates are looking to tackle that specifically because they have different ideas here.
S2: Yeah , yeah. We can go back to Councilmember Marni von willpower. She had a pretty interesting idea for her way of tackling this affordability issue , specifically with affordable housing. And it leans on her experience at the City council. Okay.
S1: Okay. So we're going to come back to that clip in just a second. Um , but yeah , we'll talk about it. But since , you know , basically focusing on affordable , affordable housing , bringing that to the National.
S2: Yeah , yeah. And the , the permitting process therein because there's , there's , you know , only so much man hours and staff hours that like the permitting department at the city council or at the city can do like the planning department , all of these things that are obstacles to building housing that go beyond just financing and go beyond , um , you know , paying for it or incentivizing it or even zoning. It is just the time it takes to get a permit approved for , for building any sort of any sort of housing , any sort of development. It can take a long time in that time just adds up and builds on the cost of building it , which , you know , that cost gets passed on to consumers. So what Council Member Vaughn Wolpert said is that what they've done at the city council here in San Diego is jump affordable housing developers to the front of the line.
S1: So we have that clip now. So let's hear a little bit from from Marni. This is Marni von Wolpert.
S3: We need to prioritize building actual affordable housing in this country. We've done that at the San Diego City Council. We did the Affordable Housing Now permit , where we put affordable developers to the front of the permit line and made sure we actually got them through our bureaucracy quicker so they can get back to the business of building housing. We're going to do the same thing in Congress. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Now , as I was saying , that's an approach that's not rooted in like , oh , we need to pass some big tax increase or we need to , you know , invest federal dollars in this place for that place , which there's a place for that , of course , but this is a way to address this housing supply crunch without having to do much besides change the way that we're approving permits , change the way that we're approaching who gets to get to the front of the line when we're building stuff ? And Councilmember Ron Wolpert says , if you're building affordable housing , that's deed restricted , and it's going to be , you know , reserved for lower income people , you should get your approvals first. You should be the one that gets reviewed first , and then that way you can speed up that process and speed up the timeline for building so that not only do we get those units faster , but they're cheaper too. They don't cost as much to build.
S1: You also spoke about this issue with Omar Campana Jr. He talked a little bit about some of his ideas , but tell us more about this. You know how he's looking at this affordability issue. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So he he mentioned taxes and he mentioned plugging those in or those resources back into our into our community. And yeah , that's something that again , like I mentioned before , it's it's becoming more commonly accepted that if we want to have good schools , good roads , good , you know , things that governments pay for , that tax money has to come from somewhere. And we're looking at different ways to find that. A lot of people are saying maybe we should tax the wealthy , tax the rich a little bit more. And Omar Camp and Aja mentioned a wealth tax and using that money to invest in all those different things. Now , how likely is that to get passed through Congress , especially through Congress , that may not have a friendly Senate or a House that may not have a friendly Senate , a House that might be split by 1 or 2 votes. It's it's unclear. That would be a little bit different. Or a little bit more difficult of the lift , I think , than something like a regulatory change with affordable housing permitting , you know , so it's something that would certainly result create a lot of revenue for the government that could go towards all of these different things that he's mentioned. But it's also just something that , you know , we have to see what the appetite is for new taxes in in seven months or six months , when this new Congress takes , takes control , and it might not even be a Democratic controlled Congress. That's still not for sure at all with the way that these legislative redistricting battles have been playing out.
S1:
S2: No , totally. And I mean , that's that's why We did prop 50 here in California in the first place. Like it was really about beyond just the back and forth with Texas and other states doing their redistricting and the political games there. People in California finally had a chance to impact that calculus , that that national level of , you know , how are we actually going to get a Congress that works for us , that does the things that we as a nation want it to do ? A lot of times , people in California sort of feel left out of this national conversation because , like , we're sort of written off as it's all blue. Like it's never really guaranteed blue. We always vote for a Democrat for the president. And then like , we have two Democratic senators , they're never really like the , you know.
S1: Center of the. Right.
S2: Right. They're never really like the focal point of the senators , because they're always pretty reliably voting with the Democrats. It's not like Joe Manchin or Sinema who like maybe would vote with the Republicans sometimes. And so then they're the vote that you need to you need to get. But so because of all that , a lot of times Californians are like , hey , we did everything we could. We voted for the people we voted for , and we still don't really have any say in this national conversation. And prop 50 was a way for us to have a big say in that national conversation and say what the people voted for here in California is more Democrats in Congress , and now we have to go vote again to to follow that , to see that through. But they voted for that because people in California want to see our representatives leading on the national stage and going to going to D.C. , going to Congress and saying , no , this is what we're going to do. We're going to actually accomplish this. And , you know , try and make what California is pushing for actually come to reality.
S1: So we have about a minute left. I do want to just , you know , get your it's not the only congressional race , you know , happening in our region. Can you tell us a little bit about a couple of the other race. They're not as competitive as this one. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Yeah. The there's a couple other I mean that the 48th district is the only , uh , district in San Diego , the only congressional district in San Diego County that was not held by a Democrat. So there's four other Democrats who are going to be defending their seats. Sarah Jacobs , Juan Vargas , Scott Peters and Mike Levin are all incumbents in pretty favorable Democratic districts , which means they're pretty likely to to win reelection here. That's just the way these things work. And so they're not really campaigning all that much , and there's not really any strong opposition to to them as well. It's just it's not something that a statewide or national Republican Party would want to invest a lot of money in is trying to go uphill against a guy like Scott Peters or a representative like Sarah Jacobs , who has , you know , lots of support , lots of money and a pretty strong Democratic friendly district.
S1: Well , Jake , thanks so much for breaking this down for us. There's still a lot to talk about , and we'll probably have you on hopefully after the primary to talk more about it. You can always find out more on the primary election at our voter guide at pbs.org. Guide J gotta is public Matters reporter here at KPBS. Jake , thanks again.
S2: Of course. Thanks for having me.
S1: Up next , how ready is San Diego for a major federal immigration blitz ? We hear about supporting , looking into how prepared the city is to face that potential. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. How prepared is San Diego for a large scale immigration crackdown like the ones we've seen in L.A. or Minneapolis ? Immigration advocacy groups were hopeful when Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order last July that called for a joint safety plan. But nearly one year later , advocates argue there's been a lack of transparency there. That's happening. As new data released this week revealed over 16,000 people have been apprehended by Ice in the county between January 2025 and April of this year. Here with more is KPBS investigative board reporter Gustavo Solis. Hey , Gustavo.
S4: Hey , Andrew.
S1: Thank you. I think today we wanted to center this conversation , you know , on immigration , on this idea of transparency. You know , where we are with that. And I want to start with your reporting on the recent arrests of cruise workers in San Diego. It seems to be part of something called Operation Tidal Wave. Tell us more about that story.
S4: Yeah , that story came about. I mean , the arrests happened a while ago , April 23rd and April 25th. The ones we were aware of and advocates behind the scenes spent the last couple of weeks reaching out to Border Patrol , reaching out to the port of San Diego , trying to find information about who these men are , why they were detained , whether they have access to attorneys just trying to figure out what was happening. So they set up a press conference at the Port of San Diego. We all went over there and then just kind of raised these concerns to the public. Then the next day , Ice and Border Patrol came out with a press release finally releasing more information about Operation Tidal Wave , claiming that the the people arrested , about 26 people arrested were involved in child pornography. They either had or shared or produced child pornographic images , and that helped answer some of the questions. But it also raised a whole slew of new questions. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So let's talk more about where do you go from there ? Yeah. What questions do you have from that story now ? Yeah.
S4: Well , we know from the the Philippine consulate that some of the people have already been deported. Right. So the obvious question is , hey , if you have a bunch of people engaged in this really serious crime , why are you deporting them before they have a chance to be charged , prosecuted criminal justices. Yeah , right. And if they are like if they are guilty of what they're accused of being , why would you just let them go back to their home country with no criminal consequences ? Um , you know , is there justice for the victims ? Did investigators have a chance to figure out if this was part of a broader network , or were they deported too quickly before that ? Right. Even basic details about the arrest , uh , Ice and Border Patrol statement contradict each other. I said 23 people were arrested. Border patrol said 27. Which one is it ? We don't know for sure. The names of the individuals. We don't know for sure. I did reach out to both federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and San Diego. They have no knowledge of pending charges , prosecutions or anything like that. So at least locally , there's nothing showing that these people are facing criminal charges for the horrible things they are accused of.
S1: And as you mentioned there , I mean , just even basic facts have been pretty hard for you to kind of confirm here.
S4: The number of people involved. Yeah. Or even the names. Right. If you look at DHS social media presence , they are full of mug shots of the names of the people and crimes they are accused of. But in this instance , nothing until after the the advocates raised the concerns and local media wrote stories about it.
S1: So I imagine you're still digging into to that story.
S4: I mean , I'll continue checking with prosecutors , see if anything has come about. I believe Border Patrol kind of hinted that all of them have already been deported back home. So then it just kind of like what happens with Operation Tidal Wave , right ? Let's remember that the immigration system is a civil system and child pornography is a criminal offense. Why are you using a civil justice system to adjudicate a criminal offense. We have a criminal system for that. So I think that's a bigger question.
S1: So , you know this this week , Ice released data on the number of apprehensions in the region. Tell us more about what we learned. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Continuing on the theme of transparency , right. This is data that members of Congress had to ask for specifically. Will every Democrat that represents San Diego , I believe it was spearheaded by Congressman Levin , uh , formally requesting information about who in San Diego is being arrested and deported , including their nationality and their criminality.
S1: Um , and it's also the number of people arrested by Ice in specific locations kind of became a piece of that.
S4: Yeah , that was a big one that we didn't have before , that little piece of information. Right. That that hadn't been reported on before until these members of Congress asked for it. And it was pretty interesting. I believe the numbers were about 1400 individuals arrested at or near sensitive locations. Sensitive locations are schools , hospitals and churches , and that's been a real point of contention during the second Trump administration , because historically , we don't do enforcement in those places. And I think we have , um , a little bit of sound bite from Congressman Scott Peters on this issue.
S5: I think the really cool thing is that you're picking up people who are going to church or going to school , um , going to hearings where they're trying to comply with the law , the legal process. We've set out.
S4: Again , as you said. I mean , the big concern is the aftershock of that , right ? If there is one arrest in a school that tells the entire community to maybe avoid schools , right. We have anecdotal and even some hard data of attendance being down because of these operations and sensitive locations. And that's the concern. Well , there's multiple areas of concern here , but that's one of the big ones is it impacts the entire community in a way that other types of operations and non sensitive locations do not.
S1: So similar to what we were just talking about with , you know , the cruise workers and what's happening there. A lot more questions coming out for you I'm sure about this data. What's you know what questions are you asking next from this.
S4: Well one of the big ones still remaining , which is a question originally proposed by the members of Congress. Guys when they asked for this information in the first place was criminality , right ? We know 16,000 people have been deported from the region. How many of them have criminal convictions ? How many just pending charges ? How many have no criminal convictions at all ? And that's really a big theme throughout the Trump administration , right ? I've been on here before saying , contrary to what the administration is saying , that they're going after the worst of the worst , Their own data shows that well over 70% of the people impacted by this have no criminal record. So that is still another big question.
S1: So that brings us to the city and their plan for , you know , how to handle the potential of a large scale immigration blitz. Remind us what the mayor's executive order was designed to do. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. So the this is back from July of last year. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order that does a lot of things. Uh , some are immediate , um , hosting Know Your Rights workshops around town , providing information in multiple languages , in municipal buildings like libraries and city hall , and just being a little bit more vocal about what resources are available like. Those are good things. It also made a couple of lofty promises , right ? The mayor is going to convene a special task force , and it's going to come up with a joint safety plan. Uh , the mayor is going to convene a regional roundtable meeting with every mayor and police chief in the county to go over what their response is going to look like. They're going to meet with local stakeholders , like non-profits , to evaluate policies and come up with recommendations. And I spent the last three months trying to get specifics about some of those issues. Right. How many groups have you met with ? What is the joint strategic plan like ? What do you plan to do if and when Ice comes to San Diego ? I mean , just this week , Tom Homan said mass deportations are still on , and it's been very hard to get any concrete details about any of those questions. I mean , as part of the reporting process , I filed public records requests asking for minutes , agendas , memos , any documents related to a plan , and none of those were made available.
S1:
S4: Right. The the mayor's office declined to give me a list or share any of the organizations except one Jewish Family Service , which is a great organization. They've been around for a long time , doing a lot of good work in this space , and they confirmed that they're working with the mayor as a sort of like an expert guide. But I talked to other organizations who haven't met with the mayor's office. One of them , the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium , is not one organization , but a group of more than 50 organizations that have a lot of expertise , institutional knowledge , direct relationships with the immigrant populations. And they're saying , like , hey , we could be a great resource to partner with you on this , but we're not getting any really collaboration.
S1:
S4: Right. The city , as the city did tell me they have a plan in place. It is adaptive. It's subject to change. It's not a static document and it's a set of coordinated protocols and rules and response actions. But beyond that , we don't know what those policies and protocols are. So the groups have no way of really providing input in that. I think one of the gentlemen I talked to , Pedro Rios from American Friends Service Committee , he kind of summed it up as well. We can hear from him directly and then we'll talk about it.
S6: There's a perception that the mayor's office hasn't done enough and isn't as interested on these issues. And even though he might and his office might say that they are working on on this issue , it's not as clearly transparent. It's not hasn't been clearly communicated to the wider public.
S4: So there he is again , speaking of transparency and communication. And he said that it is a good strategy for the city to have an adaptive plan because Ice tactics change. So you want to be able to adapt to it , but the fact that you're not talking about it and being fully transparent creates this perception that , you know , we don't know what's going on.
S1: So another piece of this is there's this , you know , kind of protections at the state level. Right. And this , you know , California Values Act , which came into effect a few years ago. What can you tell us about that and how that plays into , you know , what San Diego may or May. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. For for that story , I thought it was really interesting to. Well , it's a fact that the mayor's executive order doesn't operate in a vacuum. And it's not the only , you know , policy aimed at limiting immigration enforcement in San Diego. Um , state law , California Values Act is passed after the Trump administration. It kind of sets the groundwork for what the protections are , what police officers can and cannot do , and everything after that , whether it's a new ordinance that recently passed in the city of San Diego , is going to go into effect this month , or the mayor's executive order build up on that. Um , and it's kind of an interesting dynamic , right ? Because the law passed during the first Trump administration. Some parts of it are a little bit outdated because of new tactics that we're seeing in Trump 2.0. I spoke with Erin Sugimoto Grassi. She's with the San Diego Alliance , and she kind of talked about the dynamic of how these different laws and policies worked together.
S7: It was groundbreaking. It still is. Like there's still states that don't have what we have here , and they are rushing to be able to get what we have and have had since 2017. And then it has limitations , because what we're seeing now is different than what we were seeing in 2017. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. So , I mean , you touched on one thing you mentioned. You know , in addition to the mayor's executive order , council member Shani Rivera introduced a new city ordinance that that is set to go into effect. Right. You know , how is that different ? Explain that to us. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. It builds on what the mayor was doing in some ways. An example would be Police reports write. The mayor's office. The mayor's executive order said that the police department has to report any PD activity whenever they respond to a 911 Ice related call. Whether that be the agency calling for kind of crowd control or individuals like citizens calling Ice. The executive order doesn't formalize what those reports look like , and it doesn't require them to be made public. I had to put in a records request. It took me three months to get them there. Text messages that have good information , but they're just not accessible to the public. What the ordinance does is it formalizes the reporting process , and it requires the police department to submit it to the city council within three days. So hopefully that provides another layer of just transparency. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Again , back to back to the theme of the day. Yeah. Um , okay. As we finish up here , we have about a minute left , Gustavo. And I'm just wondering. You know , touched on a few different stories here. I know you're probably working on another one right now.
S4: People are still on edge , and I think people are just trying to make sense of what's going on in the world. I view the role of a reporter with multiple roles , but one that I appreciate is the reporter as an educator. And education really has a way to reduce anxiety , right ? You arm yourself with knowledge and , you know , fear comes from uncertainty , right ? So the more you know about something , the less uncertain you are , the more you feel like you have agency over it. And I think , you know , after a year and a half of this administration , people are still anxious and stressed and tired and they're looking for information and transparency and communication as a way to to combat that.
S1: I want to thank you so much for joining us and kind of breaking some of this down. Gustavo Solis is investigative board reporter here at KPBS. Gustavo , thanks as always.
S4: Yeah , thanks for having me.
S1: Coming up , new reporting found a big rise in e-bike accidents. We hear more about it next. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Over the past few years , electric bicycles have become a popular way for young people to get around. They make quite a bit of sense here in San Diego. They provide a way for them to gain more independence , maybe get off screens , get outdoors , as well as to easier , you know , better navigate San Diego's hillier neighborhoods. But the data say that popularity has come with the costs. Accidents involving e-bikes are also on the rise. In fact , they've quadrupled over the past half decade. Here to talk more about it is Kate Murphy. She's a reporter with Axios San Diego. Hey , Kate , great to have you here. Thanks.
S8: Thanks. Yeah , happy to be here.
S1: So we've been hearing about , you know , this surge in popularity of e-bikes , right ? And particularly around young people , I think it's a common sight to see them on our streets. But that has led to more concerns about accidents and injuries. You dug into the data here. What did you all find ? Yeah.
S8: So , you know , just having kind of witnessed it myself , as you know , on the roads and just seeing more and more people out there. Uh , I wanted to see the numbers on what the crashes actually looked like in San Diego , particularly as the city is kind of considering new rules and regulations around it. Uh , and so , yeah , we found , you know , over the past five years that , uh , collisions involving e-bikes have quadrupled. And , um , is interesting because the , the data from San Diego Police Department , you know , looks at all kinds of bike involved collisions. And we kind of had to narrow that down ourselves and analyze that. In looking at which ones of these involve e-bikes , specifically based on the brands or just like different classifications in that data. Um , and yeah , I mean , they've they've gone up consistently year over year. And , uh , it's interesting to see kind of where a lot of them are happening in the , you know , coastal neighborhoods like Pacific Beach and Mission Beach. Those were kind of the the hot spots locally. And , um , you know , a lot of the in addition to the crashes themselves , like a lot of them were happening with unsafe speeds and , you know , unsafe. Turns were kind of the most frequent violations that were accompanying those crashes. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And you had to do some extra homework here , right ? Like , tell us more about just the process of finding this data. As you mentioned , it's not just super clear cut of what's an e-bike. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So we filed a public records request to get , um , all to , you know , we originally asked for e-bike data on , you know , involved e-bike involved incidents. And we got back , as , you know , big data set from the police department that was all bicycle related crashes. And there , you know , there isn't like a particular column that identifies this as an e-bike incident. And so we kind of had to do our own analysis looking at popular e-bike brands. Um , and , you know , a lot of the in a lot of the incidents , there wasn't a , uh , a brand or like a vehicle make , uh , listed. And certainly a lot of brands also make regular bikes and e-bikes. So we excluded those , um , from this sort of analysis. Uh , and as well as trying to take out ones that were more like mopeds or electric motorbikes. Um , which , yeah , are really more like motorcycles on the road versus like the ones you're thinking of , like the pedal assist. Uh , that we're seeing a lot more of. So , uh , yeah , it was really interesting to kind of dig into that and just wanted to try to get a more clear picture on on what the numbers actually are behind this.
S1: But I mean , what you're describing there , it kind of tells the story of e-bikes and the larger kind of landscape of all these , like portable , you know , these electronic , these electric things we see kind of going around. Um , and it can get really confusing. And I think that's , you know , a big part of it. E-bikes are not one size fits. All right ? They're different. They're three different classes. Can you just remind us the breakdown there ? Yeah.
S8: So there's type one , type two and type three. And basically they're just kind of like different iterations of an e-bike and they can have different speeds. Certainly some bikes have are like one person bikes that sometimes you see two people riding on and other ones have like two seats and that sort of thing. So , um , you know , it seems like cities are really trying to target those type one and type two class bikes , um , that are , you know , have those lower speeds and aren't really those like , uh , well , I mean , they still go up to 20mph. Right. And other ones like up to 28mph. But , um.
S1: But yeah , just so like the class one , I think doesn't have the throttle , but it does. It kind of boosts you. It gives you the extra boost. Yeah. And then two does have a throttle , but it's capped at 20 miles an hour. Yes. And then the third one I think can go up to the has the throttle plus to 28 which is.
S8: Yeah I mean like a car. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. Yeah.
S1: So I mean obviously you know the big issue here is the injuries that have come along with it. I mean , what makes e-bike injuries ? You know , especially with kids , particularly concerning for doctors right now. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So Rady Children's Hospital had a recent like pretty big study looking at how these injuries are becoming more prevalent and more severe with kids coming into their ers. And , you know , a big part of it is that that speed that's just making them a more serious collision or accident , whether it's like with another vehicle or just , you know , hitting a rock or a sidewalk crack that sends you a flying over the handlebars , that looks much different and has a much greater impact when it's on an electric bike going 20mph than , you know , your standard pedal bike. Um , and so , you know , that's what it sounds like , is really concerning these trauma surgeons and doctors in the yard that are just seeing much more , I mean , severe injuries like we saw this past weekend with , you know , a 12 year old boy had a broken collarbone and brain bleed that required surgery. And , you know , it was like , these are life threatening injuries that are coming from these e-bikes or kids riding these e-bikes , uh , as opposed to , you know , just like getting scraped up there. They're heavier. You know , even just having it fall on you is like a much more painful experience than than , you know , a regular , a regular pedal bike.
S1: So we have seen several cities in the county , you know , make efforts , pass local ordinances to , to make rules around e-bikes. And kids recently tell us more about those efforts , and then we'll dive into what the city of San Diego is doing here. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So , um , there was a state law passed that , uh , kind of enabled local San Diego County cities to join in on this pilot program that essentially was like a framework for how they can regulate e-bikes. And so we've seen , you know , la mesa , Carlsbad , Oceanside , San Marcos , and carnitas. All and others like adopt these new rules and regulations limiting their use , particularly for kids under 12. That's kind of like the big target right now is so elementary school kids mostly. Um , and , you know , it's interesting to see , like , there's age limits , passenger limits. Um , some are looking at like , confiscating e-bikes and banning them from sidewalks. And so it's really this , like patchwork of different laws and policies that individual cities are trying to just adopt themselves. Um , the city of San Diego is is the most recent one who's , uh , that's considering it , which are looking at , yeah , the restriction or banning it for kids under 12 and then also banning you from like having a passenger unless there's a seat dedicated for that , uh , for that individual. And um , so they're , they're looking at picking that up this summer after the budget. Right.
S1: Right. And trying to get it. I mean , you know , if it could get past before next school year. Yeah.
S9: Yeah.
S8: Yeah , they're hoping to have it in effect for next school year. And , uh. Yeah. Really focusing on kind of the education piece around it versus like , uh , you know , having a lot of infractions , but they're really focused on , you know , how can we educate kids to ride these safely.
S1: And then just seem to be sort of like a catching up sort of feel to some of these efforts. And then there are multiple bills right now at the state level looking to regulate e-bikes. Tell us more about those and what those are , you know , aiming to do. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So state lawmakers are looking at a number of different laws or bills to get passed. One would require DMV registration. Um , and then others kind of look at how they're limiting essentially how businesses can market and sell them. And like what uh , I guess how they're , how they're defined.
S1: And that goes back to what you were saying about the difference between the e-bikes , the classes. But then there are the like what e moto ? Like , you know what I mean ? And I don't think there's a lot of , you know , a lot of people can get confused by that. Yeah.
S9: Yeah.
S8: And I think , you know , a lot of times parents don't really know what they're buying. Like they don't know the full capability. You just think , oh , this is like an accessible , easy thing that can help my kid get around , you know , get to school and then you don't have to drive them anymore. But there's , you know , I think , again , part of that education process of of what you're actually buying and the capabilities of these vehicles themselves , which they really are vehicles. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. At the end of your story on e-bikes , you reached out to your to your readers to get their thoughts.
S8: Um , you know , a lot of older folks and like seniors thinking about , okay , this could help me navigate my life better and heard concerns on that end as well. Like how , you know , not just for kids but for older adults , like. And again , navigating those streets and the fear around how dangerous really are these things and thinking about putting a loved one out there on the road on on these , um , e-bikes. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And again , the , the also the big factors just coexisting with cars. Right. And we it just seems to fit really well with some of our transportation needs. But you know , a lot of these accidents were probably the majority were with accidents with cars. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. Right.
S1: Right. So a lot to follow there. But it's really interesting reporting. And I want to thank you for joining us. I've been speaking with Kate Murphy , reporter with Axios San Diego. Kate. Thanks so much.
S8: Yeah , thanks for having me.
S1: That'll do it for roundtable this week. Thanks so much for listening. And to all my guests today. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can always email us at roundtable at PBS.org. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producer is Brandon Truffaut. Show is produced by Giuliana Domingo. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Have a great Mother's Day weekend.
