S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. San Diegans are one step closer to seeing new ballot measures this year. On a second , home stacks another looking to stop new trash fees in the city. We talk all about them and what they mean for the city's bottom line. Then it's been nearly a week since the US and Israel attacked Iran. We hear from a pair of military reporters on what it's been like to cover historic week across the news in the Middle East. Plus , a look into San Diego's rich Persian culture through a long running magazine. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. This year's ballots likely got longer this week. The San Diego City Council voted Tuesday to add a measure to the June primary ballot. It would add a tax on empty second homes if it passed. Also this week , paperwork was submitted for another measure and that would stop trash fees for San Diego homeowners. Here to tell us more about each of these are. KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Along with David Garrick , he covers the city for the San Diego Union Tribune. I want to welcome you both back to roundtable.
S2: Hi , Andrew. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
S1: Andrew , I want to start with your reporting on the second home tax measure.
S2: So this will be going before the voters of the city of San Diego. The tax would apply to homes that are vacant for more than half of the year. So nobody can claim this home as their primary residence. Maybe , you know , it's a it's a second home for some snowbirds living in Minnesota , let's say. Or or somebody who has who lives in San Diego and just has two homes and doesn't live in one of them. Uh , several other cities have have adopted similar measures. They've got them in place. And the goal is really twofold. So they want to raise revenue for the city to help , you know , a deal with this budget deficit that the city has been grappling with for a couple of years now , and also to incentivize that homeowner to actually put the home to use so , you know , rent it out on the market , maybe sell it or perhaps even turn it into a short term home rental.
S1: And what they actually voted on this week was a scaled back version of the original proposal. Um , you know , tell us more about why they removed this short term rental piece. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. The original proposal from Council member Sean L Rivera was to tax both empty second homes and short , full time , short term home rentals , which are , you know , popularized by Airbnb. Um , this version of the ballot measure faced a huge opposition from Airbnb , the company , but also the hosts who rent out their homes or , you know , other people who work in the short term rental industry , the property managers , the cleaners , all of those people really turned out in force at the city council's rules committee. And ultimately , you know that that version of the proposal did not have enough support from the Rules Committee to advance to the full city council. Two council members , however , in that meeting said , you know , I support the vacant home tax , but not the tax on short term rentals. And so what council member Elio Rivera did is just decide , well , there's part of this proposal that does seem to have enough support to get on the ballot. So that's why he decided to limit the tax measure just to empty second homes.
S1: And then that led to much more easier passage to the full council. Like you said , there was one no vote there. So , you know , tell us more about the tax. How much would the homeowners pay ? And I think you kind of covered a little bit about this , but anything else about who's excluded from the tax. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. In the first year the the vacant home tax would be $8 , sorry , $8,000 a year. And then that would rise to $10,000 in the second year. And then in addition , there would be a $4,000 surcharge for homes that are owned by corporations. And then that surcharge would go up to $5,000 in the second year. So , you know , not not a small amount of money , certainly. Although a lot of the people who own these second homes , we can probably assume , have a good amount of money. As for the exemptions and exclusions , you know , for starters , the home has to be empty for more than half of the year. So if somebody's living for six months in one day , the tax would not apply. But then also there are periods of exclusion like following a natural disaster , for example , or a military family if you know the homeowner is on deployment , that period would be excluded from the calculation of how much you know , how much time the home is empty. If there are family members who are living on the property , that would also not count towards the the empty period. If the owner dies or enters a care facility , there's some accommodations for those. And so , you know , really the the office of Council Member Eloy Rivera really tried to be surgical with how this tax applies to ensure that it's really only targeting those wealthier homeowners who for some reason can afford to own a home , but not really put it to use. For most of the year.
S1: There have been a few cities that have , you know , implemented similar taxes. Right , Andrew ? I think in Oakland , Berkeley , D.C. , some others. What can we learn from , you know , how it worked there and how is San Diego kind of thinking about that or.
S2: Yeah , the biggest I think the biggest lesson that we can learn from those prior examples is that very often cities overestimate how much money these taxes will bring in. Uh , you know , there are these these exclusions or exemptions are kind of par for the course. You really don't want to be targeting somebody unfairly or , you know , when they're they're experiencing serious economic hardship like the death of a family member. And so , you know , the the there are these exemptions that get built into the tax. And , you know , first , at the beginning. Uh , a city or , you know , the supporters of this might assume. Well , we have you know , we have a good estimate of how many homes are vacant for most of the year , uh , based on whatever data or tax records we have. And so , you know , let's assume that the tax will apply to all of them. Well , in reality , homeowners are pretty smart about figuring out how to avoid these taxes. And so , you know , the the number of homes that are actually subject to this tax tend to drop significantly. Certainly in the in , you know , once the tax goes into effect , but also over time , as the years go on , more and more homeowners figure out ways to avoid paying it. And one of those ways could actually just be to rent the home out. Either , you know , rent it month to month or , you know , a year to year , just like put it to use allow somebody to live there. And that is actually one of the policy goals of this proposal. So it's not just to raise revenue for the city , it's also to make housing more available. And we know that the the shortage of homes that are available on the market is a big driver of the reason why housing is so expensive here.
S1: In San Diego. Council member Shaunie Rivera I think this was maybe earlier this year. He kind of emphasized that right , by saying this proposal is not about the money , it's about the homes. Just to kind of.
S2: Yeah , I mean , I think you would also acknowledge the money helps. And the city , the city does have a money problem. But , you know , he he said several times in the discussions over this measure , you know , we celebrate when there's a new housing development that goes up and that , you know , our city is welcoming more people and making housing more available to people who live here. And so we should also celebrate when a home that used to be empty is now on the market and is available for for somebody to rent know.
S3: And there can be a domino effect because in some cases people might turn it into an Airbnb , but that's one more Airbnb on the market , so maybe another Airbnb comes off the market. Sure.
S2: Sure. And you know , Airbnb is also pay the transient occupancy tax , which is , you know , it's subject to hotels and also short term rentals. That's an area , you know , a very significant portion of the city's general fund revenue. And so , you know , the while the revenue might not be the primary reason , it is definitely part of it. I think. No.
S3: No. And I thought Joe LaCava made a great point , that this is not going to solve the housing crisis on its own. It's another tool in the tool belt , and they got to put as many as they can because the housing crisis is so daunting. And so it made a little chunk of it. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. He said , you know , we have to be doing all things big and small. And just because this tax measure might be , you know , a smaller in terms of how much revenue we're going to get , it's not going to fix our budget problems and it's not going to solve our housing crisis.
S1: Um , the one member that voted knows Raul Campillo. Tell us about the reasons he gave of why he didn't. You know , he voted against it. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Campo Council member Campo actually voted for the measure when it went before the Rules Committee , which that action was simply to forward the measure on to the full city Council. When it came to the full city council , he voted against it. And he said he explained , his reasoning is that , you know , there's a he wanted a comprehensive legal analysis from the city attorney's office , and that has to do with a court case in San Francisco. There was a vacancy tax approved by the voters of San Francisco in 2022 , and that was invalidated by the courts. And so , you know , he's concerned that this tax measure in San Diego could have a similar fate. Uh , I haven't read too deeply into the details of this lawsuit in San Francisco , but I think it is noteworthy. And this was pointed out by Councilmember Ella Rivera and the city Attorney's office , that other vacancy taxes in California that are subject to all the same laws as San Diego have not been successfully challenged. There's a vacancy tax in Oakland and Berkeley , and they are still standing. They are still collecting revenue for those cities. Um , again , Campo said that he wanted to see the city attorney's office. Really explain in detail why this tax measure would be more legally sound. The problem with that is that an attorney is never going to reveal all of their. They're not going to put their cards on the table before a lawsuit is actually filed. You try and reserve your legal reasoning and strategy for when it actually ends up in court. And so , you know , there was a lot of disagreement in actually some pretty spicy back and forth between Council President Joe LaCava and council member Campo over , you know , whether this concern about legality is really legitimate.
S3: And another factor in a full blown analysis is this on the June ballot. So the timeline is tight right now ? Sure.
S2: Yeah. No , we don't have a lot of time. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And now I want to move to the November ballot and to your story this week. David , you covered this other potential ballot measure looking to stop these new trash fees that , you know , recently gone into effect for city homeowners. Tell us more about this measure.
S3: Yeah , the Lincoln Club Business League , who used to be kind of on the political scene a lot and they haven't been as much in recent years , have come through with something that a little bit surprising. The city for years was trying to figure out a way to start charging single family homes for trash. They had gotten it for free under some bizarre 1919 law that I won't explain here , and a ballot measure in 2022 allowed the city to move forward with starting to charge single family homes. Apartments and condos are already charged , and the voters approved it , but it was immediately called a bait and switch because the fee was much higher than people thought. And then the rollout was kind of clumsy and not really well received. And the Lincoln Club has decided that there is a rule under proposition 218 , a long ago state proposition that allows a fee increase to be overturned or put on a ballot with only 5% of signatures , and that's only 21,000 signatures , which in San Diego is about one fourth of what you would normally need to put a measure on the ballot.
S1: So this year.
S3: Seems almost certain to get on the ballot. I mean , they would have to really try to fail , and it seems like it's popular enough. It only needs 50% approval. It seems like it's probably popular enough where it'll pass. Now , you could argue that people in apartments and condos would maybe not support it , but I don't know if they're passionate about it , whereas people in single family homes will definitely vote for it , you'd think. And they are very passionate about it , because they went from paying $0 to $43 a month , and it's a number that's going to keep rising in future years as more services get added.
S1: One caveat to it , though , is it's stopping these fees for two years , right.
S3: What's that ? That's the element. So they they if they'd wanted to overturn the 2022 ballot measure that approved it , they would have had to go for the 82,000 signatures and the full blown thing. But if they're just going to overturn the fee , then they only need the 21,000. And so when the city council finally approved a fee , which was last June and a 6 to 3 contentious vote , it was a four year fee. And so two years are they're at a fait accompli. They can't be changed. But the final two years of the deal , those would be because of the timing of the vote , November of 2026. They could start it for July of 2027. So people wouldn't pay from from the last two years of what the council approved. So from July 2027 through June of 2029 , the fee that was supposed to be charged will no longer be charged. But Kevin Faulconer , former mayor of San Diego , who is leading this charge , pointed out that the goal is beyond just the two years. If this gets repealed , it'll send a message to City Hall don't approve new fees. We'll overturn every one of them , so it's not going to. In his opinion , it won't just be a two year thing. It'll be a message to City Hall. Watch it when you try to prove a fee , because if there's any shakiness , we're going to the voters. It'll be easy to get the signatures and you're going to be dealing with hassles like this all the time.
S2: You know , one thing I think that the interesting thing at play here is the city is going to be adopting a budget in June that will almost will certainly include cuts to services. So we're probably going to be looking at libraries open for a few hours. And rec centers , you know , cuts to all those services , maybe tree trimming or park maintenance , those things. That's all going to happen before this appears on the ballot. And so , you know , it's I agree with you that I think a lot of single family homeowners are really upset about this fee , and they're definitely going to vote to repeal it. But , you know , if if enough voters look at these reductions in city services , and then they look at their ballot and see the fiscal impact statement. And they see , oh , the city is going to be losing , you know , x millions of dollars , you know , when we've already been cutting services. Maybe that might convince enough voters to say , well , you know what , I don't like paying the fee , but I also like having a library that's open seven days a week.
S3: No , it's a fair point. It'd be about a $100 million per year hole that will blow in the budget just for those two years. But again , if it becomes permanent , then that's forever. And that would be a huge impact. The city's budget is about 2 billion , so that would be a huge chunk 5%.
S1: I mean , you've kind of each touched on it , you know , in your stories , but kind of bringing it back to the city budget. How does the city's picture , you know , how do you see it playing a role going forward into where these measures go from here ? David.
S3: I think Andrew's right. I think voters will think about the home , empty homes , tax raising money , and then this one would actually be costing people money. It's going to be an ugly budget year. The mayor's budget comes out April 15th , and I think everyone's eager to see how he's going to put it together. They've been sort of using gimmicks and one time monies in the last 3 or 4 years in order to solve the problem in order to taper over the problem. And they had the federal money , the pandemic aid that helped paper over the problem in the years before that. This is sort of a rubber hits the road year , and it could be could be pretty ugly. It could be layoffs , could be some services that really matter to people. Um , I'm not sure what the plan is. So they've already done a few small things , like hiring freezes , but that's not going to solve it.
S1:
S2: I mean , the estimates from the Independent Budget Analyst's Office , uh , were a range of about 9.2 million to , I think 21.4 million in the first year. The deficit we're looking at for the next fiscal year , I've recalled a figure of 120 million. And so , you know , it's less than , let's say , a fifth of the of the deficit. But but you know , it's every every little bit helps. And when , when your money and your budget is so tight , every dollar that you see coming into the city or not coming into the city matters. And so , you know , the , the and again , I got to say , like I think that San Diegans are we've , we've been doing these budget tricks for years pretty much as long as I've been in San Diego , there's been this structural deficit where we have ongoing expenses that we're funding with one time resources , and that's just not a sustainable way to run a business or a city. And so , you know , people are really going to have to confront that if we want the services that the city provides. And if we don't and if we want them maintained , then we're going to have to figure out a way to pay for them. And , you know , the city , there's no way to pay for them without taxes or fees and or fees.
S3: But some conservatives have pointed out that the number of middle managers that the cities had , like , has quadrupled in recent years , and because everyone got 25% raises a few years ago , and that was to keep the catch the city workers up. I mean , they were behind because of a ballot measure in 2012 , but called proposition B. But the point was they tried to catch them up. But now you do have a lot of folks making one 6220 you know , who are really middle managers maybe oversee 3 or 4 people. And so there's a lot of movement on the council and in the public to say , hey , let's really examine this. And maybe that could solve part of the problem.
S1: I've been speaking with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen , along with city reporter David Garrick from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Thanks for breaking this down. We'll probably be talking more about these measures as well as the city budget in the coming months. But thanks. Thanks so much , as always.
S3: Thanks for having me.
S1: Up next , we hear what it's been like to cover the US military after the start of war in Iran. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. The fighting in Iran and other parts of the Middle East continues today , as President Trump calls for an unconditional surrender from Iranian leadership. San Diego Marines and sailors are playing a role in airstrikes in the region. Today , we want to talk with military reporters about the challenges that come with covering a war in real time and covering it accurately. Joining me to do that is Andrew Dyer. He's military and veterans affairs reporter here at KPBS. Also , Jeff Bogle joins us. He is a senior Pentagon reporter for Task and Purpose. It's a news outlet focused on the military and veterans community. And welcome you both to roundtable. Thanks for making the time and what has been a pretty eventful week in your beat. Thanks.
S4: Thanks. Thank you.
S1: So , Jeff , I want to start with you. I mean , tell us Saturday morning , how did your day get started ? I think a lot of us woke up to some pretty , you know , pretty big news.
S4: Well , I have a bad back. It's about 20 years older than I am , so it got me up around 430. And that's when I was seeing , uh , messages. We have , uh , my colleague , uh , Nicholas Slayton , uh , had worked the entire night and had a story about what had happened. And my job was just simply to see what more information I could find out. But in the initial hours , there was very little information which was concerning because there were plenty of videos that were circulating on social media that appeared to show the naval base in Bahrain being hit by missiles. And in this day and age , you have no idea what's real and what's fake , what's AI. So I was trying to reach out to , um , as many military officials as I could to ask. Which bases have been hit ? Is everyone okay ? Later in the day , we got word from Centcom. Well , they issued a statement , and they said damage to military bases had been minimal at the time. No casualties were reported. It was the following morning that we found out about at first , three that were killed later for and then ultimately the number became six. Elsewhere in which we learned it was Kuwait. Um , but in those initial 24 hours , we were just trying to to nail down. Is everyone okay ? You know , how has anyone been hurt ? Um , and it it was very difficult to do so.
S1: Jeff , can you talk a little bit more about , you know , how you just were looking to confirm those details as you mentioned ? You mentioned AI. I think a lot of us have seen images and are not sure what to make of it. We'll talk a little bit about the USS Abraham Lincoln , but there was definitely some videos there that had people concerned that turned out not to be true.
S4: And so that's how we found out. And then over the next 24 hours , they updated it and said a fourth service member has died of injuries. And then later that day , they said two service members who were initially listed as unaccounted for had been recovered. So that all came from official sources. Um and other news outlets were able to initially say , yes , this was a unit in Kuwait. Um , that was officially announced , I think , uh , later. But , um , you know , that getting back to your point about video , when I woke up on Saturday , there was a video that purportedly showed someone , uh , saying , you know , just exasperated as a missile hit what was supposedly a building at Naval Base Bahrain. I had no idea if this was real or imagined. Um , I'm skeptical of everything I see on social media now. I think it was the Washington Post was able to geo locate certain videos and say , okay , it looks like this happened here , but my , um , advice to your listeners is be extremely skeptical of any video that you see circulating on social media , given how advanced technology is right now , it is almost impossible to tell if it's genuine until you get some kind of official confirmation , although , you know. To be clear , my , I'm not as technically advanced as , uh , as other reporters might be. You know , I was just talking to a colleague about electric typewriters. So that gives you a.
S5: Give you some.
S1: Well , yeah , it's a big leap from there to AI. But , Andrew , I want to bring you in now. Um , you know , we know sailors and Marines from the San Diego based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln are involved in what's been happening there. But , you know , take us back to Saturday morning , how you found out about this , these events and kind of confirm some of the details you've been reporting this week.
S6: Well , you know , being on the West Coast , I found out Friday night when I was going to bed , I saw , you know , started seeing some stuff on on blue Sky and , um , well , I was just thankful that it was the weekend and not a workweek. So I wasn't going to have to , you know , pull any late nights or , you know , do a whole lot of weekend work. So honestly , that was my first thought. But then my second thought was like , oh , you know , it's going to be , you know , a busy week trying to chase this down. You know , this , uh , there were strikes on Iran previously from the Trump administration , but this was obviously a whole new level of , uh , of combat that we're seeing.
S1: And I think , you know , Jeff was talking a little bit about it. But one thing that's , you know , pretty , um , I don't know , it's hard to avoid in your work is you're dealing with agencies that are trying not to share information. They're actually trying to hide it. Right ? National security. How do you approach that when coming in , say , Monday morning to tackle this and to get , you know , to get facts verified ? Um , yeah.
S6: Maybe they are spinning a story a certain way , but , um , you know , you know , it's not a doctored video or something. And the Pentagon is actually pretty good at , you know , putting out they like content. This administration is like the content administration. So we've seen , you know , a ton of videos that they've they've pushed out. But um , as far as like the , the , the local story , um , I was really , um , really my concern is kind of like for like the military families because I think a lot of the coverage of the war. And when you try to localize a story , you know , you look at the at the Lincoln out there and maybe there's a , an inclination to really kind of gin up the , the , the precarious nature of being in combat out there when the fact is , it's incredibly difficult to hit a moving ship with any type of missile or drone. There's tons of countermeasure systems. There's. I mean , it's , you know , you're you're more at risk in a luxury hotel in Dubai than you are on the flight deck of the Abraham Lincoln. Right ? So that's where I'm kind of really trying to make sure that my coverage isn't kind of over inflating. Like , I don't want to scare these these families and stuff and their loved ones are out there. So that's kind of where , um , that local angle comes in , where I kind of want to focus on what is , you know , the implications of what's happening and what it's going to mean. You know , what it means in historical context , both because of this 20 year war on terror and then what it means. You know , looking looking forward. Jeff.
S1: Jeff. You know , Andrew there mentioned the , you know , the war on terror that's two decades old. And we've heard comparisons to back to the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
S4: Um , I think we are now at 23 years removed from the Iraq war. I think history has made its judgment that the that the United States was not prepared for what happened afterwards. This was seen , uh , when the , uh , Army Marines arrived in Baghdad and the looting started and everyone was kind of going , what do we do in this case ? The Supreme leader has been killed. Many leaders , many , um , members of the Iranian regime have died , and the war is still going on. Um , I was seeing some reporting that , uh , there might be planning that this could be that the operations could go on until September. Uh , I. That's the the thing I see most is the. Okay , what's how does this end ? I think it was a General Petraeus who said , tell me how this ends. That is an open question at this moment.
S6: Not only is it an open question , but the answer keeps changing , right ? You have access saying , you know , we're not in the regime change business anymore. You know , Iraq was stupid. We learned our lesson. But then the president comes out and says , you know , that's exactly what we're doing. So it's it's been difficult to pin them down on like what ? What is the point ? What is what does victory in this conflict actually look like ? And when you look at Iraq and this is when that that historical parallel comes in , right. You know , the initial phases of that war were very successful. Um , the airstrikes ground invasion. And we won. Right. It took a while for the insurgency to really get going after , you know , de-Baathification. And we kicked all of these people out of the army , right. Like they didn't have anything to do. So that's what I'm I'm looking at around. And I'm seeing , you know , is there a power vacuum who's going to fill that vacuum ? And , um , you know , Iran is a country of 90 million plus people much larger than Iraq was. And , um , that's that's my concern is that we saw what happened in Iraq when we did something similar to this. And , um , if we're not very careful , you can see how where the road goes , I think in Iran.
S1: Jeff , you spoke to a group of veterans to to hear how they're feeling about the Iran war. And you heard some , some mixed , mixed reactions. I think it's fair to say what stood out to you.
S4: Part of it is just how painfully familiar this all feels. Um , this , uh , you know , just another war. Uh , and I will call it a war , um , without any sort of congressional , um , in this case. You know , Congress has once again abdicated its responsibility to declare war. And it just , you know , the the best way to describe it is it kind of a sensory memory of what happened in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars ? Well , at the same time , uh , I , I ran was responsible for hundreds of deaths through the types of homemade , uh , excuse me , of improvised explosive devices that they provided to Shia militia in Iraq. Um , then you also have , um , Iranian based , Iranian aligned groups that attacked U.S. troops , uh , both during the the first Iraq War and then subsequently and during the war against ISIS. You have groups like Hezbollah that are responsible for killing Marines in Lebanon and a US sailor on a hijacked airplane. So while you have people just kind of going , I can't believe this is happening again. You also have this feeling of , this is reckoning that's long overdue. Um , the United States and Iran have essentially been at war in some way or another for nearly 50 years. Um , and that now there is some sort of , for lack of a better word , payback. Um , is solace to some. But as I said , it's it's a very divided issue. Um , and , uh , you know , as I said , you know , just especially since we learned of the , the fallen service members. I was watching a , um , an Instagram video from a marine who said , you know , for Global War on Terrorism veterans , the learning about the loss of those service members was just a kick in the gut because they knew. It just reminded them of of of what it felt like during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
S1: I mean , you both cover the military , but from , you know , very different places. Andrew , you cover it from here in San Diego. Um , Jeff , you kind of from Washington , DC , where a lot of the decisions are made and the decision makers are. I'm just curious if you could each you know , we have a few minutes left , but reflect on how does that shape your reporting and how you look into telling military stories. Andrew.
S6: So for me , I look at our audience , you know , for KPBS , um , radio , TV and online. You know , it's mostly a local audience. So I'm talking to an audience of service members and veterans and people with connections in that community , um , be it on the industry side or whatever. Right. So , um , I'm kind of this is who I'm talking to. And so I try to find stories that. You know , resonate with with that community. It doesn't even have to be like a military story. It might be about economic struggles , housing. Whatever. But it's all of these things , all impact those communities. So I'm kind of. I'm kind of spared the , uh , the , the experience of , you know , banging my head against the Pentagon wall.
S1: Jeff , do you want to talk more about that ? I mean , you also have , you know , obviously. Veterans and and servicemember community in Virginia in that area. But , you know , how do. How do you approach that telling stories in the center.
S4: So we're not hanging on every top officials word or we're not saying general so-and-so has said this in the latest dispatch. We're trying to find out how is what's going on affecting those who are at the very bottom of the military's food chain we're looking at. So we look through stories that way , and we look to tell stories about what our enlisted service members doing. For example , my colleague had a story about sailors writing messages on bombs that were being used. So I would say my proximity to the seat of power does not make me focused on what the the the top defense officials are doing.
S1: I'm just wondering if just briefly , if you can tell us a little bit , what haven't you been able to answer that you'd like to ? Andrew.
S6: Well , for me the question is , um , what ? Jeff mentioned earlier that we've people are saying that we've been at war with Iran for almost 50 years. And if if we if we agree that that is true , then why haven't we done this yet ? Why why have we waited until 2026 to to take these actions ? You know , we have warnings about Iran being on the precipice of a nuclear weapon that go back 20 , 25 years. We've been hearing this.
S1:
S4: The Strait of Hormuz is a very big unanswered question right now.
S1: I've been speaking with Andrew Dyer. He's military and veterans affairs reporter at KPBS , and also Jeff Vogel , senior Pentagon reporter for Task and Purpose , a news outlet focused on the military and veterans community. I want to thank you both for being here on roundtable today.
S6: Thank you.
S4: Thank you.
S1: Coming up , we hear from one of the editors of peak magazine serving San Diego's Persian community. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. Stay tuned. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. For over 35 years , Peak magazine has been telling stories for and about San Diego's Persian community , published in both English and Farsi. The magazine highlights Persian culture and events , while also touching on more serious issues affecting the Iranian-American community. And I'm joined now by Sohail Big Delhi. He's an editor with the magazine. And so welcome to the roundtable.
S7: Thanks for having me.
S1: I imagine , you know , it's been a pretty overwhelming week for many people with connections to Iran.
S7: You know , Iran went to a war with Iraq many years ago , 30 something years ago. And , you know , we all remember the we all remember those days. So we we are it looks like we're back at it again , but this time for a different reason , obviously. Um , the , the sentiment in the community is that , you know , we there's some positivity in it. Some people see that as a positive thing , hopefully. Will they see that as a hopefully something that translates into a new government , a new new day with , uh , with , uh , liberty and freedom for most people. Uh , but obviously it's a war. It's never easy there. There are casualties. There are damages to the structures. So it's it's we all have mixed feelings these days. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I really appreciate you taking the time to kind of talk more with us about your magazine and larger culture here in San Diego. I did want to , you know , touch on one thing. I think , you know , Persians are the largest ethnic group in Iran. But I think often those terms Persian , Iranian , they're used interchangeably. I'm wondering if you can clarify those terms for us.
S7: So , so for me , um , Iranian , Iranian is basically all tied to the country of Iran today. That's that's how I distinguish that. But within Iran , we also have many different ethnic groups. We have courts , we have ballots , we have Arabs , we have uh , we have talks. So it's a very ethnically diverse country. But then there are also Persian speaking countries , Farsi speaking countries like Afghanistan , Tajikistan , Pakistan and so many. So not only we are ethnically diverse within Iran , but as I said , there are other countries that are far Farsi speaking countries , which we I would like to consider them as part of our broader Persian culture.
S1: So tell us about peak magazine to someone that you know is not familiar with it. Sure.
S7: Sure. So , um , is a platform. Um , that Persian Cultural Center uses to promote to promote its mission of , uh , uh , as a culture , uh , Iranian culture and also , um , uh , pretty much everything that we do within the , within the community , uh , uh , whether it's uh , um , uh , it's cultural or if it's related to any key topics that we want to we want the community to know. We we , uh , it's a platform that we use these days. One of the platforms that we use. So it is it's a bilingual magazine. It's been , uh , in print since , uh , more than 35 years ago , as you mentioned. Um , and , um , right now we're on the issue number 200. It's a 221. And , um , it's a bi monthly , uh , so it gets printed , uh , it's also in print and online. Um , and , uh , we're hoping to basically take it to , uh , turn that into a podcast very soon. But what it covers is , uh , usually , um , it usually starts with the , with the article from the , um , chief editor. And , um , it has a section talking about Persian poetry. It also has a section about some film that we want to cover that day on that specific print. And then , um , it also has sort of like a satire section. And if there is any book introduction that we want to cover , a lot of the cultural things that we want to we want the community to know. And there's also a section about the news , uh , news about the city , whether it's within the Persian community or if it's it's a broader news about the city of San Diego.
S1: And tell us more.
S7: I , uh , this school actually established back in 1988 , even before the Persian Cultural Center was , was established. And now it's the largest school outside of Iran with over 300 students. And the number of students actually keeps growing every year. And , um , just to say a little bit about the school , the , um , it's a pre-K to sixth grade , uh , covers that. Um , and then , um , we not we , we teach students obviously Farsi and it , um , uh , there's some cultural elements that kids get. Kids actually get exposed to.
S1: So we have about a minute and a half left , and I want to , you know , point to Nowruz. Uh , Iranian Persian New Year is coming up later this month. So , um , and I'm just wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about that , but also how you're thinking about Nowruz this year in particular. Sure.
S7: Sure. Nowruz is probably the biggest event of the year for Iranians. And , you know , we have other events like marathon Tir gone , yada. But Nowruz by far is the most important. We celebrate , celebrate Nowruz over 13 years , beginning from the first day of the spring. And this year , it's going to be very different. Obviously the the , the sentiment is very somber. So we are we are going to celebrate it , but it's going to be probably more toned down more. We're going to have a lot of reflection sessions to think about the people of Iran and the situation of the unfortunate situation that's currently ongoing in Iran.
S1: So I really appreciate you joining us and telling us more. You can find more details about peak magazine at KPBS. So he'll be Delly is an editor with PC magazine , published by the Persian Cultural Center in San Diego. We'll have You know , links and more on our website at KPBS. So Hill , thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
S7: Greatly appreciate it for taking the time. Thank you.
S1: That'll do it for this week's roundtable. Thanks so much for being here. You can always listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on FM noon Fridays again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can always email us at roundtable at PBS.org. Roundtables. Technical producer is Brandon Truffaut. Show is produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer , and I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks so much and have a great weekend.
