S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Ice arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties surged to the highest levels of Trump's second term so far. We learned more about what the new data tell us , who's being targeted and how Ice tactics have changed since. Then. E-bikes can be dangerous , but what about San Diego's roads? Plus , this week can be summed up in one single word hot. We take a closer look at the conditions driving this week's heat and what it means for our region. It's coming up on KPBS roundtable. Ice agents arrested a record number of people in July. Almost 2000 people in San Diego and Imperial counties. That's the highest monthly total we've seen during Trump's second term. But that's just one part of the story. There's a lot to gather from this latest batch of data , and I'm joined now by two border reporters to help break it down. Gustavo Solis is investigative reporter here at KPBS. And also Sofia macias. Pascal is here. She's the border and immigration reporter with enough sauce. Gustavo. Sofia , welcome. Hello.
S2: Hello. Thanks for having me.
S1: Thanks for being here. So , Sofia , let's dig into this data a little bit more. How much of an increased increase in arrests did we see in July? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So in July , Ice arrested almost 2000 people between San Diego and Imperial counties. That's 50% higher than the month before when they arrested almost 1300 people. And , you know , really across the country , we're also seeing this increase. There were about 49,000 arrests that Ice made across the country. And really what this adds up to is the agency getting closer to this goal , this quota that they've had. Stephen Miller said that they wanted to make he wanted the agency to make 3000 arrests a day. And they're certainly getting closer to that.
S1: And Gustavo , I mean , were you surprised by this jump? I mean , what was your reaction?
S3: Yes and no. But , um , yes , because the numbers just kind of speak for themselves. It's a it's a ridiculous amount of people is really eye opening. Right? 2000 in 1 month it was San Diego and people counties. But no , because that's kind of what we've been seeing and what we've been reporting on the ground. Right. We've talked for months about how San Diego , for a while now has been different in terms of what enforcement looks like over here. Right. It's not big or flashy , at least definitely last year. Um , and if you're not looking for it , you may think like , oh , we're not seeing any big raids or anything like that. Nothing's going on. But then you take a step back and you look at the numbers and it's like a daily occurrence. And I've been hearing that from people on the ground for months and months now. So seeing this data just kind of validates , um , what they're seeing.
S1: And Sofia , you know , tell us more about the story that this data is telling us , you know , particularly based on who Ice is targeting and on what charges. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So from the data that we have , it shows that about 60% of the people who were arrested in July have no criminal record , meaning they don't have pending charges , there's no criminal convictions. And that's actually higher than the national average across the country. So in July , across the country , it was about 50% of people who had no criminal record. And in San Diego that number is 60%. So they're actually arresting more people in San Diego and Imperial counties who don't have a criminal record. And I think also what you're seeing in this , in this data is that as Ice arrests more people , um , they're picking up a greater share of people who don't have any criminal record. No. No convictions , no charges.
S1: So , Gustavo , you know , on this data , it covers both San Diego and Imperial counties. Um , you know , let's talk more about what we know about who was arrested. Can you break it down a little bit more by things like gender and age? What do we know about , you know , who's in these numbers? Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , we have really good graphics online. Sorry , listeners. I know you can't see them , but when you park or when you're back home , you can go on the website. We've created these really interesting visual tools that you can see a breakdown of monthly arrest , organized , sort of like Sophia just said. You can see how many folks who have been arrested have criminal convictions pending charges or no criminal history whatsoever. And she's right. I mean , the growth is on the backs of people with no criminal convictions. Beyond that , we've broken it down by nationalities , so you can see exactly how many nationalities are impacted. And obviously the big one is Mexican nationals , Guatemalan nationals , but it impacts people from all over the world who are residing here in San Diego and Imperial County. There's a big increase in Haitian nationals , um , people from all types of Southeast Asian countries , African countries , Europe. It really speaks to the diversity of the region and nobody is escaping the enforcement. And in terms of age , we break it down by age and gender. Um , mostly men. Uh , mostly like the biggest demographic groups are men between the ages of 20 and 40. But what stood out to me and was really eye opening , I mean , you see it anecdotally , but to actually see it in the data. The number of children impacted is wild since January of last year. There's been more than 300 children aged 14 and younger who have been arrested by Ice. And if you break it down for just like five years old and younger , it's more than 50 children in the region , which , I mean , it wasn't that long ago since the entire country was outraged over the detention of Liam Kearney. Ramos up in Minneapolis. And that's still happening. And it's happening here in San Diego.
S1: Sophia , I want to turn you both kind of alluded to a little bit of just like how things look differently than they did last year or earlier this year. In Sofia , you note that these more recent arrests differ quite a bit from what we've seen. You kind of refer to them as quieter and quicker. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. That's right. I think , you know , having conversations with people in the community who work with immigrants who do this work observing ice operations , monitoring them , the words that they use to describe the types of arrests happening now are stealth , surgical , militaristic , like this is really a shift from what we saw in the previous year. And I think it's it's playing out all around the country. I mean , these groups that document these arrests don't tell me that they they get notice of an arrest happening. And by the time they get there , there's there's nothing left. Maybe there's a car left. So I think that's , you know , we're really seeing that happening across the county. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Gustavo you're nodding. I mean it's pretty similar to.
S3: Yes with what we're hearing to. Right. The the abandoned vehicle that kind of sticks out because at least in the North County and probably throughout the region , for folks who are in this space for for folks who are advocates who are responding to this , the abandoned vehicle has sort of become a symbol of Ice enforcement because , like Sofia said , when they get there , that's all that is left. Right. And that's pretty eye opening. I think that the data that we're seeing also speaks to the billions in funding that were approved last year. It you know , arrests are going up. It takes a while for that money to kick in. But that's how one advocate from the barrio described it. You know , this is what that funding is going to. And we're seeing what it does to our communities.
S1: You know , and there on that. There have been leadership changes at the top end here. You know , DHS , Department of Homeland Security. Mark Wayne Mullen replaced Kristi Noem. How is his approach been different? Has it? Has he been intentional about kind of moving away from those really big , bombastic , you know , those surges in Minneapolis and Chicago that garnered so much attention months ago? Right.
S3: The data kind of shows that , I mean , there was a lot of national pushback after the deaths of Renee Goode and Alex Peretti. Kristi Noem was ousted from her position. The Border Patrol sector chief.
S2: Greg Bovino.
S3: Greg Reno is no longer with that agency in that post. Um , so , yeah , you reported about that. Right. You wrote about that in your story , which I appreciated that kind of shift in , in enforcement tactics.
S2: Yeah , yeah. I think right following what happened in January , there was a clear desire from the administration to not make so much noise about what was going on. And so Bovino , who was then the commander at large of the Border Patrol , which was not a position that we had seen before , he was apparently sent back to Imperial County , the El Centro sector , where he was working for a few years before he was elevated to that role.
S1: And now he's he's retired. And I think ostensibly the news was he returned back to Imperial County once his role was completed there. Um , I'm curious from each of you , how have immigration advocates reacted to this , this new data? What have you been hearing , Sofia? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , I think people are responding to a lot more requests for help in the community. Like , I , you know , one group in North County , she the woman who I spoke with there tells me that she gets people , lots of mothers coming to her office with with young children. And not only are they trying to figure out how to find their partner , their husband , their loved one who's been arrested , but they're also trying to find legal representation , and they've also lost their main source of income for the household. So now they're trying to figure out how to pay rent and how to get their kids to school. So they're dealing with a lot of different sort of complex needs following an arrest. And so those types of requests are coming up. She also says that she even gets , you know , requests for help from the children of parents who have been arrested , some even high school aged kids , she says , or the adult children of of these parents. So they're definitely , I think , struggling to keep up with with that growing need. I think the other part of it is just there's a lot of fear , right? There's so many videos going around on social media showing these arrests. Sometimes it turns out to be ice , sometimes it's not. So I think as you know , enforcement increases. It just it adds to this sense of fear that there is in the community. And even when it might not end up being ice , there's definitely still fear that that it could be.
S1: Gustavo , you know , earlier you talked about the number of children in these arrest numbers. You recently looked into a lapse of funding for legal representation of young people. Why is that changing.
S3: What the administration wants? Right. The Sofia alluded to it. Right. But this increase in enforcement , increase in arrest coincides with a decrease in federal funding for services aimed to mitigate the negative impacts of those arrests. Right. So we're seeing higher demand for immigration attorneys and social services at a time where there is less funding for immigration attorneys and social services. Critics of the administration say that that's kind of the point , right? If you want mass deportation , if you want to meet the arrest quotas , you set these conditions in place to to create what we are seeing now.
S1: Sophia , you've been following some of these recent local immigration operations. You both have been kind of referring to some of what you've been seeing and hearing , but I'm thinking about one in Encinitas. There's another in City Heights. Can you tell us more about what's been happening? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So I think , you know , despite the fact that a lot of people say that Ice operations are kind of moving more quietly now , there are still these sort of , um , incidents that gain a lot of attention in the community. Right. So there was one in Encinitas , I believe it was last Thursday now. But community observers filmed what they believed to be federal agents and like a gas station of a popular shopping area. One was in plainclothes , face covering with a law enforcement K-9 , and then the other was in this sort of battle fatigue , with a long gun strapped across his chest , wearing a helmet like this image that kind of harked back to what immigration enforcement looked like. And the first year of the Trump administration , that's what it felt like to them , seeing this in Encinitas on sort of what would otherwise be a normal day. And I think those community members had questions of like , you know , they didn't know what was going on. If there's some type of safety threat that warns this kind of response. What is the threat and why didn't the community know about it? And if there wasn't a threat to the community , well , then why were federal agents , you know , showing up in this kind of force? Um , then there was the incident in City Heights , which was just earlier this week. Some videos were circulating online of some apparent immigration arrests , one that showed what appeared to be CPD officers holding a small child. So I reached out to SPD and they told me that that incident happened on Monday , and that federal agents actually called to the scene to take custody of a one year old girl who was left behind after some kind of immigration operation. I don't have many details on what exactly happened because Ice didn't respond to questions about either of those incidents , but I think they just , you know , show the level of fear that's happening in the community , right? Like when these videos go around on on Instagram and they get a lot of attention , like a lot of people see them. And I think it just adds to the the fear that's happening in the community. Gustavo.
S1: Gustavo. Sofia , they're kind of mentioned not hearing back confirmation from Ice. And it just kind of made me think , you know , we've talked in the past about how difficult it is , you know , often is for for reporters like yourselves to get accurate data on things like Ice arrests , things like that. Talk more about how this recent data was collected and why it's so important and what it took to get it.
S3: It's not easy to get right it. It's compiled by the Deportation Data Project. They work with UC Berkeley and UCLA. They file up dozens of record requests and can compile them and release them to the public. If it were not for these folks doing this work. It'd be very difficult to get this data. They break it down by area of responsibility. That's why we can speak to the number of people detained in San Diego and Imperial counties. They break it down by nationality. It's. a really great public service. I mean , people listening. If you're not from San Diego , you can go to their website , download it and find out what is going on in your neighborhood. Uh , in your in your county and your state. But again , that's not coming directly from the federal government is coming from people who are just kind of doing this as a public service. And it does speak to the lack of transparency , not just regarding IRS , but what we've talked a lot about , uh , immigration detention centers and how hard it is to get data from there. Sofia , I know you've reported on health conditions in those centers. I imagine it's not very easy or straightforward to get data on what's going on inside of them as well.
S2: Yeah , yeah , it's not at all. It's not easy to I mean , our investigation looked into , uh , issues with medical care inside the detention center and all of the records that we got that , you know , yielded any kind of picture we had to get from a really sort of runaround source. So , yeah , I think it's a it's a problem that we see everywhere in this area , right? It's it's going to continue. It's going to keep being difficult to get information about how this administration is carrying out immigration enforcement.
S1: Well , we'll have to leave it there for today , but I'm sure there will be a lot more to talk about. So we really appreciate you coming on and talking more about this data. I've been speaking with Gustavo Solis. He's KPBS investigative border reporter and also with Sofia macias Pasco. She covers border and immigration for a news source. And we'll have links to their reporting and some of the resources you mentioned today , too. Thanks so much for being here.
S4: Thank you. Thanks.
S1: Up next , how the state of San Diego's roads play into discussions around e-bike safety. This is KPBS roundtable. Stay tuned. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Earlier this summer , the city of San Diego adopted stricter rules for e-bikes and kids. It includes banning e-bikes for kids under 12 , creating stricter rules around helmets , and much more. Other cities in the county , from Chula Vista to Carlsbad have also passed similar restrictions. The main reason? Safety. A recent study from UC San Diego showed a spike in the number and severity of e-bike injuries and kids. Recent reporting from KPBS and a news source looked into the safety of e-bikes from a different perspective. Road safety. I'm joined now by the journalists behind that reporting. Jake Gatta. He's a reporter on KPBS Public Matters team , and Katie Futterman is also here. She covers San Diego's North County for a news source. Jake. Katie. Welcome back.
S5: Thanks for having us.
S6: Excited to be here.
S1: Great to have you. So , Jake , I'll start with you. Conversations around e-bikes seem to just they cover a lot of ground , you know , safety , of course , but also questions around climate , mobility , quality of life. What made you want to take a closer look into e-bikes from this street safety angle?
S5: Well , here , you know , at KPBS and also just across San Diego County , we've been hearing a lot about e-bikes with this particular focus on the kids who are writing them. There's been , as you mentioned , rules introduced in all these different cities all over the county where they're trying to , you know , create some sort of way of making sure kids are going to be safe when they're writing , because they're obviously very popular among , you know , the kids and teens and like that 12 to 15 , 16 type of range where , you know , we see a lot of these younger , younger kids riding around on e-bikes. And so when there's these conversations about like how to keep them safe and it's always , oh , you know , make them wear a helmet , teach them the rules of the road , tell them not to ride with a second person on their bike , yadda yadda. Like these other rules around how they're supposed to operate the e-bikes. Those are great. Those are fine. Like , we should tell them to ride safely and we should tell them to wear helmets. But the other piece that was sort of missing from the whole conversation was the safe places to actually ride , whether or not they have safe bike lanes , whether or not they have bike paths and routes that are away from busy roads so that they can get around town , you know , around their neighborhood safely without worrying about cars driving super fast next to them. And , you know , a helmet is great , but it's not going to stop a big SUV going 60mph. So at the end of the day , there's really one thing that you can pretty much ensure keeps people safe , whether it's a kid , whether they're on an e-bike or a regular bike. And that's a safe bike lane. And we know that there's physically protected bike lanes , there's off road ones. But that whole conversation around building that type of infrastructure for these kids was kind of missing. And so we wanted to look into that aspect of it and really understand whether or not that's something that exists , why it doesn't , and what can be done about that.
S1: And , Katie , that's one thing you spoke to kids. I mean , we again , we hear a lot about this , about e-bikes and safety , as Jake was mentioning there. But you also just wanted to find out how kids were feeling about them and how they're using them in their everyday lives. What did you hear?
S6: Yeah , kids and teens , especially before they get their driver's license , really view these e-bikes as a way for them to have independence and freedom. You know , one kid said he uses it to make friends because he's homeschooled. Um , another teenager talked about going to get groceries for his family or even going to get medicine for his mom once when she was sick. And they just enjoy these bikes and they really helped them with independence.
S1: And on that. You know , one of the kids , you did speak with , Kyron Tandberg. I think we have a clip from 15 from Carlsbad.
S7: I like riding my bike because it's made me so many friends. Since I'm homeschooled , I don't really have a school to go to to make friends , but I've made countless friends just from riding my bike.
S1: I mean , that just goes to that , you know , the importance of even just socially of what that's kind of given to him there. Katie , you cover Cindy was North County specifically and I know e-bikes have , you know , become a big issue there. Some cities have really led the way in terms of , you know , increasing rules , the safety rules for kids. What makes e-bikes such a pop , you know , such a popular way of getting around in some of those cities that you cover?
S6: Um , I think a lot of kids , I mean , like Kyron , for example , who we just heard from , you know , he lives in this , like , pretty , um , safe area in Carlsbad where he can bike around pretty easily in his neighborhood. And it's a great way for him to get around. And some places in North County. You know , they have like the Coastal Rail Trail and um , other like good bike accessibility ways. But yeah , but the e-bikes have been a big , uh , big issue just across North County. Um , both the rise of it and also just showing up at all the city council meetings there. Um , it was Carlsbad who , you know , sponsored the state law , who , uh , that , um , can prohibit riders under under 12.
S1: I do just really want to briefly mention , you know , talking about these safety rules and things. It can be quite confusing because there are also other electric devices like e motos , whatever you want to call them. Um , and , you know , they're generally more powerful than e-bikes. Um , but often look similar. I think , you know , some people may get them confused. Then there is a bill in the state legislator looking to better distinguish those. But those devices are not covered really under these e-bike laws and statutes. Right. Is that. Right?
S5: Right? Yeah. So people sort of conflate the legal ebikes that have classes that are defined by the California Vehicle Code and have very specific requirements , including speed limits. They can only go up to 20 or 20mph with what's essentially an illegal electric motorcycle that goes 40 or 50 or 60mph. It doesn't fit any of the California Vehicle Code definitions of a legal e-bike , or even , in a lot of cases , a legal moped or a legal motorcycle. They're technically not street legal in any way , and those are the the actual real problem when it comes to , you know , most of the time kids doing wheelies , kids riding unsafely , kids going way too fast. Most of the time those are on illegal electric motorcycles , not legal e-bikes. And so when you write these rules that are aimed at , you know , protecting kids on e-bikes or restricting what kids can do on e-bikes , they don't impact a kid who's already breaking the law by writing an illegal electric motorcycle. And so those are two completely different categories of , you know , enforcement of city focus because they're already legal. The electric , the motor , the motorcycles that go 50mph. And so , you know , there's no new ordinance that's going to make them more illegal. They already are. And and that conflation kind of gets lost because people see kids riding legal e-bikes and they think it's these electric motorcycles , especially if they're doing a wheelie , because you can do a wheelie on some legal bikes even , you know , even if it's not going 40mph. And then that really gets people riled up. We've seen.
S1: Yeah , absolutely. And I want to talk more about that. But , you know , kind of turning , you know , making that that distinction there , focusing back on bikes. How would you describe the state of bike infrastructure in our county right now.
S5: Well , so that's what we wanted to look at. And there was a grand jury report that came out about the city of San Diego specifically. It basically said there's a lot of good bike networks in the city of San Diego , actually , or bike path. Excuse me. Um , there's some very good protected and separated bike paths , which are the type that the grand jury , the City of San Diego bike advocates all agree are the safest type of bike infrastructure. But one of the biggest problems is those those good bike lanes that do exist don't really connect to each other as part of a whole network that you can ride around , you know , to get from neighborhood to neighborhood , from community to community. And so , again , like Kyron Tandberg said , he rides his e-bike around his neighborhood. But a lot of times the connections to other places are kind of lacking. And that's what we found when we looked into the infrastructure , not just in the city of San Diego , but in Chula Vista and Oceanside and sort of countywide. And if if you look at the web story , we don't have graphics right now , but there's some good maps in there that show sort of the difference between the countywide bike network when you include all types of bike lanes , including the painted ones that are on busy roads that aren't necessarily the most popular type , but then you can select for just the off road or protected physically bike lanes. And you can kind of see in this map there's a lot of little lines , but they don't all connect to each other. And there's these missing connections that really cause problems for people trying to ride their e-bike anywhere outside of just their community.
S1: And that was like a major finding in that , that grand jury report. Right? Just these , these gaps in the bike network. Katie , you know , Jake was talking a little bit about bike infrastructure , which I just take to mean , you know , like bike lanes. And there are a lot of different types. And I know it gets really confusing , but I'm wondering if you can just basically just high level , like break it down , how those work. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. The bike lanes , you know , some of them are considered like covered bike lanes. So that's like when you're riding on a road and you're just completely in your own area and cars can't really touch you unless something major happens. And then there's just , you know , when you're biking on the street and it's just like a piece of paint or a strip of paint and you're riding and you're just right along with the roads. So obviously there's a big difference in safety there. But there's also a really big difference in like how easy it is to to make those. So it's kind of a push and pull. Um , between that and I would just add to , to Jake's point about the piecemeal approach , you know , when you speak to it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy , because when you speak to a lot of bikers , like a lot of the reasons why they're not able to to bike more is because of , um , the lack of good bike lanes connecting each other. But then you hear on the other side people saying , people aren't using the bike lanes. Um , yeah. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. No. And Katie's totally right. That's one of the biggest things that we hear in response to even the reporting that we've done is just , oh , I don't see anybody using these bike lanes. But yeah , that's kind of the point. If you don't see many people using them , you should ask where it starts and where it ends. And if it connects to any other bike lanes or destinations , like if if there's a bike lane. I think the convoy one is a good example , and that's one that's been really controversial , is these bike lanes they put in on convoy in that area. The convoy district is lots of shops and retail and restaurants and , you know , industry as well. But there's not necessarily a lot of houses and residences right there in that strip where they put that bike lane. And so if that bike lane doesn't connect from all those businesses to neighborhoods where people live , there's not going to be many people riding on it. And so when the city goes and builds a bike lane that doesn't connect to anything else , that doesn't start and end at destinations , it makes it harder for people to not only use it , but understand why it's even there in the first place , because they don't see people using it.
S1: So this report's conclusion , it's basically county needs more bike infrastructure , right. Um , you know , to help fill these gaps. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Essentially the , the , the biggest issue with this network that we have is that there's these spaces between and so the efforts to fill in those gaps have like they're they're moving along on a lot of the projects to try and fill gaps. They actually just broke ground on the Orange Avenue Bikeway. Sandag did San Diego Association governments , they broke ground on the Orange Avenue Bikeway just yesterday. And that's an effort to fix sort of a gap in these networks. There's bike infrastructure in this North Park and Mid-City area , but this is going to create a big connection between some of the different bike lanes that exist in that place. And that's great. But Katie touched on this before. The problem is it's going to cost $21 million to build three ish miles of bike lanes in that area , because they're not just building bike lanes , they're redoing the entire road. They're going to repave the road , fix all the potholes , build physical curbs , build curb bump outs that are like extensions and intersections , build mini roundabouts to try and slow down cars. And all of that gets really expensive when you start looking at , you know , every single linear foot of road that you have to rebuild , it costs a lot. And so that's kind of the push and pull that we're dealing with. Just at the city level. At the county level is we you know , people know we need bike lanes and city leaders know we need bike lanes. And they're trying to figure out ways to build those. But they get really expensive when you do them. Right. And that's the thing is , if you don't do them right , then it's not necessarily worth doing at all.
S1: What's been the response to this story? I feel like , you know , stories involving e-bikes involving some of this , you know , like bike lanes often gets , I don't know , a lot , a lot of feedback. Katie , what have you heard? Yeah.
S6: Yeah. I mean , we heard from a lot of , you know , bike advocates who are excited about , you know , this approach , like Jake mentioned , you know , it hadn't really been covered in this way. I think when I've done reporting on e-bikes in the past , I've spoken to a lot of people who are like , they always make all the e-bike riders look bad. And so I think they're pretty excited to see this approach written about. But then , yeah , there's a whole , um , also sort of other side. And if you look like on social media , a lot of responses talking about , you know , I don't see people on the on bike lanes as much. Um , and I think that really cuts that sort of the like , cultural , um , setting of , you know , Southern California is a very like , traditionally , um , like car centric place. And , um , the issue of bike lanes because can become really almost like political , like you see in Encinitas , there's a whole fight over one , um , bike lane and you can see that in different spots as well. But , um , yeah , it becomes a real like car versus , um , bike. Um , bikers sort of fight sometimes.
S8: Yeah , it does just.
S1: Seem to kind of hit in this like cultural , I don't know , conversation about our , our transportation and how we get around. Right. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And it's I was just going to say , like , as Katie mentioned , there's there's sort of this divide. There's these people who are super happy that there's more bike infrastructure because they're like , that's great. That means I can ride my bike more safely. And then there's a lot of people who see it as infringing on space for cars. And I mean , it kind of is , and that is kind of the point. But they see it as taking away car lanes , taking away parking , taking away what's going to make driving their car from point A to point B , and then having a place to park it easier and convenient. And because San Diego , as a city and a county especially , is set up in a lot of ways to be reliant on cars and on driving , it's hard to get a lot of people to understand , okay , these efforts right now to build bike lanes and stuff are trying to lessen that reliance on cars , and we're not trying to kick everybody out of cars. Nobody in the city , nobody in any sort of leadership position , thinks that we're going to get rid of cars at all. The climate action plan , um , asks for about 10% of trips to be made by bike. That's what their goal is , and it's way lower than that right now. But that's what it.
S1: Says , like 1 or. 2%.
S5: 2%. It's like 1 or 2% right now according to like sandbags most recent , you know , numbers , but 10% is still only 10% of all , like we're going to have cars , there's always going to be cars , there's always going to be driving and there's always going to be parking. But when there's this conflict over literal road space between bike lanes and car lanes , or between bike lanes and parking , that can get people riled up because they know that they rely on their car to get places. And if we're making it harder as a city to do that , that's going to upset people. And that's totally fair. The problem is , you know , it's kind of chicken or the egg. Like , you can't lessen this reliance on cars without building other options , which include bike lanes. And so it's a push and pull that a lot of city leaders are trying to navigate. And as Katie mentioned , it's creating some political controversies in places like Encinitas , specifically over these bike lanes.
S1: Well , it's a really fascinating story. I'd love to kind of dig into it more. Next time , we're gonna have to leave it there for now. I've been speaking with KPBS Public Matters reporter Jake Gatta , along with a news source , North County reporter Katie Futterman. Thanks for being here. And we'll include the link to both our stories on e-bikes and road safety in our show notes and KPBS. Thanks so much.
S8: Thank you.
S9: Thank you.
S1: Coming up , we turn to another big story from the week , the weather. We talk more with reporter about what this latest heat wave tells us about our changing climate. This is KPBS roundtable. We're back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken here on the roundtable. We'd like to take a closer look into the biggest stories from our week. And this week , that means we got to talk about the heat. Much of San Diego County remains under an extreme heat warning. Throughout the week , we've seen temperatures go well above normal , but it's also a different kind of heat than where a lot of times used to. Here in San Diego Lucas Brady Woods joins me now. He covers weather , the climate and much more for last public radio. Lucas , thanks for being here on the roundtable.
S10: Thanks so much for having me.
S1: So you summed up the week , I don't know quite well , I thought with the recent headline hot , Hot Heat , it said what else can you tell us about the recent weather people really across Southern California have been dealing with?
S10: Yeah , I can tell you up in LA County. It is just as , you know , hot and humid. And I think that humidity is really something that's been making this heat wave unique. And also a lot of the heat waves that we've had this summer , I think , you know , have been really humid. And at the same time , we've had a lot sort of more repeated heat waves. This pace of the heat waves this summer has been a little bit relentless. And these consistently high temperatures , um , and that's also come with these consistently high nighttime temperatures too , which , you know , is a whole other issue when it makes it harder to recover from the heat , you know , and have some relief. So , you know , whether it's these consistently high temperatures or the humidity , I think these are all things that sort of make this , this heat wave and the ones we've been having this summer unique , although I think this one's been pretty much one of the worst we've had this summer.
S1: You mentioned the nighttime temperatures and we got to dig into that. I mean , I have not been sleeping pretty much the whole week. I got to be honest. It just it's not cooling off at night. Can you talk more about the factors behind that? Like why is that happening?
S10: I mean , the humidity has a lot to do with it , right? You know , at night , generally we're used to it as Southern Californians , you know , temperatures getting down into the 60s at night , you know , it's dry and there's some real , um , relief that we get. And I think about it this way. Right. If there's a lot more moisture in the air , you know , like on the East Coast , for example , it's harder for it to cool down at night. More of that heat stays caught , you know , in the air. Um , and think about the desert somewhere where it's really dry. It really cools down at night. So this , this high nighttime temperatures are really being driven by that humidity.
S1: Um , and then , I mean , I got to now go to another , you know , the mosquitoes. I think that's another thing that's just jumped out as I'm from the Midwest. I'm used to mosquitoes , but not so much here. And this I don't know. This latest heat wave is really kind of been a problem. Um , you know , talk to talk to us about how that plays in , you know , how our climate's kind of playing into that. Sure.
S10: Sure. Yeah. I've heard a lot of complaints from a lot of people myself about these mosquitoes. And , um , I think it has to less to do with this heat wave in particular , and more sort of the consistent , um , humid conditions that we've had this summer. But also back , if we look back to the winter and spring , there was some wetness there. And that set us up for a really robust mosquito population this summer. Um , and really populations , you know , in , in at least LA area and Orange County areas , they sort of peak , uh , mosquito season in , um , late October and September and that that time , especially with some of these mosquitoes that bite during the day that we've been seeing with these invasive species of mosquitoes that have been picking up. So I think it's less to do with this particular heat wave. But we've saw a lot of lead up to this heat wave that's really ripe for mosquitoes to , you know , breed and flourish in Southern California and that's , you know , not super normal for us. Mosquitoes have generally been a little more tame because of our dryness. But that's that's changed this summer for sure.
S1: Another thing that's changed or seems to be changing is just the temperature of our water. Um , you know , I think we've seen warmer water temperatures this summer , which , you know , it's making it nice in one way , but there are concerns around that. What can you tell us about what's happening in the Pacific on our shores?
S10: I really don't think we can understate how important the ocean temperatures are in our weather patterns here. Usually , you know , the Pacific Ocean off of Southern California is relatively cool. And that actually does this natural air conditioning by , you know , cooling the air that's moving inland from the ocean. But we've actually been having this marine heat wave for more than a year now. And that's that's not normal. And so the ocean temperatures off our coast have been abnormally warm for a while. And that's sort of eliminated or really reduced that cooling effect from the ocean. So that's a big one. Another thing with the warmer water and warmer seawater is that it evaporates quicker when it's warmer. And that as that evaporates , that adds more moisture into the air and drives up this humidity even more so , you know , the the warmth of the ocean is really tied into the weather that we're feeling , especially , you know , when it's when it's close to us. But even we're seeing El Nino form in the more central Pacific , um , and that's warming up the oceans and creating storms , tropical storms in the Pacific , that's also sending moisture our way. So there's kind of this confluence of factors from the warming oceans to.
S1: You know , you mentioned El Nino. Obviously , you know , I think forecasters are predicting a historically strong El Nino this year. Can you remind us what that means for us? And you know , really how we should be preparing this year? Yeah.
S10: Yeah. I don't have to tell you that. This is all over. You know , a lot of people's minds , this El Nino. What does it mean? And as far as indications that scientists are seeing which are those warming oceans in the tropical tropical Pacific that I mentioned , they're seeing some serious warming. And that's on track to create a really strong El Nino this winter. Even , you know , potentially more so than some really historic events , like in 1997 , for example , this one could be even stronger than that. Um , you know , that said , we will see how exactly it plays out. But what that really means is a lot of moisture this winter. Lots of rain , um , and high surf along with that. So , you know , that could have impacts from mudslides , debris flows , flooding to a lot of coastal erosion , which is something I'm going to be looking at really closely. And I think there's a lot of ways that people can start preparing , whether it's looking at flood insurance , if they don't have that flood insurance is not attached to most homeowner's insurance policies. So if you don't have flood insurance , but you think that could be an issue in El Nino , now's the time to look into that. Other things like looking at your trees and your your roof for any , you know , potential limbs that could fall or any leaks in your roof. Now's the time to fix those.
S1: Well , good reminders there. You know , I think when like , you know , looking at all we've been talking about , uh , questions for me is , you know , how much of this is connected to climate change? What do we know there? Yeah.
S8: Yeah.
S10: It's it's hard to find consensus on how much climate change is playing into El Nino and these heat waves. Exactly right. That said , climate change has risen , you know , global temperatures pretty consistently by about two degrees Fahrenheit since pre-industrial times. That's kind of the benchmark that scientists and , uh , you know , authorities on this stuff call out. Is that 2% above or two degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. And so what that does is sort of raise the baseline , right. So with the higher baseline temperature , we just have more days of consistently hot temperatures. And we're going to just continue to see that. So that's really what's going to play in here. But you know when we have higher temperatures in general that affects ocean temperatures which like we said affects a whole slew of other things.
S1: So you're you have an interesting beat at last. You cover weather but a lot more I mean a lot more about climate and its impacts and um , and really how it's changing life in Southern California. What approach are you taking to tell the story of our climate?
S10: I mean , it really comes down to the communities in Southern California. I think at the end of the day , and the impact that this is having on communities , that really is first and foremost in my mind. But , you know , the way that I cover these things and the things I cover , like you said , weather , wildfires , other inventors , environmental forces , um , is to help people understand the science behind them and the solutions that people are trying to address them. Right. And I think that really helps communities understand these issues and how to navigate them , while also sort of demystifying them a little bit because these forces are complicated and they're , you know , abstract climate forces. So I think helping people simplify them and understand them is an important way for us to navigate this. And I because at the end of the day , inevitably we're going to face changes here in Southern California.
S1: Um , well , we appreciate you kind of making it simpler for us. And , and , you know , explaining some of this. I do have one question for you before I let you go briefly , you know , when can we expect temperatures to to go down? Is there any relief on the horizon? Please say. Yes.
S8: Yes.
S10: Ah , yes. Yes there is , there is. Uh , forecasters say temperatures should start to , uh , dip back down starting tomorrow , which is very exciting. And , uh , that will continue into next week. And by next week , mid next week , we should have more normal temperatures for this time , time of year or even below normal.
S1: I'd like to hear that. Thank you for leaving us with some good news. I've been speaking with Lucas Brady Woods. He covers the weather and the science behind it for public Media's LAist. Thank you. Lucas. Thanks so much for being here.
S10: Thanks for having me.
S1: That'll do it for this week's roundtable. Thanks so much for listening to all of my guests as well today. If you have any thoughts on today's show , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables technical producer is Brandon Truffaut. The show is produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth's roundtable senior producer. And I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks and have a great weekend.
