Activists Rallying For Protected Bike Lanes In North Park And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 Good morning. It's April 4th I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters. California craft beer industry continued to expand in 2018 but at a slower rate than in recent years as capital public radio is. Randall white explains just a few regions are seeing the fastest growth. Speaker 2: 00:19 California now has nearly a thousand licensed craft breweries up from just a few hundred and 2012 the California craft brewers association says the industry contributed more than $8 billion to the economy last year based on brewery licenses issued by the state. The Los Angeles area, including orange and Ventura counties saw the greatest expansion with a net gain of 24 but that's down from the growth seen in the region the year before. Leah Osterman Bailey is the associations managing director and says the slowdown was expected. Speaker 1: 00:51 We're looking at this as kind of a a normal growth process for a small business industry and right now where craft breweries are succeeding is locally and in their neighborhoods. Speaker 2: 01:04 The Sacramento region saw the next highest net growth in licenses with 17 new breweries. Napa and Sonoma counties came in third with eight some areas I saw a decline, most notably San Diego county where there were three fewer licensed breweries. San Diego also has the second highest number of craft operations in the state with a 175 in Sacramento. I'm Randall White, Speaker 1: 01:27 the endangered western monarch butterflies, or getting a boost for more than 100 conservation organizations. KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson has details. Speaker 3: 01:38 The conservationist tope to convince Congress to spend $100 million a year to rebuild habitat that is critical to the survival of the colorful pollinator. The Western population of the monarch is fallen by 99% over the past 30 years. Center for Biological Diversity, spokeswoman, Stephanie Kouros says the money would be used for habitat. Speaker 4: 01:58 Nope need is there. So host plant, uh, is the caterpillar sole host host plans. That's the only plant that they eat. If we don't have milkweed, then Caterpillar's cancer vibe. Speaker 3: 02:10 Korea says more also needs to be done to protect native trees that the butterflies rely on. She says $100 million is a lot of money, but it is far less than the billions the government spends supporting things like the oil industry. Eric Anderson, KPBS news Speaker 1: 02:26 community members in city heights are using murals to beautify the San Diego neighborhood. KPV As reporter Taryn Mitchell says, there are now tapping youth to lend a hand. You won't miss the treasure trove antique store on University Avenue thanks to its new mural of cartoons, tea Speaker 5: 02:43 cups in passed out flowers. I'm a Disney fans. I kind of hit like a Disney theme. 17 year old meany Gonzalez Martinez designed and painted the artwork as part of the avenue mural project. People were passing by in their cars and be like, oh, nice job and just screaming out the, it's so beauty. The volunteer led initiative aims to beautify the area that's often hit by graffiti. It's organized more than he does in murals in the area and recently connected Gonzalez Martinez and another teen artist with mentors to contribute cofounder Carlos. Case out it says youth are key to the project, especially teens who are tagging the community. Speaker 6: 03:20 So if we get them involved and make them feel like they own this community, then we're going to be able to have more art as opposed to cleaning up roof eating. Speaker 5: 03:28 The two youth artists are not from the city heights neighborhood, but data sets. He's hoping to connect with teens from the area who are actually doing the tagging to give them a space to showcase their artwork. Taryn Mento, KPBS news Speaker 1: 03:40 price philanthropies provided funding for the ave mural project and is also a KPBS supporter. The swallows may return to Capistrano, but in San Diego is crane flies that make their presence known. KPBS as Sally Hickson has the story, they look like giant mosquitoes, but they're not. Some people think they eat mosquitoes, hence the nicknames. Mosquito hawks and Skeeter eaters, but they don't. What they do, however, is crazily fly around bouncing off walls, ceilings and especially lights county vector control officials say, even though crane flies are big for a bug, there absolutely harmless. They don't bite and they can't transmit any diseases. Spring is the crane flies peak breeding season right after winter rains and because we've had a very wet winter, we'll probably see more than usual. Finally, there's a very easy way to tell if you're dealing with a mosquito or a crane fly. If it's bigger than a dime, it's too big to be a mosquito. Sally Hixon Kpbs News San Diego is climate action plan made an ambitious pledge to beef up safe infrastructure for bicyclists, but the city's track record isn't great. Numerous bike projects have been delayed or water down from the KPBS climate desk. Metro reporter Andrew Bolin says one father in northpark is hoping to reverse that trend. Speaker 6: 05:05 Okay, you want put your helmet on. Come down here and I'll put your helmet on. Matt Stuckey is helping his four year old daughter Kate with her bike helmet ropes. It fell apart. Kate sticks to the sidewalks, but Stuckey's seven year olds, Blake and Luke are fine on the streets. Okay, look for cars. We good. Ready? Oops. Watch my wheel. That's because the streets here are quiet but venture over to 30th street. North Park's main north south thoroughfare and it gets a lot less safe. I think there's some people, maybe middle aged men who are comfortable writing there, you know, between the buses and speeding cars. But if we want to expand the number of people who are riding bikes, uh, especially kids or older people, uh, they need protection to be safe on 30th street. San was currently replacing Speaker 7: 05:58 an aging water mains that runs underneath 30th after that's done and the street has resurfaced. Stucky wants the city to redesign it with protected bike lanes. The kind with a physical barrier separating cyclists for moving cars. He says a lot of people drive to the businesses on 30th because cars feel like the only safe option. Speaker 6: 06:18 But I think they want to transfer those trips from the cars to their bikes and go with the family to go out to dinner or to get ice cream or uh, even with their friends to go get a beer. Uh, so I think there's a lot of people who are willing to make that change and want to make that change and be more active, but they are only going to do it if it's safe. Speaker 8: 06:38 I have a five year old and I have an infant, so I would want to have the safest facility as possible. That made me feel comfortable as a parent going with my kids. City councilman, Chris Ward got City staffers to analyze the bike lane design options. Protected lanes are feasible, but they may require eliminating on street parking. Word says he's taking feedback on what design residents prefer. You try to find that balance. But the good news is that we're already being proactive on looking for a parking modifications on some of the off streets, uh, that that dot cross the cross 30th street as well. So the community that choose to drive and park won't feel any net impact, but at the same time we'd be able to actually be successful and get new bicycle lanes. Parking in north park can feel difficult, Speaker 7: 07:20 but there's a parking garage on 30th that's about two thirds empty most of the time. The Neighborhood Business Association northpark Main Street voted to support a painted bike lane option that would keep most on street parking. The groups, executive director, Angela Landsberg says her board members are wary of drastic change Speaker 4: 07:40 and so there's some hesitation because the evidence from their eyes is that there's just not enough people riding bikes to warrant that uh, the elimination of all those parking spots. Speaker 7: 07:49 At the same time, Landsberg says, if the city replaces street parking with protected bike lanes, maybe that wouldn't be so terrible. Speaker 4: 07:56 I think that the studies have shown that if you build protected safe bike lanes, people will use them. And also that, that does benefit business in those areas. So there's data to support that Speaker 6: 08:08 really is completely focused on the kids. Speaker 7: 08:12 On the one hand, Matt Stuckey just wants to be able to take his family on it's safe bike ride to go get ice cream. But on a deeper level, he sees the potential redesign of 30th street as a test for San Diego, which does the city care more about the convenience of driving or fighting climate change. Speaker 6: 08:30 Fired by what the city did when it passed its climate action plan and committed to reconsidering how we live. And I think as a parent, uh, we, I need to be doing everything I can to make sure the city lives up to those commitments. Speaker 7: 08:46 Stucky and other advocates are organizing a group bike ride on April 13th to drum up support for the safest design possible. Then on April 16th, the North Park Planning Committee will discuss options. Stucky will be there as a member. Last month, residents elected him to a seat on the volunteer community planning group. Andrew Bowen KPBS news. Thanks for listening to Kpb as is San Diego news matters podcast. For more local stories go to k pbs.org.