Controversy Over Access To Amenities Surrounds Proposed High-Rise And Other Local News

February 20, 2020 at 3:00 AM PST

Speaker 1: 00:00 Speaker 2: 00:21 Speaker 1: 00:27 Speaker 3: 00:36 Speaker 1: 00:37 Speaker 4: 00:47 Speaker 5: 01:11 Speaker 4: 01:20 Speaker 1: 01:41 Speaker 2: 02:15 Speaker 1: 02:32 Speaker 4: 02:56 Speaker 6: 03:01 Speaker 7: 03:12 Speaker 6: 03:25 Speaker 1: 03:45 Speaker 8: 04:32 Speaker 1: 04:42 Speaker 8: 05:23 Speaker 1: 05:27 Speaker 8: 05:47 Speaker 1: 05:52 Speaker 8: 05:58 Speaker 1: 06:02 Speaker 8: 06:16 Speaker 1: 06:28 Speaker 9: 06:37 Speaker 1: 06:43 Speaker 8: 06:49 Speaker 1: 06:58 Speaker 8: 07:10 Speaker 1: 07:24 Speaker 8: 07:38 Speaker 1: 07:44 Speaker 10: 07:53 Speaker 1: 08:01 Speaker 8: 08:15 Speaker 1: 08:18 Speaker 8: 08:29 Speaker 1: 08:43 Speaker 11: 09:10 Speaker 1: 09:16 Speaker 12: 09:39 Speaker 11: 09:47 Speaker 12: 09:51 Speaker 11: 10:20 Speaker 12: 10:30 Speaker 11: 11:21 Speaker 12: 11:33 Speaker 8: 12:01 Speaker 12: 12:08 Speaker 8: 12:30 Speaker 12: 12:42 Speaker 1: 13:00 Speaker 12: 13:09 Speaker 1: 13:19 Speaker 12: 13:26 Speaker 1: 13:50 It's Thursday, February 20th I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters from KPBS coming up, controversies brewing over whether low income, affordable housing tenants can be excluded from luxury amenities and for my new source, a former Navy seal has a psychotic episode after receiving experimental brain treatments. And then I started to kind of wonder, wait a minute, did that, the treatment this caused this, what's happening that more coming up right after the break [inaudible] the County board of supervisors voted Wednesday to extend a local public health emergency related to the Corona virus outbreak. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman has more. The board voted unanimously to extend both a local emergency and a public health emergency relating to the Corona virus. This coming as the last evacuees from China at MCA S Miramar are scheduled to leave the base on Thursday. There have been two confirmed cases of coven 19 from those on base. Now the county's chief medical officer, dr Nikki [inaudible], is looking at the possibility of the virus spreading within the San Diego community. I believe this declaration is an act of proactive protection for our community to prevent the preventable. To be clear right now, there are no signs the virus is spreading in San Diego and public health officials are adamant that there is no risk to the general public. Continuing this declaration will help get medical supplies here quickly if needed. The County is working to increase bed space at local hospitals and they can now pursue reimbursement for costs from the state and federal government. Matt Hoffman, K PBS news. The boy Scouts of America have filed for bankruptcy in the face of more than 300 lawsuits. For men who say they were sexually abused as Scouts KPBS reporter, Prius Sri, they're found out how that will impact victims locally. The Zalkin law firm is suing the boy Scouts of America on behalf of 27 men who say they were sexually abused as Scouts. Irwin Zalkin says the bankruptcy filing will stop all lawsuits in their tracks. He also says the bankruptcy judge will likely issue a bar date or deadline for the filing of new claims against the boy Scouts of America where you might have a statute of limitations in California that now allows a three year period of time for victims who were barred from being able to bring a claim to now bring a claim. The bankruptcy court can shorten that three year timeframe. Recent tax filings show that the boy Scouts of America has one point $4 billion in assets. Prius Sri, their K PBS news. Oceanside is the first municipality in San Diego County to bring a pure water facility online. KPBS reporter Eric Anderson says the plant boosts the city's drinking water supply. Please join me in thanking the engineers. Sorry, it's utilities director Carrie Dale, officially the $71 million plant, which will bolster the city's drinking water supply. City worker Sarah Davis says the facility takes in recycled water, which is clean enough for lawns but not clean enough to drink. The recycled water goes through three more purification steps before it's injected back into our groundwater and we purify it again at our mission basin ground water purification facilities that's just down the road before it goes out to residents and businesses. Plant will add three to 5 million gallons of water to the city supply every day and that's water the city won't have to import. There are other North County water districts looking at a similar facility and San Diego's massive pure water project is also due to begin construction soon. Eric Anderson KPBS news this weekend, Bodhi tree concerts presents the long dark shadow, a musical consideration of injustice in America. KPBS arts reporter Beth lycomato speaks with Ken Anderson, director of the Martin Luther King jr community choir that's performing at the concert for black history month. Bodhi tree concerts uses music to explore issues of social injustice. The long dark shadow features the Martin Luther King jr community choir singing spirituals and gospel along with the San Diego premiere of William Grant still's 1940 choral Cantata and they lynched him on a tree choir director Ken Anderson says he's thrilled to be presenting a brutally Frank but [inaudible] gorgeous master work by a black composer. There are other pieces that have been written witness, perhaps not as deeply impacting as when you have a piece like this where the emotion is really written into the music and you're feeling it. Bodhi tree concerts, the long dark shadow will be performed Saturday at st James by the sea and Sunday at downtown Abby Beth like Amando KPBS news rewired is a three part series from my news source investigative reporters, Jill Castellano and Brad Racino. Today. In part two Jill talks about a former Navy seal psychotic episode after receiving hundreds of experimental brain treatments. Yesterday we told you about UC San Diego, Dr. Kevin Murphy and his patient, former Navy seal, John Surmont, Murphy supervised hundreds of sermons, brain treatments to help with the veterans PTSD and traumatic brain injury. There was an energetic effect and I started to feel better immediately. The treatment was Murphy's unproven version of a procedure called T M S which uses electromagnetism to effect the brain. It helped with Surmont symptoms at first, but eventually the veterans started showing signs of mania, like singing loudly in the office and having abnormally high energy. This thing is like a, it's like a tide that's slowly subsuming me. Murphy continued treating Surmont as the veteran's manic symptoms got worse. Here's the doctor's explanation. Yeah, because these people are sick. My friend. What are you supposed to do? Stop treating someone. By the summer of 2017 Surmont spent hours talking to the sun and trees in his backyard. At one point he took a bloody rag, stuck it in a cup, called it the Holy grail and hit it in his house. I've done drugs. I know when things are crazy and you're tripping out and that was not it. I was fully here and I felt like I was somehow energetically sinked up to something else. Todd Hutton, president of the clinical TMS society says mania is a possible risk of TMS. And if it happens, generally what we do is we will, we will stop treatment or at least reduce the intensity or frequency of treatment in extreme cases. Menia can escalate into a psychotic episode. The search continues today from missing seal veteran John Vermont. According to family and friends he hasn't been seen or heard from in a couple of weeks. Sermons a psychotic break took him to the streets of LA in the summer of 2017 on what he thought was a secret government mission. The veteran recently revisited some of those locations with I new source. So we are at the Greyhound bus stop downtown Los Angeles. And uh, this is one of the earlier, uh, landmarks that I can remember from the uh, experience. Surmont spent weeks following what he thought were signals that led him to steal a car break into homes and vandalized properties. The veteran was arrested at gunpoint in September, 2017 and put in LA County jail. And then I started to kind of wonder, wait a minute, did that the treatment is this caused this, what's happening? Murphy told us that he does not believe the 234 brain treatments that Surmont received were responsible for the psychotic break. I've been through the hospital but in sunlight I believe for this what caused it, you know I could give him a glass of lemonade and he's going to go psychotic because he has a history of media but Surmont has no documented history of mania. When we later asked Murphy about that, he said he can't be responsible for remembering the details of each of his patients and maybe the medical records he kept about Surmont weren't accurate. Maybe I didn't sit through every time I saw him and like write a full note. Murphy says he went above and beyond to help Surmont. He says his office tried to reach out to the veteran multiple times after the psychotic episode and never heard back. People want to take the word of like someone who's been through what he has and has to do this which brain injury and everything else over like the doctors aren't careful. It's like sometimes it just drives me crazy. It's like clearly we're going above and beyond the pale to help these people. Surmont filed a complaint against Murphy with the California medical board in 2019 that's still being reviewed and he's not the only one with concerns about the, Dr. Murphy is also the center of a university of California investigation for KPBS. I'm I new source investigative reporter Jill Castillano tomorrow. I knew source exposes a confidential university of California investigation into Dr. Kevin Murphy. I would give the $10 million back tomorrow and say it's not been worth the pain and the suffering. I knew. Source is an independent nonprofit partner of KPBS. When developers build high rises that include both market rate and affordable housing for low income families, do they have an obligation to provide the same amenities to both groups? KPBS reporter Claire is her says a high rise project in downtown San Diego. As brought that question to the public square. Jackie Hernandez thinks back on some of the places she's lived and cringes. One place is specially stands out and the roof started to cave in in the bathroom and I started to notice there's a bubble now she uses section eight housing vouchers to help pay for a place in an older complex in San Diego's university Heights neighborhood. There are some repairs that could be done. These railings that got fixed still, she's happy with it, but what if she had the chance to move into an affordable apartment downtown in a brand new building, but there would be a catch. She and the other low income renters would be in a separate building with a separate entrance. Honestly, I don't think it's right. I don't think it's fair. We've got enough division here in this world, so this is a pinnacle in internationals job site. This is their current project. Armando nuÃ±ez stands in front of ne of the towers. The developer pinnacle international is currently building downtown. He's with the local carpenters union and is a big critic of the projects. Cynical is building hree towers with market rate apartments, which would probably rent for around wenty seven hundred dollars for wo bedrooms. And then it would put ixty affordable housing units in a small building close by. Those would rent for about half the normal rate. The affordable housing would connect to ne of those towers, but the lower income renters couldn't use it's pool, spa or rooftop deck. And argument in support of this arrangement is that by paying more, you get access to more amenities, but nuÃ±ez equates that to segregation. So if you're really helping out the community, then everybody's an equal citizen. Everybody's a human being. So why would you classify different levels of uh, citizens in San Diego? The downtown planning agencies, civic San Diego rejected the plan and pinnacle, the developer threatened to Sue. Now they are calling a temporary truce to try to come to an agreement. Both civic and pinnacle refused KPBS interviewer requests citing the lawsuit. But pinnacles sent a statement saying it should be commended for actually building affordable housing instead of paying a fee. As other developers do these types of sort of separate entrances for low income tenants are nicknamed pour doors. Sasha Harnden is a housing policy advocate with the Western center on law and poverty and says developers in other areas, particularly in w York ccity, have tried creating so-called pour doors. He says developers and even cities if they approve the projects, may be violating federal fair housing laws when a given action may have, you know, a disproportionate impact on a protected class such as people of a certain race, elderly tenants, um, families with children. Maya Rosis stands on a busy street corner in downtown San Diego. She's the head of the UMB Democrats, which advocates for the housing movement called yes in my backyard. She says it's important for new housing projects to build affordable housing on site. That's how we create integrated communities. It's how we desegregate communities and that's how we let families thrive. That means in theory, she would support a project like pinnacles that would help low income families access the schools, parks, restaurants, and shops in downtown. But we need to expect more from our developers to truly integrate our housing. She may get what she wants. A new bill was proposed this week by state assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales that would block developers from creating separate facilities for low income and market rate residents. Claire Traeger, sir KPBS news, that's it for San Diego news matters today. Consider supporting this podcast by becoming a KPBS member today. Just go to BS dot org slash membership.

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The project is at the center of a debate over whether low-income affordable housing tenants can be excluded from luxury amenities. Plus, Oceanside has a new water treatment plant that adds 3 million to 5 million gallons of drinking water each day. And a San Diego-based law firm is involved in some of the lawsuits resulting from the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to file for bankruptcy.