Will San Diego Go Purple?

We’ll find out today if San Diego moves into a more restrictive covid-19 tier, or if we’ll stay in the red. The news will come from State Health Director Doctor Mark Ghaly in his weekly press conference. Only ten California counties are in the purple - most restrictive tier - in the state’s color-coded ranking system. Governor Gavin Newsom says that's likely to change ... but for the worse. "I anticipate that we will see more restrictive tier-ing based upon case rates that have begun to increase. You look at places like Mono County, you look at Kings, Alpine, Shasta counties, you're starting to see case rates growing." California's test positivity rate is up from what it was in Mid-October. Under the purple tier, many non-essential indoor business operations would be closed. San Diego City Councilmember Barbara Bry has conceded the mayor's race to Assemblymember Todd Gloria. Gloria's double-digit lead on election night was big — almost insurmountable. But Bry held out hope that she might still narrow the gap as more votes were counted. Instead, Gloria's lead has been growing over the past few days. In a Monday morning press conference, Bry said she had called Gloria on Sunday to congratulate him on his win. It’s Tuesday, November 10th. This is San Diego News Matters from KPBS News. I’m Anica Colbert. Stay with me for more of the local news you need to start your day. California’s elected officials are cheering President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race . But what does the new White House mean for the Golden State? CapRadio’s Nicole Nixon reports. Governor Gavin Newsom has worked amicably with President Donald Trump on emergencies like the pandemic and wildfires. But he says a new White House will mean smoother sailing for California’s priorities. NEWSOM: It goes from headwinds to tailwinds, and that’s pretty obvious. <<:04>> Over the past four years, California’s attorney general has filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration. So Newsom’s looking forward to having political allies in the White House. On policy, he says the Biden-Harris agenda lines up well with California’s. NEWSOM: Health and education, issues related to the environment, environmental stewardship and low-carbon, green growth. Broadly, that’s a California agenda. <<:11>> Newsom now has the opportunity to appoint a successor to Kamala Harris’ Senate seat but says it’s still too early to provide a timeline for naming his pick. SOC A newly elected Temecula City Councilwoman sponsored a rally just before the election challenging California's COVID-19 protections. KPBS Reporter Steve Walsh says one speaker promised more mass gatherings defying the state's guidance. Jessica Alexander organized a rally outside City Hall that challenged the state's COVID restrictions, just a few days before she won a seat on the council. One of the speakers, Peggy Hall, later posted her own speech on social media. "We're going to have the largest Thanksgiving that California has ever seen and we're going to do it all together." Like the event in Temecula, Hall says the crowd at her next Southern California gathering won't be wearing masks, in defiance of public health orders. Councilwoman elect Alexander did not respond to a request for comment. The event became public as Gov. Gavin Newsom called for people to be more vigilant as cases COVID 19 rise in parts of California including in San Diego County. Steve Walsh KPBS News On Monday, The San Diego City Council approved Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s “complete communities” program” that aims to boost the city's affordable housing supply. KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen has the story. AB: The program is optional for developers, and only applies to land that's near public transit and already zoned for apartments. In exchange for setting aside 40% of units as affordable to low- and moderate-income households, developers can get more flexibility on a project's density and height. Council President Georgette Gomez says it will help solve the city's housing shortage and address climate change. GG: I do believe that this is planting a stronger seed in how we're going to be tackling the climate crisis — do real smart growth development in transit areas that are extremely critical. AB: The council also approved new fees on projects in car-dependent neighborhoods that will fund bike and pedestrian infrastructure in more urban and low-income communities. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news. A decision on which utility could get a decades long contract to provide energy for the City of San Diego is now waiting to be docketed in city council. But KPBS reporter Shalina Chatlani says even if councilmembers don't agree on a winning utility, the city has options. The city closed the bidding auction in late october. Now it's up to council to find a date to discuss the bids But a Nov. 4 letter from City Attorney Mara Elliot clarifies that if council doesn't make a decision before incumbent utility San Diego Gas & Electric's contract expires in January, SDG&E would still have to serve the city. But engineer and public power advocate Bill Powers says another big point is the letter confirms that if the city formed its own utility instead, it could still maintain a relationship with community choice aggregation. POWERS: They're still buying the power, selling it to the public power agency. And the public power agency then distributes it to the citizens, to the residents. The mayor's office says it hasn't heard yet when the city council president will put the franchise agreement on the docket, but hopes to receive a date soon. Shalina Chatlani, KPBS news. Coming up on the podcast….The Old Globe started a new weekly series on local poetry called The Poet’s Tree. GILL SOTU: Every week we take a literary theme and a common saying and we smash it together. And you have two minutes to write one line of poetry and we have people participating every week. (:08) That story from our art reporter’s desk is up next, after this break. The Poet’s Tree is an online weekly event hosted by Old Globe Teaching Artist and spoken word poet Gill Sotu. It takes a deep dive into the world of modern poetry and offers interviews as well as interactive prompts with the audience. KPBS arts reporter Beth Accomando previews tonight's (Tuesday) event with host Gill Sotu. BETH ACCOMANDO: You are the host and creator of this series that's at the old Globe Theater called The Poet's Tree. So explain what this is. GILL SOTU: So the Poet's Tree is an interactive interview series where I get to interview some of my poetic heroes and also use them to help inspire other people to write. So it's not just something that when you listen to it or watch it, that you're going to do nothing like we have interactive games with our audience. We have challenges at the end of each episode where writers write in their poetic responses to whatever the challenge from the artist is. And the artist for the following week helps me read some of those responses so they get their poems read out loud by some of the top poets in the country. And it's really just my excuse to be able to learn from the best, you know, and bring everybody along for that ride. BA: So this is for both people who are poets themselves. But also if somebody is just interested in modern poetry, they would also enjoy this. GS: Yeah. And also, I would say anybody interested in just performance of any type. So the caliber of the people that I bring on, the vast majority of them have been HBO Def Jam poets. They've won Tonys, they have been nominated for Grammys. So just as an artist in general, I talk I speak to them a lot about what it's like to be an artist and pushing through your own negative self-talk. And so it's centered around poetry. But I think that it really branches out. I don't think that I've ever interviewed an artist that was just strictly a poet. They usually have a lot of different slashes in what they do. So it's it's really open to a lot of different genres of expression. BA: And tell me who you're going to have on tonight for the Poet's Tree. GS: Tonight I have Jessica Care Moore. So Jessica Care Moore has performed everywhere from the White House to she was, I think, the first poet to win Showtime at the Apollo and win it multiple times, it's a big talent competition in New York. She is the founder of Black Girls Rock, this huge concert in Detroit. She's just done amazing things with poetry throughout her career. So I'm excited to really interview her last. Last week, we interviewed Reg E Gaines, whose show was on Broadway, Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk . And the reason why I'm mentioning previous episodes is all my episodes, all our episodes, I should say, because this could not have been done without the Old Globe are available to be viewed and you can follow along with it on our Facebook page or our YouTube page, both on Facebook and YouTube live. BA: And what is it about poetry that appeals to you? GS: I think that it's because one, there are rules to it. But if you break them, it's fine. It's a form of self-expression where you can be as metaphorical as you want to be. But you can also be really straight to the point. And it's still very poetical. It lends itself to songwriting in rap and storytelling and all sorts of you can mix in dance with it. So all sorts of different types of self-expression fits in very well and in tune. So when something and if you think about it like when they talk, describe something very beautiful, you know, whether it be in a politician's speech or even like a vision, something with visual arts, they say it's very poetic. And that's it's almost like that's the epitome of what art is, you know. So I love it to death. BA: All right. I want to thank you very much for talking about the Poet's Tree. GS: Yeah. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, Beth. ….That was Beth Accomando speaking with Gill Sotu. The Poet's Tree is live tonight (Tuesday) at 5:30pm on the Old Globe Theatre's Arts Engagement Facebook page and Youtube channel.