Aid For The Events Industry

Good Morning, I’m Annica Colbert….it’s Tuesday, April 6th. >>>> Helping large scale events return to San Diego. We’ll have more on that next, but first... let’s do the headlines…. ###### Scripps Health officials say the Del Mar vaccination super station is again facing a shortage of covid-19 vaccines. The site is now scheduled to close tomorrow (wednesday), and then close again from friday through sunday. Appointments will automatically be rescheduled through their online system. Meanwhile, more than 1 million doses of vaccines have been administered in the county. About 38 percent of San Diegos have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The county will also now have vaccine appointments availables at the Balboa Municipal gym. ######## The San Diego convention center is currently housing more than 1300 migrant children. Of those, 198 have tested positive for covid-19. Over the weekend the shelter also accepted it’s first group of boys, all under the age of 13. Lindsay Toczylowski [Toz-LOW-skee] is the director of Immigrant Defenders, a non-profit providing legal support to the children. She stressed that if family members or sponsors of the children are undocumented immigration enforcement will not be called. It’s important that families know that they will not be targeted if they come forward to care for a child. So far none of the children have been reunited with family or sponsors. ############ UC San Diego says it will return to in-person teaching at it’s pre-pandemic capacity in the fall term. The school touted it’s “Return to Learn” virus response, citing the increasing vaccination numbers in the county. The school says covid-19 safety protocols will remain in place as needed. ######### From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. Some financial relief could be on the way soon for San Diego’s event industry... which has been devastated by pandemic restrictions.. KKPBS’ Matt Hoffman says this comes as state officials are relaxing restrictions for private events that could revitalize the industry. We’ve waited our turn, now it’s time for our industry to be opened up After news from state officials that private gatherings like weddings and other events can increase capacity with negative tests or vaccinated guests -- now a push to have permitting fees waived for an industry that has been crippled by the pandemic.. 10;19;20;07 Nathan Fletcher, San Diego County Supervisor The events industry brought 2.7 million visitors and 3.5 billion in spending in 2019, 2020 tells a different story but as we come out of this pandemic and recover we have to support those industries that have been hardest hit Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is hoping to waive some fees for events using county services, something that event operators like Laura McFarlane say can really help. 10;48;01;10 Laurel McFarlane, McFarlane Promotions owner Everytime we have a bar we have to pay $100 and we also have a health permit fee so it can range for me from 500 to 200,000 dollars per event Having these fees waived if you can save anywhere from 30-50 thousand that could be the difference of you deciding to go forward McFarlane also leads the San Diego Event coalition, a group that since last year has been fighting for a seat at the table to negotiate safe reopening guidelines for large events.. 10;51;55;26 McFarlane Our numbers are doing much better we want a path back which every other industry has been given a path back in the tier system Fletcher's proposal will be taken up by the entire board and if approved could save the event industry a collective two million dollars.. 11;06;19;11 Bianchi It’s just decimated our industry, it’s really unfortunate but we’re ready to come back Erin Bianchi with bright event rentals & the California Association for Private Events says the permitting proposal is good news, and says the state allowing larger group gatherings is huge for the local wedding industry. 11;02;32;06 Erin Bianchi, bright event rentals & CAPE Before it was three households, no eating no drinking for a reception and that’s not the wedding many people have dreamed of. Bianchi says many couples moved their weddings to Arizona during the pandemic as that state was more open.. She says she and others have been negotiating event reopening guidelines with state officials for months. 11;01;33;17 Bianchi It’s got to be economically viable for our wedding planners, wedding to come back, it’s got to make sense for them The new guidelines hit April 15th, and in the state’s red reopening tier private events can have up to 200 guests, if they have been vaccinated or recently tested negative. Capacity will continue to increase as our local situation improves (orange tier). Matt Hoffman, KPBS News. And that was KPBS’ Matt Hoffman. ########## Three weeks after opening a rental assistance program, San Diego city officials are still urging low-income families to apply for the money. KPBS’ Melissa Mae reports. Applications for the COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance program have been open since March 15. Today, Mayor Todd Gloria and other local leaders urged at-risk and low-income families to apply for the federal relief money. Todd Gloria, Mayor of San Diego (:11) We have an 83 million dollar fund available to help folks actually pay down that back rent, pay down those past utility bills and get back on with things. Council member Sean Elo (E-low) Rivera calls the program “the most significant rental assistance program in the city’s history.” He recalled his own childhood experience with housing instability. Sean Elo-Rivera/ San Diego City Councilmember (:15) “That really disrupted my education and my siblings’ education. I know it created incredible, incredible stress and impact on my parents as they were going through their own health and economic turmoil at the time which had led us into that situation.” Today’s event was held at Clark Middle school in City Heights. The San Diego Unified School District is partnering with the San Diego Housing Committee to help distribute thousands of flyers about the housing program at 80 schools who serve as meal distribution sites. Richard Barrera is president of the SD Unified school board. Richard Barrera, SD Unified School District Board President (:19) “As we know, over the last year, a student’s home has also become the student’s classroom and so when students have to experience instability when their parents are worrying about being able to pay the rent, believe me, that impacts the student’s ability to concentrate on education.” And that was KPBS’ Melissa Mae. Applications are still being taken at covidassistance-dot-sdhc-dot-org. Or you can call 619 - 535 - 6921. ####### Last week President Joe Biden unveiled his $2 trillion proposal for rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. It's meant to boost the US economy as we come out of the pandemic recession. But the plan is also pitched as a chance to invest in sustainable transportation, with hundreds of billions of dollars for mass transit and electric vehicles. That may sound familiar: San Diego County's transportation planning agency SANDAG is seeking the same. Hasan Ikhrata is the executive director of SANDAG and he spoke with KPBS’ Andrew Bowen. Here’s that interview. That was Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of SANDAG, speaking with KPBS’ Andrew Bowen. ########## Coming up....building up the missing middle in the housing market... "If you don't offer too much extra density, people aren't going to tear down existing homes to build new because it's costly to tear down an existing structure." We'll talk about the movement to build housing for people who want to buy a home but can't yet afford a house. We’ll have that, and an update on studies regarding sexual assault in the military next, just after the break. Cities from Sacramento to Berkeley are moving forward on zoning changes to encourage higher density housing … such as duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. But how much of a dent will these new options make in California’s housing shortage? And will they be affordable? CapRadio’s Chris Nichols reports. ambi from construction site Construction crews are digging trenches for dozens of new homes in a subdivision in Winters, just outside Sacramento. A small fraction of them will be duplexes - what Laura Pope calls “duets.” She’s a sales consultant for Towne Development. Laura duets on corner: “Right here on this first corner and the other corner, we’ll have the two duets. So on this driveway, we’ll have the single story and then this one will have the ....” (fade down after about 7 seconds) Pope says these two-unit homes with a shared wall will go for about 400 thousand dollars each, that’s about 20 percent less than the standard single family homes in the neighborhood … And it might make the difference for middle income families such as young couples trying to buy their first home, she says. Laura unique situation: “To be able to get into the Northern California housing market in a brand new home in a very desirable location under $500,000 is a very unique situation.” (:10) Developers in California tend to build two kinds of housing: Either single-family homes or large apartment buildings. Cities want to add more of a third option: So-called ‘missing middle housing,’ like the duplexes and triplexes, to add more density in a way that fits the neighborhood. Right now, they can’t. That’s because most residential areas are zoned exclusively for single-family homes. Supporters say these missing middle homes will cut down on sprawl and create more walkable communities. And they’re hopeful they’ll be more affordable, too. Housing expert Tom Davidoff of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver says they will be less expensive, but they still won’t be in reach for everyone. 01Tom: “The same structure divided into two definitely those two units sell less than the bundled unit. And it allows more people to live in the neighborhood. (:10) Davidoff says he doesn’t expect a surge in construction, because there’s not that much profit in turning a single family home into a duplex. He says cities should zone for much greater density, such as apartment towers, to really solve the housing crunch. 02Tom: “If you don’t offer too much extra density, people aren’t going to tear down existing homes and build new because it’s costly to tear down an existing structure.” (:08) Many supporters of missing middle housing point to Minneapolis as a model. That city gained national attention in late 2018 when it became the first in the country to eliminate single family zoning, followed shortly after by Portland. I asked housing advocate Margaret Kaplan of the Housing Justice Center in Minnesota whether she is seeing signs of new affordable homes in Minneapolis more than two years later. 01Margaret: “The answer to that is …. Not much.” (:03) Kaplan says in the first nine months of last year, Minneapolis issued just three permits for triplexes. But Kelly Snider says the lack of production is not a reason to deny this change in California. Snider teaches real estate development at San Jose State and works as a consultant in the industry. She says California cities should move forward with these new housing options because they won’t cause the neighborhood disruptions many fear. 03Snider: “We have seen in Portland and Minneapolis that this is not a dramatic change.” (:06) She says there’s a lot of other housing strategies to focus on, such as funding affordable housing. But … 04Snider: “Saying it’s not worth doing is not an answer. It is worth doing. It won’t alone solve a problem. But it’s one more tool in the toolbox.” (:10) In California, it may be several years before we know how well this new tool works. In Sacramento, I’m Chris Nichols. That was Cap Radio’s Chris Nichols reporting from Sacramento. A new study has concluded that the cost of sexual assault and harassment in the U.S. military extends beyond the victims. It's also causing troops to leave the service prematurely, hurting military readiness. From San Antonio, Carson Frame reports for the American Homefront Project. When Amber Davila [DAH-vee-luh] joined the Army in 2011, she planned to stay in for “the full 20” — or until retirement. She took pride in her communications security job. It made her feel like part of a team and a greater good. DAVILA: I used to joke that I was gonna eventually become the first female Command Sergeant Major in the Army. That all changed when Davila was sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier in Korea. Even though she was terrified of being ostracized, she eventually reported her attacker--and he was discharged after a lengthy investigation. But for Davila, the ordeal wasn’t over. DAVILA: you think you're okay, and then you know, the commander says, you know, horseshoe on me, so everybody kind of moves in. And then suddenly, someone's brushing against me and I'm right back in that formation in Korea, where this man is torturing me. And it just became overwhelming.” She spiraled into anxiety and destructive behavior, and spent more and more energy trying to appear fine. When it came time to reenlist, she had a panic attack. DAVILA: And that's when I decided I couldn't do it anymore. And that I needed to get out.” Davila isn’t alone in that decision. According to a new study by the RAND Corporation, sexual assault doubled the odds that a service member would leave the military within 28 months. And about a quarter of troops who were sexually harassed didn’t re-up. Andrew Morral is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND and the study’s lead author. MORRAL: We all know I think that sexual assault, sexual harassment, has tremendous costs to the individuals involved in it...But I think less attention has been paid to what the institutional costs are. Using Defense Department data, he tracked the careers of a group of service members who reported sexual assault or harassment. Then he used statistical analysis to figure out how their experiences translated to the entire force. Assaults were associated with about 2000 more people leaving the military than would normally be expected. Sexual harassment contributed to the departure of an additional 8,000 servicemembers. Most who left did so by choice, often sacrificing retirement and other benefits. MORRAL: they may not have felt like they had much choice if it was a very toxic work environment, but they weren't kicked out. After the killing of Specialist Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood in central Texas, an independent review found that commanders weren’t paying enough attention to sexual assault and harassment. In some cases, non-commissioned officers didn’t encourage reporting and shamed victims. Morral says that’s been a problem across the military. But he hopes framing sexual assault and harassment as a retention problem will get their attention. MORRAL: I hope that they use it to emphasize the importance of leadership, promoting a command climate that is not permissive of those sexual assault and harassment kinds of behaviors..I think it's been hard to get those messages all the way down into the junior enlisted ranks. President Biden recently ordered a 90-day commission to pursue solutions to sexual assault in the military. One of its goals is to figure out how to reorient the culture against sex crimes. Lynn Rosenthal, a longtime advocate for survivors of gender violence, heads the commission. She told reporters in February that she’ll organize listening sessions with service members, especially survivors. ROSENTHAL: This Commission says to that service member, you do belong in this military, you belong. And it's our job to make this climate safe for you to be here. The commission is slated to give recommendations to the president this summer. That’s too late for former service members like Amber Davila. Since leaving the military in 2015, she’s started work for the Pink Berets, a women veterans organization San Antonio. It supports survivors of military sexual trauma and advocates for policy change. But she says she feels a lingering grief about her service, especially when talking with friends whose Army careers have taken off. I’m Carson Frame in San Antonio. That was Carson Frame, reporting from San Antonio. This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans. Funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting That’s it for the podcast today. Be sure to catch KPBS Midday Edition At Noon on KPBS radio, or check out the Midday podcast. You can also watch KPBS Evening Edition at 5 O’clock on KPBS Television, and as always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Annica Colbert. Thanks for listening and have a great day.