A push for affordable housing on Hillcrest DMV lot
Good Morning, I’m John Carroll, in for Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, October 5th.
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Some San Diegans want affordable housing built on the Hillcrest DMV lot.
More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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Kaiser San Diego workers are officially on strike.
Today is the second day of a planned three-day strike involving 45-hundred local health workers.
Kaiser officials say they and employee union representatives are still at the bargaining table negotiating.
Kaiser says tentative agreements have been reached around wage increases, and a 23 dollar per hour minimum wage.
Five Kaiser facilities across the county have strike lines.
Jeff Merritt is a hospital unit coordinator at Kaiser's San Marcos Medical Center.
“It’s important for me to be out here because I’m a single parent I have a son -- we need a wage increase -- the inflation rate is going crazy, gas prices the cost of living I’m out here to support my team.”
Kaiser’s hospitals and emergency rooms are open during the strike.
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County officials are taking a new step to monitor sewage spills into the Tijuana River.
The County Air Pollution Control District this week announced it will install sensors to measure air quality near the river.
The sensors will measure the quantities of different compounds that are being emitted into the air.
The most concerning compounds in the Tijuana River Valley are sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide – what causes the odor associated with sewage and wastewater.
Health officials say exposure to those compounds in high quantities, can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, asthma and other health issues.
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The Biden administration this week, approved 9-billion-dollars in debt relief for an additional 125-thousand student loan borrowers.
The announcement came just days after federal student loan payments restarted.
The new debt relief will be for some borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, for borrowers who’ve been in income driven repayment plans for more than 20 years, but never got the relief they were entitled to.
And for borrowers who have a total or permanent disability.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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The DMV office in Hillcrest sits on three acres of state-owned land in one of the city of San Diego's most walkable neighborhoods.
At more than 60 years old, it’s in desperate need of an update, and there have long been calls to include affordable housing in the plan to redevelop it.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen brings us the latest on what little progress has been made, and how that's frustrating both residents and those who have been priced out of the neighborhood.
JK: So you can see we have a lovely car dealership here, it’s one of probably at least five or six in this stretch of three blocks. AB: Jiwan Kohli is showing me around his neighborhood of Grantville. JK: We've got some fast food right there, some unmarked buildings that I still don't know what they contain. AB: He landed here eight years ago as a graduate student. This is the neighborhood he could afford… but he's not in love with it. JIWAN KOHLIGRANTVILLE RESIDENTJK: It’s not particularly hip around here, there’s not a lot to do. And I’d really like to be able to walk to interesting places rather than getting in my car and driving there. And so Hillcrest has a lot of great restaurants, cafés… AB: Hillcrest is also close to Balboa Park, where Kohli likes to go running. And it's the heart of San Diego's LGBTQ community. JK: For people who have queer identity, I think being in a space that feels so openly welcoming and accepting really can change your quality of life. AB: Kohli isn't living off a graduate student stipend anymore. He's a full time researcher in the UCSD neurosciences department. But Hillcrest is still out of reach. JK: I’ve kept my eye on the prices on the apartments around there and it’s really only gotten worse. STEPHEN RUSSELLSAN DIEGO HOUSING FEDERATION SR: DMV property is probably one of the finest sites possible for affordable housing, not just in Hillcrest but in the city. AB: Stephen Russell is executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, and a resident of Hillcrest. We meet at the 63-year-old Hillcrest DMV. The building isn't very big… but the property is — just about three acres. Mostly a surface parking lot with crumbling asphalt. SR: I think they've given up on it. They've intended to replace this facility for so long, they're not even doing basic upkeep anymore. AB: Russell says the property is surrounded by dense housing, and the neighborhood needs more of it — for all income levels. SR: Folks who are getting high paid jobs in the tech sector who want all the lifestyle qualities that Hillcrest brings are willing to pay even if the apartment is perhaps an older functionally obsolete building. But given the choice, they would many times choose to live in something newer with more amenities and leave that unit on the market for perhaps someone who is lower income. AB: The state knows this property needs replacement. One effort to build a mixed use project here fell apart in 2012. Then in 2018, the DMV proposed a project with no housing and a 7-foot tall wrought iron fence around the perimeter. The proposal was universally panned, and the DMV was told to start over and create a project with housing. CW: You need to have a DMV facility somewhere here in central San Diego, and this still makes sense for that purpose. AB: Chris Ward represents Hillcrest in the state assembly. He met with the DMV last year, and says they promised to assess what they need in a new facility. Many of their services have moved online, so maybe they could get by with a smaller footprint. But he checked in last month, and that assessment is still in the works. CHRIS WARD (D-SAN DIEGO) STATE ASSEMBLYMEMBER CW: I just don’t feel a lot has been done over the last year, certainly not to my satisfaction. So I do intend to up my levels of communication and really press this, and if this comes in the form of legislation that needs to be introduced in January when I get back to Sacramento, so be it. (26:10) I hope that we're not going to wait another five or 10 years to see the right program for this site eventually move forward. But I'm here in my time as the state assemblymember for this district to be able to help support the evolution of this site and certainly be something that's more multi-purpose in nature. JK: I had always kind of hoped I could eventually make my way over to somewhere like Hillcrest. AB: Jiwan Kohli says he hopes the state government can just cut through the bureaucracy and get it done. JK: People in San Diego need affordable housing. People outside of San Diego who would like to live here need affordable housing. And so having that space and just kind of sitting on that is a really unfortunate missed opportunity. And it would be nice if we could utilize that in one way or another. AB: Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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An idea to house homeless people on military land received bad news this week.
Military reporter Andrew Dyer has more.
Since january, san diego businessman george mullen has pushed for the development of “sunbreak ranch,” a concept that would house homeless people and provide amenities and benefits at marine corps air station miramar. but in a letter monday to san diego mayor todd gloria, colonel thomas bedell wrote that the eastern side of the base is not a suitable location because it’s under a flight path and there could be unexploded ordnance dating back to world war two. mullen says the unpopulated eastern portion of miramar air station is an ideal location for the temporary camp, a concept he compares to facilities set up by fema after natural disasters. “there’s people dying all over our streets. and so this is a concept to triage everyone. get them off the streets, canyons and public parks into a place where they can be diagnosed and directed to where is going to best help them.” mullen is skeptical of the marine corps’ claims and said in an emailed statement the base commander is not at the top of the chain of command. if the base doesn’t work out mullen says the ranch concept isn’t site-specific and that they’re also looking at a location in otay mesa. andrew dyer, kpbs news.
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Coming up.... 20 incarcerated Southwestern College students receive their degrees while in prison. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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Pomp and circumstance played at Donovan State Prison, yesterday, honoring inmates who completed a college degree.
Education reporter M.G. Perez has their graduation story.
More than 20 inmates graduated with associate degrees from Southwestern College. Their classes were held at Donovan State Prison in Otay Mesa…with professors teaching their students face-to-face. Many of the students are serving life sentences with no possibility of parole. Joe Hernandez was convicted of murder in 1993. He got his high school diploma in prison…and now has an associate’s degree in sociology. “I love people…I have an honor and respect for humanity…I value everybody equally and I’m definitely on a path today just to want to show people that change is possible.” Some of the graduates have already begun working on a bachelor’s degree offered by UC-Irvine. MGP KPBS News.
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M-L-B playoffs are underway, and the San Diego Padres won't be making an appearance this year.
But reporter Melissa Mae tells us, in spite of the team's underwhelming season, fans set attendance records.
MM: Despite the Padres not meeting expectations…Padres fans set an all-time single season attendance record at just over 3.2 million, breaking the previous record by over 215,000 set during Petco Park’s inaugural 2004 season.MM: San Diego Padres President of Baseball Operations & General Manager A.J. Preller says the fans are dedicated. AP “I love interacting with the fans, having conversations. I love the back and forth I see on Twitter all the time because it means people care.” MM: The Padres had 61 total sellout games this season, including 59 at Petco Park, also a new franchise record. MM: Preller announced that he and manager Bob Melvin are back with the team next season and both are excited about the challenge of getting the Padres to the postseason next year. Melissa Mae KPBS News.
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The San Diego Italian Film Festival returns to the Museum of Photographic Arts tonight for its 17th year.
Film critic Beth Accomando has this preview.
The San Diego Italian Film Festival was the passion project of Victor Laruccia who envisioned a film festival as a "piazza" where people could gather and create a vibrant community around movies. Laruccia died last year but the festival remains true to his vision. It showcases films that reveal an Italian perspective on such diverse topics as science fiction, climate change, history, immigration, and standing up to patriarchy. Primadonna tells the true story of a seventeen-year-old girl from Sicily, who, in 1965, was the first woman in Italy to say no to an Italian law that called a "rehabilitating marriage" to her rapist. But while the story is distinctly Italian it also reflects universal themes says artistic director Antonio Iannotta. ANTONIO IANNOTTA Our festival has been successful exactly for this reason, even though it's an Italian film festival. And we try to have Italian features, shorts, dramas, comedies that are very specifically rooted in Italian culture. But there is always a possibility to create a dialog about topics, issues, problems, questions that are relevant here. The San Diego Italian Film Festival runs through Oct. 14th with both in person and online film screenings. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Join us again tomorrow for the day’s top stories, plus, we hear about the Black Panther Party's community garden and how community gardens can be a climate solution. I’m John Carroll. Thanks for listening and have a great Thursday.
