Changes considered for San Diego ADU rules

Good Morning, I’m Katie Hyson, in for Debbie Cruz… it’s Friday, May 2nd.

San Diego is considering new rules for accessory dwelling units. More on that next.

But first... let’s do the headlines….

San Diego County’s financial picture is coming into focus.

Yesterday (Thursday) a budget plan was released totaling 8-point-6-2 billion dollars.

That’s about a 1-percent increase from the current budget cycle.

No major disruptions are planned for county services, but nearly 200 jobs are expected to be cut.

Some of those will come from open positions that will go unfilled.

The public will be invited to learn more about the budget in a series of open house events later this month.

When you call San Diego police for help, you might get a text message asking for a review.

The department says it will start using a community engagement platform called My90.

It’s developed by Axon, the same company that produces body cameras used by several law enforcement agencies.

San Diego police chief Scott Wahl says the information collected from My90 surveys will help the department measure its performance.

My90 says the survey results will also be available for the public to view.

Tomorrow, Viejas Casino and Resort in Alpine will host the first M-M-I-P San Diego Summit.

The event focuses on the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people.

The event is free, but reservations are sold out.

The event will include panel discussions and the introduction of a new digital resource center.

According to the U-S Census, San Diego County is home to 18 native reservations, the most of any county in the United States.

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

San Diego is moving to tighten regulations on accessory dwelling units.Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says a package of reforms got its first public hearing Thursday.

San Diego has some of the most permissive rules around ADUs in California. 

Supporters say those rules have created more low-cost housing in exclusive neighborhoods, while opponents say they ruin neighborhood character.

The city's Planning Commission voted Thursday to recommend a host of reforms, like eliminating the program in the lowest-density neighborhoods. 

Commissioner Kelly Moden supported the changes.

“All housing does help affordability, it's a supply and demand issue. I don't believe that the ADU bonus program as currently designed develops thoughtful homes, and we need to put some guardrails on it.”

The reforms are set to go before a City Council committee in two weeks, followed by a vote of the full City Council in June.

Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

Yesterday (Thursday) was International Workers’ Day and hundreds of U-C San Diego health workers are calling for pay and staffing increases.

Education reporter Katie Anastas says the university told patients to expect delays as staff went on a one-day strike.

“Who runs UC? We run UC.”

Hundreds of UC San Diego health workers marched from the Hillcrest Medical Center to Balboa Park. 

For two of their unions, it’s their fourth strike since November.

Union leaders say the university froze hiring without giving them notice.

Workers like Christopher Kaiser say it comes at a time when they need more staff.

“I work in a specialized department. I assist with bone marrow transplant and their care. I do the work of six people, and it's really hard to keep up with the demand.”

UC President Michael Drake announced the hiring freeze in March.

He cited proposed funding cuts from both the federal and state governments.

The university says it made its best and final offer to one union last night…meeting their demand of $25 an hour and a 5% wage increase.

It’s set to meet with the other union next week.

Katie Anastas, KPBS News.

The opioid abuse crisis in America goes hand in hand with a crisis of chronic pain, and finding alternatives to opioid medication is not easy.

Sci-tech reporter Tom Fudge spoke with two people who are looking for other ways to provide relief.

About ten years ago Ana Moreno was a PhD student at UC San Diego when she had a free Sunday night and did what some serious students do.

She started reading science papers. 

“I came across a paper that talked about these people in Pakistan, street performers, who could walk on fire, do different performances with no pain whatsoever. And when they studied these people they found they had a mutation in their genome.”

That story was the spark that led Moreno to try to imagine a gene therapy that would relieve chronic pain.

Her personal life also inspired her.

She remembered her vivacious aunt and Godmother from when she was growing up in Mexico.

Her aunt came down with trigeminal Neuralgia, a nerve disorder that causes an intense stabbing pain to the head and face.

“I saw my aunt become… She was the life of the party. And she went from that to someone who was always in pain. It’s induced by eating… there’s no quality of life.”

Moreno has founded a company called Naventa Therapeutics, to commercialize her patented gene therapy.

She says it has shown good results in mice. Human clinical trials are 12 months away. 

You inject the shell of a virus into the body that carries a protein that changes gene expression.

It turns off a part of the DNA that allows pain impulses to travel along channels that lead to the brain. 

“And these sodium channels open and close depending on pain. So when they open it’s like an electrical shock, like turning on the lights.  You start seeing this electrical signal. For example when you touch something hot. It starts heere and the ion exchange goes through your arm through you back to your brain, and that’s when you feel the pain. So we can turn it off in the spinal level, depending on where the pain is located.”

Moreno began working on this pain relief model when the opioid addiction crisis started ramping up.

Chronic pain and opioid use are part of my story also. 

“Almost twenty years ago I was in a serious accident where I suffered traumatic brain injury. Ever since then I’ve had chronic pain in the lower part of my body. I’ve tried lots of different ways to ease that pain. Acupuncture. Chiropractic. Cannabis. But the only thing that really worked, and it worked every time, was opioid medication.”

“First of all I’m sorry to hear of your pain and suffering and, yer not alone, there are so many people in this country going through this.” 

Eric Garland is a professor in psychiatry at UC San Diego, at the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. 

“And some people do quite well on the opioid. And there are other folks who, over time, because of side effects or  the natural tolerance that develops to the drug, they find that they are not getting the kind of relief that they want to get.”

Health professionals estimate between 20 and 25 percent of people who are prescribed opiates end up with opioid use disorders, which include full-blown addiction.

Garland says there are pain management alternatives, including those that I have tried. 

But even if they are bound to work for you it doesn’t mean you’ll have access to them and or that your health insurance is gonna cover them. 

Garland’s research has focused on using mindfulness and meditation to address chronic pain. He says negative emotions that correspond with pain can make it more intense. 

“They turn up the volume in the pain and make pain hurt worse. So there’s a real need for therapies like mindfulness that can train the mind to be less emotionally reactive to pain and that can turn down the volume of the pain in the brain.” 

One person who has used the mindfulness model is Dan Kruger, a professional motorcycle racer.

He has suffered chronic pain for decades and been dependent on opiates, due in part to numerous injuries sustained on the race track.

He worked with Garland, practiced meditation and three years into therapy he says things are much better. 

“My chronic pain is 20, 25 percent less than it was while I was on opioids. So my chronic pain is lower. I have it. I have it right now as I speak to you. But it is absolutely manageable.”

On the other hand, there are patients who have relied on long-term use of opiates with minimal side effects.

Some patients with chronic pain have formed a lobbying group called Don’t Punish Pain to rally against new restrictions on opiate use.

Thomas Fudge, KPBS News.  

This week, one of the largest tourism conferences in Latin America opened with great fanfare on both sides of the border.

Video journalist Matthew Bowler takes us there.

A celebration of Mexican culture.

Thousands of tourism pros are in Rosarito Beach this week for the 49th annual Tianguis Turistico, which means Tourism Market. The event promotes travel in Mexico. 

The conference, organized by the Mexican government, brings together more than 3200 exhibitors from 43 countries to trade ideas on growing tourism from Tijuana to the Yucatan. 

“Baja California is ready to be an international destination. We have a great gastronomy. We produce 70% of the Mexican wine.”

That’s Miguel Aguíñiga Rodríguez, Baja’s Secretary of Tourism.

He says tourism makes up about 8% of Baja’s economy.

Matthew Bowler, KPBS News.

For A-A-P-I Heritage Month, Pac Arts Movement and M-T-S are unveiling a new pronto card and bus wrap.

Arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans has more.

One city bus is about to get a little more artistic. 

Artist Koy Sun's illustration shows a family on a bus, surrounded by grocery bags of familiar Asian products — drawing on the rich diversity of Asian food and culture in San Diego.

"I included things like halo halo, yakult, to reference my Thai culture, the Three Ladies Rice Bag, incense, banh mi, just things like that. I tried my best to have kind of the big and obvious icon that are recognizable and I started slowly kind of finding more more niche things"

Sun's vivid and whimsical signpainting can be found throughout the region, adorning restaurants and bookstores — connecting to the local community motivates and informs his art.

"...I wanted to inspire others to kind of consider (is) how much access we have to Asian ingredients Asian cultures things like that … things like Fung Jang, Seafood City, H-Mart, like all these different types of grocery stores just kind of mean a lot to me"

In addition to the bus, Sun's artwork will also be featured on a collectible Pronto card available for purchase through MTS. 

Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS News.

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Katie Hyson. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.