Housing being built near transit

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, August 14th.

Let’s start the new week together.

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A new project to build more housing near transit is underway.

More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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Tomorrow is the deadline to vote in the special election to fill a seat on the San Diego county board of supervisors.

The District 4 vacancy was triggered by the resignation of Nathan Fletcher in May.

The district includes Lemon Grove, La Mesa and parts of central San Diego.

You can drop off your ballot at one of the official drop boxes across the district, or send it in by mail, as long as it’s postmarked by tomorrow.

You can also vote in person at any of the county's voting centers.

Today, they’re open from 8 a-m to 5 p-m.

You can learn more about the four candidates on the ballot, at KPBS-dot-org-slash-election.

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COVID-19 hasn’t gone away, and this summer we’re starting to see an increase in people testing positive.

In late May, the county hit a low of just under 3-percent of COVID tests returning positive.

But that’s been gradually increasing.

Now, nearly 12-percent of tests are coming back positive.

And, the amount of COVID found in wastewater has been ticking up, but is still relatively low compared to last year.

Dr. William Tseng is assistant medical director for Kaiser San Diego.

“If you compare it to even last year or January two years ago it is nowhere near there so should we be concerned? I think we should be paying attention -- and I think that’s exactly what we’re doing.” 

The E-G-5 COVID strain has quickly become the dominant subvariant across the U-S and here in San Diego.

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A San Diego soccer star is making big moves in the 20-23 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

San Diego Wave F-C forward, Sofia Jakobsson has been playing on the Sweden women's national team.

And on Friday, Sweden advanced to the Semi Finals of the World Cup.

They beat Japan 2-to-1.

The team will play against Spain tomorrow.

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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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M-T-S recently held a grand opening for a new transit-oriented housing complex at the Grantville Trolley Station.

Reporter Alexander Nguyen says it’s one of two projects meant to add much-needed housing in the region.

The union grantville apartment building is meant to house about 600 students attending nearby san diego state university. it offers dormitory-style apartments that are fully furnished. but next door is the shoreline building. mts says the 124-unit, 100-percent affordable apartment complex will help alleviate san diego’s housing shortage and provide more access to jobs and education. san diego councilmember raul campillo represents the area. “not only does this provide the housing, makes it easier for people to get around without a car, without a car payment, without gasoline payment, without insurance payment, you can spend 250 and go anywhere on that trolley in the city. that makes it easier for san diegans to afford to live here.” the shoreline is reserved for households earning 30 to 60 percent of the median income in the region. it’s expected to be completed in the next few months. an/kpbs.

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The city of San Diego is about to open a new shelter for families experiencing homelessness.

Reporter Jacob Aere says it comes as the city enforces a new camping ban for those living on the streets, despite little shelter space.

The City of San Diego’s new Family Shelter is a former Travelodge hotel in Barrio Logan. It’s been converted to provide 42 private rooms for unhoused families … with a maximum capacity of 168 people. The Housing Commission is contracting with Alpha Project to operate the facility. Bob McElroy is the organization’s CEO. “There'll be 42 families in total with 51 children. So for us, we're super excited about it, we've had site control for about a week now.” The family shelter program will provide case management, long term housing solutions, childcare and job opportunities as well as other basic services. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.

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A new poll of 12-hundred registered Black voters is raising new concerns about continued inequity in state funding for students of color.

Education Reporter M.G. Perez has more.

The Black in School Coalition represents students, schools, educators and civil rights leaders statewide. Prior to the start of the fall semester, the Coalition conducted a poll of registered California Black voters asking their opinions and experience with educational funding, school performance and other challenges facing Black students today. Ellen Nash, the San Diego Chair of the Black American Political Association, was among them. She says inequity continues… with more than 80-thousand Black children across the state still in schools well behind funding of all other student groups. “every child deserves a quality education and any family choice that we make…private, public, or charter is because we want the best educational outcomes for our children.” Nash says the revised state budget this year is a step in the right direction …but still must address the most critical issues like chronic absenteeism with students of color. 

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In other education news from reporter M.G. Perez, there’s a major change coming that will impact financial aid next fall.

It’s the Free Application for Federal Student Aid better known as the FAF-SA…and for the first time in almost 40 years….it will be streamlined … dropping from 100 questions to just 30 or 40…there will be more opportunities to qualify…and financial data will be shared directly from the I-R-S…the NEW FAF-SA will be available in December to apply for the fall semester of 2024. Michael Lemus with the California Student Aid Commission says the focus now is to spread the word to teachers, students, families and community organizations who support them. “with all the changes which are really big deal things, we want to make sure we communicate that. California is large. The challenge for us is to make sure we’re reaching all these different populations.” With less time to submit the new FAF-SA in the coming year, the deadline to apply has been extended a month to April 2nd, 20-24. MGP KPBS News.

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Coming up.... We explore public art at UC-SD. We’ll have that and more, just after the break.

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The wildfires that have torn through Maui have left historic damage.

As impacted families try to pick up the pieces, a professional M-M-A fighter in San Diego wants to help.

Reporter Tania Thorne explains.

Hawaii born, Ilima-Lae Macfarlane is a professional MMA fighter that now lives in San Diego. She says communication with friends and family in Maui has been hard following the fires. there's still live wires on the ground. There's casualties in the streets. It's just it's truly a very apocalyptic scene. In an effort to help, Macfarlane started a local donation drive. Since there's no power, I am specifically requesting generators or camping supplies that are solar or battery powered, you know. Just just think of what supplies you would need in a power outage. That's what they need. Donations can be dropped off at 10th planet gym locations throughout San Diego. Macfarlane will be collecting items the rest of the month and shipping them periodically. More information can be found on kpbs.org TT KPBS News. 

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Since 19-81, the Stuart Collection has been commissioning site specific public art for the UC-SD campus.

Arts reporter Beth Accomando says the diverse works scattered across the campus prompt the question, what is art?.

The Stuart Collection is about putting art in unexpected places and then prompting you to ask is that really art? Wandering on the UC San Diego campus you can find a house hanging precariously off the roof of the engineering building or you might trip over a Buddha sitting in front of an old TV. Jessica berlanga taylor It's kind of a graveyard of Buddhas and TVs… That’s Jessica Berlanga Taylor talking about Nam June Paik’s Something Pacific. Jessica berlanga taylor He was thinking that in the future it could look like some sort of archaeological dig that someone would suddenly find. Exploring the Stuart Collection can be an Indiana Jones adventure in terms of both discovering the eclectic art and in terms of how some of the art came to be. The collection takes its name from James Stuart DeSilva, who felt art had changed his life and wanted it to do the same for others. In 1981, Mary Beebe became the collection’s first director. Mary beebe I like to say we are not decorating the campus as you would sort of decorate your living room. Instead it’s about commissioning artists and bringing them to the campus to connect with its context and history. The Stuart Collection ranges from Alexis Smith’s 560-foot snake slithering up a path to the library to John Luther Adam’s auditory Wind Garden. As project manager, Mathieu Gregoire had to figure out the logistics of installing the art. In 2017 he discussed the mission of the Stuart Collection at the Wind Garden. Mathieu  gregoire  One way of questioning what art is, is to put art in one's ordinary environment and I think that actually there's a tendency for everyone, especially, I think, on a university campus, to want to have things explained to them. But art doesn't really work that way. Art, the art in the art experience is really in the questioning. Like asking why is there a giant bear on that lawn? Mary beebe Well, why not? It's kind of an astounding bear when you think that it's real granite and the whole thing weighs 360,000 pounds. Beebe said bringing Tim Hawkinson’s Bear to life was a challenge that started with finding the torso in an old rock quarry. Mary beebe … We had to find a torso first, because you can't look for arms and legs until you know what size torso it is. Then the rocks had to be brought to campus on an 18 axle truck used to transport the space shuttle. But it was all worth it when a Boy Scout turned to Beebe and said. Mary beebe This is so cool. Do you have any idea how cool this is? Berlanga Taylor took over the directorship of the Stuart Collection in 2022 after Beebe retired. She notes that people don’t always realize something like The Green Table is art. Jessica berlanga taylor  …They're having lunch there, for example, and then their eye will suddenly catch that there's tons of phrases inscribed onto this huge granite green table that have to do with politics and history and feminism and oppression and power. So that has ignited certain debates and conversations between students and faculty. Beebe recounted a comment from a student who accidentally discovered Robert Irwin’s Two Running Violet V Forms, which has been described as a volleyball net for giants. Mary beebe… And he said, I thought it might be art. So that kind of thing really tickles me. Public art like this explodes the boundaries of conventional art by making art that you can touch, walk over, walk through or maybe not even notice, says Berlanga Taylor. Jessica berlanga taylor …So that's what's key to public art is to be able to sort of activate or detonate conversations around what it means to occupy public space and who has access to it, who doesn't. The Stuart Collection challenges notions about what art can be. It can be epic or tiny, concrete or intangible, permanent or ever changing. But it all exists to tell some kind of story. Jessica berlanga taylor it will be able to tell people in the future a lot of what we went through and thought about as society, Artists are, I think, visionaries ahead of their time. So head out to UC San Diego for an adventure in public art. Beth Accomando, KPBS News. 

TAG: This story is part of an ongoing series about public art in the county.

More stories are available at K-P-B-S-dot-ORG-slash-public-art.

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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. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.