Kiosks over local freeway sit empty 20 years later

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Monday, July 17th.

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Kiosks built in City Heights over 20 years ago remain empty. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….

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Former Aztec punter Matt Araiza was in court Friday to ask a judge for a protective order in an ongoing civil case against him.

A then 17-year-old girl accused Araiza of raping her at a house party near the SD-SU campus in October of 20-21.

His attorneys argue that it was needed to protect him from unwanted “annoyance” and “embarrassment.”

Dick Semerdjian is Araiza’s attorney.

“When documents are produced from the police department that they're kept somewhat confidential to the extent that they're not going to be available to the public until the judge rules that they can be.”

Judge Matthew Braner granted the request, saying it will protect all parties involved.

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Ballots are being delivered today for the special election of the county's new District 4 supervisor.

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

Early voting begins today at the Registrar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa.

They’re open from 8 a-m to 5 p-m Monday through Friday.

You can also send in your ballot through the mail, and starting tomorrow, you can drop off your ballot at any of the Registrar’s official ballot drop boxes around the district.

The deadline to vote for Fletcher's replacement is August 15th.

If no candidate wins a majority, the top two finishers will compete in a runoff in November.

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Passenger rail service through San Clemente is back open, after emergency work to build a temporary barrier wall is finished.

Rail service has been halted multiple times this year, and in this last instance service was stopped for over a month.

The city of San Clemente plans to eventually stabilize the hillside long-term.

Train schedules can be found on the MetroLink and Pacific Surfliner websites.

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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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For many residents of City Heights, the 15 freeway that runs through the neighborhood isn't a harmless piece of infrastructure… it's a nuisance, creating noise and air pollution.

The freeway was built with several amenities that were meant to mitigate its harmful impacts.

But metro reporter Andrew Bowen says decades later, the promise of reconnecting City Heights remains unfulfilled.

AV: Houses, families on this side, I want to say there was houses over here and a commercial space on the corner… AB: Alexis Villanueva is walking me down University Avenue as it passes over the State Route 15 freeway. She's the executive director of the nonprofit City Heights Community Development Corporation. When she was growing up here in the 1980s, all this land was taken up by apartment buildings and businesses. But Caltrans wanted to build the freeway. So it used eminent domain to seize and demolish more than 9 blocks of property. Some 2,000 residents were forced to leave — including Villanueva's sister and niece. alexis villanueva city heights community development corporation AV: When you ask them to relocate, you're essentially asking them to figure out how to make rent, deposit, somewhere else that's probably more higher in rent. So immediately my sister was concerned of what that would mean. And then also what that would mean for my niece, that she would have to take and move out of the district as well, and move schools. So it was a big decision, but there really was no choice. AB: Residents fought for years to stop the freeway. But in the end, after years of exhausting negotiations, Caltrans agreed to cap just one block of the freeway. That block became Teralta Park — the first park Caltrans ever built as a roof over a freeway. Caltrans also made space for a rapid bus line that would run on the freeway median — though it took another 18 years after the freeway opened for that bus line to start running. The bus line came with extra wide bridges over the freeway, each with a little pedestrian plaza. AV: All the environment — all the built environment that you see was really so people could still activate this space and not feel like there was a western part of City Heights and an eastern part of City Heights. AB: But the dream of these plazas becoming gathering spaces that would reconnect the community hasn't been realized. Caltrans built kiosks here to house a small business, like a coffee shop or newsstand. They also built bathrooms here. But in the more than 20 years since they were built, neither the kiosks nor the bathrooms have ever been used. Villanueva says it's a waste. These amenities could improve the experience of riding public transit. AV: The idea that someone is commuting — and a lot of our families do do that with their service jobs — they're using this expressway, this bus, to go downtown and back. When they're making a stop all the way from College Avenue to here and they need to grab breakfast to head on to their downtown job, that's a need. That's a need, and it helps with comfortability, it helps them get to work on time. AB: People in City Heights have been fighting for years to activate and beautify these plazas. And they've got plenty of ideas. AV: Extra greenery. We have the tree and the potting plants, but that's not enough for this place to look gray and to be quite honest dismal, the way that it looks. So we want added greenery. We also want lighting. We've been told by our community that lighting is a necessary part of riding the bus. AB: The community has made some progress toward activating the kiosks over the freeway. The city of San Diego agreed to lease them from Caltrans so it could find its own vendors. But they're still locked up. And the things that make these plazas unpleasant, like the noise and pollution from the freeway, have no cheap and easy fixes. AV: And when we're talking about a community that has limited resources, that hasn't had investment from government as much as it could have, as much as it should have, it does take public and private partnerships. And I think that that's where our leadership and our organization has said fine, let's come to the table, let's figure out what we need to do and how much resources it's going to take and we'll go out there and do that. AB: The experience of City Heights being divided by a freeway is by no means unique. It happened all over San Diego County and the whole country, most often in low-income communities of color. The communities least able to fight back. You can learn more about the past, present and future of San Diego's freeways by listening to my podcast, Freeway Exit. You can find it wherever you get podcasts. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

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A state law required child care centers to test their water for lead.

Now, results are in … and data shows thousands still haven’t complied.

inewsource reporter Crystal Niebla has more.

NIEBLA: inewsource found nearly eight thousand child care centers have yet to find out whether lead is present in their drinking water. That’s more than half of all facilities statewide and includes hundreds in San Diego. LITTLE: “We’re considering this data, this initial data we're receiving from the Department of Social Services to be really just the tip of the iceberg.” NIEBLA: That’s Susan Little of the Environmental Working Group. The nonprofit co-sponsored the lead-testing law. Among centers that have tested, a La Petite Academy in San Diego had the highest level in the state … more than two thousand times the law’s limit. Lana Al-Omar’s daughter attends the facility … and the mom says she was shocked to learn about the results. AL-OMAR: “I think as a parent, I can just make sure that wherever I take her in terms of daycare, that the facility is being held accountable.” NIEBLA: The state would not say whether any providers have faced consequences for not yet complying with testing. For KPBS, I’m inewsource reporter Crystal Niebla.

TAG: For more on this story, go to inewsource dot org.

inewsource is an independently funded, nonprofit partner of KPBS.

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California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins held a news conference last week to talk about the Bridge Project.

It’s a bill she wrote to address anti-L-G-B-T-Q-plus laws passed in 26 states.

Senate Bill 447 would repeal California's ban on state-funded travel to those locations, replacing it with a program to encourage acceptance of the L-G-B-T-Q-plus community.

“The goal of course is to help people see and understand the value of compassion of reaching past the rhetoric and getting to know one another.”

The Bridge Project has already been approved by the state senate, and is now making its way through the assembly.

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Coming up.... Comic-Con prep is underway in the Gaslamp Quarter. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.

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The San Diego Foundation recently awarded millions of dollars in scholarships to local college students.

Reporter Melissa Mae has the story of one of those recipients

MM: The San Diego Foundation Community Scholarship Program awarded four million dollars in scholarships to over a thousand local college students… including Andrea Barajas. AB “I just started crying. I honestly did cause it was really exciting to know that someone was there to support me and other people who didn’t have all the resources that they needed and so that was really exciting.” MM: She just graduated from the Preuss School at UCSD and is a first generation college student. Her scholarship will help her attend UC Berkeley this fall. She also has grants and financial aid that will cover most of the the cost of tuition and housing. MM: Like Andrea, 70% of the scholarship recipients are the first in their families to attend college and 92% are from economically disadvantaged to middle income communities that are historically under-represented in higher education. MM: Andrea says she plans to study cognitive science and wants to get the education that her parents couldn’t. Melissa Mae KPBS News. 

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And now, some younger students who are enrolled in summer classes are enjoying a curriculum that is out of this world.

Education reporter M.G. Perez has more on their mission to Mars.

“3-2-1 (rocket lift off)....screams” Getting off the ground is just the first stretch of the millions of miles it would take to make it to Mars. These are not real rockets you hear lifting off…they’re model rockets made by San Diego Unified middle school students in summer school. Their curriculum and learning focus on designing a supply mission to a colony on Mars. 7th grader Martine Torres and his lab partner…created a rocket that failed in flight… “I’m pretty sure we used the Elmer’s glue. We should have used the hot glue because it was stronger.”  Trial and error is part of the process…according to Jason Berman…a media arts teacher who also has his students design video games with rockets…which get into virtual outer space much more easily… and safely… Jason Berman Media Arts Music Teacher “Video games seem like the way to engage all the students  that didn’t put a lot into school…because even those kids…when video games are on the table. They start getting into it.” Sound break rocket liftoff Mission accomplished…MGP KPBS News.

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While some actors and writers on strike can't promote their projects at this week's San Diego Comic-Con... local businesses are still preparing for a deluge of attendees.

Buildings in downtown San Diego are already wrapped with promotions... and banners are hanging from street lamps.

Lou and Mickey’s restaurant manager Lynette Baty says even with the strikes, she's expecting the same huge crowds as usual.

“Right directly across the street from the Convention Center. There's a lot going right in front of us, even right outside the building. So we get a lot of foot traffic just walking by us. It's beneficial being the first restaurant once they leave there, so we tend to fill up. And we get a lot of people watchers.”

The convention is sold out.. and runs Wednesday through Sunday.

We have a page on kpbs-dot-org dedicated to all things Comic-Con.

Just click the link on our home page.

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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.