Legislators again denied access to ICE detention facility

Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson…it’s TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH>>>>  [MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WERE AGAIN DENIED ACCESS INTO AN ICE DETENTION FACILITY…]

More on that next. But first... the headlines…

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A FUNERAL PROCESSION WILL TAKE PLACE THIS MORNING AT 7:30 AM FOR LA MESA POLICE OFFICER LAUREN CRAVEN WHO WAS HIT AND KILLED LAST WEEK WHILE AIDING A MOTORIST

ROAD CLOSURES AND TRAFFIC DELAYS ARE EXPECTED THROUGHOUT THE MORNING 

THE PROCESSION LEAVES FROM SNAPDRAGON STADIUM AND WILL INCLUDE MORE THAN 7 HUNDRED VEHICLES

IT WILL TAKE THE 15 NORTH, TO THE 52 EAST. BEFORE HEADING SOUTH ON THE 125,

AND EAST ON THE  94

THE PROCESSION WILL END AT SKYLINE CHURCH ON CAMPO ROAD IN LA MESA WHERE CRAVEN’S FUNERAL SERVICE WILL BE HELD.

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A SAN DIEGO SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE ON FRIDAY REJECTED A LAWSUIT BY THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO THAT WAS TRYING TO STOP THE EFFORT TO HAVE LA JOLLA BECOME ITS OWN CITY. 

THAT’S ACCORDING TO REPORTING FROM THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE.

NOW  THE ‘SAN DIEGO LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION’ CAN MOVE FORWARD WITH REVIEWING THE APPLICATION FROM THE GROUP ADVOCATING FOR LA JOLLA’S CITYHOOD 

IF THE AGENCY APPROVES IT THE DECISION WOULD BE BROUGHT BEFORE VOTERS IN LA JOLLA AND THE REST OF SAN DIEGO. 

ORGANIZERS ARE TARGETING A GOAL OF MAKING THE 20-28 BALLOT

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SAN DIEGO FC’S IMPRESSIVE INAUGURAL SEASON CONTINUES ON!

THE CLUB  EARNED THEIR FIRST PLAYOFF WIN ON SUNDAY BEATING THE PORTLAND TIMBERS 2 TO 1 IN FRONT OF A SOLD OUT SNAPDRAGON STADIUM CROWD 

THEY WILL NOW HEAD TO PORTLAND FOR GAME 2 ON SATURDAY, IN A BEST OF 3 SERIES 

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A WARMING TREND IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN TODAY ACROSS THE COUNTY AND CONTINUE ON FOR MUCH OF THE WEEK

WE CAN ALSO EXPECT WEAK TO MODERATE SANTA ANA WINDS TODAY AND TOMORROW, THUS ELEVATING FIRE-WEATHER CONDITIONS 

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAYS MUCH OF THE REGION WILL SEE HIGHS IN THE 80S AND 90S 

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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IT’S BEEN A WEEK SINCE TWO MEMBERS OF SAN DIEGO’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TRIED TO ENTER AN ICE DETENTION FACILITY IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO… AND WERE DENIED ENTRY.  

YESTERDAY MORNING THEY WERE BACK WITH TWO MORE MEMBERS OF THE DELEGATION. REPORTER JOHN CARROLL WAS THERE.

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ICECOURT 1                           :55                                 SOQ

LAST MONDAY, IT WAS REPRESENTATIVES SCOTT PETERS AND JUAN VARGAS THAT TRIED TO GET INTO THE FEDERAL DETENTION FACILITY IN THE BASEMENT OF DOWNTOWN’S EDWARD J SCHWARZ COURTHOUSE. THIS WEEK, THEY WERE JOINED BY REPRESENTATIVES MIKE LEVIN AND SARA JACOBS, BUT THE RESULT WAS THE SAME. THEY WERE DENIED ENTRY. THE REPRESENTATIVES SAY IT’S NOT ONLY THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION TO CONDUCT OVERSIGHT, BUT ALSO THE LAW THAT THEY BE LET IN, UNANNOUNCED. REPRESENTATIVE LEVIN HELD UP HIS CONGRESSIONAL IDENTIFICATION CARD TO EMPHASIZE THE POINT.

“This is my notice. That’s my notice. I’m a member of the United States House of Representatives, duly elected by the people of this community to conduct oversight, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

ALL THE REPRESENTATIVES SAY THEY’RE NOT GIVING UP. THEY SAY THEY’LL BE BACK AND TRY AGAIN.

WE REACHED OUT TO ICE FOR COMMENT, BUT DIDN’T HEAR BACK BY OUR DEADLINE. JC, KPBS NEWS.

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SAN DIEGO HAS INCREASINGLY TURNED TO PARKING METERS TO HELP FUND INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIRS. 

METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS THE CITY COUNCIL YESTERDAY (MONDAY) VOTED TO TIGHTEN THE RULES ON HOW METER REVENUE IS SPENT.

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PARKINGDISTRICTS 1 (ab) 0:47 soq

AB: For every dollar you feed into a parking meter in San Diego, about 15 cents goes to something called a parking district. They're typically run by business groups, and recent audits have questioned whether they're just an extra layer of bureaucracy. The council decided to transfer the parking district budgets to the city's Transportation Department for a two-year trial period. Councilmember Stephen Whitburn supported the move.

SW: By pausing the community parking district program for two years, and letting the city manage the parking revenue for two years, we are giving the city an opportunity to prove that it can quickly deliver improvements to neighborhoods with parking meters.

AB: City electricians are now set to work overtime this week to fix broken streetlights near parking meters. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

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THE CHEAPEST HOUSING OPTION IN SAN DIEGO HAS LONG BEEN DORM-STYLE ROOMS. BUT THEY’RE RAPIDLY DISAPPEARING, AND THE CITY CAN’T SEEM TO TURN THAT AROUND. IN THIS EXTENDED FEATURE, REPORTER KATIE HYSON LOOKS AT WHY – AND WHY IT MATTERS.

SRO EXTENDED (for SDNN and web) trt : SOQ (kh/mb)

A saying hangs on the wall of Calvin Neal’s room at the Hotel Churchill in downtown San Diego.

SOT :21 I have done things that haunt me at night so you can sleep in peace.

*fade continuing oath underneath tracking*

It’s one of the few remaining single-room occupancies, or SROs, in San Diego.

*fade back up oath*

SOT cont. . . . And I will live by the oath until the day I die. Because I am and always be a U.S. veteran.

Incense fills the small room that contains his entire life.

SOT :05 That's my Kuwait book. I got it when I was in Panama and the Gulf War.

Neal was a combat medic in the military.

He tried to find work in hospitals after he returned home, but couldn’t.

He worked security jobs instead.

Until he was laid off. He missed a paycheck and that month’s rent.

An eviction notice appeared on his door.

He spent the next three years homeless.

He uses the same two words to describe his time in the Gulf War as his time on San Diego’s streets –

SOT :21 Not good . . . The ground was terrible. Bugs were terrible. Did you know what got me the most is how people would just walk past you . . . And it really bothered me . . . How could I go from serving the country to here? And why doesn't anyone care about it?

Neal says because he fought in a war, he was fast-tracked for a veteran housing voucher, and placed in this building when it opened.

The city already owned the World-War-I-era hotel. Nine years ago, they renovated it into affordable SROs.

On the scale of SROs in San Diego, The Hotel Churchill is the Ritz.

It’s got private bathrooms and kitchens, communal spaces and on-site social services.

The units are for veterans, transitioning foster youth and recently incarcerated people.

A typical SRO is like a dorm room. Tenants often share a bathroom or kitchen down the hall. The average size in San Diego is 200 square feet. Like a one-car garage. They can be poorly managed.

Because of those downsides, SRO rent is usually the lowest in the market. At the Churchill, it’s less than a thousand a month.

And there are usually less barriers to renting them. No credit checks or security deposits.

They are the most accessible housing in one of the most expensive markets in the country.

*nat pop door close*

When Neal moved into his SRO, he most looked forward to resting.

SOT :05 To lay down on a bed felt really good you know, and alone.

He says it offers peace that was impossible to find on the streets or in shelters.

SOT :15 Away from the turmoil and all of that. You know? And it just, it's just good to have somewhere to be, you know? Go out into the world. Have a bad day. Come in here and, I'm fine after a while.

He could set down things he’d been literally carrying on his back for years.

Put his books on a shelf. Hang family photos on the wall.

He could lock his door. *nat pop* Run clean water. *nat pop*

And play music to keep his spirit up.

*pop up song and fade down . . . *

SOT :08 I think about my mom all the time. Because we used to get up in the morning and play music on Saturdays, and I do that here.

He says he can think better here.

Unpack his past.

SOT :09 My kids, my family. Yeah. Military stuff. Always, that always stays in my brain for some reason.

And plan for the future.

On the fridge is an oath he swore to himself when he was homeless.

SOT :11 I will live my life in a positive, responsible and respectful way. Through my deeds, I will take control of my life and be the best man I can possibly be to myself and others. *fade under*

Neal does good deeds in the community that’s forming between tenants here.

SOT :10 I help them clean their apartments, you know, take out the trash, go run errands for them . . . That really uh, makes me feel good. It helps me out, too.

For the tenants lucky enough to get placed in them, SROs can be life-changing.

But as the need for SROs increased, the units continued to vanish.

Well into 1900s, SROs were widely available in big cities.

But by the 1960s, public opinion began to turn.

Stacey Livingstone is a researcher for UC San Diego’s Homelessness Hub.

SOT :14 SROs had a real negative connotation. They were seen as housing that, essentially like outsiders lived in, transients. Folks who didn't want to work, folks who didn't want to get married.

Society labeled SROs a “blight.”

When cities started pushing for urban renewal, they destroyed SRO buildings.

Livingstone says when San Diego “revitalized” Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp Quarter in the ‘80s, it lost a quarter of its SRO stock at once.

People were pushed out of SROs and onto the street. The so-called “blight” of poverty became even more visible.

It was a wake-up call for the City.

Councilmembers passed an emergency ordinance in the ‘80s to try to preserve the SRO buildings that remained. It didn’t work.

By 2002 there were only 110 SRO buildings left. Research shows by 2023, that had dropped to just 35.

And the city’s homeless population had grown to more than 65-hundred people.

Livingstone says the legacy of SRO stereotypes remains today.

SOT :19 There are ideas that these are people living with substance use issues . . . these are people who don't really want to work or, have a family . . . These are deeply historical stereotypes, and they really don't reflect the reality of who's living in SROs in San Diego.

She says most SRO occupants are seniors and people with disabilities who lived on fixed incomes. People leaving homelessness. And the minimum wage workers who keep downtown running.

In the current housing affordability crisis, the city has prioritized SROs again.

Mayor Todd Gloria introduced incentives for developers to build more of them. Projects that include SROs can win exemptions from certain zoning restrictions.

But a city spokesperson says since those incentives passed two years ago, the number of new SRO units permitted? Is zero.

I asked a local developer, Soheil Nakhshab, why he thinks those incentives haven’t worked yet.

SOT :16 I think the question you should be asking is more is it affordable to develop anything right now?

Costs are just astronomically out the roof for construction materials and labor. Interest rates are high, land prices are out the roof, too.

A few years ago, Nakhshab built microapartments in the East Village. They’re about the same size as SROs. He rents them for about 18-hundred dollars a month.

Still, he says he can’t even justify a project like that anymore.

SOT :09 If I were to build that building today, it's going to cost me 30 or 40% more than it did three years ago. That's a crazy hike in cost.

And forget about developers renting them at SRO rates.

SOT :09 They would need to go more market rate so they can survive. I mean, they've taken all this risk. They've put up all this equity. They've got investors that they have to answer to.

He says to make SROs appealing to build, the city would need to offer even more drastic incentives. No property taxes. No development or permit fees. Even less regulation.

Renovating existing SRO buildings can also be unprofitable.

They tend to be about a century old.

So renovation costs are high. But rent is low.

Colin Miller is vice president of real estate for the San Diego Housing Commission.

SOT: A developer will say, look, it will cost us more to renovate this building than to tear it down and build a newer, bigger and denser.

And, with higher rents.

The commission wants to try a new tactic.

They pitched the City Council to create an Affordable Housing Preservation Fund. The council will vote on it later this fall.

It would pull together government dollars and private donations to buy up properties and keep their rents affordable for the long term.

The City has been trying a slew of strategies to encourage more affordable housing. Fast-tracking permits. Creating new incentives. Funding construction directly.

It is working to increase housing stock.

But units the city deems “affordable” can rent for more than 2-thousand dollars a month.

That’s twice the rent of a typical SRO…

Putting them out of reach for many who have nowhere else to go.

Back in his SRO in downtown San Diego, Calvin Neal looks out the window and across the street, where a new luxury condo highrise is being built. *nat pop*

One condo is selling for just under 2 million dollars. The building will have a pet spa.

On the sidewalk below Neal’s window, homeless San Diegans figure out how to survive the day.

Neal says living in this SRO, he feels something like survivor’s guilt.

SOT :13 I think sometimes that if I would rather somebody out there got this. I think I would probably be willing to be homeless again if I could do that.

Katie Hyson, KPBS News

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FALL IN TIJUANA IS A SPECIAL TIME. 

VIDEO JOURNALIST MATTHEW BOWLER GOT A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT ONE OF THE CITY’S SEASONAL TREASURES…

TJOFRENDA 1 (1:20) SOQ

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It is Dia de los Muertos and in Mercado Hidalgo the alter, or ofrenda, welcomes shoppers.

NATS SHOPERS AT OFRENDA

Martha Isabel Estrada Ramírez says on October 15, 1955 her grandfather helped to found the Mercado Hidalgo and this is the time of year to honor those who have passed on.

“Se procura que solamente sean miembros del mercado, socios. Y para el día 2 de noviembre lo ce lebramos con misa, con una danza prehispánica.”

She says only members of the market are honored in the ofrenda and on November 2nd, they’re hosting a Catholic mass and a pre-hispanic dance performance.

For about 25-years the shop keepers have built a Dia de los Muertos ofrenda. It started small but has grown to fill the gazebo in the center of the large parking lot.

Estrada says this is a celebration of life through the acknowledgment of death.

“no le estamos rezando a la muerte, estamos viviendo porque nuestros difuntos estén en paz, esté tranquilos. Es la esperanza de que ese día vengan, estén bien. Y hay una frase que tenemos mucho aquí en México porque solo se van cuando no lo recordamos.”

“We're not praying to death, we're living for our deceased to be at peace, to be calm. It's the hope that one day they'll come, to be well. And there's a phrase we use a lot here in Mexico because they only leave when we don't remember them.”

Estrada says this tradition isn’t about praying to death, it is about living for our ancestors.

Across Mexico and here in our border region, Dia de Muertos ofrendas honor loved ones who have died, a tradition that continues to grow in popularity worldwide.

NATS ALTER

Mercado Hildago’s altar will be up through November 3rd

In Tijuana, Matthew Bowler, KPBS News

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MONDAY MARKED THE START OF BAT WEEK, AN INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION OF THE FLYING MAMMALS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. 

ARTS REPORTER BETH ACCOMANDO VISITED THE SAN DIEGO ZOO SAFARI PARK TO GET SOME BAT FACTS.

BATWEEK 1 (ba) 1:13 SOQ

Bats get a bad rap. Maybe it's Bram Stoker’s fault for linking them to vampires. But Marco Wendt, Wildlife Ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, points out that out of about 1400 bat species only three feed on blood.

MARCO WENDT Most bats are insectivores. They eat insects like mosquitoes as an example. But many are pollinators eating fruit and nectar from a lot of the plant species found around the world.

These bats are vital for pollinating flowers and spreading seeds. Donna Kent works with Rodriguez Island Fruit Bats everyday at the Safari Park. She’d like to dispel a common myth.

DONNA KENT A bat is not going to fly in your hair… unless it's a 6-foot tall bouffant loaded with hairspray and there are moths in your hair.

Kent also wants to point out the dangers bats face here in San Diego.

DONNA KENT: It would be the use of pesticides and then the light that we humans give off at night. The darker the night sky, the better it is for our local microbats who are out hunting insects for us.

Visitors can stop by the Safari Park this week or any time to learn more about these amazing but often misunderstood flying mammals.

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. I’m Lawrence K. Jackson. Thanks for listening and have a great day.