More ambulances to come

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s MONDAY, APRIL 24TH.>>>>

Ambulances are taking too long to respond to 9-1-1 calls in San Diego.

How they’re trying to get more ambulances on the streets, next. But first... let’s do the headlines….######

THE EXERCISE AND NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES BUILDING AT SAN DIEGO STATE REOPENS TODAY (MONDAY).

IT WAS CLOSED FOR MORE THAN TWO MONTHS AFTER A PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTED LEGIONNAIRES DISEASE.

Professor Michael Buono (BO-no) died from LEGIONNAIRES, WHICH IS A FORM OF PNEUMONIA THAT SPREADS THROUGH BACTERIA.

THE BACTERIA WAS FOUND IN THE E-N-S ANNEX BUILDING.

THE UNIVERSITY SAYS THE BUILDING HAS BEEN DISINFECTED AND TESTED TO MAKE SURE IT’S SAFE TO RE-ENTER.

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The section of Park Boulevard that goes through Balboa Park got a makeover.

The new design includes a vehicle lane, dedicated bus lane, a separated bike lane and a high visibility crosswalk.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria says the project is part of continued efforts to fix city streets and give San Diegans more choices to get around, that are safe, feasible, and good for the environment.

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The San Diego Padres are on the road this week and the itinerary includes their first trip to Mexico since 2016.

This Saturday and Sunday, the Friars and their division rivals, the San Francisco Giants, will play a pair of regular season games in Mexico City.

Major League Baseball says this will be a regular feature on the schedule over the next three seasons, but teams for 2024 and 2025 are yet to be announced.

The series comes just as the Padres are back to full strength, with star players Fernando Tatis Junior and Joe Musgrove returning to the roster in recent days.

We’ll have a reporting team in Mexico City to bring you more stories on this rare trip.

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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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CITY OF SAN DIEGO OFFICIALS LAST WEEK TOOK THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS INCREASING THE NUMBER OF AMBULANCES ON THE STREETS.. HEALTH REPORTER MATT HOFFMAN SAYS THIS COMES AFTER MONTHS OF NEGOTIATING..

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A deal between the city’s ambulance provider Falck and San Diego-Fire Rescue means more ambulances available in San Diego… Falck is supposed to provide 900 advanced life support ambulance hours every day.. But it’s failed to consistently hit that number. With full city council approval, it will be able to contract out additional ambulances to another provider. San Diego Fire Rescue Chief Colin Stowell says that  could add 10 more ambulances every day citywide..

10;18;39;03 Colin Stowell, San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief

Our community needs to be able to rely on ambulances. When you call 9-1-1 you should expect to get a fire engine and an ambulance there for a medical emergency and right now there’s time when it’s either delayed or times when there’s not one immediately available at that time

The city council’s public safety committee unanimously approved the subcontracting amendment and the full council is set to take it up next month. MH KPBS News

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A state lawmaker from San Diego is taking action to try to address racism in high school sports.

Reporter Jacob Aere says it’s a response to incidents that happened in our region.

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Local Assemblymember Akilah Weber introduced AB 1327– a bill that would require the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, to develop a standardized incident form …  and track racial discrimination or harassment that occurs at high school sporting games or events.

San Diego’s Lincoln High school … felt this issue first-hand less than two years ago, says the schools Football Coach David Dunn.

“When we have to prepare our kids to potentially face racial comments – being stepped on, being spat at, being antagonized, being called out of their name during a  contest in certain areas of the city – that's a whole other ballgame.”

The school was on the receiving end of racially charged messaging on t-shirts and social media posts by some students at Cathedral Catholic High School.

Weber’s bill is sponsored by the California-Hawaii NAACP and would also have the CIF annually post results on their website. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.

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Border Patrol agents are not supposed to destroy humanitarian aid left along the border. But that’s exactly what happened in the Otay Mountains. And border reporter Gustavo Solis says volunteers caught the interaction on video.

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It started off as a routine water drop in March.  

Volunteers with the Borderlands Relief Collective found dozens of water bottles and cans of food dumped on the ground.

When it happened, Emmet Norris confronted a couple of Border Patrol agents nearby. He got their response on video.

WateraDrop 00:03:53:22

“We either empty it out or try to clean it up. That one was too far for us to bring back.”

Norris says the volunteers were disappointed with that answer.

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“Their words and their actions and their demeanor kind of speak for themselves.”

Customs and Border Protection is now doing an internal investigation. In a statement, it says leadership has told agents specifically not to remove or destroy humanitarian supplies left in the Otay Mountains.  

Last fiscal year was the deadliest on record for migrants crossing the border. More than 850 died – that’s an average of more than 15 deaths every week.

David Greenblatt is another volunteer with the collective.

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“We’re doubling down and actually exerting ten times our previous efforts as far as leaving supplies where they are needed in the mountains and deserts along the border.”

Gustavo Solis, KPBS News

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Coming up....Imperial Beach is experiencing the impacts of climate change first hand. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.

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Imperial Beach is already experiencing coastal flooding thanks to a warming climate that’s pushing sea levels up. Environment Reporter Erik Anderson says the working-class community is already experiencing regular coastal flooding, and the water issues are moving inland.

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The risks of rising sea levels were in full view in the winter of 2019.   A pacific storm relentlessly pushed 10 to 15 foot waves at the shore. At the same time a King tide was raising sea levels more than a foot above normal high tides.  The result was predictable, and Seacoast Drive got soaked.

Julia Felder / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

11:41:14 – 11:41:24 “High tide events, you couple that with rain events, you pretty much have created the perfect storm for a situation like these particular houses.” 

Julia Felder is a Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher who’s been tracking sea levels along the Imperial Beach shore for years. 

11:14:24 -- 11:41:33“Where you’re going to get flooding from the coast.  You’re going to get flooding from inland, and it all sort of combines to make everything wet.”

Just a few years later, waves are washing over the coastal armaments on regular sunny days with normal six-foot-high tides.  And the rising water is making its presence felt inland, far away from the shore.

Chris Helmer / Imperial Beach Public Works Department

10:29:22 – 10:29:39. (sound of the manhole cover coming off) “These things are really heavy.  There you go.”

Chris Helmer works for the Imperial Beach Public works Department.  He’s looking into a manhole on the west edge of town.

CH 10:29:54 – 10:30:00 “looking down here, you actually see the water coming up in our storm drain system.”

Even on a clear day there’s standing water in a pipe that’s supposed to flush rainwater out of the town and into the Tijuana Estuary.  Hassan Davani works for San Diego State University.  He’s studying how the rising local groundwater table is leading to, what he calls, compound flooding

Hasan Davani / San Diego State University

10:47:43 – 10:47:55 “Most studies so far they are focusing on sea level impacts on the coastline.  But now you have this whole urban system with most things underground and now you need to deal with it because groundwater is rising.”

Rising sea levels are pushing seawater inland, under the ground. And since seawater is heavier than freshwater, they collide, pushing up the underground freshwater table. 

HD 10:55:57 – 10:56:21  . “Rising sea level is happening and now we can show it is actually more urgent than we were thinking about because previous studies focus on the coastline and only above the ground interaction.  Now we are taking underground, so the issue of compound when a typical rain can cause flooding that’s the one we expect to get worse.”

And it doesn’t help that the city’s stormwater infrastructure is aging.  

HD 10:53:17 – 10:53:40  “We know every pipe has a crack and once the soil is saturated it finds its way, it infiltrates into the pipe. So then if we can conserve rainwater in any way, if we can do rainwater harvesting, kind of helping indirectly.”

The idea is to have the entire community, every home and apartment add rain barrels to take pressure off the aging stormwater system.  Jennifer Galey sells rain barrels at the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. She’s not convinced it’s a complete solution.

Jennifer Galey / Solana Center for Environmental Innovation

(Galey) 00:01:07 – 00:01:16 “Here’s the problem and here is part of the solution. Because I think that is what it’s going to end up being. It’s part of the solution is getting these rain barrels.”

Which will leave the city with some difficult choices.  Street flooding already happens in inland areas far away from the beach, and the flooding will become more serious as sea levels continue to rise.

Julia Felder / Scripps Institution of Oceanography 

11:44:56 – 11:45:18 “Imperial Beach is almost like a canary in a coal mine in terms of understanding what the future will hold. 

Julia Felder is a physical oceanographer.

 In terms of sea level rise, but also in terms of adaptation.  You know tools that the city is taking in order to understand and mitigate what may be coming.

The challenge for Imperial Beach officials is to find solutions that don’t bankrupt the city’s treasury.

Erik Anderson KPBS News

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We’re having to adapt to climate change, but we’re also trying to limit its impacts by reducing emissions.

Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says a project to widen the 56 could be a setback in doing just that.

The project is going before the San Diego City Council today (MONDAY).

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AB: San Diego has pledged to zero out its greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years. Achieving that will require huge reductions in driving. But decades of research make clear the addition of new carpool lanes on a 2-mile stretch of the 56 in Carmel Valley will put more cars on the road — and it won't fix congestion. The project has a budget of 22.5 million dollars. City traffic engineers told a council committee last fall that Caltrans would cover any cost overruns. But Caltrans told KPBS that's not true. If construction bids come in over budget, Caltrans will likely shrink the project down in size. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

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The torrential rain we’ve had this winter not only helped ease the drought … it also brought us hills full of flowers.

Reporter Alexander Nguyen tells us about the native flowers blooming right now at Mission Trails Park.

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As the gentle afternoon wind rustles over the tiny white wild cucumber flower and a bird chirps … in Mission Trails Regional Park … spring has sprung.

 “What's blooming here? Everything. It's a great wildflower year for sure.”

Heidi Gutknecht (GOOT-neckt) is a ranger at the park. She says the string of winter storms have made everything a lot greener and the flowers are popping up everywhere. But it’s not quite a super bloom here in San Diego.

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Heidi Gutknecht / Mission Trails Park Ranger

“There are actually an abundance of certain types of flowers this year than we've seen in previous years. But it's not kind of the same as, like in the desert when they have a super bloom, where there's just like as far as the eyes can see.”

When you visit the park … Gutnecht says stay on the trails, take only pictures and leave the flowers for the birds and bees.

AN/KPBS

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Do you like thrift shopping?

If not, would you like it if you could thrift from your couch?

If so, you're in luck, because Father Joe's Villages has added an online thrift store that launches today.

There they’ll sell gently used clothing, jewelry, household goods, accessories, electronics and other items donated by supporters.

The online store is in addition to its four brick and mortar stores.

The revenue goes towards helping unsheltered individuals and families with programs and services.

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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 Monday.