RV owners say the city is violating the terms of a settlement
Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson it’s WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH
>>>> [WHY A GROUP OF RV OWNERS ARE SAYING THE CITY IS NOT HOLDING UP THEIR END OF THE DEAL.. ]More on that next. But first... the headlines…#######
YESTERDAY VOTERS WEIGHED IN ON PROP 50
AND NOW THAT A MAJORITY OF VOTES HAVE BEEN COUNTED, IT’S LOOKING LIKE PROP 50 WILL PASS
THAT MEANS CALIFORNIA’S 52 DISTRICTS WILL BE REDRAWN TO GIVE DEMOCRATS A CHANCE TO FLIP UP TO FIVE SEATS IN THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THE NEW MAPS WILL EXPIRE IN 2030
DEMOCRATS FIRST BEGAN THE PUSH FOR REDISTRICTING AFTER REPUBLICANS IN TEXAS REDREW THEIR MAPS TO CREATE FIVE NEW SEATS THAT FAVOR REPUBLICANS
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THE SIERRA CLUB HAS FILED A LAWSUIT CHALLENGING THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL OF THE HARMONY GROVE
VILLAGE SOUTH DEVELOPMENT
THEY SAY THE PROPOSED LOCATION FOR THE 111-ACRE DEVELOPMENT NEAR ESCONDIDO IS IN A HIGH FIRE-RISK AREA WITH ONLY ONE EVACUATION ROUTE
THE PROJECT WOULD HAVE 453 UNITS, AND SOME LOCAL OPPONENTS SAY IT WOULD ADD AS MANY AS 1 THOUSAND ADDITIONAL VEHICLES AND CONTRIBUTE TO EXCESSIVE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
ACCORDING TO THE CLUB, THE DEVELOPMENT’S APPROVAL FAILS TO ACCOUNT FOR NEW STATE AND COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS
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THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL DIABETES AWARENESS MONTH
IF YOU DONATE BLOOD AT THE SAN DIEGO BLOOD BANK IN NOVEMBER YOU WILL RECEIVE A FREE A1C TEST
THE TEST CAN DETECT DIABETES EARLY
TO DONATE BLOOD, YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 17 YEARS OLD,
WEIGH A MINIMUM OF 110 POUNDS AND BE IN GENERAL GOOD HEALTH
WALK-INS ARE WELCOME BUT TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT OR FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT SAN DIEGO BLOOD BANK DOT ORG SLASH A-1-C
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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AFTER YEARS OF LITIGATION, A SETTLEMENT WAS REACHED LAST YEAR BETWEEN THE CITY AND A GROUP OF R-V OWNERS WHO LIVE IN THEIR VEHICLES. BUT AS REPORTER JOHN CARROLL TELLS US, THE OWNERS NOW SAY THE CITY ISN’T ABIDING BY THE TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT.
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RVLAWSUIT 1 :58 SOQ
THERE IS A SEGMENT OF SAN DIEGO’S HOMELESS POPULATION THAT LIVES IN THEIR RVs. THEY SUED THE CITY BACK IN 2017, SAYING THE CITY WAS TREATING THEM UNFAIRLY. LAST YEAR A SETTLEMENT WAS REACHED. IT MANDATES A NUMBER OF THINGS INCLUDING - LIMITS ON WHEN POLICE CAN WRITE CITATIONS, AND IMPROVEMENTS TO THE CITY’S SAFE PARKING PROGRAM. ATTORNEY ANN MENASCHE SAYS INSTEAD, POLICE ARE WRITING PARKING CITATIONS LEFT AND RIGHT. RV OWNERS LIKE KEVIN DENCZEK SAY THOSE TICKETS HAVE COSTLY RAMIFICATIONS.
“I had to pay for one of these tickets. That was my food money, and so for the last three days last month, I didn’t have food.”
MENASCHE HAS FILED A NEW COMPLAINT, ASKING THE COURT TO FORCE THE CITY TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS OF THE SETTLEMENT. THE CITY CATEGORICALLY REJECTS THE ALLEGATIONS AND IS THREATENING TO COUNTERSUE MENASCHE FOR SPREADING MISINFORMATION. IT’S NOT CLEAR WHEN THE COURT WILL TAKE UP THE MATTER. JC, KPBS NEWS.
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THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL YESTERDAY (TUESDAY) VOTED TO INCREASE FEES FOR VALET PARKING ZONES IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO.
THE MOVE WAS PROMPTED BY CONCERNS FROM CITY TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS THAT THE CITY WAS LOSING MONEY ON VALET PARKING.
THAT'S BECAUSE THE CURB SPACE WOULD OTHERWISE BE COLLECTING REVENUE THROUGH PARKING METERS.
JEFFREY BURG OF THE SAN DIEGO MARRIOTT GASLAMP QUARTER SAID HOTELS DEPEND ON VALET PARKING TO MANAGE TRAFFIC FLOW.
VALET 2A
"It's a safety issue. We've all gone to hotels before. It takes more than just a moment or two to get out of the car, to be greeted properly by the valet, unload your bags, especially if you have kids. And travel today is not easy, and it's never really been easy."
CITY STAFF ESTIMATE THE INCREASED FEES WILL GENERATE AS MUCH AS $780 THOUSAND PER YEAR.
THAT REVENUE HAS TO BE SPENT ON TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS LIKE FILLING POTHOLES AND FIXING BROKEN STREETLIGHTS.
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AMID UNITED STATES’ CELEBRATIONS OF THE 250-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AMITA SHARMA INTERVIEWED JOURNALIST OSITA NWANEVU (OH-SEE-TAAH WAAH-NEH-VOO) ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK “THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE: DEMOCRACY AND THE CASE FOR A NEW AMERICAN FOUNDING.”
STRONGDEMOCRACY (AS) SOQ: 4:44 FINAL WORDS: “....they can build for all of us)
AS: So, Osita, you have said that the United States institutions, as well as its economy, are not democratic. Elaborate.
ON: In a democracy, the first thing is that people come to a collective choice in equal standing. Political equality is very, very important. There aren't any privileged minorities, people don't have different amounts of political rights. The second thing is responsiveness. Democratic systems are responsive to the governing public. Democracy is not a suggestion box, and people come together to act collectively, things do happen. And the third thing is majority rule. Of all of the different ways in which you might make a collective choice together from some form of unanimity all the way down to some form of minority rule, majority rule is the one that's most consistent with the principle of equality. If two people want one thing, three people want some other thing, it's very hard for the two to get their way over the three unless there's some fundamental inequality at work. So equality responsiveness majority rule you sound pretty intuitive when you describe them to people. But I think the American political system flouts each of those things in very fundamental ways.
AS: For hundreds of years United states has widely been seen as this beacon on the hill, a symbol of democracy and feed and even hope. The country does have a long history of at least democratic traditions, does it not?
ON: Oh, it certainly has an illustrious history and I think the American founding was a very very important moment in in world history for advancing the liberties of ordinary people. At the same time, it was limited in certain respects that I think it's worth taking seriously. The founders, I think conservatives really enthusiastic about democracy. They did establish what I think could be fairly called a republic, a system where power was distributed. We didn't have a king, but we did have a system with checks and balances written constitution. And those things were very important. And so they craft institutions that, again, you know, are not monarchical institutions, are an improvement over monarchical government, but we're not really intended to represent direct popular majorities in this country.
AS: You write in your book that part of an off-ramp to the current march toward autocracy is to acknowledge that the United states was never a democracy. What comes after such an acknowledgement?
ON: I'm not somebody who says that we should have a constitutional convention next year or even in the next five or 10. But I do hope that this book and other works and people who are taking this problem as seriously as I do inspires a kind of generational project like the civil rights movement, like the women's movement to over time gradually increase the democratic character of the American system. There are a few reforms I think are worth pursuing in the next decade or so so, they're things like the national popular vote interstate compact, which would move us to a popular vote for presidential elections instead of the electoral college. I think we can add states that would grant people representation in Congress that don't have representation now in the territories in DC. There are things like that that are actually conceivable in the next decade or so. But longer term reforms like, you know, dealing with the Senate in a completely new way, having a completely different constitutional set of arrangements. That's going to take a long time.
AS: I'm interviewing you from San Diego. How What does that lack of democracy you've just described filter down to local government?
ON: Local and state government can actually be more unrepresentative than federal government in many, many ways. People pay attention to presidential elections and congressional elections. They notice they pay as much attention to their state and local elections, but the people who actually end up doing so end up being wealthier and less representative of the general population than people who are participating in the federal elections in the federal donor process. So, there underlying inequities that we should really take very very very seriously. There, you know, in a lot of states and localities now you see experiments with things like ranked choice voting, expanding the access to the ballot in certain ways. Those things can and should be done at lower levels irrespective of what happens at the federal level. In fact, if we make democracy work better in our own communities, in our own states, that I think gives us the confidence to pursue larger reforms at the federal level.
AS: And what do people across the country in cities, in places like San Diego County do to help build a foundation for a new democracy.
ON: Well, I think you should get in touch with any kinds of democratic reform efforts be happening around you. But I also think that expanding labor power, getting involved in worker organizing for the reasons I described in the book and the reasons that I just talked about is actually very, very important. Unions are institutions of democracy. They're one of the few organizations, institutions that goes to where government happens, whether that's in Washington or at the state level and represents ordinary people. And the fact that we've had this decline in civic institutions, unions included, I think it's been a real Dutch went to our democracy. So, work-organizing, I think, is actually a very very important part of making all of this work, both for material reasons and combating inequality, which corrupts and impacts our democratic governance, but also because I think that there are certain democratic capacities that they can build for all of us.
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AS THE CLIMATE CHANGES SO DO THE METHODS TO ADDRESS ITS EFFECTS ON THE COUNTY’S COASTLINE.
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER TAMMY MURGA SHOWS US ONE WAY THE PORT OF SAN DIEGO IS TRYING TO PREVENT EROSION ALONG THE BAY.
OYSTER 1 trt: 1:17 soq
The tide off the Chula Vista shoreline was quite low on a recent afternoon.
Heather Carroll says this is a good time to see what you normally wouldn’t.
“That's an upside down jellyfish. Oh my gosh. I've never seen one. That one right there. And they're they're so little. Usually they're like this big.”
Carroll is the Port’s director of Environmental Conservation.
She says the presence of these jellyfish and other marine organisms may indicate that the Port’s oyster castles are working.
“We're definitely going to monitor. And I do think it helps make a nice, calm, protected environment for some of these creatures.”
Oyster castles are stacked, concrete blocks with recycled oyster shells.
“They can dampen down wave energy, which protects the shoreline from erosion. And then they create habitat for our native oysters and then other organisms.”
In May, the Port planted 600 oyster castles at the Chula Vista Wildlife Reserve.
The oyster castles are part of a larger project the Port started in 2021 to monitor wildlife growth and wave energy.
Carroll says the Port will continue to monitor their effectiveness and see where else they can offer protection from erosion. Tammy Murga/ KPBS News.
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A FIVE YEAR-OLD GOLDEN RETRIEVER HAILING FROM UNIVERSITY CITY IS THE NEW ‘AIR BUD’
THAT’S ACCORDING TO REPORTING BY THE UNION-TRIBUNE
SUMMER! IS KNOWN FOR HER VOLLEYBALL-HANDLING SKILLS AT DOG BEACH IN OCEAN BEACH AND DEL MAR
AND THOSE SKILLS ARE A BIG REASON WHY SHE WAS ABLE TO BEAT OUT MORE THAN 5 THOUSAND OTHER DOGS AUDITONING FOR THE PART
SIX DOGS WILL PLAY THE MAIN CHARACTER, SUMMER BEING ONE OF THEM
VERY EXCITED TO SEE SUMMER MAKE HER DEBUT ON THE BIG SCREEN EVEN IF I WAS SECRETLY HOPING SHOWRUNNERS WOULD HAVE CONSIDERED CASTING A HOUND AS MY PUP NEEDS TO GET A JOB!
ALL THE SAME, GOOD LUCK TO SUMMER AND HER HUMANS
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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 subscribing by doing so you are supporting public media and I thank you for that. Have a great day!
