Storm could complicate holiday travel
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Thursday, December twenty-first.
The incoming stormy weather could have an impact on holiday travel.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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The U.S. Border Patrol has begun construction on a new station in Dulzura, a community in the East County.
Dulzura is 10 miles from the border and is often the first town migrants reach after crossing through a gap in the wall.
The station will serve as the command center for a broad surveillance network covering the county’s border region.
It will staff up to 400-employees and house up to 130-detainees. In a town with less than a thousand people.
It will replace an aging station in Otay Mesa.
It’s scheduled to be completed in June.
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Former defense contractor “Fat Leonard” Francis is expected to appear in court today after being extradited back to the U.S.
Francis fled house arrest in San Diego to South America last year, shortly before he was set to be sentenced in one of the biggest bribery investigations in U.S. military history.
Prosecutors say he defrauded the Navy out of at least 35 million dollars.
Before fleeing, he faced up to 25 years in prison.
In exchange for Francis and 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela, the U.S. freed a close ally of Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro.
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The incoming storm is still moving slower than expected.
The National Weather Service now says the heaviest rains won’t hit the county until Thursday night. And there will be less rain than predicted.
Still, they issued a flood watch until Friday.
The heaviest rain is expected in the area from Oceanside to Palomar Mountain.
The city urged residents to securely close trash and recycling bins and keep them away from the curb. Clear trash and leaves around storm drains. And shut off sprinklers.
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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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Millions will be traveling throughout Southern California this holiday season.
But a looming storm could complicate travelers’ plans, in the coming days.
Reporter Matt Hoffman says forecasters are expecting rain and maybe even flooding.
The holiday travel rush is nearly here. AAA is forecasting from Saturday through the new year just under 10-million people in Southern California will take a trip of 50 miles or more. Most will be getting to their holiday destinations by car.. But expect the airport to be busy too. Airport officials are anticipating more than 700-thousand people arriving and departing now through the first. Also complicating travel plans in the coming days is the expected arrival of a winter storm.. It’s already hit the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas.. And National Weather Service Meteorologist Alex Tardy says it’s heading San Diego’s way. The rain really doesn't come until Thursday night and early Friday morning when most of us are asleep and not traveling. So if you must travel on Thursday or Friday, take off Thursday morning. Forecasters are issuing a flood watch for coastal and inland valley areas. Matt Hoffman KPBS News.
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With the possibility of heavy rain and floods this week, workers at some San Diego homeless shelters are preparing to take people in.
Reporter Kori Suzuki has more on how to see if the city is opening additional shelters.
As temperatures have dropped in recent weeks, several San Diego shelters have been opening their doors overnight. Rachel Hayes is a volunteer at the Living Water Church of the Nazarene in downtown. “They come in at eight, we have hot cocoa, we serve dinner, we let them get settled, we let them go in and out and smoke until ten.” Rachel’s church is one of four overnight shelters that the city opens when the weather gets especially cold, rainy or stormy. All four locations are spread out across downtown and will accept anybody who shows up at the door – no appointment needed. Rachel says it’s important to know the city decides each morning whether to open shelters that night. With that in mind, she recommends calling the county’s 2-11 hotline to see where the shelters are and whether they’re actually open before showing up. Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.
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The San Marcos creek project is about to reach a major milestone.
Reporter Jacob Aere says the Via Vera Cruz bridge opened yesterday, which will help traffic flows and businesses, just ahead of the holidays.
It's been a few months since people could cross the creek between San Marcos Boulevard to Discovery Street. Now, the new Via Vera Cruz bridge is open for vehicles. City of San Marcos engineer Isaac Etchamendy says the new bridge is much higher than the previous road and … there’s four vehicle lanes, plus sidewalks and bike lanes. “Before we did any of these improvements there was a small two-lane timber bridge over the creek that frequently flooded.” The new bridge is one of the final components of the over $100 million dollar San Marcos creek project. The project began in 2020 and has added infrastructure to reduce flooding, improve traffic flow, and restore the creek habitat. The final steps of the creek project are expected to wrap up in early 2024. Jacob Aere, KPBS News.
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Coming up.... Artists are already hard at work painting murals on the new border wall. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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In Tijuana, the Mexican side of the border wall used to be covered with hundreds of murals.
But those murals were lost this year when the Biden administration built a taller fence.
Border reporter Gustavo Solis spoke, this week, with local artists who have plans for the new wall.
Gone are the colorful murals that once decorated the Mexican side of a border wall. Biden administration is currently replacing large sections of the wall along Friendship Park They’ve been replaced with tall, gray, bare fencing. At least for now. “Creo que la parte triste fue en el momento que me entere…” Enrique Chiu is an artist who has spent thousands of hours painting murals along the border. He says the entire art community was sad to see the old murals get torn down. But now that the new wall is up, Chiu and other border artists are excited to get to work on their new canvas. “Pero ahorita me emociona mas saber que temenos un pedaso mas grande que Podemos pintar.” A small group of artists already completed the first mural – Corazon Migrante is an homage to Tijuana’s migrant culture. It features a blood red heart with blue wings. It’s meant to be a tribute to the resilient migrant spirit. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News
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This year our public art series took us to some places that might surprise you...
Including a building in Chollas View that offers everything from vaccines to probation services to community meeting rooms.
Producer Lara McCaffrey says it also offers a large display of public art.
The art installation “Light of Passage” hovers under a skylight at the County of San Diego’s Southeastern Live Well Center. Hand-cut pieces of four different types of glass are attached to stainless steel wires, representing the nearby Chollas Creek. It’s a sunny day so the glass creates shadow play on the wall and floor below — splashes of blue, purple and yellow. “I…went out to the public, to the community, for feedback. During that period, they've expressed their desire to see a lot of colors and something that gives hope and optimism.” “I wanted to use materials that really shine and reflect off of our beautiful sunlight.” “Light of Passage” is one of many pieces of public art at the new Southeastern Live Well Center. Organizers of the Center’s public art program say the pieces selected were based on community member feedback — an attempt to create a building for the community. The Tubman Chavez Center used to be where the Live Well Center stands now. In October twenty-twenty-one, construction for the sixty-five thousand square-foot facility began. The goal was to combine several resource buildings into one. Live Well Centers are meant to provide social and health services to San Diegans. They’re designed to be “one stop shops,” aiming to prevent many visits to different buildings for access to various services. When it came to installing art in the building, the county gathered community input and then used a Public Art Committee to make selections. Barbara Jimenez, community operations officer at the county, said it wasn’t hard to get feedback. “What we heard directly from the community — that this is a diverse community and that having the opportunity really to reflect the diversity through art was really important.” One hundred artists submitted proposals to a call for artists request by the committee in spring 2022. Art was purchased from thirty-three artists with fourteen commissioned to create pieces especially for the building. There’s installations, statues, paintings, a meditation garden and more. One of the community requests — diversity — is seen in Francisco Eme’s piece “Crisol,” meaning “melting pot” in Spanish. It consists of panels with ceramics and textiles. It’s located in the stairwell under Fukuyama’s installation. Visitors see a new panel every few steps taken. Eme says the textiles are from different cultures in San Diego. “This work is very nonpersonal, meaning that I did very little treatment to the textiles. I'm pretty much respecting the original design.” Art consultant Leah Goodwin wanted the building to feel like a healing place. “There's evidence based design principles that I use for my decades of putting art in hospitals and creating healing environments that are at play here. Even though it's a public health center, people still may not be having their best day. As a public art consultant, we looked at ways to find touch points to create beauty.” Fukuyama hopes that visitors find that beauty from her work’s light and colors. “I'm hoping that if some people visit here more than once, then they see the changes throughout the day, throughout the season, and notice little things that change around us.” Lara McCaffrey, KPBS News
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Join us again tomorrow for the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
