Will the Navy’s NAVWAR site be revitalized into a data center?

Good Morning, I’m Andrew Dyer in for Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s Monday, October 19th.

The controversy over data centers has landed in the middle of San Diego and there’s a familiar name attached.

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

All of San Diego County’s public health centers are closed today, so Staff can transition to a new system for health records.

The closure impacts all six public health centers and seven California Children’s Services medical therapy units.

The public health centers provide medical tests and administer vaccinations. The children’s units provide occupational and physical therapy.

The county says the new system replaces paper records and will improve patient experience.

New economic data for the County shows a slight decline in unemployment in September.

The county’s unemployment rate was 4.7 percent; down from 4.9 percent in August.

Some of the month-to-month increase in jobs is attributed to teachers returning from summer break, but the number’s still slightly better than last September,

BUT… data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the county’s inflation rate in September was the highest it’s been in three years.

According to the Union-Tribune consumer costs are up across the board with experts pointing to record high fuel prices, as a primary cause.

On Wednesday the Birch Aquarium is opening a new exhibit that promises to have a lotta Axolotls.

The Axolotl’s Garden, or El Jardin del Ajolote explores the world of the endangered Mexican amphibians.

There’s art and science installations,.And of course two live Axolotl habitats that also feature other unique Mexican species.

The exhibit highlights the unique ecosystem of the only place they’re found — Lake Xochimilco (Sow-chee-meel-kow) in Mexico City.

From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.

Stay with me for more of the local news you need.

SAN DIEGO LAWMAKERS ARE VOICING OPPOSITION TO A MASSIVE DATA CENTER THAT MAY GET BUILT ON LAND OWNED BY THE NAVY. METRO REPORTER ANDREW BOWEN SAYS NEWS OF THE CONCEPT BROKE LAST WEEK.

AB: For years, the Navy has been talking with Manchester Financial Group about redeveloping its NAVWAR campus. The site takes up 70 acres in the Midway District and houses the Navy's cybersecurity command. On Thursday, Voice of San Diego reported the developers were considering a 400-megawatt data center. Congressman Scott Peters’ district includes NAVWAR. He says a data center would be a waste of prime real estate in the city's urban core.

SP: It should be a new community, a new mini downtown if you will, right next to the highway with access to transportation, where we can have housing — mostly housing, amenities for housing, neighborhood-serving things. A data center isn't neighborhood serving. It's not really something that belongs here. It belongs in a more remote, industrial place.

AB: Manchester Financial Group told KPBS their plans continue to be refined and no final project has been approved. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.

MORE THAN A MONTH AFTER HIS ICE ARREST, SAN DIEGO CITY COLLEGE STUDENT RENATHO CASSEUS HAS BEEN ORDERED TO BE RELEASED FROM IMMIGRATION CUSTODY.

REPORTER JACOB AERE SAYS ON FRIDAY A JUDGE GRANTED THE PETITION DURING A HEARING IN FEDERAL COURT.

At San Diego’s federal courthouse downtown, attorney Wismick Saint-Jean entered a sparsely filled 12th floor courtroom 

There a United States district judge ordered the release of 20-year-old Renatho Kemsley Casseus. Saint-Jean, his attorney, says he is very happy with the decision from the judge.

“That means Renatho should be home tonight with his family.”

Haitian Bridge Alliance co-founder Wister Gaetan was there too.

“I hope the community sees the victory in this case as a step towards due process and justice.”

Casseus’ arrest took place September 8th …  as he was on his way to classes at San Diego City College. 

Since then he’s been held at Otay Mesa Detention Center.

His arrest sparked an outcry from fellow students  … the larger Haitian community … and other concerned San Diego residents.

His attorney says Casseus’ application for asylum is still pending  … and this latest ruling should allow that process to proceed.

 Jacob Aere KPBS News.

THE ENCINITAS CITY COUNCIL HAS APPROVED AN AGREEMENT TO SEND SOME UNHOUSED PEOPLE TO A HOMELESS SHELTER IN NATIONAL CITY. REPORTER KORI SUZUKI SAYS IT’S BECOME THE LATEST POINT OF TENSION IN THE ONGOING DEBATE OVER REGIONAL HOMELESSNESS RESPONSIBILITY.

The agreement is with the San Diego Rescue Mission, a Christian, faith-based homelessness services organization.

Encinitas will spend up to three hundred and eighty thousand dollars per year to reserve a dozen beds for Encinitas residents at the nonprofit’s South County Lighthouse shelter.

National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez pushed back against the agreement. At Wednesday’s meeting, he pointed out that Encinitas is a much wealthier city. 

SOT: 20261014_unhouseddispute_encinitas city council tape / :48

CG: Jose Rodriguez, National City Councilmember

Encinitas has one of the highest medium household incomes in San Diego County at about 151,000. Meanwhile, National City has the lowest at around 67,000. [:45] Please do your fair share before asking National City to do more of ours.

Encinitas councilmembers defended the agreement. They said it was a temporary fix while the Rescue Mission looks for new shelter space in North County.

But Encinitas Councilmember Joy Lyndes [LINES] agreed that there should be more communication between the two cities.

SOT: 20261014_unhouseddispute_encinitas city council tape / 10:46

CG: Joy Lyndes, Encinitas City Councilmember

We do need to hear what your concerns are and we do need to have that dialogue as we move forward through this engagement.

Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehler [AY-lers] ordered Rodriguez removed from the room after he tried to speak out-of-turn.

Kori Suzuki, KPBS News.

YOU MIGHT THINK SAN DIEGO LAW WOULD PREVENT LANDLORDS FROM OBTAINING SHORT-TERM RENTAL LICENSES AFTER ILLEGALLY EVICTING REGULAR TENANTS, BUT SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, OUR PARTNERS AT INEWSOURCE FOUND A LOOPHOLE IN THE LAW WAS ALLOWING PROPERTY OWNERS TO DO JUST THAT.

A CITY COUNCIL MEMBER SAID THEY'D FIX IT, BUT THAT NEVER HAPPENED, AND NOW THEY'RE ABOUT TO LEAVE OFFICE.

INEWSOURCE REPORTER CODY DELANEY JOINS ME NOW TO TALK MORE ABOUT IT.

Welcome, Cody.

So, tell me more about this loophole. How does it work and what does it mean for renters?

Yeah, so San Diego regulates the short-term rental industry through licensing.

So if you're a property owner and you want to rent a unit on a short-term basis, you have to first obtain a license through the city.

What we found is that some property owners were using a specific action called a no-fault eviction.

And this is where a property owner wants to end a long-term tenant's lease for reasons that have nothing to do with the tenant and there's a number of reasons why somebody would do that. The state law has carve-outs.

So for example, substantial remodel is one reason.

Another reason is a family member of the property owner wants to move in.

But for this to be legal under the terms of this action, the property owner has to follow a number, you have to jump through a number of hoops.

So for example, for a substantial remodel, you have to provide an itemized list of all the work that needs to be done.

As well as permits showing that you're allowed to do that work.

We found that several examples of soon after people received a no fault eviction, they're finding their units posted on an Airbnb.

So I'm going to ask you more about those specific examples, but first, can you explain to me why, why would a landlord want to do that? A long term tenant, isn't that a good thing to have? Stable income, you can, why would they want to kick them out and start running to Air bnb parties?

I mean, short term rentals are far more profitable than long term tenants, Also, short term, tenants don't have nearly as many rights available to them as long term tenants. In my reporting, I've seen examples where property owners are able to make as much or more in a week doing Airbnb compared to a month of a long term tenant.

So they have a financial incentive maybe to, to kick out the, the good renters and Open it up, huh? Now, you mentioned you did find examples of this happening.

what does it look like when this actually happens?

Yeah, we've seen investors in the way it works is we've seen investors coming in, buying up multi-family properties.

These are, these are properties that have 5, 10 units in a given property.

Using the no fault eviction to clear out these long term tenants, only to very soon after obtain a license through the city to rent them out short term.

Now, your, your story talks about how, those evictions are illegal. Is there, is there a law that prevents them from getting the license or getting the short term rental license has, does it have anything to do with the status of the previous tenants, the eviction?

Yeah, so under the terms of a no fault eviction, like I said, there's a number of hoops that these property owners have to jump through. What the problem with the city's law is it just doesn't account for no fault evictions. When I've asked city officials like, hey, I'm seeing these property owners using no fault evictions to make these units clear so that they can rent them out short term, you're granting them a license.

Why is that?

They say there's nothing in the law to prevent them from granting a license to begin with, and that's what, that's, that's where the loophole exists.

So if they're supposed to show like building permits or have their nephew, niece, whoever move in, who's checking that to make sure that actually happens?

Well, the thing is, a lot of people don't follow up, right? And a lot of times what I've seen in my reporting is even before this no fault eviction gets filed in court.

It's a knock on a door or a text message saying, hey, we need you out.

So oftentimes people just leave, pack up and go before it even gets to that point, and they don't follow up.

And it's in those times where people do follow up and they do check Airbnb and they see, oh, hey, there's my, there's my old apartment.

That's when people reach out to me and say, hey, this is, this is what's happening. And and you had mentioned nephew or niece, family member, the family member that are allowed to move in, they have to be a close family, so parent, grandparent, son or daughter.

So I can't kick out my tenant and let my, my, uncool niece move in at all?

No, not under, not under no fault eviction.

Tell me what, what the update is as far as, like why did you have to do another story?

The clock is ticking. I mean, city council member Jennifer Campbell, she's termed out of office in 2 months. So I, it left me wondering, well, when she leaves, who's going to come and pick this up? And that's when I started reaching out to other members on the city council. And it wasn't Jennifer Campbell who got back to me and told me this. I heard from other council members that Jennifer Campbell was planning to bring this to a committee October 21st.

The committee, that's, that's the first step in getting legislation done, but it seems kind of late in the, in the game here. Your reporting uncovered some campaign contributions that might represent, a bit of a conflict of interest. What, what was that about?

Yeah, so Venus Molina, she's Jennifer Campbell's chief of staff.

Back in February, she told me that she was going to be bringing forward proposals to fix this issue.

I she told me back then it was going to be July, then she told me it was going to be August, and then I stopped hearing from her altogether. Come to find out, and I'm sure you may remember, she was running for city council. She was trying to represent District 8 in the primary for city council. At the same time, she was receiving campaign contributions from short-term rental operators, property managers, property owners, even Airbnb itself. And, and you know, the, the money was coming in at a time that she was responsible for regulating these same interests.

And if this loophole can't be fixed before Campbell leaves office, where are we at?

Yeah, I reached out to other members on the city council to kind of figure out. I mean, even if she does bring this to committee, as she says, October 21st, next week, that leaves her less than two months to actually fix this before she's, she's termed out of office. So Council President Joe Lacava assured me that if this doesn't, you know, if this isn't fixed by the time she leaves office, or if it falls short, that he will commit to, to bringing this forward himself.

I've been speaking to reporter Cody Delaney from INewsource. Cody, thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

INEWSOURCE IS AN INDEPENDENT NONPROFIT PARTNER OF KPBS. FOR MORE ABOUT OUR PARTNERSHIP VISIT KPBS-DOT-ORG-SLASH-PUBLIC MATTERS

A NEW BOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY EXPLORES THE ROLE FALSE CONFESSIONS PLAY IN WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS. ARTS REPORTER JULIA DIXON EVANS TAKES A LOOK AT HOW ART CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

About 30% of people exonerated through DNA evidence in the US made a false confession. 

Eddie Lowery was one of them.

I was so emotionally drained from going through all this interrogation after two days um that I just wanted out of that I just wanted out of the interrogation room. So I was willing to tell them anything they wanted to hear.

In 1982 Lowery was convicted of a sexual assault he didn't commit, and was exonerated 21 years later. 

During his interrogation, officers repeatedly lied to him and brought up traumatic family history. 

In her new book, "Breaking Point," photographer Robin Dahlberg includes a still from Lowery’s interrogation video. 

In it, he's slumped over the table.

I didn't know what else to do with but just put my head down and just kind of give up

Dahlberg wanted to bring these stories to the page through the perspectives of the exonerees.

I think part of the book was is designed to show that people like Eddie you know, just happen to be on the wrong street on the wrong day at the wrong time and um and gets picked up by the cops.

Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS News.

ROBIN DAHLBERG WILL DISCUSS THE BOOK AT WAR-WICKS BOOKS TODAY.

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Andrew Dyer … Lawrence K. Jackson will be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening and have a great Monday.