Balboa Park street project tests San Diego's commitment to biking, transit goals

S1: Mayor Todd. Gloria was elected on the promise of making transit easier.
S2: We're going to start supporting public transit and active transportation because it's critical to the future of our quality of life.
S1: I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. The San Diego Police Department kept videos from one shooting under wraps for two years until now.
S2: The point of California's transparency laws is to give the press and the public the right to decide that for themselves and not depend only on the police department's own explanation for why it did one.
S1: Then stay data shows California lost an average five child care businesses a day during COVID , and a new exhibit at the Natural History Museum explores conservation. That's ahead on Midday Edition. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was elected on a promise of drastically reducing emissions through big improvements to biking and public transit infrastructure. By 2035 , he wants half of all trips in the city to be made without a car. KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says the mayor's commitment to those goals is being put to the test with a street project in Balboa Park.
S2: If I had to just diagnosed , the biggest problem that our city faces is that we are a big city that too often acts like a small town. That's Todd Gloria speaking at a mayoral candidate debate in 2019. Big city thinking was the central theme of this campaign. And a big part of that was making the city less dependent on cars , the city's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. I'm the guy who wrote the Climate Action Plan. Now I'm running to be mayor to be the guy who implements the Climate Action Plan. But just how far is Gloria willing to go for that goal ? Part of the answer could be on Park Boulevard in Balboa Park , where the city is preparing to replace an underground water main. After that's done and the street is resurfaced. City officials want to redesign it. So increase safety for all road users is one of our primary goals. Everett Hauser is a program manager in the city's transportation department. He says giving a dedicated lane to public transit on Park Boulevard would help the buses stay on time. This area is right smack in the urban core and serves a lot of people. It's some of the highest use bus routes in the city. So increasing that efficiency just makes transit use a more attractive option for people to get around. A protected bike lane would make the street much safer and more accessible for people who bike , especially the most vulnerable children , seniors and people with disabilities.
S3: People need to feel safe.
S4: With being able to. Bike.
S2: Bike. Madison Coleman is a policy advocate for the nonprofit Climate Action Campaign. On a short bike ride up and down Park Boulevard , where bikes currently share a lane with cars , it didn't take long for things to feel unsafe. A driver in a sports car zooms past us well above the posted speed limit , which is already 40 miles per hour. Coleman and other environmental advocates want the mayor to add both bus and bike lanes to Park Boulevard.
S4: So it's really , really important for him to stand up and be the model for the region to create really safe and efficient other transportation opportunities for people to feel like they can not rely on their cars as much as they probably do right now.
S2: Here's the catch. To add a bus and bike lane , the street would have to sacrifice a travel lane for cars and on street parking , which is about 4% of the area's total parking. Peter Kominski is executive director of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership , which represents the park's attractions. He says removing parking to add bus and bike lanes will make the park less accessible. Most of our visitors to the park , some 90% of people coming to the park or over that on most days would be coming in vehicles and they're often coming in groups , very often families. Those families aren't able to use ride , share those. Those are not solutions for them. The city is studying other options that would preserve street parking at the expense of bike and transit riders. But Kaminski says he doesn't like those options either. He wants the city to finish a mobility and parking management study first. Historically , a lot of solutions that are forced into the park are done so because they're done in a very piecemeal and reactive way instead of having a really solid strategic approach. Meanwhile , the city's own measurements show its behind on switching commutes away from cars , and the bus and bike lanes on Park Boulevard can happen for virtually no additional cost to the pipeline replacement project. Again , here's Mayor Gloria speaking as a candidate in 2019. When we have these fights about bike lanes and pedestrian improvements , this is often about a can of paint and the ability to just move forward with leadership. We have a adopted bicycle master plan that isn't always faithfully implemented. A mayor can tell city streets division to start going out and making this happen. We're going to start supporting public transit and active transportation because it's critical to the future of our quality of life. Whichever design the mayor selects , Park Boulevard is set to be reef striped by December. Andrew Bowen , KPBS News.
S5: From redesigning traffic lanes to promoting new conservatorship programs to adding more money to law enforcement's budget. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is working on a number of the city's most serious and contentious issues. He joins us this morning to discuss a wide range of those issues. And Mayor Gloria , welcome.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S5: Let's start with the issue we just heard about from Metro reporter Andrew Bowen , and that's street redesign to promote biking and public transit. There's been a lot of frustration and confusion over those projects.
S2: We do have responsibilities in our Climate Action Plan to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. But as we've seen recently with an example in near Mesa , sometimes staff can get ahead of themselves , ahead of the community , and that's not a good way to do business. So we will be with the Balboa Park community this Thursday to show them multiple options on how we can not just biking but actually promote safety in this world travel corridor for cyclists , pedestrians and motorists. That's our primary objective. But of course it will help us advance our climate goals and make the city easier to get around by something other than a car , which is a priority of my administration and something that we've done successfully in different communities around the city. But we do need to improve our process , and I've directed staff to do that , which is why we're prepared for the Bubble Park Committee this week.
S5:
S2: I have been able to work throughout my years in public office to actually try and balance those two. So I think , for example , further north on Park Boulevard in the university's Hillcrest area , when a dedicated bus way was installed , when I was on the city council , initial projections for massive parking losses. But working with the community and with city staff , we're able to roll up our sleeves and actually increase the amount of parking by better utilizing the streets and corridors adjacent to Park Boulevard so that we didn't have a net loss of parking. That is to say that we won't lose parking. We certainly had to do that on 30th Street , but I don't believe it has to be a zero sum game. And my goal is always to balance the competing needs of the community. But with our overarching goal of giving seniors more choices when it comes from getting from A to B and importantly , to do it safely. I mean , we are losing too many pedestrians and cyclists in our community because of our current street design. We need to make these corridors safer , and I'm willing to do that. But I also recognize that we can get creative and make sure there's still ample amount of parking in the community for those folks who still choose to drive.
S5: In Andrews Report , we heard one Balboa Park official ask the city to finish its mobility and parking study before streets are redesigned.
S2: But the truth is that we're repaving park boulevards later this year. And when we do that , that is an opportunity to save taxpayer dollars and advance a critical project on a reasonable timeline. So we're going to be out paving Park Boulevard. We're going to be striping that street. The question is , are we going to strip it the way it is now or can we do it in a way that makes it safer and more efficient for all users and all abilities ? I believe we can do that , and I believe that we can still meet the goals and objectives of Balboa Park stakeholders like the Cultural Partnership , who do so much to work with the city to keep Balboa Park the crown jewel that it is. I just believe that we can do that while maintaining an appropriate level of parking and making transit and biking more efficient , effective and safe.
S5: Now , this year's regional count on homelessness found the population of unhoused people has grown in the city by about 9%. And this is after a 25% increase in shelter beds and new outreach teams sent out to provide support and services to homeless people.
S2: From my perspective , it's difficult to account for every unsheltered individual in just one night. That said , whatever the number is , we have to be doing all that we can to serve this population , and it has an impact on all of us. This is not just the concern of the unsheltered individual. It's the concern of the business owners that are affected by encampments in front of their business neighborhoods. They're distressed by seeing very vulnerable people out on the streets. What the city needs to do is to continue to expand our street outreach efforts citywide , to grow the number of shelter beds that we have in our system in order to get people off the streets quickly and then to grow the amount of permanent supportive housing we have in the community , because that's where folks who are in our shelters need to transition into a more stable environment. Beyond that , what can we do differently ? One of the things I'm most encouraged about is the changes that are being recommended for behavioral health reform. In the state conservatorship reform and Governor Nixon's care core proposal , I think , would present significant new , powerful tools that we could use to address some of the people that San Diegans are most concerned about. These are people who are seriously mentally ill , who are suffering with substance use disorder and for whom we don't have terrific interventions currently. I think this would represent a significant change , the status quo that would help us to transition many more people off of our streets , people who are frankly destined to die on our streets if we don't make a different choice. I'm helping to lead that conversation , working in tandem with Governor Newsom and Senator Susan Eggman. And I'm hopeful and optimistic that we can actually get this done this legislative year.
S5: Mayor , there's also another aspect of how the city deals with people with mental health issues. Later in this program , we're going to hear a report on the police shooting of Rosa Calvo in 2020 in East Village , who was in a mental health crisis. And of course , earlier this year , a San Diego police officer was involved in the shooting death of Yan Lee , a woman who was likely suffering a mental health issue.
S2: This is a new tool that has not been previously available to our our city , and we're making use of that. We continue to have the psychological emergency response teams , and we're doing what we can to recruit and retain high quality police officers and train them in things like slowing down and trying to take the situation in intervene the best way possible. There are certainly instances where we have concerns and those situations are investigated and reported upon. But in these situations where we have folks who are attacking officers or creating the situations in the case , you know , we have to have a response. My hope is that we can always do it the best that we can. But often in these situations , we're presented with urgent situations where we need to take action and we may not always get it right. I think our commitment is to make sure that we're transparent when those situations happen , that we disclose that to the public and we hold folks accountable if they didn't follow priorities and policies. We are close to finishing the implementation of the Citizen's Review Board , Independent Review Board that voters approved back in 2020. My hope is that we can have that in place of that independent review for these situations. And so the public have confidence that when mistakes are made , that those are looked at closely and that accountability is had when it's appropriate.
S5:
S2: This stuff costs money , and I think that sometimes it was oversimplified to suggest that we could make reductions in have better policing. Some of the things that people want in terms of accountability , transparency , take resources. And that's what we've been doing , whether it's fully funding an independent police review board or providing incentives to get high quality , diverse candidates to come work in our police department , that takes dollars. Also , Maureen , I think that it's important to put in some context we see rising crime , particularly gun violence and gang violence. That requires a response. And we have to have trained professionals to respond to those situations in order to keep San Diegans and families in their neighborhoods safe. This is the primary responsibility of municipal government , and that is a responsibility that we will meet. It's a challenging time to do that. I don't believe that funding is absent for reform. We are continuing to advance reforms here at the City of San Diego. The de-escalation trainings that you were talking about just a moment ago , two things demilitarization policies , privacy policies for surveillance equipment. There's a multitude of ways that we're trying to meet. I think the public's expectation for us to be transparent and accountable to simultaneously to make sure that a police officer or a firefighter can get to your doorstep when you call 911. I don't see it as an either or proposition. I think we have to be able to hit both of those marks , and that's what we're trying to do.
S5: Yesterday , you appeared alongside Senator Alex Padilla to talk about a new affordable housing bill. He's put forward the Housing for All Act of 2022. Here's a little of what the senator had to say.
S6: This bill is a comprehensive plan with a vision to end homelessness and secure affordable housing for all across America.
S5: But given the long odds , this bill seems to have to become. Law.
S2: We are fortunate to receive hundreds of millions dollars annually from the federal government to fund things like housing choice , vouchers , public housing and other programs that we often marry with state and local funds to get more housing units for San Diego that need it. What Senator Padilla is putting forward , and I appreciate his leadership , is really acknowledging that our housing affordability and homelessness crisis is not a San Diego or California only problem. This is a nationwide problem. President Biden has been very clear in recognizing that really every community is faced with this challenge. And so there is a need for federal intervention , more housing choice vouchers , more federal investment in the production of more affordable housing. This would accrue to the benefit of San Diegans and augment again the hundreds of millions that we already receive that benefit and directly serve tens of thousands of San Diegans. But the fact of matter is , we could use more incentive to deny work at , say , Teresa of Calcutta. This is the newest development by Father Joe's villages over 400 units housing formerly homeless San Diegans. That's how we get people off the streets. And the recent point in time count , as imperfect as those numbers may be , certainly illustrate why we need more investment in all levels. And Maureen , as you note , because of our current composition of our federal government , it may be difficult to get the Housing for All Act passed. That's not a reason not to try. But we are in a fortunate position in California where a record budget surplus makes it possible for the state to make more investments in affordable housing for Californians. So we're also lobbying up in Sacramento to make sure that those dollars are committed in San Diego gets its fair share because too many people are living on our streets and way more people are struggling with their rent every single month. When we see some of the dramatic rent increases that are being reported on in our community , when the average one bedroom apartment in our city goes for over 20 $400 a month , you understand why we need help from all levels of government , and I'll do all that I can to make sure that we bring those resources to San Diego.
S5: I've been speaking with San Diego Mayor Todd , Gloria and Mayor Gloria , thank you so much for your time.
S2: My pleasure , Maureen. Thank you.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. State law says police must release shooting videos within 45 days , except under the narrowest of circumstances. But the San Diego Police Department kept videos from one shooting under wraps for two years until now. KPBS investigative reporter Claire TRAGESER explains. A warning this story contains graphic descriptions.
S7: 26 year old Rosa Cava was having a mental health crisis on the fourth floor of an East Village apartment. She was breaking glass and throwing things onto the street. Hey.
S2: Hey. Okay.
S7: Police responded. Got a key to her apartment and went inside. Cava , armed with a steak knife , barricaded herself in the bathroom. Police then used a sledgehammer to break a hole in the bathroom door. They shot pepper balls and used a police dog to try to get her out herself. Officer Andres Ruiz says he thought he saw Calvert swinging her knife at another officer and he shot her. David Lloyd is the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition.
S2: The police department issued its own press release the day after the shooting. The district attorney's office reviewed the video and declared that the officer would not be charged with any crime. The police department conducted its own internal investigation and decided that the officer acted within policy. And that's their side. And the point of California law on transparency is that the public has a right to decide for itself. The public gets the full story , not just the side of the story that law enforcement chooses to release.
S7: This happened back in May 2020 , so more than two years ago.
S2: Calvert were resolved. And that is simply not the law. California law is very clear. Since 2019 , the police department is obligated to disclose on request audio and video recordings of critical incidents , which include officers shooting at or killing or severely injuring people. And they must disclose those on request unless disclosure would substantially interfere with an active investigation. And in this case , there was no way that disclosure would interfere with the investigation. The incident was closed on May 23rd , 2020 , as Calvin was arrested. She was booked into jail. She was charged. The officer was himself interviewed within a few hours after the shooting. The police department investigation , the district attorney investigation was entirely internal and retrospective. They had access to all of the evidence , all the witnesses , all of the recordings , all of the reports. There is simply no way that disclosure of the video would have in any way interfered with that internal investigation. And so the videos should have been disclosed immediately on request so that the public could decide for itself whether it believed that this shooting was appropriate and justified.
S7:
S2: And within a couple or three weeks , the police department did , in fact , release the videos.
S7:
S2: I chose to pursue this by letter first because I'd always rather solve a problem without litigation if I can. For better or worse , California Public Records law does not impose a penalty on agencies for its failure to disclose documents in compliance with the law.
S7:
S2: And I hope that they will honor the public's right to know the next time this comes up.
S7: In a statement , a spokesperson for the San Diego Police Department said Even if a shooting is deemed lawful and within policy , the department continues to review the tactics and actions of the officer to determine if there are learning points which can be incorporated into training going forward.
S2: You know , to all appearances , the officers were aware that a person was having a severe problem , a severe mental health problem. She was barricaded in her own apartment , had retreated into her own bathroom. And I think the question that the public has a right to know is why didn't the officers slow down , take their time , call crisis negotiators and de-escalate the situation instead of aggravating the situation by bringing in police dogs , firing pepper balls , breaking open the bathroom door ? Those are those do not seem like actions calculated to de-escalate a situation , to calm a person who's clearly experiencing a significant mental health episode. They this was not a person out in public waving a firearm around , threatening to hurt anybody. Nobody else was seriously injured. It seems like they had plenty of time to have called in a crisis negotiator , someone trained to calm and de-escalate situations and and manage the situation much more effectively and calmly.
S7: All right. I've been speaking with David Loy , legal director for the First Amendment Coalition. Thank you so much for being here.
S2: Thank you very much for covering this story.
S1: And that was KPBS investigative reporter Claire TRAGESER. In a statement , a San Diego police spokesman said the department , quote , releases or withholds all records in compliance with the current laws and mandates , end quote.
S5: The Chula Vista Police Department has touted its new real time operation center as the cutting edge of policing. But a contract with Motorola Solutions to provide software for the center continues to alarm privacy advocates. KPBS Amita Sharma explains.
S7: The city's contract with Motorola Solutions was a hot topic during a February meeting of the Chula Vista City Council. The contract calls for Motorola to provide software for the police department's new Real Operations Center , which is the hub for data coming from drones and other high tech surveillance tools. The spotlight was on the deal following a KPBS story on how the contracts terms essentially handed over city residents private data to Motorola in late 2020. Councilwoman Jill Galvez voted to approve the contract without comment , but one year later she had questions.
S4: It would be wonderful to hear just a high level response to some of the allegations that we've been reading about and KPBS and hearing about in terms of Chula Vista is contract with Motorola and selling out data privacy.
S7: Galvez sought answers from then Chula Vista police captain Don Redman. He said at least one of the Motorola contract terms was a mistake.
S2: It was part of an older template contract that they gave us.
S7: Later , KPBS learned that after the story , the city had quietly amended the contract to remove a provision that would allow Motorola to license or sell customer data that had been stripped of names and other identifying factors. Albert Foxconn is the executive director of the New York City based Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. He was harshly critical of the original contract , calling it Orwellian. He says it's no better now.
S2: If you had made this change in a typical contract , I might have thought it was actually a big improvement. But this contract is so much worse than what we typically see.
S7: Kahn points out that the contract still allows the company to analyze , publish , develop and improve commercial products and offer subscription services to customer data gathered by Chula Vista Police Surveillance Tools.
S2: Even worse , there's nothing here that blocks Motorola from selling this data to customers who then resell it to other people and resell it to other people. And once you allow the data to be used in that way , it really is just available to the highest bidder.
S7: Those data include live social media feeds , information picked up by the agency's automated license plate readers and video captured by its drones sent out to 911 calls. Motorola did not return CPB's emails or calls. But in a February letter to Chula Vista , the company assured the city it does not , quote , share or resell customer data. But Motorola can still take customer data and customize it , privacy experts say. Once that happens , it's called solution data. And the contract gives Motorola , its vendors and licensors , exclusive ownership of solution data. The contract does not bar Motorola from selling solution data. That.
S2: That.
S6: Changes window dressing. It's performative art. It's meant to give comfort to people that aren't paying attention.
S7: Privacy advocate Brian Hofer says the Chula Vista City Council's approval of the original Motorola contract was bad enough.
S6: You know , if this had been in the first instance , I give him a pass and just say it's negligence. When it happens a second time and it's this obvious that it's a bad contract , that seems like there's some intent to allow this to happen.
S7: Chula Vista Councilman Steve Padilla concedes he and his colleagues should never have approved the original Motorola contract. But he says he's now comfortable that the amendment made earlier this year protects Chula Vista Inn's privacy.
S2: Nobody's being spied on and nobody's data is being collected and nobody's data is being shared and nobody's data's being sold.
S7: Nevertheless , Chula Vista City attorney Glenn Goodkin says the contract is still under review. He said , quote , Significant city contracts are always reviewed by my legal group. Until recently , however , these types of provisions had not been an area of focus they should have been , and now very much are. Amid the Shama , KPBS News.
S1: Much of the national debate on gun reform remains focused on a possible ban on assault rifles , a common choice of weapon for perpetrators of violent mass shootings yet to actually enact legislation. Lawmakers say they sometimes rely on the work of policy researchers to determine how effective those bans would ultimately be. However , researchers often find that concrete data on legal gun ownership , it's far more difficult to keep track of than you might think. Joining me now with more on this is Ken Wilber , professor of marketing and analytics at the Rady School of Management at UCSD. Ken , welcome.
S2: Thank you. It's nice to be with you.
S1:
S2: The Democratic leaning voters tend to predict that fewer guns would lead to less crime. And the Republican leaning voters tend to predict that more guns would lead to less crime. And this is a really important question , and we have different theories. And so we need empirical tests to understand when different effects occur and what the best rules would be.
S1: And right now , lawmakers , or at least many lawmakers , are discussing the possibility of a potential assault rifle ban.
S2: And we have good sources of sales data in most industries. But when it comes to the firearm industry , it's very rare to get high quality sales data and therefore it's simply hard to measure how many people own firearms in a given place in a given time.
S1:
S2: There's very few parties that collect and disseminate that data. There are a handful of state governments , including Massachusetts and California , that require licensed firearm retailers to enter new sales into a state database. But that's much more the exception than the norm. And those states don't publish their data for researchers to analyze.
S1:
S2: Now , there there are ways to protect customer privacy while studying sales phenomena. And this is something that that governments could do. It's been successfully done in California and Massachusetts and other cities , states and counties that want to study how gun sales relate to crime could mandate their retailers to to enter privacy compliant sales data into into government databases.
S1:
S2: They report the number of mandatory background checks performed in each state in each month. And if you compare total FBI background checks between 2006 and 2020 , that number increased four fold. There was about 40 million total background checks conducted in America in 2020.
S1: You know , whether or not a ban is put in place , there's often the question of whether or not sellers and manufacturers will ultimately comply with a ban in the first place.
S2: You know , a long standing issue has been defining what is an assault weapon and then confirming that within legal transactions and then enforcing those rules. All three of those steps are are fraught and can be quite difficult. The definitions have always been controversial and sometimes they've been a little bit silly. So as an example , in 1994 , when the federal government issued a ten year ban on new assault weapons. They outlawed the cult AR 15 , which is a very popular weapon , both with legal purchasers and unfortunately , it's often used in mass murders. And although the Cult Air 15 was specifically outlawed , it was off patent and there were numerous manufacturers that produced minor variations on that same weapon design. And those continued to be sold even the year after that ban went into effect in 1995. So the two things we really are looking for in defining an assault weapon are the capability for for rapid fire , which is usually semi-automatic firing and rapid reloading , which is a feature designed for for military combat settings. And the problem is that the banned assault weapons have always been defined in terms of the weapons features rather than the weapons capabilities.
S1:
S2: And for example , when when California and other states outlawed detachable magazines , the industry came up with replaceable magazines , which provided almost the same capability , but with a different mechanism , which had not been specifically outlawed yet.
S1:
S2: I would like to motivate governments and other organizations to collect and publish privacy compliant gun sales data so that we can start to measure how legal firearm policies affect crime and other public health outcomes. By changing the number of guns in society , we really need this information in order to inform our firearm policies.
S1: I've been speaking with Ken Wilber , a professor of marketing and analytics at the School of Management at UCSD. Professor Wilber , thanks for joining us. Jade.
S2: Jade. It was a pleasure. Thank you for your time.
S5: During the COVID pandemic , many childcare providers had to at least temporarily close their doors. Investigative reporter Claire TRAGESER says even temporary closures were enough to push some over the brink.
S7: Karolina Festa walks over the cracked concrete outside her home in San Diego City Heights neighborhood and envisions something entirely different a play space for kids.
S3: So I want to fix to put the concrete in a public figure grasses. But is a lot of money. I cannot afford it not to do that.
S7: Festa is a refugee from Burundi who used to run a home child care with 12 kids. When COVID started , she had to close. All her clients were refugees who worked in hotel housekeeping and they were laid off.
S3: I lost my clients because the parents , you know , they didn't go to work , so they decided to stay with the kids. So I lost my job that way.
S7: Vestas child care was one of almost 4000 that closed in California after COVID hit. During the pandemic , the rate of childcare closures nearly tripled. On average , almost five a day. And many of those businesses , like festivals , have not been able to reopen.
S3: It was very tough and very difficult for me to come back in a business. A lot of clients moved out of San Diego.
S7: In many places. Closures hit the most vulnerable neighborhoods the hardest. And while there was some government aid for childcare , it didn't do enough. Vestal says with more money , she'd be able to build an extra room and care for kids whose parents worked night shifts.
S3: So my plan , I wanted to put in one more room upstairs.
S4: A lot of them just couldn't make it. They didn't have a they didn't have a savings.
S7: Account they could rely on. Kim McDougall runs the Childcare Resource Service for the San Diego YMCA. She says even a small disruption is enough to put childcare providers out of business , especially in lower income areas.
S4: Many of our higher income communities were able to maintain their childcare supply and that's.
S7: Probably because they're able to charge a higher price and those businesses likely had a safety net. She says during COVID , the country lost about 9% of its childcare supply and there was already a big deficit.
S3: These are happy. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. Mariana Stack sits at a desk in her small apartment with four different baby contraptions all within arm's reach. Right now , her six month old son , Griffin , is standing in a jumper surrounded by colorful buttons that play music. Got it.
S4: I started using a family childcare home , a licensed family childcare home for one day a week and the rest of the days. I am childcare and employee.
S7: Steck has been back at work for a month. While she put Griffin on childcare waitlist long before he was actually born , she hasn't been able to find full time care.
S4: Many centers didn't have vacancies until the winter of 2022. One center told me they had over 100 infants on their waitlist. I was like , Well , where he's going to be in preschool by the time you call us.
S7: So she's attempting to work from home while caring for a baby.
S4: So my very first week back , I started my days at about four in the morning and he slept until seven. So I got 3 hours and then.
S7: That wasn't sustainable. Now she gets a little more sleep and tries to work while Griffin plays by.
S4: Tummy time in his bedroom. We have a little footstool that I use , like I park my laptop on that and he's sitting right next to me.
S7: That actually works in part doing childcare referrals. So she has better access to childcare than almost anyone. And when she was pregnant , she knew there was a child care crisis.
S4: But once , like , you're sitting in it , you're like , Oh , this is a crisis. There is a legitimate thing happening here where there is a huge demand for infant care and the supply is just not there.
S7: She says if she didn't have a flexible employer , she'd have to quit her job. Claire TRAGESER , KPBS News.
S1: You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen CAVANAUGH. The San Diego Natural History Museum has a new permanent exhibition on display showcasing research done across the Baja California Peninsula to help conserve rare plants and animals , including California's red legged frogs. Almost a soothing sound there. The exhibition is called Expedition Baja and features work from local researchers and researchers from the Mexico region. Joining me to talk about the new exhibition is San Diego Natural History Museum President and CEO Judy Gradual. Judy , welcome to the program.
S4: Thank you.
S1:
S4: Great.
S1: Great.
S4: The gulping sound was red legged frog. Their higher pitch was it was a different species. But this is the first time we've been able to hear red legged frogs calling in Southern California in over 40 years. They were declared extinct and a population of genetically related red legged frogs was found in the Sierra San Pedro Martire region of Baja , California. And we worked with local scientists and a non-governmental organization called Sonar to both enhance breeding habitat for the frogs in Baja and to get permission from both the Mexican and the U.S. government to bring eggs across the border and create two new reintroduced populations in our region. Wow.
S1: Wow.
S4: I like to say my best day in the office is when I'm in the field and my background is as a field biologist. So anytime the scientists let me tag along , I'm thrilled. I was able to go down to the breeding ponds in Baja with our scientists , and it was a wonderful field expedition. We camped and stayed at a at a ranch and went out during the day and the evening to do the censuses for the for the frogs. And then I was also fortunate enough to be on the northern side of the border when the eggs first came across , which was very dramatic. It was the second day after we had closed everything down for the pandemic and everything was up in the air about what was going to happen with the border crossing. But the eggs made it. And we have now transplanted 6000 eggs into two sites in Southern California.
S1: That sounds exciting.
S4: And in the last few decades , we've really made a concerted effort to work very closely with Mexican scientists and Mexican students , governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations so that we're part of the research ecosystem in the area.
S1:
S4: It's one of the few wild places left on the planet , and it's also been unstudied and in many ways. So a lot of what we're doing is just documenting what lives there and helping the local organizations and the Mexican government better manage this amazing area.
S1:
S4: And it has got to be one of the cutest study species anybody will encounter. We have absolutely adorable models worth coming just to see that we had scientists who were working in the San Quentin area. It's an area along the coast south of Sanada that was subject to a lot of agriculture. So the. Normal coastal area was pretty much turned over to agriculture and the sinking team. Kangaroo rat had been declared extinct 40 years ago and our scientists were down there working with a local organisation , Terra Peninsular , doing some trapping to understand what lived there. And they found kangaroo rats that did not fit the measurements of the ones that were considered still extant in that area , came back to the collections , checked the measurements and realised that they were rediscovering a species that had been declared extinct. I think one of the interesting things about the kangaroo rat is that while we were working on it , Terra Peninsula was establishing some protected areas and they were actually able to protect the area that the kangaroo rat was rediscovered again.
S1:
S4:
S1: I've been speaking with San Diego Natural History Museum president and CEO Judy Gradwell. Judy , thank you for joining us.
S4: Pleasure to be here. Thank you.