An Election Day preview and how new housing rules are impacting San Diego

S1: Welcome to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott rod. Ready or not , election day is nearly here. We take one final look at some local races , including one that could determine the balance of power for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

S2: Right now , the Democrats have A32 majority on the county Board of Supervisors. And this if the challenger , Kevin Faulconer , were to win , that would switch. But it's much more than that.

S1: We also discuss how state and local housing laws are giving homeowners more options to sell or develop their land. Plus , we hear about other stories from the week on the roundup. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. Well after the primaries and debates and candidate changes and mountains of campaign mailers. Election day is nearly here. Voters can cast their ballot by mail , at a drop box , or in person , at a voting center or polling place up until Tuesday at 8 p.m. , when polls close in San Diego County. And a reminder , as long as you're in line by 8 p.m. , you're set. You can cast your ballot. And if you haven't registered to vote yet , there is same-day voter registration available at voting centers. Okay , so here to talk about the election as the finish line nears is Scott Lewis. He is editor in chief of Voice of San Diego , which is part of the Public Matters initiative with KPBS and I. Newsource Scott , welcome to roundtable.

S2: Hey , thanks for having me.

S1: Among the many local races on this year's ballot in San Diego County , one race that is getting a lot of attention is the county Board of Supervisors. Race in district three between Democratic incumbent Tara Lawson Remer and former San Diego Mayor Republican Kevin Faulconer.

S2: It's a , you know , nonpartisan race. But obviously parties have a big role , and they do sort of coalition as parties. And right now , the Democrats have A32 majority on the county board of Supervisors. And this if the challenger , Kevin Faulconer , were to win , that would switch. But it's much more than that. I think at stake are housing issues. For example , Kevin Faulconer wants to see the city , the county make good on its general plan for where homes can be built throughout the county. And Tara lost and Riemer and the and the other Democratic county supervisors want to see homes concentrated in urban areas instead. And that kind of thing that could make a difference for hundreds and hundreds of housing units out there. An approach to homelessness Kevin Faulconer says he can force the county to to treat it as the emergency it deserves and , you know , really rally them to centralize the region's approach to homelessness under his leadership. And I think that really calls the question of whether he is the kind of leader that can make a massive organization like that change its priorities and its approach to this issue. And I think it's a big question on her part. She says , look , it's it's an issue we're making steady progress on. You shouldn't derail it now. And and so , you know , a lot of things like that at stake , it's it's just the priorities spending relationship with labor are all at stake there.

S1: This race has started to started to get a little contentious. What claims have the two candidates made about each other , and have there been any surprising developments here in the homestretch ? Yeah.

S2: So there's basically on the one side on Kevin Faulkner. You know , when you're running to oust an incumbent , you got to prove that they should lose their job and that you should be the one to replace them , and the proof that she should lose your job has been concentrated into a claim that she doesn't attend meetings that she should attend , that she misses work. Um , in particular about a regional task force for the homelessness. They say , uh , you know , she's missed those. She'll say , look , I , I send a staffer there. That's all they told me they needed to do. He or she briefs me , and we're able to keep on top of those priorities so I can do other things at the same time. Um , you know , that attack not showing up to work is one of those sort of really powerful things that can sometimes , you know , be a qualification qualifier or disqualifier and voters minds. But , uh , you know , millions of dollars have come to support him and to send those kind of attacks and also pump his name recognition and support up. But all she's had to do and much smaller amount of money has gone to support her campaign , but it has all been concentrated on connecting him to Donald Trump. This district will almost will be overwhelmingly supportive of Kamala Harris in the election , and he's been really trying to make the case. And his supporters is spending independently of try to make the case that he's a you can vote for Kamala and then you can vote for Kevin , uh , that he's he's a more liberal or centrist Republican. But she's got , you know , that picture of him standing with Trump and he hasn't , uh , he , he's refused so far to , to withdraw his support for Trump that he's sort of reiterated over the years. And that's been a brutal attack. And it'll be a really interesting test to see if that still is as potent of an attack in these sort of Democratic leaning , leaning districts as it , as it has been in the past. But if it is , then the millions of dollars are really going to have trouble overcoming.

S1: Yeah , I was going to say that photo with Faulkner and Trump. Tara Larson dreamers campaign has definitely made hay from that photo. Uh.

S2: It's ubiquitous. Yeah , yeah , just.

S1: All right , coming down to the wire here , does any one candidate appear to have an edge from your perspective ? No.

S2: I think , you know , as an incumbent , the the makeup of the district , you'd have to assume Tara Larson still has kind of an upper hand. But again , just millions of dollars from builders , from restaurants , from contractors who are opposed to sort of union agreements for building big projects. They've all lined up to to support Kevin Faulconer. They really see this as one of the biggest rates races in California , including among some of the Congress , uh , contests out there , congressional contest. So , uh , that money matters and it can make a difference. So the physics might be there for her , but , uh , he's doing everything he can and has as many resources needed to make it. Make it make a change.

S1: Let's switch gears to Assembly District 75. This district is it's a massive district. It covers most of east San Diego County and stretches up north as well. It includes a 50 mile stretch of the US-Mexico border. This race has been pretty wild from the start.

S2: Mary Waldron is leaving it. And so the race to replace her is two two Republicans. Carl DeMaio , well known as a former city councilman , talk radio host. Uh , and just , you know , a real sort of populist type figure. He's good at firing people up , uh , and getting them , uh , getting them upset about different issues in the region , uh , taxes and stuff like that. He's running against Andrew Hays , a Republican school board member in Lakeside who also , uh , has worked closely with Senator Brian Jones. This is a really interesting test because , uh , Republican Party has lined up with Hayes and is spending on his behalf. The Democrats , Lorena Gonzalez , labor leaders , uh , police fire the apartment group , the Realtors , DoorDash , they've all lined up against Carl Demayo and for Andrew Hayes. So it's a really interesting test of like , can this very diverse , passionate coalition that's come out against Carl DeMaio beat him , or does Carl DeMaio have the kind of populist support that's going to withstand that ? Because they they really want to end his political career. He's been such a firebrand and problem and just annoyance for them for so long that they'd like to see this be the end of his political ambitions. On the other hand , if he wins , he could have a platform unlike anything he's had before on a state level. And and so they feel like a lot's at stake here. And he's raised a lot of money. So this is a really interesting race even though it's two Republicans. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Just this week there was a an unusual press conference where top Democratic and Republican political figures here in the region got together , all with one unifying message , which was basically , don't vote for Carl DeMaio. You know , in a in our day and age finding , um , it's so politically divisive , this seemed to be one thing that these folks could get behind , which was sort of interesting. You know , as you mentioned , Carl de Mayo has some serious name recognition in the region. He's a well-known figure , a bit of a firebrand , but but he only held political office once as a San Diego city councilman. And that was over a decade ago. He's run for several. He's run for several other offices , but he hasn't won those races.

S2: Um , he we did a story about how he , he collects signatures for petitions like , uh , maybe one that he's tried to do several times to raise a requirement on the ballot for voter ID in the future. He's put that up several times , never actually qualified for the ballot , but every time he gets a signature , he gets a new contact. He can he can email them with his next cause and his next plea for money. His organization , Reform California , has been accused of using all that money for promotion of himself and and and causes unrelated to the thing that he was raising money for. And the police officers have have used that to file a formal complaint to try to , you know , derail him. The the amount of acrimony toward him is is really something. But it's balanced again by this this sort of one , 1 to 1 connection he has with all of these individual donors and volunteers that he's fired up for for so many years , uh , going forward. And again , it's the test of whether that can withstand the institutional , uh , acrimony from the Republican Party , from a lot of Republicans , the Congressman Darrell Issa , uh , Brian Jones , Joel Anderson , the county supervisor They've all lined up against him and it's just incredible to see. Absolutely.

S1: Absolutely. Let's switch gears to the San Diego mayor's race , which is. Gotten a lot more interesting in the last month or so. Independent Larry Turner is running against Mayor Todd Gloria. He's the Democratic incumbent.

S2: But there's a lot of undecideds. The big question is if those undecideds , you know , are they going to. Are they going to go with what they know with Todd Gloria , are they going to take a chance on on this independent ? And again , Larry Turner's in a similar situation that Kevin Faulkner is in. Uh , he's really trying to prove to Democrats that he's he's a viable choice for them. He , he sent out or his supporters sent out a text saying he's a pro-choice , independent and and challenging voters not to be sheep , quote , sheep , you know , and go along with just the Democratic choices , but to to consider a different option like him because the city's in such bad shape , they say. So that's a big challenge. Again , you got to prove that the incumbent deserves to lose their job and that you're the one that deserves to get it. And that means just getting your name out there a lot. So these independent spending that this about $1.5 million has come in independently to support him from , uh , just , you know , one supporter in , in Point Loma that just wanted to balance the field and give Todd Gloria run for his money. So I think it's a it's a definitely a more interesting race than it , than it was shaping up to be. Um , but , uh , it's , you know , every hour that goes by is , is , is an hour that , uh , Todd Gloria Banks is the incumbent and , uh , get some votes in that , uh , probably lean his way , at least for now. So we'll see if , uh , if they can overcome them.

S1: You mentioned all this money that's been poured into this race that's , you know , backing Larry Turner. Where is it coming from ? And has there been an explanation as to why there's just been so much investment from this one person into this race.

S2: You know , I called him and he wasn't interested in talking with me. He he issued a statement to La Prensa.

S1:

S2: He's , uh , just , uh , he has hasn't been known to make political donations in the past. Again , $1.5 million he's put through the Lincoln Club to to support Larry Turner. And he. Yeah , he wasn't interested in talking to me. He said he said in his statement to Larry de la Prensa that he just wanted to balance things , you know , all the developers and sort of , uh , entrenched interests that support , um , uh , Todd Gloria , he wanted to balance it out and give him give him a run and , and force him to be accountable. And and it's it's kind of interesting to watch. He says he's , uh , he's a Democrat. Um , or he was a Democrat. He supports Kamala Harris for for president. But he just obviously has a real frustration. And there's a lot of frustration around the city about the homeless crisis. The cost of living. And several other , you know , really big crises that are hard to make progress on from the mayor's point of view. But that might be part of the point. Larry Turner and his supporters think that it's time for a new , more urgent team of leadership in there. And obviously this this support. And Point Loma is is all on board. There might be even more money coming from what I hear. Interesting.

S1: Interesting.

S2: He's kind of notorious for , for , um , you know , seeing threats. And , and his supporters have come together and raised nearly $1 million themselves. Uh , again , from , um , a lot of , uh , these kind of core institutional supporters of , of the way things. And there's a kind of well-known guy in San Diego , dealmaker , former port commissioner , uh , Steve Cushman , uh , developer , former car dealer. He's , um , he's raised a ton of money for the for the mayor. And and they really trying to to balance out that attack. So the real question is will the ads against Todd Gloria start to really hit him hard ? Because again , they really have to prove that he's , uh , that he's not , uh , the one you want to be mayor going forward. And I'm not sure that's been done quite yet. We'll see.

S1: Finally , there's a trend that's happening at major newspapers across the country the LA times , Washington Post , USA today , along with its network of hundreds of local papers. They're declining to endorse presidential candidates. You're editor in chief of a local news outlet. So give me your $0.02 on this.

S2: I think that , um , though , it's just really it's hard for a newspaper , uh , to do two things at once , and that is to endorse and , and and take a side on an election and market how good your analysis of it is and your endorsement or of opposition is and also market that you are a neutral observer of the election. And I think there's , there's , you know , these these sides that newspapers have. The news team will insist like we're neutral. We are not part of the endorsement process. And then and yet like that distinction is , is something that the public has never quite grasped. And I think that if you want to make a principled decision that we're not going to endorse , we're just going to have a newspaper dedicated to neutrality and and observation and investigation , that's fine. But you probably should do that before like long before the week before the election , maybe. And that's probably , you know , and really lay out a principled vision for it. Otherwise it looks like a panic at the end when when something got got hard and you never want to look like you're panicking. So but I do think newspapers have this cognitive dissonance that they've never really managed well , which is this , you know , this commitment to neutrality , to telling the story as it is , and then this other side of their shop that that literally hopes for and advocates for a certain outcome to these elections. And those are that's just a dissonance. That's really hard to reconcile. And and I think you're seeing the pain of it being reconciled now is like , you know , whenever somebody sits with cognitive dissonance , they have to it's almost painful. They have to fix it. And what in the way that Jeff Bezos did is maybe not the most productive at the Washington Post and certainly hurt his business in the short term , but , um , probably could have done that longer in advance and maybe , maybe save some of some of the pain of it. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. The timing. Definitely. Curious. Conspicuous. Uh , they've lost now at last tally , uh , about a quarter million subscribers , digital subscribers , which is like 10% , uh , of the number of subscribers they have. So a big hit in the short term. So we'll see how that plays out in the long term. I've been speaking with Scott Lewis , editor in chief of Voice of San Diego , as well as a KPBS partner on the ongoing Public Matters project. Scott , thanks for joining us.

S3: Thank you. Scott. It's great.

S1: Hang on to your butts. When roundtable returns , we hear about recent laws meant to spur more housing production and housing density in San Diego.

S4: Well , the hope from experts is that this will lead to more entrepreneurship , more competition , particularly among small businesses getting back into the home building industry.

S1: That's ahead on roundtable. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott rod. Concern over the high cost of housing and its availability is top of mind for voters here in San Diego and beyond. KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen recently looked into the impact of some recent housing laws enacted by the state legislature aimed at increasing housing production. And he joins me now to talk about it. Andrew , Welcome back to roundtable. Thanks , Scott. So let's start with Senate Bill nine. Tell us about it.

S4: And it allows at least one duplex on almost every lot in California that is zoned for housing , even if the zoning restricts would otherwise restrict that lot to one single detached house. So and in addition to that , depending on the size of the lot , the shape of the lot , you can also split it in two and build a duplex on each of those two. Parse each of those parcels. So in effect you can take one property. Currently you can only build one house there under the zoning SB , SB9 allows you to build up to four. So it was an effort by the state legislature to increase the housing supply , as you mentioned. And experts agree , that's really key to lowering costs. And it was seen as a really big political achievement because it takes on single family zoning , which has been kind of a third rail in California politics for decades. 80% of the land in San Diego that is zoned for housing is zoned for single family housing. So this is very low density , and it's an effort to kind of build housing , not just in those areas that already allow apartments and condos , but also in these neighborhoods that have pretty much stayed the same for the past half century.

S1: Well , as you said , this law has now been around for a couple of years. It's taken some time to ramp up.

S4: That was one conclusion that I made while reporting on this , but I did find one homeowner in North Park who is making use of SB9. His name is Jay Blake , and he bought his house with his wife in 2018. And the house is set back pretty far from the street. So he has this really large front yard and he didn't have any use for it. In fact , he actually had to spend $5,000 on , you know , maintaining the landscaping. He saw this land as more of a liability for him than an asset.

S5: Um , I realized that I didn't necessarily have the resources to do that on my own. And so I did a lot of Google searching about the possibility of other things that I could do with it.

S1: Folks like Jay Blake aren't taking on these projects on their own. Tell me about some of the companies that are helping residents take advantage of SB9.

S4: As you heard from Jay just now , uh , he was not ready to take on a project this complex and something that requires this much investment. So , you know , when you build housing , it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital. And he has a regular homeowner. He's a nurse practitioner. He just doesn't have that cash , you know , sitting in the bank. Splitting the lot allows a homeowner to essentially cash out on land that they don't need. And so what in those Google searches that he did , he came across this company called Build Casa and build Casa. Signed a contract with J. Blake and that sets the purchase price for this land. Um , which , by the way , was $250,000. I was surprised by that. He was surprised by that. He had no idea that his front yard that had been costing him money could be worth just that much money. So he was pretty blown away and very pleasantly surprised. As you can imagine , build Casa under the contract has up to 18 months to actually officially split this lot. You know , create a new parcel that can be owned by somebody else. And at that point they can execute the transaction , purchased that lot , and then once they own the land , they either , um , sell it to a developer or they partner with a local contractor to build a duplex , you know , on their own. So , you know , this this business model is essentially outsource. Homeowners get to outsource the complexities of the permitting process to a company like Build Casa , build Casa partners with the builders to actually build the housing. And , you know , everybody comes out a little bit wealthier in the end. Right.

S1: Right. And as you said , this would apply to many areas of San Diego. Of course , homeowners have to have the right type of property , the right amount of land , right to split their property and do this. But I'm sure it'd be a surprise for many homeowners that this may be an option for them.

S4: Also applications. They told me by my deadline at least they couldn't get me the numbers for 2024 , but they had already put together the numbers for 2022 and 23 , and that's the first two years that SB nine was in effect. And in those two years they received 13 applications for lot splits. By the end of 2023 , zero of those had been approved. They told me likely some of these homeowners applied for a lot split , but didn't realize that they weren't actually eligible because of maybe some of the constraints of the property. So no lot splits have occurred in San Diego , at least as of the end of last year. And they also received 20 applications for new units. So this would be , you know , you have a vacant lot and you can build a duplex instead of a single family home. Or if you have a single family home , you can also convert it into a duplex , but with with an addition. So , you know , not a lot of of uh , and sorry , and I should mention of those 20 applications for new units , only two had been approved. So not a lot of new housing coming through this law , but it is still very new. Homeowners are still figuring out what their rights are under the law. Um , companies like build Casa and there's actually a competitor called Yards Worth , are still figuring out their own business models and how to navigate this whole process. So it's really hard at this point to say how many units could be produced in San Diego under SB9 , because our data set is just too small.

S1:

S4: And , you know , this would be a backyard cottage or maybe a converting a garage into a living space. And what ? Sandy , after that law was passed at the state level , San Diego took it even further , and they allowed homeowners to a build a bonus Adu if they also restrict one of their ADUs as affordable housing. So you build one Adu , you get an extra one. You know , depending on how many units you designate as affordable housing , you can build a whole lot more housing than would otherwise be allowed. Um , when you're within walking distance of a public transit stop , there is no limit on the number of ADUs. So you could theoretically build ten or 15 or 16 , uh , you know , uh , accessory dwelling units. At that point , you're really just talking about a small apartment building. And , um , this has been very popular in San Diego. It's actually been held up by other cities that are trying to , you know , build more housing as as an example of what is possible in California because , you know , there is a lot of demand for housing and the it's not getting built because there are a lot of restrictions on it. Um , so it's pretty wildly successful in San Diego , if your measure of success is building more housing. And , uh , if SB9 has been slow to take off in San Diego , one of the reasons could be that we just simply have a very generous Adu bonus program. And that's where all of this demand for infill housing and single family neighborhoods is going. That being said , you cannot sell an Adu separately from your house currently under the current law. So if a homeowner wants to cash out on their land , SB9 is currently their only option for that. Interesting.

S1: Interesting. So they are complementary in certain ways or thematically , but there are certain distinctions between them that are important to keep in mind.

S4: So after the Great Recession , we saw a lot of consolidation in the building industry. You have these really big national builders like Lennar Homes , Greystar those companies got even bigger , and then a lot of these smaller scale builders , uh , basically either went out of business or they changed their business altogether and no longer build housing. Many of them switched to home flipping. So , uh , you know , buying an old dilapidated house , renovating the interior , and then selling it for a profit. There's , I think , always going to be a role for home flipping. But one of the downsides to it is that it does drive up the price of housing. And so if those folks who are currently focused on on on flipping homes , you know , increasing the price of housing , um , if some of those move , if some of those get back into the the business of actually building more housing , the hope is that , you know , these laws allowing ADUs and duplexes and everything will , um , create more competition for those really big national , um , builders , those mega builders , and ultimately increase the supply of housing and put a downward pressure on prices.

S1: Has there been any pushback or controversy around Senate Bill nine.

S4: A huge amount of pushback and a huge amount of controversy. Absolutely , particularly from homeowners who have lived in their homes for quite a while , who thought that they bought into a neighborhood that is restricted to low density housing and single family homes , and where none of that new housing is going to get built. There are some cases in San Diego , particularly with the Adu bonus program , where you have multi-story structures going up in somebody's backyard and then the property owner next door or behind. You know , that maybe they share a backyard , like divided by a fence. Suddenly they've got windows now that can see into their backyard. So if you know your concern is privacy and tranquility , then it's understandable why somebody would be , you know , upset by by these larger Adu projects going into single family neighborhoods. Now , to supporters of the program and to folks who are really struggling to afford housing in this very expensive market in San Diego. Just having a backyard at all seems like a luxury. And the privacy concerns or the aesthetic concerns of homeowners , or just simply don't trump the need for for more housing and and the need to integrate these very high opportunity , high income neighborhoods with very expensive housing , with more lower cost housing. You know , a single family home pretty much ten times out of ten is going to be more expensive to buy or rent than an Adu in somebody's backyard.

S1: This law was part of a housing package that also included SB ten , which has also gotten pushback from folks in San Diego and in many places around California.

S4: So , um , SB ten basically allows a city or a county , any local jurisdiction to quickly and easily rezone properties for up to ten units without having to go through a very long and legally , uh , fraught process of an environmental impact report. Um , so , Mayor Todd Gloria took this law , SB ten brought forward a version of it to the city's planning commission , and it died very quickly. Actually , the Planning Commission voted it down. They seem to just not like this idea of quickly up zoning , uh , single family neighborhoods. They think that the process should go slowly and that there should be this longer review process that's kind of in conflict with , you know , what we know about the housing crisis , which is that it's been building for a really long time. And there should be , I think , a sense of urgency and actually solving this problem. But because SB ten is an opt in bill , unlike SB9 , which is a preemption bill , SB ten really hasn't had any impact , I would say , on the supply of housing in California at all.

S1: The biggest impact in San Diego is probably just all the signs around that you see that say no on SB ten , even though it doesn't apply here.

S4: It did have a big political impact. I will say that it got the opponents to this type of housing very organized.

S1: Yes , certainly. Briefly switching gears a little bit , but sticking to housing this week , San Diego City Council President Sean Rivera announced that the City council is looking into a ban on the use of certain types of software for landlords in setting rental prices.

S4: They feed it through this algorithm that they've developed , and that algorithm spits out a number that tells a landlord how much they should charge for rent. So this story had a really big impact. It touches on these fears of artificial intelligence , these fears or these frustrations that many people have with the housing market that is just too expensive. And in August , the Department of Justice actually sued Real Page and essentially argues that this this software is modern day price fixing and that it violates antitrust laws. Landlords are supposed to be competing with each other for business , and when an algorithm allows them to collude and fix prices , they say , you know , the argument is that this is against the law. San Francisco banned this type of algorithm or software that sets rental prices in September , and the proposal from Council President Eloy Rivera is that San Diego should do the same. We haven't seen the ordinance itself , so there are a lot of details still to be worked out. All that the Rules committee , the City Council's rules committee discussed this week was the broader framework , which will be brought forward to the full City council at a future date.

S1: Well , something will definitely be keeping an eye on. I've been speaking with Andrew Bowen , KPBS Metro reporter Andrew , thanks for joining us.

S4: Thank you Scott.

S1: Up next , we check in on some other stories we've been following on the weekly roundup. That's next on roundtable. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Scott Rod. It's time for our weekly roundup , where we catch up on some other stories we've been following. Joining me now is KPBS producer Andrew Bracken. Hey , Andrew.

S6: Hey , Scott.

S1: I'm going to start things off with , actually , a light story that caught my eye. Uh , I don't know , maybe light isn't the right word , but there's an incident up in Santa Clara County. There's a candidate for assembly that's running up there , and there is an egging incident from years ago that has surfaced in this race. And it's become a little bit of a controversy. And it jumped out to me just because , you know , this happened like five years ago and back , you know , five , ten years ago , this might have been something that was like , whoa , I can't believe a candidate threw eggs at someone's house. But now it just seems so quaint in our political world. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah.

S7: Yeah. I mean , in in the article , I think there's a picture of the candidate. I think they have like sunglasses on and they're throwing the egg. And you're right , there is sort of like an innocence or like a simplicity to it that we I mean , we're laughing about it , but it kind of sadly , it doesn't exist today. I know a lot of people seen a lot of stories about people kind of struggling with just how to handle , manage the anxiety that's coming with the election and the uncertainty. Um , a lot of the rhetoric and the divisiveness , right. And this kind of points to a different time. Yeah. And not that long ago still. Right. Like five years ago , for sure.

S1: For sure. And it should be said that the person whose it was a car and house was egged , you know , they actually knew the candidate. They they settled their differences and they said , like , you know , they're on good footing. It's okay. Um , and , you know , we are laughing about this. I should say I am not pro egging. Um , it is egging season , you know , around Halloween. So I am not pro egging. But I will say that , you know , this is just the type of kind of political controversy that , you know , we were more used to years ago. But now we have things like ballot boxes being set on fire or racist rants at arenas and , you know , people storming the Capitol. So anyways , it caught my eye.

S7: It was their open registration day last Saturday , and it just got overwhelmed. So it kind of caused a lot of frustration with folks looking to get signed up , get their tickets going , and , uh , they basically had to cancel it , you know , about a half hour after starting it because it just kind of shut down. And I know , you know , we hear about these sort of ticket meltdowns or Ticketmaster shutdowns , things like that. They haven't announced when they will open that registration again. Hopefully next time they'll get all the bugs out of it. I think they called it a unforeseen anomaly with the website , but I think it just crashed from too many people getting on there.

S1: Yeah , I mean , in a way it's sort of a victim of its own success. It's so many people want to go to this , but at the same time , right. This is a signature event for the for the region and to see this happen is surprising. Kind of a blemish on it. But you know , hopefully things sort out for people just being able to register and things will go smoothly from here. Yeah.

S7: Yeah. And I guess this is something that means a lot to a lot of people. And so I can just I just relate to that sort of frustration of folks. I mean , I definitely know people that it means a lot to their year to kind of get tickets and to attend this and to like have that because they were getting like false messages of , oh , you have a ticket. No , you don't , you know , that kind of thing. So I think caused some stress. Absolutely.

S1: Absolutely. I'm going to turn to a different story , this one on homelessness and homelessness funding. The Newsom administration announced $830 million in new homelessness spending. But there's some strings attached to it. And this money is being divvied up to different cities and counties. But it comes with certain requirements for transparency and tracking as to how this money is being spent , but also the outcomes of this money. And part of this was related to an audit released earlier this year that found that cities , specifically San Jose and San Diego , weren't doing enough to track just how this money was being spent and the impacts that it was having. They weren't measuring it , at least up to what the state wanted to see. So I thought it was interesting that this sort of follow up expenditure on homelessness was coming with certain requirements , and especially coming from an audit that looked at San Diego specifically. Yeah.

S7: And I think this brought me back to the reporting from Calmatters Marisa Kendall , who we've had on the show a couple of times talking about her reporting. She looked into the audit and some of the spending. I think the states spent upwards , you know , of 20 plus billion dollars on homelessness. And this audit kind of brought up a lot. Like how effective is the spending , how is it being tracked ? And you're right , San Diego was definitely a part of that. So it sort of seems like a predictable response to kind of the fallout that kind of came from what came out of that audit.

S1: And also just kind of like the least , frankly , that I think you would expect possible. Yeah. This is a tremendous amount of money we're talking about. And yet , you know , as many voters will say , this is top of mind. This issue of homelessness is top of mind. They're seeing the problem get worse. So having some accountability attached to these dollars I think makes sense. Speaking of Newsom , he was also down in the South Bay looking at the pollution crisis that's going on at the Tijuana River Valley.

S7: There's kind of a push to get emergency declarations , to get more money , to make it more of a priority. So Governor Gavin Newsom came down , visited , did kind of a press conference and kind of updating what's happening with the international wastewater treatment plant that's at issue of some of the problems down there , but still no emergency declaration from the state. And I still think there are a lot of questions of where it goes from here. And like I said , a lot of kind of legislation and political wrangling there.

S1: And this was Newsom's first visit down to the wastewater treatment plant.

S7: I don't think he's been here yet. So we'll see if it's a sign of coming action. Like I said , it's.

S1: Kind of surprising because there's been , you know , a swelling outcry over this crisis and so many people in the community saying , look , we need to do something. We need this to be addressed. And there have been folks who specifically targeted that message at Newsom. And I was just surprised to see , yeah , that it was his first time down there to wrap it up , I guess , on the Halloween sort of theme , the story in the New York Times caught my eye because it was just so wild. And as I read it , the more I read , it was almost like I couldn't. I couldn't believe it. Apparently , crows can hold grudges. The birds , crows can hold grudges for years and years Sometimes if they perceive that someone has slighted them , harmed them , poses some sort of danger to them and their flock or murder , as they're called for crows , they will swoop down and target and pester and annoy and even attack people. And this can go on for years and years. And I just , I was I was amazed reading this. And of course , crows are very intelligent birds. And they apparently use that intelligence at times to hold a grudge. Right.

S7: Right. And this is a really interesting story. Crows get a lot of bad press , I would say. And just the , you know , you explain there , it's not a flock of crows , it's a murder of crows. And , you know , I actually I love crows. We have crows in our backyard. They definitely , probably have a grudge against my dog , I feel like. But also this story did kind of also put out the point. They may hold grudges , but they may not be able to apply that grudge to the right person. They seems like they get kind of misidentify their target sometimes because there's some pretty horrifying things. And they do mention , you know , the Hitchcock movie The Birds , which I still find terrifying. I mean , it's very dated. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Yeah , there's sort of a still a lasting , kitschy horror to Hitchcock's film. The mistaken identity thing was incredible , just the fact that some sort of unsuspecting person could suddenly become.

S7: Caught up in. It.

S1: It. Yeah. The target of these crows ire. I think the one story that stood out to me the most was there was someone who was being targeted. I couldn't I can't remember if it was truly because they did something against a crow or for his mistaken identity , but the person started just sort of leaving little bits behind as the crows who were following them , you know , could eat and sort of it turned into this thing where they were bribing the crows almost to leave them alone. And eventually , when one crow came to swoop down and attack or pester the person , the other crows behind them went in , sort of shooed that other crow off. And so the person likened it to like a sort of mob bribe or payoff , right for security. Just incredible in my frankly heart goes out to the people who find themselves on the wrong side of a rivalry with a crow. All right , last question for you.

S7: I've heard of dentists and other things doing like candy donations , and I've never gotten around to doing it. But I got to see , you know , how to extricate some of it from the kids. They had a lot of candy coming from trick or treating , but I need to get it out of the house for my sake as well as theirs. So I don't know , what do you what do you tend to do ? Yeah.

S1: I'm going to donate the candy into my mouth. I mean , I just , I crush it , I buy it intending and anticipating that I probably will have a lot left over. I live in a small apartment complex , so I buy the stuff that I love the most. I. I don't eat a ton of candy , but after Halloween , man , I go on a tear.

S7: I mean , I probably will too. I guess the donation thing is just wishful thinking , so we'll see if I do that.

S1: All right. That'll do it for the roundup this week. Andrew Bracken , thanks and good luck with , uh , dealing with all that candy.

S7: Thank you. Scott. You too.

S1: That's our show for today. Thanks for listening. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays and again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can email us at roundtable at PBS.org. You can also leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtable's technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. This show was produced by Andrew Bracken. Brooke Ruth is Roundtable's senior producer and I'm Scott Rodd. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend.