S1: Coming up on KPBS roundtable. Single family homeowners in the city of San Diego have not had to pay for trash pickup. That looks to be changing now , though. How much it'll cost is still being debated. We get the latest in San Diego trash talk next.
S2: So I think there's a really interesting standoff developing because they really need this money , or they're planning on this money to help them cover the budget deficit this year.
S1: Plus , a popular local surf spot gets the nod to host Olympic surfing in 2028. What that means for the region and the sport. That's ahead on KPBS roundtable. Single family homes in the city of San Diego could soon pay nearly $50 a month for trash pickup. Earlier this week , San Diego City Council members heard concerns about the proposal. The vast majority of residents are not happy about it. Here to talk more about what's happening with trash pickup is Scott Lewis. He's the editor in chief with Voice of San Diego and partner in the Public Matters initiative. Hey , Scott , welcome back to the roundtable.
S2: Hi , Andrew.
S3: How are you ? Great.
S1: So it's one thing that's kind of unique about the city of San Diego , I've always felt , is that single family home owners have not had to pay for trash pickup. And this goes back well over 100 years , right. Can you tell us about the origin of that ? You know , that backstory there.
S2: It has to do with hogs. Way back when , 100 years ago , somebody took the city's trash and sold it for profit , you know , to to feed hogs. And that caused an outrage. The city passed laws prohibiting that and , and sort of implied with that that they would always just pick up trash. If you could get your trash to the curb , the city would take care of it. And that ended up creating over decades , they would sort of codify it , create new things to to evolve it. But the point over time , it just evolved to where , you know , if you had a home , a separate home , and you could get your trash to the curb , you didn't have to pay a special fee. Um , but apartment complexes , uh , condo complexes and private streets where the city doesn't maintain the streets. Those folks still had to pay a private hauler.
S1: So it all goes back to hogs. But as you mentioned , they're apartment buildings , condos. They have been paying for trash this whole time.
S2: Yeah , I think that's one of the core sort of things that people need to understand is that about half the city , mostly people who live in a multifamily units , have always had to pay private haulers to come pick up their trash. What this is doing is saying , okay , private , those families with the single family homes , they're going to now have to pay a fee. Now , voters voted on allowing the city to do this , changing this very old law. And they did that two years ago , I think at the.
S1: That's measure B. Right.
S2: Right.
S1: Measure be passed in 2022. Yeah. Can you break down what is actually in this measure ? I mean what what was in there. What are the details. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So it was kind of like a holy grail for people who wanted to raise revenue for the city. For a long time , it was like it was seen as this place you couldn't go in city politics. They went there. The voters approved , said , okay , you can charge a fee in California , you can charge a fee without a vote of the people. If it's if it's paying for the service. Right. So you can do a toll road or a parking meter or something like that. But if you if you charge a tax that doesn't pay for the direct service , you have to have a vote of the people. But we had to have a vote of the people because we had this old law that said , you can't charge for trash pickup. And so this says you can charge for trash pickup. and now they're going through the process of deciding exactly how much that service costs , so they can charge people exactly how much it would be to make that balance.
S1: And then the city unveiled this kind of first round of pricing estimates , and there seemed to be quite an outcry to that. Tell us about. That.
S2: That. At the heart of the outcry was in that ballot measure two years ago , in the Ballot Voter pamphlet , it said , hey , if you do this , it will probably result in an increased fee of about $25 per month. And when they came out and estimated how much the fee would be just a few months ago , they said , oh , it's going to be $50. And so people were like , well , you said 25. Two years ago when we decided to let you do this , and now it's double that. And I think that's at the core of the concern , but also the cost of living right now is is tough. And obviously people who live in single family homes , by and large , are more wealthy than those living in the multifamily who have already had to pay the fees or separate fees. But everybody's you know , a lot of people are on edge. You know , making ends meet these days. And so I think the the concern about cost of living is under all of that concern about just adding a new fee , you know , five , 600 bucks a month or years is not nothing. And they're going to put it on your property tax bill. So this isn't a this isn't like a water bill you get in the mail. This is going on your property tax. And uh , that that carries a little bit more sort of officialdom , you might say. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So talk more about what it means that it's on a property tax bill as opposed to just being a separate bill like your water bill or something. Right.
S2: Well , it saves the city a ton of money to just put it on property tax bills. They can identify the parcels that this is going to address and charge them. They're going to charge you the highest version of the fee right away. You'd have to opt out to a lower fee after that , maybe get a credit or something. And , you know , I think as a property tax measure , you default on your property tax. Theoretically , they could seize your home , you know. So you don't pay your water bill ? They don't. They don't do that.
S1: It's a much different consequence to that.
S2: But it also saves the city having to do the whole billing themselves. So what they have to do now for the next two months is really let people know through their property tax and other things that like , hey , this is coming , you have this chance to be heard at this hearing that's coming up that the city just just named. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I want to talk more about what we can expect from that hearing. But this week , the city council reconvened with kind of an update to that original pricing plan. So tell us what what happened there this week.
S2: So they they have to they have to go again all these steps to sort of lead up to this official hearing for this fee that they're going to charge. And , and this is part of the whole process for implementing a fee in California. And I think what was what came out , if you want to put a fee on there again , to just pull back the money you're already spending for a service , and the direct fee is the direct relationship with the service. You have to go through all these processes , but you also have to get two thirds of the city council to support it. So six votes. So they got six votes to set the hearing. But one of those yes votes , Henry Foster , said , hey , I'm not going to support this when it comes up if you don't lower it. And so I think there's a really interesting standoff developing because they really need this money , or they're planning on this money to help them cover the budget deficit this year. And if one of them is already saying , you need to cut this by a lot , that's going to be significant. Now , one of the reasons they said that they had to go so much higher in the fee than they planned before , was they were going to offer more services , bulky items , pick up , more frequent recycling pickup. Well , they are going to do that , but not for two years. And so the the increased fee is just to to pay for.
S1: What you.
S2: Already have. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Ostensibly.
S2: And and then they'll increase it more before they do those services.
S1: So tell me more about how the pricing came up here and why the discrepancy between what you said was on measure B back in 2022 , and then the prices they unveiled this year.
S2: So the IBA , the independent budget analyst for the city of San Diego , works for the city council , supposed to figure all these things out. That analysis was what got onto the ballot pamphlet a couple of years ago. And they fully just apologized this week. They said , sorry , we didn't think of inflation. We didn't think of the whole cost. We just messed up. MeaCulpa. You know , I'm not perfect. That's literally what he said. And I think the , um , what he didn't do well enough is look at both the inflationary value of what this costs the city to do , because the city is looking at what does it cost us to do trash at this time. We're going to pull all that back , and we're going to also make this a more reliable service , which means we're going to have to have they're putting chips in all the new containers so they can tell if if they really did pick up your trash can. If you call and say like , hey , they miss me , you know , they can , they're going to try to make it more reliable , which means they're going to actually hire people in this time of hiring freeze. And they're going to expand , you know , the cost of this. And so just doing the math , they also have they also can only collect from a smaller group of people. It turns out they were collecting the trash for free from a lot of people who didn't qualify basically. And so they're cutting actually the number of households this affects , which means that those households have to pay more to cover the entire cost. They're determined to cover the entire cost that the city faces to do trash collection , and thus just do the simple math of how many that divides out to.
S1: And there has been changes in in trash and waste waste management over the last few years. Right. We have the green bins. We have , you know , composting. So I imagine additional costs may kind of fold from that. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. The state they the state put this very , you know , tough mandate on all the cities to collect organic trash. Um , that can be food waste that can be protected from landfills and also protected from that creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions when they fester in landfills. And so they separated that out. But that's a whole new truck. That's a whole new container. And yeah , that's added a ton of cost.
S1: You mentioned , you know , these technical updates. There's these these special chips. Right. And Lena Ajaz for voice recently published a piece on that. Can you talk more about what what the goals there and what is that ? You know , playing in this whole discussion around.
S2: Your trash can is smart. Now it's got a chip. It'll have a chip and it'll , you know , the the trucks will have a reader and they'll be able to tell if they picked up your trash , then it'll , you know , register. But then let's say we just just last week , the city had another garbage fire in one of these trucks. They have to stop the truck. They have to dump out all the trash , and they have to let this fire go in the middle of the street while they , like , clean it up. And then they put it all back , and that happens pretty regularly. And so with the chip now , they'll be able to tell like , what part of the , you know , truck this or when the , the , the bad , the battery or whatever was thrown away and they'll be able to track it back to probably your exact container based on the little chip in there. And I think that's really interesting because what do they do then ? Are they gonna , like , come at you ? Um , but also it's just like it's just another example of technology entering everything literally our garbage now. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. No , that is interesting. I mean , I think , uh , can you , um , let me do , like , a recap ? So where are we now with prices ? And I know there's some options there , right. Like you can opt in to a smaller bin , but can you break down the latest pricing sort of proposal that we're sitting with right now ? Yeah.
S2: Um , so they're going to offer the top one is about $47. Remember they came out with the 50 plus dollars before and they said , well , they got this outrage like that's too much. And so they went down a few bucks like , but then they're also planning to go up every year. So there are three different levels , three different size containers. You can choose a lower one all the way down to like $35 a month. But again , they'll start you out at the top one. If you opt for , you have to go through a process to opt for the smaller containers and thus get the savings. But , uh , that'll that'll appear as , you know , credit going forward. So it is scheduled to go up each year again in 2027. That's when they'll add the more services that people they say they , that people wanted , the bulky item picked up is a big issue. Um , you know , if you have a couch or you have like a bunch of tree , um , you know , a bunch of yard waste that you need to get rid of , then maybe every so often they have somebody come by and pick it up. But that's an added cost too. So and they're going to add , uh , they want a little truck. Uh , they want a team to be able to , to go to these missed collection spots every time it happens. So that's a that's an extra cost. All of these things are just adding more costs and that's why it's going to it's going to surge after that.
S1: So you know , how do these rates compare with other. You know , cities in California in our region.
S2: So there's some areas of California where they're about half of what like some areas in Bay area have to pay. But in in Southern California , they'd be up to the top of what cities have to pay. Long beach , I believe , is a little higher. But as far as City of San Diego or County of San Diego cities , it would be the highest so far. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And again , this is we're just talking about this new fee for the city of San Diego , Mesa , these cities , they are they've been paying for trash like for already.
S2: So yeah. And that's why a lot of people at the city felt like there was money on the table , that they that this is something residents should be accustomed to pay , should have to pay for. And thus it's it's sort of sitting there as a low hanging fruit. And the residents , you know , gave them the permission to start this fee process two years ago. And that's what's happening.
S1: So City Council is reconvening on this June 9th , I think. What are you expecting between now and then ? You mentioned some of the political questions you're following.
S2: Well , the mayor just released a budget that counts on this revenue coming in at that level. And so it already has tremendous cuts. I think there's like 159 filled positions in the city that are getting eliminated. Now , those folks might find other jobs in the city , but those are like on the cusp of layoffs there. So that's already with where it's at. So if they lower the fee , which a lot of people want them to do , and the city council member wants them to do , they're going to have to find somewhere else to get that money. So it's going to be a really interesting period , I think , for the mayor and for the city council to discuss , like what they are willing to swallow , what kind of political pain they're going to will be willing to swallow while they go through that decision.
S1: Earlier , you know , you talked about some of the inherent inequities like in this issue , right ? Single family homeowners haven't been paying for this trash fee. What have you taken from following this story and this effort to bring in this fee that , you know , much of the city has already kind of been tasked with for a long time.
S2: There are a few fascinating dynamics of it I've been hearing and talking about. I remember the very first time , like 20 years ago , that I , that I realized that single family homes , largely homeowners , didn't have to pay a special fee , and then the apartment dwellers and condos like they did have to pay private haulers to come. And and it just it doesn't quite compute. Right. Like , why would that be. And it's it's a regressive as it gets. But they pay private haulers too. So for a while there was a lot of conservatives that would say like , well , let me let everybody get private hauling and then you can get rid of this fee. And then all these private haulers can , can make the money on this. And then the city employee unions , of course , want to keep those jobs within the city. And so that was part of the dynamic for a while. And then and so this was always sort of hovering there like you have this pretty significant inequity , like half the city paying something now ? The homeowners would say , look , I already pay property taxes and it's not free. It's just not a special fee. And that's fine too. But the but , you know , in rents and and in , in condo ownership , the property taxes are built in there too. You know , like it's like it's part of what they have to pay to. So , um , it was it was just this pretty glaring. There's very few sort of inequities that are that glaring for so long. And so this was a way to change it. But you could have done that in a way that didn't actually increase revenue to the city , you know. But they they wanted to , of course , make sure that the city felt more whole. And so , um , this was this was something , again , as somebody watched the city for for decades , this was something I never thought they would actually be able to do because of the historic sort of hostility to doing something like that. But I think it shows the power and the more voice that people , you know , on that lower income side of , of things is , are , are getting now in the more diverse city council and such.
S1: There's so much to this. We started with hogs. Yeah , a long time ago. To like.
S2: You know , garbage.
S1: Fires to dumpster fires. Right. So we'll I mean , it'll be interesting to see where this goes next. June 9th. That's that's kind of the next.
S2: It's a fascinating test of the city's trust with its voters. Right. Like this. Misleading them in way on what the ballot said that it would cost now having to rebuild that trust and get that out there , but then also showing that they can deliver on the services they promise. It's a big test for the city's leadership.
S1: Scott Lewis is editor in chief with Voice of San Diego and partner in the Public Matters initiative. Scott , thanks so much for breaking this down. Few people can make trash as interesting as you , so thanks.
S2: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: When we come back , the Olympics are headed to Southern California in 2028 , and one event is even coming to San Diego shores. Roundtable's back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. As Los Angeles continues its preparations to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2028 , this week brought some Olympic news to the shores of north San Diego County. Lower trestles was announced as the Olympic surfing site for the LA Summer games. The long cherished surf spot has hosted competitions and championships over the years , including an upcoming one here in June. But its selection did surprise some , including many in the Orange County city of Huntington Beach. I'm joined now by Leilani Connolly. She's the beach reporter with the Orange County Register. So , Leland , first off , I just have to ask this right off the bat. Can you tell us more about what a beach reporter does. I mean , I'm picturing you in a wet suit right now , like overlooking the waves. But I imagine there's there's more to it than that. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. Um , I'm actually surfing right now as we interview. I'm kidding. I wish that would be a pretty remarkable. But yes , my job is to go to the beach a lot. Um , but it's not just all fun and games. There's a lot of serious issues that happen along our coast. Um , you know , we have everything from environmental things that happen , um , wildlife , beach cleanups and a lot of trash out there. Water quality. Uh , but a lot of fun stuff , too. We have surf competitions all up and down the coast that I've been covering for many , many years. Um , some great athletes that come out of the region. So it's definitely a beat that keeps me busy. But yes , there is a little bit of fun to it as well.
S1: Well , and now you have this Olympics angle to add to that mix , right. So tell us more about the decision. Why Lower Trestles , you know , became the official surf site for these LA Olympics. Yeah.
S4: Yeah. You know , it was actually a bit of a surprise. Um , I for years I've been , um , you know , talking to Huntington officials who really were pushing it to get it in Surf City. You know , that was a pretty obvious choice based on their history with , um , you know , being the location of the first West Coast Surfing Championships in 59. And , uh , just their culture , you know , they have what is often considered the Times Square , Times Square of surfing there at main and PCH , you have the iconic pier , you have all that sand space that can hold a festival. And that was really the vision of a lot of the early , um , Olympic planners to have surfing be this lifestyle festival showcase that can show the world what the sport is all about , not just from athletes perspective , but also the culturally. Um , so Huntington put their name in early in. They were really hoping to nab that um , and be the selection. Um , but it turned out that the athletes and the Olympic organizers , um , went with Lower Trestles , which you mentioned is in San Diego County , uh , bordered by here in San Clemente , where I'm located. Um , so it really came down to the quality of the wave. You know , the the organizers did a lot of research on the swell that comes in that time of year. And historically , based on on data , found that the location is most likely to produce , um , quality surf during that time.
S1:
S4: It's consistent. It will produce , um , 300 and , you know , 25 days out of the year on every swell angle so it can get surf. Lower Trestles is just a notch above it. A lot of people compare it to a skate park , where it's has these long , fluid waves that come in. It's typically a foot or two bigger than everywhere else. On any given swell , you know. Summertime. It gets those really nice , um , southern hemisphere or tropical storms that can come through. And the whole area there is just so pristine. You walk down there and you feel like you've taken a step back in time , because you don't have the urbanization that pretty much every other beach town has. It just has a better way of so great that the World Surf League has held the World Championships there for the last four years. It's where the sport's top five surfers battle it out to earn their world title. So that's how good that wave is. Is it the best in the world ? I mean , there's other places that people would argue , you know. At the last Olympics put on an amazing show because it's a big barrelling wave. This will be much different. This is , you know , a consistent , fun wave that the world's best can really showcase a number of different styles , whether it's , um , big round turns , um , or , you know , going above the lip for aerial moves , it can be it can all be done on this , on this particular wave.
S1: And you mentioned , you know , the region around Lower Trestles and it is is pretty unique , as you mentioned , it doesn't have the development that you find , you know , to the south and San Diego County and more to the north as you get to to San Clemente. Can you tell us more about the history of that area and how it became the surf spot it is today ? Yeah.
S4: I mean , the surf spot has existed for a long time , right. But it was when surfers discovered it that it became this , um , location on the map. That has a bit of a mystique to it , especially , you know , in the 50s and 60s as , um , as surfers started to kind of discover new places along the coast. Um , San Onofre Surf Beach was already a pretty popular place on the map , but Lower Trestles was still under the control of the military. The whole region was , um , and so surfers literally had to sneak in. You know , when they were surfing down at San Onofre where they were allowed to surf with a surf pass ? Um , they would look to the north and see these waves at Lower Trestles. So oftentimes they would sneak in and have their boards taken away by military personnel. They'd be sited they had to really seek out this wave and , you know , risk , um , getting in trouble by the military , uh , the military and the state parks came into an agreement in the 70s for , um , the state to take over , uh , land lease. Um , courtesy of Richard Nixon and his Legacy of Parks program. And it has been under the control of state parks since then. They recently did a lease negotiation that extended that 50 original 50 year lease. So it's been a state park for , you know , as long as many can remember. Um , and access has opened up since then , but it still is a track to get down there. It's not an easy adventure by any means. You know , now that e-bikes are around , it's a little bit easier , but you really have to navigate some , um , trails and , and go through the beautiful landscape there. Cross over a railroad track. Um , you know , it's it sort of still maintains that mystique , which makes it , um , even more of an adventure to get down there , which might be a hard thing for Olympic organizers to grapple with.
S1: Yeah , exactly. I mean , that was what I was going to ask. I mean , how were they approaching those challenges of bringing Olympics , as you mentioned , they have , you know , World Championships , things like that.
S4: Maybe not. Am I in early talks with , um , the people at state parks and what the negotiations look like ? They really do want to be , um , cognizant of any impacts on the natural environment down there. They , the Olympic , um , organizers took some heat over in Tahiti because they built up a big scaffold on some pretty delicate reef there. So there was a lot of protests. There was a lot of negativity , um , around that. So I think they want to be really extra sensitive and careful to not do the same thing here at trestles , because it is such a , um , a natural , beautiful area. So I think what they're looking at is how the World Surf League has operated the , the World Championships and really limiting the , um , the , uh , number of visitors or spectators that will be allowed on site and they'll run it probably very similar to the World Championships where they'll only allow 3000 to 4000 people , um , down at the beach. You know , we've got three years , so that might change. But but it sounds like they're going to use that same footprint. Um , it will be different. It sounds like it will be ticketed. So , you know , you're not just going to have hordes and hordes of people go down there. Um , you know , other events. We have one coming up in June and the past world championships , um , anybody could show up. Anybody could go down , and you find a piece of sand if you can , or a cobblestone to sit on , and you can watch the action. I think the Olympics are going to definitely have a heightened level of security.
S1: So the , you know , the LA games in 28 , that will be the third Olympics featuring surfing as an event. Is that right ? Correct.
S4: Yeah. It first started in Tokyo.
S1: Can you talk about , you know , the effort behind , you know , bringing , uh , surfing on as an Olympic sport and what effect that's had so far on the sport.
S4: Yeah , sure. You know , I remember I did a column , um , I think it was 2010 , and it was like ten predictions of for surfing in the next decade. And I did it with , um , Peter Pete Town , and he was , uh , surfing's first world champion. And like we jokingly said , surfing will be in the Olympics. Nobody actually believed that could happen. Um , except for one guy and a group of people who worked hard for many , many , many years because they had a vision originally stated by Duke Kahanamoku , of course , the Hawaiian Olympic swimmer , um , from , you know , early era , uh , surfing , who just had this vision and dream that surfing would one day become an Olympics. So there was this man , Fernando Aguirre , who's often credited , um , rightfully so , for getting surfing into the Olympics. He lobbied officials , the IOC , he would show up with surfboards. He's this very flamboyant man from Argentina who has this big persona and he really , really pushed for years and years and years despite everybody saying he was crazy , which he is a little bit. Um , but he , he got it , uh , into the Olympics. And so he , um , in 2020 , it was planned. Of course , the pandemic happened , so it was pushed back to 2021. But that was really the first look at how , uh , surfing could be included as a , as an Olympic game. Um , we had some locals competing. It was a lot of great action. Carissa Moore from Hawaii Team USA won the first women's gold. Italo Ferreira from Brazil took the first gold medal for the men. Um , they got this really rare typhoon that came through and it , you know , brought some kind of funky but rideable waves. And then of course , we had , um , Tahiti happened in Chubut and , um , had some amazing action there as well. And you know that that really showcased what these athletes could do in this big , massive surf. You had that iconic image of Brazilian Gabriel Medina with , you know , his finger up in the air and his the surfboard pointing up that was captured and just shared around the world. And so that was , you know , that really solidified that surfing could create these big Olympic moments. Um , so , you know , Lower Trestles has something to live up to. That's for sure.
S1:
S4: Absolutely. And , you know , there's quite a few who are going to have a home surf advantage because a lot of them live right here in San Clemente and have either grown up on this wave or for a number of years have trained on it and moved to the region to be close to it. Um , off the top of my head. Caroline Marks , who just nabbed the gold in Tahiti , who is originally from Florida but moved here to San Clemente to be closer to the industry. And that wave in particular. Um , so she'll have a huge advantage. She also happened to have , uh , won a world championship title there , right there at the same spot. So she's definitely somebody to watch. Um , also on the women's side , Caitlin Simmers just won her first world championship. She's super young , but the world's best , um , just just dominating. She also made an Olympic appearance last at the last one in Tahiti. Um , she's from Oceanside and just an amazing surfer. Um , she's really blowing a lot of people's minds at the moment. Um , on the men's side , Griffin Colapinto. Uh , he made it to team USA for , uh , for a chance over in Tahiti and has also been in the World championship running two years in a row now. Uh , Felipe Toledo lives here in San Clemente. He's from Brazil. He has won , I think , three championships down there at Lower Trestles. So we have a lot of surfers who have a great chance at taking gold here. But there's also , you know , Huntington Beach's Kanoa Igarashi lives in Huntington. He surfs for Japan. I mean , he'll be a threat because he grew up surfing this wave as well , especially in the amateur circuit. You know , a lot of national championships for growing up have been won right here at Lower Trestles. Um , but , you know , that's the thing about Olympics. It's anybody's to win , right ? So you might have somebody from Costa Rica or , you know , France or anywhere. Come and take that gold medal. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that.
S4: I mean , there's so many great storylines from the athletes of , you know , how far they've traveled , the things that they've done to follow their dreams. And I think people in general are so mesmerized by surfing , by the surfing culture. It really is this just this thing that people are drawn to , whether , you know , what it's like to ride a wave or you just admire it or you just think it's cool , right ? So there's there's all these things that make it so special. Um , you know , it can be a little technical when you're watching the competition side because you have to understand the scoring and the judging and all of that. You know , basically it breaks down to a number of different criteria. You have the flow , you have progression , you have , you know , style , all the things that the judges look for. But like you mentioned , there's that natural aspect , right ? I mean , gosh , I remember not long ago we were at a surf contest and a shark jumped out of there. And , you know , you might see dolphins come up and , and , um , you know , get close to the surfers and , you know , you have this unexpected thing that you don't have in any of the other sports , even snowboarding , being a fellow action sport. You know , you just have this , this element that is unpredictable. And I think that's part of the allure of it.
S1: Yeah , definitely. I'd say shark sighting is definitely like an element that other most other sports don't have to deal with. Well , we appreciate you kind of breaking all this down. It'll be fun to watch this story as the Olympics , you know , draw closer. I've been speaking with Ellen Connelly. She's the beach reporter with the Orange County Register and also has one of the cooler job titles I've heard this week as beach Reporter. Leland , thanks so much for joining us and breaking down a little bit more about the wave and and the sport. Absolutely.
S4: Absolutely. Anytime I'm really looking forward to , you know , sharing this amazing story as it unfolds.
S1: Coming up on roundtable , we check in on some other stories from the week in the round up. That's next on Round Table. Welcome back to KPBS Round table I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our roundup of a few other stories from this week. And joining me is KPBS producer Ashley Rush. And Ashley. This week obviously on Monday was a big day news wise , and that was the earthquake. And for me , it stood out. I mean , I've lived in Southern California now for roughly two decades , and I've definitely kind of been around for a few earthquakes. This is the first one where I really kind of realized it was an earthquake as it was happening. And then the other piece that jumped out to me is I didn't really know what to do. Like the first thing that jumped into my head was , uh , Stop , drop and roll , which I think is like a fire train , you know. So I got it totally wrong. But I don't know , it's , you know , you grew up in Southern California. I'm sure you've been around a lot of earthquakes. How does this relate to other earthquakes you've experienced ? Yeah.
S5: Well , first , I think you should give yourself props for the stop , drop and roll. You knew something somewhere applied incorrectly. Yes. Correct. Useful one day. Um , but , yeah , I grew up in Los Angeles. Um , and I remember , you know , always having this annual great shakeout drill where all of us in school would drop under the table , under the , under the desks , um , and then go out to the field and kind of sit around for a couple hours while we pretended like there was an earthquake. And , you know , you think you're really prepared , whether it's that or like , standing with your family under a doorway when there's a little bit of rumbling or something. But I think it's a lot different when it actually happens. It takes a good five or 10s to actually register this as an earthquake. This isn't some trash truck going by my house and shaking things. You know , and so it can be hard to respond in that amount of time when you are still trying to figure out what's going on.
S1: And thankfully , you know , there wasn't extensive damage. There weren't injuries from this. But to your point , I think a lot of us do struggle in the moment of like , what are we supposed to do ? And earlier this week on Midday Edition , we had a segment , I think you produced it on Earthquake Preparedness , and host Jade Heineman spoke with Elias Jacob Margolis. And Jade started by asking , you know , by mentioning what she did. Her first reaction was to run outside. And here's what Jacob Margolis responded with for how to properly react to an earthquake if it happens.
S6: You should definitely have gotten under that under that desk. I would not recommend running or trying to run when there is an earthquake. If it is big enough , it's going to be impossible to run unless you know you're in a building that is going to collapse , or you have a feeling you are. I would generally trust the buildings that I'm in , especially these days. I would get under that desk. If I'm at home , I make sure my bed , which is , you know , I feel like you're , you know , likely in bed when it hits for some reason , uh , is one of the safest places to be. So I tell my kids to just stay in bed. We'll come get you. Wait until the shaking is over.
S1: So I don't know. Just a good reminder there. Obviously , if I heard this Sunday night , I would have reacted better , you know ? But hopefully for the next.
S5: Time now , you know , for next time. Exactly.
S1: Uh , a second story here. And that's the city budget released its initial draft proposal earlier on the show. We spoke with Scott Lewis. He was talking about trash fees and kind of tied it into how it relates to the city budget. The city is , you know , needing to fill this over $250 million budget deficit. And they announced the initial this is sort of like in pencil , not in pen. The draft proposal of the budget was released this week. And Mayor Todd Gloria said they're going to eliminate over a couple hundred city positions. Many of them are unfilled , but there are some city workers that will face layoffs from this. But a lot of the attention was on the cuts to libraries and parks. The Union Tribune's David Garrick. A number of reporters have done stories on the budget. Garrick reported that also , the city's homelessness spending is expected to decrease. And I think that's that's important because it's been such a , you know , the seminal issue for Mayor Gloria and his time in office. And I think he ties it to other factors , because we know it's not just financial challenges that the city level. There's also state budget issues , federal spending. So again , this is just the opening salvo here in this city budget. But it's coming up quick because the new financial year starts July 1st. So not too far off.
S5: Definitely will want to watch the cuts to libraries and parks. I know a lot of people have strong opinions about that. So okay , you said that this is pencil , not pen. So it's just a draft budget.
S1: And that's expected in mid-May. So so we'll find out more , you know , in about a month.
S5: We'll be following that as it unfolds. I want to bring this other story up. It was from Voice of San Diego's Jacob McWhinney. Pretty interesting story in the world of education , and a very 2025 story we have here about students taking over classroom space in San Diego's community colleges. So I guess there's this issue where a lot of bots are taking up space in classes in order to cheat state and federal financial aid. Um , but they have to remain in the classes long enough for aid dollars to go out. So they're doing this by submitting AI generated homework. Um , and it's a pretty complicated problem because you can't just cancel all virtual classes. You know , those are really important for students to have access and flexibility , especially students that , you know , might be working , might have kids , might be older and have a need , you know , wider options to attend class. Um , and because community colleges famously accept all applicants , they've been almost exclusively impacted by the fraud. So Jacob and his story talked to one Southwestern College professor. Her name is Elizabeth Smith. Um , she thought she had over 100 students enrolled in a certain class , but the number fell to just 15 when she , you know , went through and sorted out the bots. Um , so it's really falling on a lot of teachers to spend a lot of time investigating these bots and kind of figuring out who's real , who's not , and who's taking up space.
S1: And you're right. I mean , this is such a 2025 , right sort of story. I mean , can you imagine having this conversation ten , 15 years ago ? It would just sound like , you know , futuristic daydream. Um , it is really interesting in the multiple levels. You kind of mentioned that it's not just registering for the classes to get the financial aid they need to stay in for a certain period of time. So they need to kind of like pretend like they're in the class. Hence this like AI generated homework that's , you know , getting submitted makes it really complicated. It sounds like. And and in Jacob's piece , he mentions , you know , it's it's also expensive. It's cost California's community colleges over $11 million in 2024. And Jacob said , you know , that was doubled from the previous year. So it's a growing problem. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And it's really interesting , you know , to me , because you're thinking about professors having to go through and sort out who's a real student , who's a bought student. And in this day and age , you know , everyone uses I like tons of students use I.
S1: And then on the student side , it also I mean you kind of mentions it also messes up enrollment for students because these bots are trying to fill up these spaces. So really , you know , modern day problem that will be interesting to see how they kind of solve that.
S5: One other story that was kind of more news you could use this week came from our video journalist here at KPBS , Matthew Bowler. It's a really cool piece about how to get involved with activism. You know , we're seeing a lot of big protests these days , and this piece kind of dives into San Diego's own history of activism and just the wide ranging options people have to engage in political activism these days. So he starts the piece actually at the corner of fifth and E Street in downtown San Diego. That's where activists with groups like the International Workers of the world would give speeches and debate back in 1912. And this is a really interesting side story , but it was such a big deal back then that city authorities actually shut that down and banned free speech for six blocks , with the corner of fifth and E streets at the center. So really important , significant place right there. And in this piece , he spoke to local activists and even political science professor Rick Epps , who says , you know , if you want to engage in protest , you first have to pick your cause. And persistence is the key to a movement success. And I think that's really important because obviously you can't be everywhere all at once. Right.
S1: Right. And , you know , it's a timely story too , because we're kind of seems to be these movements are starting up. We've heard about the hands off protests earlier this month. I think there's more coming this month. There's another protest movement happening this weekend , I think , too. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And another thing that stood out to me from this particular piece was that Matthew Buller spoke to Professor Erica Chenoweth. She's from the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy. And she points out that research shows that for nonviolent movements to be successful , just 3.5% of the population need to be activists. So it really doesn't take that many people to , you know , propel a movement forward.
S1: You can find that full story on our website at npr.org. I've been speaking with KPBS producer Ashley Rush. Ashley , thanks.
S5: Thanks , Andrew.
S1: That'll do it for our show today. Thanks so much for listening to KPBS roundtable. If you missed any of today's show , you can listen to the show anytime. As a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays again , Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show , 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. The show was produced by Ashley Rush. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer , supervising producers. Quinn Owen. I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
