Another Whack At A Climate Plan

So...when a vaccine becomes available, how will health officials in San Diego go about getting it out to the public? A San Diego Health and Human Services Agency Spokeswoman told KPBS that development of a countywide vaccine distribution strategy is under way. She said local officials are building their plan by looking at state and federal guidelines published by the California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both of those documents call on regions to identify and estimate the numbers of high-risk populations that may be first in line….that includes healthcare workers, people 65 years or older and those living in congregate settings like nursing homes. Other essential workers might also be considered as some of those who could get the vaccine earlier. *** San Diego County health officials Wednesday reported 922 new COVID-19 infections and a dozen deaths yesterday. Wednesday was the eighth consecutive day that more than 600 new coronavirus cases were reported in our county…. Yesterday’s number was also the second-highest single day total reported thus far….the highest was Sunday, when 1,087 cases were recorded. **** Former state legislator Joel Anderson increased his lead yesterday in the race for the Second District seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. According to figures released by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, Anderson is now up 291 votes over Poway Mayor Steve Vaus. The next update in the tight race is scheduled to be released at 5 p.m. later today. *** From KPBS, I’m Kinsee Morlan, in for Annica Colbert, and you’re listening to San Diego News Matters...a daily news podcast made possible by the reporters, editors and producers in our newsroom. It’s Thursday, November 19. Stay with me for more of the local news you need. MIDROLL 1 San Diego County health officials really don’t want folks going to work when they’re sick… And now..the county is taking action to make sure some financial resources are available for those testing positive for COVID-19. County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher first pushed for the program that pays working San Diegans to stay home if they've contracted the virus. This is for low wage service workers primarily… We're not going to slow the virus if people are afraid to get tested if they won't quarantine so this seemed an appropriate step to help people through. KPBS Reporter Matt Hoffman has more details. This is the second time the county's allocated two million dollars to provide stipends to people testing positive for COVID-19. Supervisor Nathan Fletcher says some workers had been reluctant to get tested because they couldn't afford not to go to work. 0:33.261 Nathan Fletcher, San Diego County Supervisor The goal of this program is that so that someone is not put into a position do I continue to go to work because I have to feed my family or do I isolate in order to protect public health? We want everyone to isolate in order to protect public health. 24-hundred San Diegans have applied for relief. This week county supervisors voted to add another $2 million dollars to the program. To be eligible for a $1,000 stipend, people who test positive must be currently employed and not receiving any unemployment benefits or employer paid time off or sick time. Matt Hoffman kpbs news *** The San Diego City Council this week approved a long-awaited housing development on the Riverwalk golf course in Mission Valley. Councilmember Scott Sherman, who represents the area, says San Diego needs a lot more housing. This is one step to producing enough product where we might actually see prices come down to where average San Diegans can afford to own their own home and … start working toward the freedom that that entails. KPBS metro reporter Andrew Bowen says the project is also coming with a new trolley station. AB: The idea behind the Riverwalk San Diego project was conceived more than 30 years ago. Developers plan on building 4,300 homes on the site just west of Fashion Valley mall, as well as retail, office space and parks. All that will be anchored by a new stop on the Green line trolley. Councilmember Scott Sherman, who represents the area, says the project will add badly needed housing in the right place. SS: You know it's density around transit, it's gonna help with climate action. It to me is an example of the smart growth philosophy that the city has been preaching for quite some time. AB: The project will be built in phases, with completion expected in 2035. *** COVID-19 closures have made after school programs scarce throughout San Diego. The Oceanside Boys and Girls Club has kept its doors open to serve kids and families in the community. KPBS North County reporter Tania Thorne has more. The Oceanside Boys and Girls Club used to welcome 1400 youth into their facility before getting shut down in March due to COVID-19. Jodi Diamond, CEO of the Oceanside Boys and Girls Club, reached out to the youth they served to see how they were coping. 'What we heard was truly heartbreaking. They were hungry, and that is when the team came together and said we've got to do something about it, we can't let our children go hungry." With a commercial kitchen available in their facility, staff began preparing home made meals to distribute to the community. The emergency food program helped launch their current program where they assist 200 youth with academic support, virtual learning, and provide daily meals. TT KPBS News **** Yesterday on Facebook, I saw a post someone put together listing all the restaurants in San Diego that have closed down because of COVID. The poster listed over 70 restaurants and people were adding to it in the comments. Lots of businesses...and not just restaurants have been struggling to stay open through the pandemic. Today, a story about a business that hasn't even had the chance to open yet, but got a helping hand. KPBS reporter Jacob Aere has more. _____________________________________________________________________ Pink Rose Cafe owner Nadia Zamora received a big surprise Wednesday, after what's been a tough year so far. Her La Mesa business was damaged in the May riots - before it even got a chance to open. She received a $5000 check from Union Bank and free one year membership to the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce. She said she was overjoyed by the community support. "To receive anything in return just for just the gesture that I did, for being selected, it's very humbling." That gesture was organizing art displays and messages of hope on businesses that were damaged in May. While Pink Rose Cafe is currently boarded up with art-covered plywood, it's slated to open in December or January. *** San Diego County is already working on another climate action plan hoping they can come up with one that stands up to legal scrutiny. KPBS environment reporter Erik Anderson says there will be a new perspective on the Board of Supervisors after the latest effort flamed out this past summer. San Diego County has already put together four climate action plans. Each was a spectacular failure. 11:18:25 – 11:18: 31 “It’s just like groundhogs day, has been like groundhogs day. We just have to keep revisiting.” The Climate Action Campaign’s Nicole Capretz says the county is being pushed by the state. California law requires all counties to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas put into the air. But none of the county’s previous climate action plans survived legal scrutiny. 11:19:16 – 11:19:32 “They’ve been defiant. I mean, purely defiant. And didn’t care what the state law said. And despite what the court is saying, that’s not okay, they just kept doing the same thing, so here we are.” Environmental advocates say they have shared their views about what will work with the county, but each final plan failed to include their input. 11:19:48 – 11:20:06 “That’s always been the crux of the problem. They really had their own gameplan in mind so they were kind of having perfunctory public process but they really at the end of the day wanted to continue to allow growth in the back country.” One major issue is vehicle miles travelled. That’s how the state determines how many greenhouse gas emissions are getting into the atmosphere. More cars on the road, driving more miles means more emissions in the air.” County officials have a General Plan that aims to limit increases in vehicle miles travelled by locating new housing near existing services. But the county has approved 14 large developments in rural areas 11:22:46 – 11:22:51 “Let’s just stop pretending that we can continue to develop the backcountry.” Even the state of California has warned the county that those sprawl developments would hurt the state’s ability to hit it’s 2030 goal to roll back greenhouse gas emissions. 13:18:40 – 13:18:59 “We need to embrace that climate change is real.” ((Nathan Fletcher is a member of the board of supervisors. )) “We need to embrace that we not only have a legal, but a moral obligation to have a climate action plan that addresses that. And I believe in early January, this board will make a definitive statement to that end. And begin to implement that change.” The reason for that shift is tied to the election. For the first time in years, the board of supervisors will have a three to two democrat majority. Fletcher expects the new board to announce early on that things are changing and it will not be business as usual. Superior court judge Timothy Taylor has ruled on a number of climate action plans and housing developments. 13:19:20 -- 13:19:33 “My hope is that as a board as we move forward, judge taylor won’t have anything to do. Because this county has kept that judge incredibly busy over the course of the last decade. And we’ve lost every single lawsuit because we’ve had the wrong approach.” That wrong approach has created financial incentives for builders to buy rural land and seek exceptions to county development rules. 12:20:26 – 13:20:38 “If you purchase that land for very little value and you jam through a general plan amendment you can reach tremendous financial gain. And so we’ve fiscalized and incentivized folks to fight for decades to put housing in the wrong place.” KPBS reached out to the Building Industry Association several times seeking comment, but they did not respond to the inquiries. The trade group has successfully lobbied the board to approve developments that do not follow the general plan, because they say those developments ease a regional housing shortage. But if builders continue to push for housing in the backcountry , environmentalists say they have to compensate for the resulting impacts, locally . 00:01:47 -- 00:01:53 “Developers really need to take a look and see how they can offset all of these problems. The local Sierra Club’s Richard Miller says if developments cause more greenhouse gas emissions, the people who build those projects should be responsible for balancing the scales locally. 00:02:16 – 00:02:33 “by doing some very simple things, like adding solar. Possibly preserving the land that’s around them. Building electrification. So there are ways that they can reach a net zero on a lot of buildings.” Meanwhile, county staff are looking to build a climate action plan that will finally be resilient to legal challenges. That includes discussion with environmentalists. KPBS environment reporter Erik Anderson **** Coming up…. Hate crimes are up across the country. We check in on San Diego’s number after the break. MIDROLL 2 A report released by the FBI this week showed hate crimes in 2019 rose to the highest level in more than a decade. There were 51 murders motivated by hate that the FBI reported, including 22 people killed in the El Paso Wal-Mart shooting in which the suspect said he targeted Mexicans. Deputy district attorney Leonard Trinh (trin), the lead hate crimes prosecutor in San Diego County, joined KPBS’ Midday Edition host Mark Saur to put a local focus on this phenomenon. The incidents of hate crimes is increasing across the United States. What is the case here in San Diego? Is the County seeing more hate crimes this year? Speaker 2: 00:36 Yeah, we actually, the last two years I've seen a pretty marked increase in hate crimes that are committed, um, in 2016 and 2017, the number of cases that were prosecuted by our office were, uh, around 14, 13 per year. But the last two years, uh, we prosecuted 30 hate crimes in each of those years. Speaker 1: 00:57 And, uh, we all have kind of a general idea of what a hate crime is, but what makes a crime a hate crime? Legally, Speaker 2: 01:04 When we look at hate crimes, what we're looking for is the motivation for why that crime is committed. And if that motivation is, uh, based on a bias against the victims, uh, race, ethnicity, or nationality, their sexual orientation, their religion, their gender, or their disability, that's what qualifies it as a hate crime in California. Speaker 1: 01:26 And, uh, is it, uh, difficult to get the evidence and prove these types of crimes compared with other crimes? It's a, it sounds like it's a challenge. Speaker 2: 01:35 Yeah. So when, whenever we talk about motive, we're trying to get into the head of, of the person who's committing the crime. And so, uh, oftentimes the only evidence that we have is what they say, uh, while they're committing the crime. If there's a use of a slur of some kind, that's some indication, uh, obviously if we have, uh, access to, uh, social media or, uh, electronic evidence that can also show that it was biased, motivated, that tends to be helpful. But if the, if the offender doesn't say anything, uh, during the course of the assault, then we don't have any indication that, that something is a hate crime. Speaker 1: 02:11 What kinds of crimes do we see here? Most often the shooting at the Poway synagogue in April, 2019 was notorious of course, but what about some that don't make such big news? Speaker 2: 02:22 Yeah, most of them do tend to be assaulted in nature or at least threatening in nature. So, um, you know, throwing a punch at someone, um, brandishing a weapon, uh, or verbally threatening, threatening to kill someone, those are kind of the classic, uh, hate crimes that we see. We do see a fair amount of property crimes as well. Uh, so vandalisms, um, mostly, uh, like graffiti type things where, um, hateful messages are spray painted on churches and or schools that are meant to intimidate. Uh, either people attending the houses of worship or, or the schools. Speaker 1: 02:57 And now who's committing these crimes or groups, or the individuals are terribly organized, Speaker 2: 03:03 At least from what we've seen in, in San Diego, they do tend to be committed by, uh, by solo people who, who may have some, uh, interactions with other hate groups, uh, on social media platforms, but there doesn't appear to be any coordination or anything like that. Speaker 1: 03:20 And San Diego County is home to at least seven hate groups, according to the Southern poverty law. Center's 2018 map of such groups, uh, which groups are operating here. Speaker 2: 03:30 Well, the Southern poverty law center, um, like you said, highlighted, uh, seven different groups, mountain minute men, uh, the realist, uh, report mass resistance, um, American identity movement, which used to be identity Europa, uh, has been around as well. Um, and so those are some of the ones that have been identified, uh, by SPLC Speaker 1: 03:54 And does this ebb and flow over time. I'm reminded of, uh, of, uh, Tom Metzger who was, uh, who died recently. His obituary made natural national news. And of course he was a white supremacist out in East County and was operating for a long time. Uh, do you see this kind of ebb and flow over time? Speaker 2: 04:12 Yeah, they, they do, um, you know, sometimes groups change names like, like the, uh, American identity movement. Um, sometimes they change names, sometimes they merge with other groups, um, but they do sort of ebb and flow as far as their activity, uh, and the types of, um, recruitment efforts that they, that they take, uh, to try and get new members. Speaker 1: 04:34 Now, the group defend East County was in the news during the election season. And are there groups that you monitor and to kind of keep an eye on or, uh, they don't really cross the line. It might get tricky there. It seems to me as a lay person. Speaker 2: 04:49 Yeah. So there are always groups that we pay attention to just because you're a member of, one of those groups doesn't mean that you're automatically every crime that you commit is going to be a hate crime. We still have to develop evidence that's tied to that specific person and what the motivation is for that person when they commit a crime. So just near membership, isn't enough. What we're really looking for are things that, that particular person, the suspect, um, you know, what they say, what they do, uh, the types of engagement that they personally have with those groups that they indicate that they're bias, motivated, um, but mere membership by itself, you know, doesn't always mean that the crimes that are committed are hate crimes, Speaker 1: 05:27 And I wanted to bring up the political climate. The man I referenced earlier killed 22 people at the Walmart in El Paso last year, he was believed to have posted a racist anti-immigrant screed before going to El Paso from his Dallas home to quote, kill Mexicans. And he was going to defend the country against an invasion. According to authorities that echoes president Trump's warning is of migrant caravans, uh, invading the U S ahead of the 2018 elections. How connected is the rise in hate crimes to polarized us Speaker 2: 05:58 When things become normalized, or when we see things in the media, um, people tend to adopt those beliefs. And so, uh, while it may not be tied to our particular, you know, tweet or something that the president says, when more people hear that stuff and they repeat it themselves, it gained some sort of normalcy. And so for someone like Patrick Crucis, um, the El Paso shooter, if he's hearing things that are very anti-immigrant in the news, um, he's going to start believing that he's not alone in having those beliefs and, uh, start to be emboldened by, by those beliefs and move to action. Speaker 1: 06:36 For example, D we see a rise in hate crimes during the election. Speaker 2: 06:40 We do actually, that is one thing that we do see every four years, and it's mostly tied to presidential politics, presidential elections, and, you know, there's a whole bunch of different possible, possible explanations for why that, why that is politics does tend to be divisive on its own. But then when you have elections, especially national elections, where immigration comes up or, you know, things that really divide us as a country, uh, when they're at the center, uh, of, of debates and, and national discourse, it does give rise to especially race-based hate crimes. We see a spike in it every four years, and that's been true in 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004. And beyond, And that was Deputy district attorney Leonard Trinh, the lead hate crimes prosecutor in San Diego County, talking with KPBS’ Midday Edition host Mark Saur. You can find more in-depth interviews like this one by finding and subscribing to KPBS Midday Edition on apple podcasts or wherever you listen. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening. Anica is back tomorrow.