Chula Vista appeals ruling on drone footage
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Friday, January 19th.
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The latest in Chula Vista’s fight against access to drone footage. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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The county department of animal services says overcrowding at its shelters has reached a critical stage.
For the last year and half, more dogs have been brought into animal shelters than are being reclaimed or adopted.
Carl Smith is the Assistant Director of the animal services department.
“We’re operating right around 97, 98 percent capacity on a daily basis.”
The department is asking the public to consider fostering or adopting.
Their website is s-d-d-a-c dot com.
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There will be no COASTER or Amtrak service this weekend, between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego.
The North County Transit District says the closures are for regular maintenance and infrastructure improvements along the coastal rail corridor.
The rail line will re-open in time for morning commuters on Monday.
But trains may be delayed up to 15 minutes on that day.
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We can expect cloudy skies and cooler weather today before more rain is headed our way this weekend.
The National Weather Service says the rain will get stronger over the weekend and become even stronger early next week.
Temperatures in the inland and coastal areas today will be in the low to mid 60s, in the mountains, it’ll be a little cooler, in the high 50s and in the deserts, temps will be in the low 70s.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now. Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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Chula Vista is appealing a ruling on its police department’s controversial drone program, to the state supreme court.
Investigative reporter Amita Sharma says the case stems from a journalist’s request for footage captured by surveillance drones.
La Prensa San Diego Publisher Art Castanares sued Chula Vista in 2021 after its police department denied his public records act request for its drone footage. A superior court judge ruled in favor of the city last year, saying the video was investigative and thus exempt from disclosure. But an appellate court said the judge erred and ordered the city to review the requested video and determine what is actually investigative. In a statement, Chula Vista said it was appealing the appellate court ruling because officials worried it “may compromise significant privacy concerns of members of the public.” Castanares says the city is disingenuous when it uses privacy concerns to justify keeping surveillance video from the public. “The more that they argue that releasing this video could violate someone’s privacy, the more that they’re admitting that they already did.” If the supreme court decides not to take the case, the appellate decision stands. Amita Sharma, KPBS News.
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The city of San Diego says it now has the information it needs to make its streets better.
The city's transportation department yesterday (Thursday) gave an update on the comprehensive review of all city streets.
It's the first review of its kind in seven years.
Every street is graded with a score of zero-to-100... with 100 being the best.
The city says the overall score is 63.
Bethany Beezak is the director of the city's Transportation Department.
"In 2023, 250 miles of roadway were repaired and resurfaced and more than 61,000 potholes were filled. that's a 94% increase over the previous year.”
There's a city website where you can look up any street and see its score.
It's at streets-dot-san-diego-dot-gov.
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San Diego is a leader among cities that are updating their zoning laws to allow for more housing.
But most of the new homes being built are studios and one-bedroom apartments.
Families with children often have to look to the suburbs to find a two- or three-bedroom home they can afford.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says there's a growing movement to make family-size apartments easier to build… with a simple change to the building code.
DP: Between this building and here will be a small courtyard that will become a small courtyard for those who live here as well as the seven families who live in this unit here. AB: David Pearson is showing me around the backyard of a house in San Diego's Grant Hill neighborhood. He's the architect on a small apartment building here that's set to break ground this summer. david pearson palo architecture & landscape office dp: This project is a good example of what we do. It's keeping the home up front. It's adding seven units in the back. Those units are going to be studios and two-bedrooms. The two-bedrooms will have a den slash office space that could be used even for a nursery in a flexible way. AB: Designing buildings is complicated, and every inch counts. Pearson says he was able to incorporate these family-sized apartments by designing the project with only one staircase. He says so-called "single-stair buildings" offer architects more flexibility. Less of the building is taken up by hallways and staircases. That makes it easier to incorporate two- and three-bedroom apartments with windows on multiple sides. DP: So it's a nice light-filled unit that can rely less on artificial lighting. It can rely less on expensive mechanical equipment to heat and cool because the residents of that home have just more control of how to open a window and create a nice breeze through the unit. AB: Here's the catch: In most of the United States, single-stair buildings cannot be taller than three stories. That makes them less attractive for homebuilders. They're incentivized to design apartments like hotels, with two staircases on opposite sides of the building connected by a long hallway. Pearson is part of a growing movement to bring the local and state building codes in line with Europe, Latin America and Asia, where single-stair buildings can go up to six stories… sometimes taller. TT: My initial reaction was a bit of concern. AB: Tony Tosca is San Diego's fire marshal. He oversees building inspections to make sure they meet life and safety requirements. The three-story limit on single-stair buildings emerged in the early 20th Century as apartment fires were ravaging American cities. Building regulators wanted to ensure as residents were evacuating, firefighters could still get in. tony tosca san diego fire marshal tt: People are going up there to effectively do rescue and fight fires and set up their operations. People are also coming out. So there's this competing factor. That's a huge concern for me. AB: At the same time, Tosca acknowledges fire prevention and suppression technology has advanced in leaps and bounds. California requires sprinkler systems in new apartment buildings. Furniture has to be fire resistant. That's why Tosca is keeping an open mind. TT: Definitely housing is an important issue here in California, especially in San Diego. As long as there's something that maintains that life safety aspect, we're all in support of it. But we just gotta make sure that it's done the right way. EM: The way that we modify zoning versus modify building code are two different animals. AB: Ed Mendoza is policy director for the Livable Communities Initiative, which is advocating for single-stair reform. It supported a law passed last year that directed the state fire marshal to do a study on the safety of single-stair apartment buildings. Mendoza says that study needs to look at real-world examples. ed mendoza livable communities initiative em: We want to argue for this separate reform in good faith. We don't want hearsay, we don't want anecdotes. We want facts, and hopefully the facts carry us through. AB: Mendoza and David Pearson met with an aide to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria last year to discuss local single-stair reform. Pearson hopes city officials take the idea to heart. DP: I would like to see the city look at building code reform as a means to create good safe designed family units that ultimately provide more freedom of choice for residents of San Diego to stay put in San Diego, not move out to the suburbs. AB: The statewide study on single-stair reform is due to be completed by the end of this year. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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The Sweetwater Union High School District is taking voter registration directly to its students.
Education reporter M.G. Perez has more on the lunchtime effort to get eligible teenagers involved in the 20-24 elections.
Students at Chula Vista High School are the first in the Sweetwater Union District to have a chance to register to vote right on campus. Volunteers with the associated student body joined the League of Women Voters and the County registrar in signing up first time voters. 18-year-olds can register… and pre-registration is available for 16- and 17-year-olds. eye-ZAY-ah Ringfield is a junior at Chula Vista High and the Sweetwater District’s student school board trustee…determined to get the attention of his classmates. “relating to them…like me coming up to you instead of like a 60 year old person you’ve never met coming up to you and telling you to vote…I think is huge.” The lunch-time student voter registration campaign continues through early May…with events scheduled at each of the Sweetwater District high schools campuses. MGP KPBS News.
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The San Diego Convention Center is hosting a Solar Energy Expo.
But it’s not just about technology and workshops.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge tells us about a sporting event you’ve probably never even imagined… the Solar Games.
The solar installation team Grid Alternatives is competing in the solar games and they’ve got a fan base. The California all-women’s team won their first round against Northwest Electric and Solar, from Washington State. What are they doing? Well, they’re putting something on a roof. Anna Beutista is the coach of Grid Alternatives. “So we have three rounds. And it’s single elimination and each team has 90 minutes. We’re competing roof to roof. Each team has 90 minutes to install an array of ten modules in addition to a battery backup system.” Whether watching solar roof installation is a good spectator sport … is open to debate. But Bautista says the winning team gets ten thousand dollars. And she believes their female team sets a good example for gender equity in what some call a male dominated solar industry. The tournament, and the solar energy expo end on Friday. SOQ.
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That’s it for the podcast today. This podcast is produced by Emilyn Mohebbi and edited by Brooke Ruth. We’d like to thank our colleagues, Nic McVicker, Joe Guerin and John Carroll for helping the podcast team this week. On Monday, the CEO of the San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness joins me to talk about next week’s Point in Time Count. Join us then to hear that conversation, plus more of the day’s top stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.
