Impact of PedWest border closure on economy
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, September 19th.
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How the closure of the Ped-West border crossing in San Ysidro is affecting the local economy. That next. But first... let’s do the headlines….
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It’s almost fall, and the National Weather Service says this week’s weather will start to feel like it.
Temps will be up to 10 degrees below average for this time of year in the county’s coastal and desert areas, and up to 20 degrees below normal in the valleys and mountains.
Today, temps in the inland valleys are expected to be in the mid-70s, by the coast and in the mountains it’ll be in the high 60s, and in the county’s deserts, it’ll be in the mid-90s.
Thursday is expected to be the coolest day, with a chance of light rain.
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Today is National Voter Registration Day.
It’s a reminder to register to vote, check your registration and get “vote ready” if you haven’t already.
Election Day is coming up on November 7th.
The races in the county include filling the vacant District 4 seat on the county’s board of supervisors, filling the vacant seat for Chula Vista’s City Attorney and the Fallbrook Public Utility and Rainbow Municipal Water Districts detachment measure.
Go to k-p-b-s dot org slash vote for more info.
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Two local universities made it on Forbes’ list of the top 25 public colleges.
UC-SD ranked number 3 in the country, and SD-SU ranked number 16.
Forbes originally ranked the best 500 public and private colleges in the country in its 20-23 America’s Top Colleges list.
Then, the top 25 public schools were pulled from that list, based on factors that included graduation rate, alumni salary data, and student debt.
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Coming up… San Diego’s business leaders are worried that closing a pedestrian border crossing in San Ysidro will exacerbate an already bad situation for businesses in the border region.
“We can talk numbers, but it’s a huge setback and it’s honestly not only a challenge but a threat to our economy.”
More on that story, just after the break.
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Late last week, Customs and Border Protection abruptly closed the Pedwest border crossing in San Ysidro.
And it remained closed through the weekend.
Business leaders told border reporter Gustavo Solis that the closure threatens businesses that are already suffering.
Jason Wells can’t say how he really feels about the current status of the PedWest border crossing in San Ysidro. At least not on public radio. “Frustrated is probably the strongest term I can say in front of the camera but certainly not the term we would say amongst each other.” Customs and Border Protection closed the pedestrian crossing last week. They cited an unexpected rise in migration and limited resources. The crossing was part of a $741 million expansion to the San Ysidro port of entry completed in 2016. Wells says it’s frustrating to see that investment be underused.“Our ask is to use the facilities that we built. I don’t want to hear about personnel.” Last week’s closure was another blow to a San Ysidro business community that was hit especially hard by the pandemic shutdowns CBP closed PedWest in April 2020 and it remained fully closed until this year. In January, CBP partially reopened the crossing BUT only for northbound traffic between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. As a result, pedestrian traffic through PedWest plummeted from 18,000 a day before the pandemic to 4,000 during the partial closure. “We still see pedestrians waiting four to six hours. Kenia Zamarripa is with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. She says border wait times are at an all time high. The majority of people impacted by the closure are workers who live in Tijuana and commute to San Diego. They work in our region’s hospitals, hotels, restaurants, nursing homes and schools. Zamarripa says they work throughout the county from Chula Vista and Coronado to Sorrento Valley, La Jolla and Del Mar. “This expands all the way to north county, so this is not a South Bay issue.” A 2021 report states that long border wait times cause the San Diego and Tijuana region to lose about $3.4 billion in economic output every year. Without additional improvements to the region’s Port of Entry, the economic losses could grow up to more than $5 billion. “We can talk numbers, but it’s a huge setback and it’s honestly not only a challenge but a threat to our economy.” Disruptions to the cross-border commute have significant impacts says Joaquin Luken from the Smart Border Coalition. “Imagine a worker, if you’re a business owner, having an employee come in to work with already half a shift waiting on foot just to get across. It’s unfathomable it’s amazing the stress on the binational work force.” In a statement, CBP says it hopes to again partially reopen PedWest as quickly as possible. But did not provide a timeline. The agency will open as many lanes as possible in the PedEast pedestrian crossing to try to accommodate those who normally use PedWest. Gustavo Solis, KPBS News.
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California’s decision to sue five major oil companies is welcome news for environmentalists, but the state isn’t breaking new ground.
Imperial Beach took legal action six years ago.
Environment reporter Erik Anderson has details.
San Diego’s embattled coastal community of Imperial Beach joined Marin and San Mateo counties in 2017 in asking oil and coal companies for billions of dollars in property damage costs linked to climate change. Imperial Beach mayor Paloma Aguirre says the city was already feeling the impact of rising sea levels. Paloma Aguirre, Imperial Beach Mayor “We’re surrounded by water. We have the estuary to the south. The Pacific coast to the west and the bay to the north. And projections show that we are going to be severely impacted by sea level rise.” The ongoing lawsuit argues greenhouse gas emissions cause sea level rise which leads to coastal flooding, beach erosion, and the need to rebuild wastewater and stormwater systems. It also argues the fossil fuel industry misled the public willfully. Erik Anderson KPBS News.
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Coming up.... A popular area to watch sea lions in La Jolla will not be reopening this fall. We’ll have that story and more, just after the break.
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San Diego organizers are training community members how to file complaints against police officers.
Reporter Katie Hyson has more.
Tasha Williamson taught herself how to file complaints against San Diego police. A police officer can take your life, take your freedom, change the trajectory of your household in one instance. And you don't think that the public should know their behaviors? She now trains others, or files on their behalf. How many has she filed? She says the paper trail is vital. Complaints can add up to an officer getting fired. Or make it harder for them to get a job in other police departments. She says it puts pressure on officers to change their behavior. Williamson says it’s important to file not just directly with the law enforcement agency, but also with their oversight commission and the state’s police standards commission. Community members are finding their voices. They're tired . . . And part of complaining is the community standing up, fighting for itself. This year, the state commission gained the power to decertify officers for serious misconduct. They anticipate removing thousands of officers from the profession each year. Katie Hyson, KPBS News.
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An area of La Jolla popular for watching sea lions will not be reopening to the public this fall.
Metro reporter Andrew Bowen says visitors will have to enjoy the animals from a distance.
AB: Point La Jolla is a rocky outcropping right next to La Jolla Cove — a perfect resting place for sea lions. But for years, city officials have been struggling to prevent people from getting too close to the animals. That can trigger aggressive behavior, and can cause mother sea lions to abandon their offspring. The city had already closed Point La Jolla for the pupping season from May to October. Councilmember Joe LaCava said that worked. JC: From May through October, the closure protected the public from sea lions, minimizing interactions and conflict and gave our rangers the enforcement tools they needed to let the public experience the wildlife and our coastal resources from a safe distance. AB: The city is exploring adding more signage and gates, and potentially setting up surveillance cameras to enforce the closure. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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Cinema Junkie Beth Accomando loves zombies.
As proof of that, she is co-hosting a 14-hour horror marathon at the Comic-Con Museum on Saturday called “The Secret Morgue: Zombie Autopsy Edition.”
To add some insight into the zombie brain, she invited a pair of neuroscientists to introduce the films.
One of them is UC-SD professor of cognitive science, Bradley Voytek.
She interviewed him in 20-14 when he had just published the book, “Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep.”
Here’s Beth.
TAG: That was neuroscientist Bradley Voytek, speaking with KPBS Cinema Junkie, Beth Accomando.
Voytek will be introducing zombie films and performing a brain dissection on Saturday for “The Secret Morgue: Zombie Autopsy Edition” at the Comic-Con Museum.
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That’s it for the podcast today. Join us again tomorrow, for the day's top local stories. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
