RV park residents evicted to create homeless services

Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, November 26th.>>>>

RESIDENTS OF AN R-V COMMUNITY IN VISTA ARE BEING EVICTED TO MAKE WAY FOR HOMELESS SERVICES. More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….#######

The son of former county Republican party chair Tony Krvaric pleaded no contest last week to a felony count of possessing an assault weapon.

24-year-old Victor Krvaric was arrested in September at his father's home in Scripps Ranch.

A gun violence restraining order was put out against Krvaric around the time of his arrest.

It alleged he “made threats of violence through social media towards L-G-B-T-Q plus and other races. Was in possession of illegal firearms and previously had possession of explosives.”

According to a county District Attorney's Office spokesman, Krvaric could face

up to three years in prison.

His sentencing is set for December 23rd.

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Starting today (Tuesday), the San Diego International Airport is expected to be busier than usual for the Thanksgiving holiday week.

According to airport officials, between today and Sunday, 76-thousand people are expected to travel through the airport each day.

Some things you can do to make your trip go more smoothly include, arriving at the airport at least two hours early, getting a ride to the airport, and making parking reservations online at san-dot-org-slash-parking.

Today (Tuesday), tomorrow (Wednesday), and Sunday are expected to be the busiest days at the airport.

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And we’ve officially entered that time of year, where the holiday shopping has begun!

County officials are reminding everyone to double-check your receipts to make sure you’re not accidentally overcharged by faulty cash registers and price scanners.

The county’s department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures inspects more than 14-hundred local businesses, and more than 21-thousand price-scanning devices every year to make sure customers are being charged accurately.

Between the beginning of this year through last month, 19-percent of every business inspected had overcharge errors.

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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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RESIDENTS AT GREEN OAK RV PARK IN VISTA HAVE ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT BEFORE THEY ARE EVICTED. NOW THE CITY IS STEPPING IN TO HELP THEM MOVE, RIGHT BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS. NORTH COUNTY REPORTER TANIA THORNE TAKES A LOOK AT WHAT'S NEXT FOR RESIDENTS.

RVPARK PT 2 (tt) 4:22 SOQ

The landscape of Vista’s Green Oak Ranch is changing. 

Earlier this year, the 110 acre property was leased to a new nonprofit. 

The new tenant, Solutions for Change, wants to use the space for programs to help homeless families. 

But an affordable RV park on the land can’t stay.

That means the 30 families living in the RV community are being evicted and need to be out by December 1st.

Karin Allison is one of the residents. 

When we heard that Solutions for Change is coming in on a lease on this parcel, we really thought that they would let us stay here and work with us, maybe incorporate us into their work that they're doing because they fight homelessness.

The RV park isn’t properly permitted. And that’s partly why Solutions for Change says can’t let it stay on the land. Chris Megison is its CEO.

we can't go in and assume another operation without permits, you know, So it's not like, you know, we're getting kind of blamed like, hey, it's our fault for this. You know, my insurance company is not going to insure us going in there and operating something illegally.

Megison says the RV park also needs serious improvements—for example, it floods when it rains.

But that’s expensive.

 Solutions for Change is already paying 45-thousand dollars a month to lease the land. Making the improvements too much of a stretch. 

- I think we've been unfairly, you know, characterized in this way to our public solutions for change.We are in the business of serving our community and transforming forming the lives of homeless families, period. We're not going to do that, though, at the expense of our entire organization.

The city of Vista confirmed the RV park has been operating without permits. 

But they weren’t asking the previous managers to make upgrades for two reasons… their mission… and because the RV park helped fill an affordable housing gap. -.

Megison says Solutions for Change offered resources to the RV park residents, but none have taken their offer.

they offered other people's resources. They send you to places, they send you to websites or housing complexes. 

Alison says those resources already had long lists of people looking for affordable housing. 

They send you to other places where when you get there or when you call there, you find out, oh, yeah, there's a long waiting list. There's no way we can serve you in the next two months, or we have no funding. There's nothing immediately available or possible

Even though the park isn’t permitted, residents could have been entitled to relocation fees. The city of Vista wants to be sure the landlord, Green Oak Ministries, is following California law.

But Green Oak Ministries says they’re exempt because they’re a religious nonprofit. 

Now the city of Vista is stepping in. 

Katie Melendez is Vista’s deputy mayor. 

The City of Vista has taken on the burden of responding to the needs of these residents, including offering case management services, offering any type of affordable housing options that we can find, and also potentially supporting their move.

The new tenant, Solutions for Change, also might use religious exemptions for the development of Green Oak Ranch. 

one of the things we're looking in is using SB four, which is the Religious Land Use Act, allowing us to go in and, you know, very easily put in prefabricated units there. 

CEO Chris Megison says a future RV park isn’t completely out of the question.

But it would be recreational- not a permanent housing solution. 

It's going to be a long term development and this thing, it's not going to be quick, but there's phases. 

They’ll also continue recreational camps and the annual North County Veterans Stand Down event. 

we're looking at maintaining the rural character of this. We're not talking about any mass development. We're talking about, you know, parks and trails and, you know, and maybe a dog park and a, you know, a bike trail and, you know, and things like that to make it to make it, you know, what it is now.

They plan on hosting community input events for the future of Green Oak Ranch. 

But as they plan for the future, a handful of the residents of the RV community still have nowhere to go. 

TT KPBS News

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IT’S A GEM OF THE EAST COUNTY, AND THIS YEAR THE WATER CONSERVATION GARDEN IN EL CAJON IS CELEBRATING ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY! REPORTER JOHN CARROLL PAID A VISIT.

WATERGARDEN 1                1:21                          SOQ

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As soon as you walk through the ornamental gate of the Water Conservation Garden, you know you’re somewhere special.

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Here, on six acres of rolling hills next to Cuyamaca Community College, you find an immersive, sensory experience - of sight, smell and sound.

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“My name is Lauren Magnuson and I’m the director of garden operations here at the Water Conservation Garden.”

Magnuson runs the garden as part of a joint powers agreement between most of the water districts in the county.  It was founded by the Helix and Otay Districts in 1999 as a place to learn about water conservation and the best things to plant in Southern California’s Mediterranean climate.

“San Diego and Southern California have become have become one of the pinnacles of saving water and we’re really proud of it because of places like this, and our education programs and our workshops.”

And if you become a member, you get free admission to other gardens in the county, like the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park - and the San Diego Botanical Garden in Encinitas.

“We really offer a lot to the community because we want people to learn and take something from this garden.”

There’s so much to take from this garden… from a deep knowledge of our natural surroundings, to something harder to quantify… the serene experience of being in a place that feeds your soul.  JC, KPBS News.

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PLANTS USE PHOTOSYNTHESIS TO SURVIVE, MAKING OXYGEN AND FOOD IN THE PROCESS. BUT NOT ALL PLANTS DO IT THE SAME WAY. SCI-TECH REPORTER THOMAS FUDGE SPOKE TO RESEARCHERS WHO ARE TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK BETTER FOR PLANTS THAT ARE KEY TO OUR SURVIVAL.

PHOTOSYNTH 1 (tf)  1:00   ….soq. 

There are two kinds of photosynthesis. One goes by the name C4 and its plants are known to be efficient and drought tolerant.  But most plants still used a form of photosynthesis called C3, and those include common crops like rice and wheat. Now a paper co-authored by scientists at the Salk Institute suggests that gene editing could convert C3 plants to C4, making them more resistant to the stresses of global warming. Salk Institute professor of genetics Joe Ecker says 

He expects modifying plants to make them C4 would also improve crop yields. 

“So if we would be able to engineer a rice plant to be a C4 plant we could increase its efficiency for photosynthesis and yield by 50 percent.” 

The increased efficiency and drought tolerance of C4 is due to its ability to correct some problems with C3. In C3 plants, for instance, carbon dioxide is too often mixed with oxygen during photosynthesis and that wastes energy. SOQ. 

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THIS YEAR ACTOR SCARLETT JOHANSSON CELEBRATED A MILESTONE BIRTHDAY, TURNING 40.

SO DID AMERICA FERRERA … AND PRINCE HARRY … AND MARK ZUCKERBERG.

HERE IN SAN DIEGO, A LOCAL CELEBRITY ALSO MARKED THEIR 40TH THIS YEAR. REPORTER MELISSA MAE HAS MORE.

BEST FRIEND 1 (mm)     0:00     soq

A macaroni penguin named Best Friend celebrated his 40th birthday at SeaWorld San Diego last week. 

Zoological (ZOO-ah-logical) Specialist of Birds Katie Belnick (BELL-nick) has an extra special bond with the birthday bird.  

“Every single time you walk into the exhibit, he's there waiting for you. And then when you start talking to him, he just gets so excited, breaks out into his whole display and he just loves to be loved.”

SeaWorld San Diego is home to 300 penguins. Best Friend is the oldest and like many of us, is a transplant from out of state. He is a Macaroni Penguin who was hatched in Ohio and came to San Diego in the 90’s.

Belnick says the average lifespan of a macaroni penguin can be anywhere from 8 to 15 years and sometimes up to 20, so his 40th birthday is really a milestone! Melissa Mae KPBS News.

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'City Lights: An Immersive Journey Through Light & Sound' will soon be open.

It’s an outdoor light, sound and visual art production at the Quartyard in East Village.

Justin Navalle [Naw-vawl] is the Co-Founder of City Lights and the Managing Partner of Quartyard.

CITYLIGHTS 1A  :27

“City lights is going to be an immersive audio and visual experience that’s based on transforming a guest from the ordinary world off the city sidewalk and we want them to enter a space that is totally different and immersive by using lights, sound and an inspiration from the city outside of them. It’s a walkable journey and it’s timed.”

Eight local artists created activations within the experience.

Ben Guerrette [Gaw-rette] is a digital artist and co- founder of City Lights.

CITYLIGHTS 1B  :37

“One of the things that we’re focused in on is elevating and supporting local artists and these different mediums are fairly new and maybe don’t find these types of pieces shown in fine art galleries and so maybe this work doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. So we thought it was important to find local artists in this space and give them a platform to showcase some of this really incredible work.”

City Lights runs from December 6th through January 19th.

For more information on City Lights and other holiday events, go to kpbs.org.

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The time has come to say goodbye to our San Diego News Now producer, Emilyn Mohebbi. Emilyn, I will miss your many talents, professionalism and your tireless efforts to the podcast. I'm also very proud to call you my friend. The podcast team wishes you the very best in whatever comes next on your career path. Good luck and thank you!

That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.