San Diego Mayor presents draft budget proposal
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, April 21st>>>>
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria presented his proposed budget to the City Council. More on that next. But first... the headlines….#######
It’s Earth Day today (Tuesday), and this year's theme is “Our power, Our planet” It’s meant to highlight the global effort to transition to renewable energy.
To mark the occasion, the campus environmental advocacy org Green New Deal at UC San Diego is holding a rally and march at 11 A-M.
The group is calling on the university to maximize on-campus solar energy development by 20-30.
There are several other Earth Day events going on throughout the county today and through the weekend. For more information go to kpbs dot org slash events
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Also in environmental news, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is visiting San Diego today (Tuesday) to meet with local leaders and Navy Seals about cross-border sewage impacting South San Diego County.
Zeldin will visit the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant then take a helicopter tour of the southern border.
San Diego’s congressional delegation requested a meeting with Zeldin to discuss the EPA’s role in addressing the pollution crisis.
However, given the Trump administration's actions to curb federal spending, it’s unclear how potential cuts could impact these efforts.
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San Diego County Catholics are mourning the death of Pope Francis at age 88.
He was the first non-European head of the Roman Catholic Church in more than a millennium.
Deacon Jim Vargas, the president and CEO of Father Joe’s Villages, says Francis will forever be remembered for his humility and for his deep compassion.
“This is bittersweet for us as Catholics. Bittersweet in a sense that we mourn the loss of him, and yet we know that he's exactly where he wants to be.”
Pope Francis also appointed San Diego’s first ever cardinal — Robert McElroy — who was recently appointed Archbishop of Washington D.C.
McElroy will be part of the conclave to elect a new pope in the coming weeks.
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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.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has presented his budget proposal to the City Council (Monday).
Metro Reporter Andrew Bowen says it was the first of many public hearings.
Gloria said he received a message from voters last November when a narrow majority rejected a sales tax increase to fund the city government. That message: Live within your means. His proposed budget closes a structural deficit with a mix of new revenues, like higher parking rates, and service reductions, like closing libraries on Sundays and Mondays.
These were not easy decisions to make, and I know that their impacts will be felt by every San Diegan. But we worked to make sure that these do not fall hardest on those who rely on city services the most.
The City Council will hold a weeklong series of hearings on the budget starting May 5. Gloria is set to release a revised budget proposal by May 14. Andrew Bowen, KPBS news.
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Mayor Gloria's proposed budget reduces library hours to only five days a week.
Education reporter Katie Anastas spoke to a mother about what that would mean for her kids.
Claudia Martinez drives from National City to the Logan Heights Library nearly every day. Her kids can get one-on-one help with homework there from Monday through Thursday.
Los maestros específicamente de aquí…
She says the tutors at the library have a connection with the kids. They don’t want to do homework at home. Here, they do.
…En casa no quieren hacer tarea, y aquí sí.
Closing all libraries on Sundays and Mondays is expected to save about $8 million.
Patrick Stewart is CEO of the Library Foundation SD. The organization advocates for the library.
He says the city needs to find a way to pay for all branches to be open seven days a week.
We need to find the solution that is going to really, really support the city's ability to deliver on its services.
He says that could come from trash collection fees, hotel tax revenue or new ballot measures.
The San Diego City Council will hold public hearings on the budget in early May. Mayor Gloria will release an updated draft on May 14.
Katie Anastas, KPBS News.
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It started with one Ocean Beach resident, now it’s grown to encompass a thousand people across the county.
Reporter John Carroll brings us the story of a group cleaning up neighborhoods, one block at a time.
That’s the sound of neighbors on a mission. They’re called the Street Stewards. You’re hearing the Escondido group picking up trash along the Escondido Creek Trail. Ocean Beach resident Aaron Null founded the group in 2018. There are now about 1,000 stewards working in 10 communities across the county.
“It’s really something that’s very rewarding. And the respect of that street immediately raises, right? Everyone’s kind of, oh, we’re in this together.”
Last year, the group received 35-thousand dollars in grants from the county. That allowed Null, who’s a graphic designer, to create a website where people can sign up. It also shows what places have been adopted, and what areas need help. Scott Horst is the co-director of the group. Along with Null, he’s working to grow it state-wide, then to the entire nation, and perhaps the world. Horst says what they really need is a phone app… and those are very expensive.
“Phone apps are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to really get them set up, to get them running, to manage it.”
If you’d like to join a Street Stewards group, or make a donation, check out their website at streetstewards.com. JC, KPBS News.
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La Jolla Playhouse kicks off its annual WOW, or Without Walls, Festival Thursday.
It’s a four-day celebration of immersive, interactive, and non-traditional theater from local, national, and international artists — all on the UC San Diego campus.
Arts reporter Beth Accomando previews the event with a pair of artists.
The La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival is not just theater without walls, it’s theater without restrictions. Hugo Williams is with the Australian company PonyCam, which will be performing at UC San Diego’s Price Center.
Burnout Paradise is a show where we all run on treadmills for the whole of the show. And while we run, we do lots of tasks that people really shouldn't do on treadmill. We cook a three-course meal. We try and submit a grant application.
Wait, a grant application???
Mate, it's ridiculous. It's the hardest task by an absolute mile. It's just trying to get your brain to switch into writing coherent sentences while running at eight miles an hour.
And if that’s not enough they also have to complete all their tasks AND run a personal best distance each show.
And if we fail to run the furthest we can run and do all those tasks, then we give the audience their money back at the end of the show.
The show invites audience participation to help the performers succeed, says Williams.
we're not very good at what we do. And if you want to help, we'd love it.
A different kind of audience collaboration takes place over at the Immersive Media Lab at the Qualcomm Institute. If Burnout Paradise engages in a sweaty exercise of sensory overload, then Green Memories offers a calming escape from the bustle of the world.
Shahrokh Yadegari is the creator of Green Memories, and a faculty member of the UC San Diego department of music as well as associate director of the Qualcomm Institute.
The piece is really meant for people to have a moment to relax and meditate on our position on Earth and our connection to the Earth and our ecology.
The immersive space has screens on three sides, a furry black silken carpet, and inviting throw pillows.
So currently, we have three projectors here, and there are 32 speakers behind the screens. So you're really surrounded by audio, and we control the locations of the sound everywhere…The visuals that are created by Memo Akhten, a colleague at the Visual Arts Department… Some of these images are very slow moving waves…
The piece is based on a poem by Forough Farrokhzad, In this poem, I Pity the Garden, She seems to be talking about her little garden at the back of her house.
The poem, written in 1959, still resonates.
…you hear the absolutely beautiful voice of Azam Ali singing in a language that she has created… But at the end, that last poem is sung in English. The idea is that for us to sit through this moment, meditate, relax, but then at the end, with these words, we're faced with a rather startling reality.
Yadegari is thrilled to be part of the WOW Festival and to have it back on campus.
…I absolutely love it. I think the WOW Festival ignites so many different aspects of the campus. I always say when the WOW Festival comes, it brings the campus to life… I'm also extremely delighted that the Qualcomm Institute is one of the sites that they will have a number of pieces performed there.
The WOW Festival will activate multiple spaces across campus from the Qualcomm Institute to the Geisel Library to the 180 ton Bear in the Academic Courtyard. With 20 new works you might engage in a time travel escape game, put on a dinosaur costume or simply sit back and enjoy a concert or puppet procession. But whatever you do: abandon all expectations and prepare to be wowed.
Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
The La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival runs April 24th through 27th at multiple locations on the UC San Diego campus.
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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.
