AirTalk dives into the status of California's own flood infrastructure as Tropical Storm Harvey makes landfall in Louisiana. We also parse through the controversy around LA City Council's upcoming vote on changing the name of Columbus Day; hear from Angelenos on how they weigh commute with size and affordability when looking for a place to live; and more.
As Harvey moves on from Houston, a look at preparation in Louisiana
The rain has finally stopped in Houston, but Tropical Storm Harvey’s slowly moving through southeast Texas and Louisiana.
But more than a quarter of greater Houston is underwater. More suburbs are threatened by at-capacity reservoirs. AirTalk checks in on the situation.
Guest:
Sue Lincoln, news director at NPR member station WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Engineering, conservation experts assess status of CA flood management infrastructure
As the nation focuses on the disaster in southeast Texas, Californians are forced to consider our own water infrastructure.
Levees are vulnerable for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and throughout the Central Valley. Breaches could flood big swaths of farmland, not to mention housing developments constructed within the floodplain in recent decades. There was also the near-catastrophe from the damaged Oroville Dam spillway this past February. Nearly 200-thousand residents downstream of the dam had to be evacuated. And, just 20-years-ago, nine Californians were killed and more than a hundred-thousand evacuated after a weeklong series of El Niño storms.
Following the devastation from Harvey in Texas and an all-but-certain deluge coming to California, an arm of the state Department of Water Resources has released a flood protection plan for the Central Valley. It covers a stretch of land spanning 500 miles from Bakersfield to Mt. Shasta and recommends the state invest $20 million in new projects and infrastructure improvements.
Given the billions of dollars necessary to beef up the state’s flood control, where does California stand? What vulnerabilities currently exist in the state’s flood management infrastructure? And how would the state get the money for the fixes? How would major flooding in the Central Valley affect Southern California?
Guests:
John Cain, Conservation Director for California Floodplain Management for American Rivers, a national non-profit conservation organization; his work focuses on issues including flood risk reduction in the Central Valley and the Bay-Delta ecosystem
Mike Mierzwa, chief of the Flood Planning Office in the California Department of Water Resources; he is the lead flood planner for California
Debra Bishop, a restoration ecologist and a Principal with H.T. Harvey & Associates, an ecological consultant firm. She was one of the main authors on the conservation strategy of the plan
The controversy over swapping Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day
Los Angeles City Council will vote Wednesday on whether to switch out Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
As reported by City News Service, the move was proposed by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell in November of 2015. O’Farrell said that “recognizing the contributions, history, and sacrifices made by the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles area is long overdue.” He also highlighted the historical struggles of Native Americans including “enslavement and brutality” as reasons for the name change. Councilman Joe Buscaino, who is Italian-American, opposed O’Farrell’s motion calling it divisive. Buscaino said in October that he would support creating an Indigenous Peoples Day, but not at the expense of another culture. But observing a second holiday would cost the city $2 million in overtime.
What do you think of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day?
Guest:
Stephen Aron, history professor and department chair at UCLA whose research focuses on the American West and frontiers in North America
How much can a $4 billion affordable housing bond do?
On Monday, Governor Jerry Brown and legislative leaders reached a deal on a housing package which includes Senate Bill 3 from Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose).
What is Senate Bill 3?
- SB 3 puts a $4 billion bond for affordable housing on the 2018 statewide ballot.
- Originally, SB 3 called for $3 billion for construction of housing for low-income residents. An amendment added an additional $1 billion toward the Cal-Vet home loan program which would have run out of funds in 2018. The program subsidizes home ownership for veterans.
- SB 3 also allows funding to be used for parks and environmental clean-up to make land hospitable for development.
Housing advocates have supported the bond as a step in the right direction, but opposition says throwing money at the housing crisis is inefficient if we don’t make structural changes to the development process.
We discussed the bill with a supporter and opponent.
Pro Senate Bill 3
Peter Manzo, president and CEO of United Ways of California:
- "This bill would provide ... gap financing for affordable housing construction. We need to keep in mind, though it may authorize $3 billion in funding, that leverages roughly $12 billion in private and federal funding. And that may bring on about 180,000 units over the next few years ... Right now we only have about 664,000 affordable units so this would add roughly about a third more. This is for the whole state ... [and] roughly half the funds would go to Southern California."
- "All the funding is going to support existing housing programs that have a track record, that have existing geographic fairness requirements built into them ... we're not reinventing the wheel here, we're just providing additional funds."
- "One in three families in California struggle to meet the cost of basic needs ... they're spending 50 to 80 percent of their income on housing and that means they're not buying things ... And also for the units we're not building, that means we don't have construction jobs, we don't have all the affiliated benefits that come with that. "
Anti Senate Bill 3
David Wolfe, legislative director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association:
- "You can't keep throwing money at this problem and expect a different result."
- "[SB 3] is going to cost $200 million a year worth of interest every year for 30 years to pay off ... [a housing bond is not] the best way to [build more affordable housing] ... especially when there's been no regulatory reform to actually lower the cost of providing homes."
- "What do taxpayers get in exchange for taking on more debt? ... We're not incentivizing the growth and development of new housing in exchange for a bond. If that were there, we'd probably remove our opposition."
The deadline for the bill to pass is September 15, but it could be voted on as early as Friday.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue playhead above.
For our debate on SB 2, click here. For more on KPCC's coverage of the affordable housing crisis, click here.
Guests:
Peter Manzo, president and CEO of United Ways of California
David Wolfe, legislative director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Traffic trade-offs: How LA negotiates commute time with the increasing cost of housing
A recent New York Times piece by Conor Dougherty follows the commute of a middle-class woman who wakes up at 2:15am in her affordable Stockton home to take two trains and a bus to her job in San Francisco.
This example of a so-called “super commuter” is a familiar story to many in Los Angeles. With housing prices rising, Angelenos have to increasingly make trade-offs between finding an affordable living situation, often on the edges of L.A., and increased commute times to their jobs.
According to conventional wisdom, the happiness gained from a shorter commute is worth having a smaller place. But for many in L.A., financial reality necessitates both a long commute and a small home, just to make ends meet.
We want to hear about how you handle these trade-offs. What roles do commute time and housing cost play in your decisions regarding where you live? How many hours a day do you spend in your car? What financial and emotional concessions have you made in order to afford housing in L.A.?
Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guest:
Conor Dougherty, San-Francisco based economics reporter at The New York Times who focuses on the West coast economy; his recent article for the New York Times is “A 2:15 Alarm, 2 Trains and a Bus Get Her to Work by 7 a.m.”