What caused CA republicans to vote in favor of repealing the ACA? Lawmakers in LA are ramping up their fight against homelessness, architects lack color in the U.S.
State of Affairs: CA's Republicans say 'yes' to health care bill
It was a victory for the GOP as House Republicans voted to put the party one step closer to their goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare Thursday.
California Republicans were among some of the final holdouts. In the end, every single one would vote for the bill.
What caused them to fall in line?
That's just one of the topics tackled today on today's State of Affairs.
Guests:
- Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, professor of public policy at USC
- Carla Marinucci, senior editor for Politico's California Playbook
Highlights
A Martinez: Earlier this week, there were some Republican holdouts. Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock said he was against the bill. Meanwhile, Republicans like Ed Royce and Steve Knight were undecided. What won them over?
Carla: How do you say arm-twisting in just about every way? I think it's the tremendous pressure for Donald Trump to have some kind of headline at his 100-day mark. He badly needed some legislative victory, and Kevin McCarthy was there to do that arm-twisting.
Look, critics would argue that it's nothing about the bill itself that would have won them over because there's no Congressional Budget Office analysis. We don't really know the numbers. Many of those in the House admitted that they didn't even read it.
In California right now, some of the health access numbers are devastating and will come back on them.
Sherry: It's astonishing to me, quite frankly, because if only two California Republicans had moved to "no," that bill would not have made it out of the House of Representatives. I think four of the Republicans are in districts that not only voted for Hillary Clinton but are among those who would be most hurt by the changes in the ACA.
Press the blue play button above to hear about this week in California politics.
Also featured:
- The California Senate approves a bill that would that would let the state cut in line next presidential primary.
- Auntie Maxine? A look at millennials and their newly minted fascination with California Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
What exactly is a high risk pool?
It's one of the major elements of the GOP-backed healthcare bill.
The idea is that states should be responsible for people with pre-existing conditions who also want health care coverage.
To do that, they would create what's called a high risk pool.
The best way to understand how that works is imagining a real-life pool – the kind with water.
Pretend you're at a pool party with music pumping and beach balls flying.
A bunch of your friends and family are splashing around in there with you. Maybe you also invited some coworkers that you actually like.
Let's say many of you are good swimmers. In the health care pool, those same people are the healthiest and rarely need help.
But then you all notice someone in the deep end who's struggling to stay afloat.
At the party, he's a bad swimmer. In real life, maybe he has a life-threatening illness.
So you do what friends do – everyone else in that pool paddles on over to help him keep his head above water.
With more good swimmers nearby, the easier it is to help.
That's sort of how insurance pools work, too: healthy people are there to pay into the system, and that holds costs down for everyone.
Some people might argue that in the pool – the water one – good swimmers may not get to spend as much time in the deep end splashing around because of having to look out for bad ones.
In health insurance, they're paying more to cover the costs of treating those who are sicker.
This is where the idea of a high risk pool comes in.
Imagine instead of just one party, there were two.
You were hosting one where you only invited the Michael Phelpses and Esther Williamses of the world.
But then your cousin – a bad swimmer – shows up and he immediately starts flailing in the water.
This time, no one wants to deal with him. So you say, "Hey, can you go wade in the pool across the street??
That's the high-risk pool and it's full of people like your cousin – nobody in this pool can swim well.
It does has a few lifeguards, however, gazing out from the edge who, can help out everyone.
In health insurance, those are government subsidies which help to cover the extra costs.
But obviously, it's easier for a few bad swimmers to get help from a big crowd of good ones in the same pool as opposed to a handful of lifeguards watching a bunch of people who can barely keep their heads above water.
Now, that's in this scenario of a pool party.
In the real world of health care, however, will people stay afloat in high-risk pools … or be sunk?
The GOP likes high-risk pools; CA's experience was negative
How LA County is working to prevent homelessness
After years of struggling, officials in Los Angeles County now have some serious cash to begin tackling homelessness. That's thanks to voters who passed a sales tax increase to fund new programs to provide housing for people who find themselves living on the street.
But the county is also trying something new. They are looking for ways to nip the problem in the bud - and actually, try to PREVENT homelessness
What does that mean, and how does the country plan to go about doing it? KPCC's Rina Palta has been looking into this.
Why is the county looking at prevention now?
"You hear the number 47,000 a lot. That's our official homeless count in Los Angeles county. But really that's the estimated number of people who are homeless on the street or in a shelter on any given night in the county.
If you're looking at the span of a whole year, the number of people who might be homeless for say a week or two, then find a friend's couch to crash on or a motel to stay in, that population is a lot larger.
So, what you don't want is those people who are kind of always on the verge of becoming this permanent homeless class... to fall into homelessness permanently. So, what we've seen in Los Angeles is that it is growing. This population of people who are economically distressed, ending up out on the streets, is growing.
County leaders are looking now to see, 'How do we cut off this influx into homelessness?' We're trying to get everyone currently on this streets housed. Let's make sure we're not just replacing them with new people."
Measure H passed. It's a quarter-cent sales tax hike that kicks in in July and that's supposed to raise about $355 million dollars a year. How much of that will go towards prevention?
"The county has proposed spending about $42 million dollars over the first three years of Measure H on prevention. There's no final consensus on how to spend those dollars yet, but that's the amount they're currently discussing."
What do you know about what the county plans to do with that money?
"There's a lot of different things. There's legal advice for a family that's about to be evicted, that could help. There are quick cash infusions to get people through a rough patch paying their rent. Or there are things like moving expenses, security deposits for people who could become homeless without that kind of help.
There's also another kind of prevention that's not included in that dollar figure that the county is also looking to invest in, and that's increasing incomes. There are proposals to set aside Measure H money for outreach to make sure people who qualify are signed up for cash benefits like disability and veterans aid. The idea is that if people have sustained income, they're less likely to become homeless."
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
Diversity of architects: The effort to add more color to the business of design
After 13 years of hard work, Jason Morris is finally a licensed architect.
"It's a long journey but nothing worth doing is easy," Morris said.
He works at the building design firm, Gruen Associates. Morris is a member of a pretty exclusive group: He’s not just an architect… He’s a BLACK architect. He was the only one in his graduating class.
"Everyone's nice and everything," Morris said, recalling his experience. "But it definitely stands out in your mind. You kinda just look around and say 'Oh, I'm the only one? Okay... It's interesting."
According to the National Organization of Minority Architects, of the more than one hundred thousand licensed architects in the country, only two percent of them are black. And all other racial minorities aren't faring any better.
The lack of diversity in the profession is especially odd in a place like Southern California, which features some of the most varied building design of anywhere else in the country.
There are modern minimalist studio apartments, Spanish-style homes, and 40’s-style concert halls all sometimes within the same neighborhood.
"Southern California really is the nexus of all great design," said Mike Enomoto is a managing partner at Gruen. "It's all really happening here in Los Angeles."
According to Enomoto, the rich mix of architecture in LA was not the result of having a rich mix of architects.
"For many many years I think the profession was dominated by a white America. Upper class white America for that matter," He said.
Enomoto believes a key to inspiring the next generation of minority architects is to let them know about the previous generation’s contributions to the local landscape.
Last year, his colleague, Gruen partner Deborah Gerod, had an idea that could help with that. They were at the National conference of the American Institute of Architects in Philadelphia.
"There was this map in Philadelphia that had all these important buildings in Philadelphia and the architects names. I thought, 'Man what a great idea! We could do that and pick out all the buildings [in Los Angeles] that were designed by African American architects.>
Morris jumped at the chance to help put that map together. It features over 50 local buildings including the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.
"Norma Sklarek, a black woman architect, was an integral part of the project," Morris said. "She was in charge behind the scenes for all of the production work."
The massive structure is a major local landmark. The geometry and colors make it look like a toy set.
"You kinda feel like a little Lego amongst these giant Legos!" Morris said.
There are three giant legos - Red, Green and Blue.
Norma Sklarek worked on the blue part, which has been nicknamed "The Blue Whale." Morris explained where the origins of the name.
Norma Sklarek was the first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect. She worked on other major projects throughout her career, including Terminal One at LAX and the US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.
But like many of her contemporaries, her work wasn't widely publicized.
That's because unless you’re the chief architect of a building, your contributions to the craft are hidden. Jason Morris thinks that should change - he's all for giving credit to the full team of designers who contribute to buildings
"That could be another step to increasing awareness," he said.
The AIA largely agrees. This year, they've scheduled conferences, speaking engagements and meetings all designed to find out what can be done to get people of color interested in the profession. Morris looks forward to doing his part.
"I want to be visible," Morris said. "I think it’s important to do the career fairs and be involved in mentorship programs where I and others can interact with people of color, provide examples of what they can be."
But here's a question: How important is diversity to a profession like architecture?
After all, isn’t a good building just a good building?
Debora Gerod certainly thinks so.
"As you walk down the street, do you have any clue who designed each building? Are they female are they male? What's their ethnicity?" she said. "I'm going to guess that that's often not that easy to pick out. But I don’t think that’s the point."
Neither does Enomoto.
He says this is about allowing people to shape the places where they live
"I'm not looking for homogenous type designs across any particular community. However, at some point, you have to take a step back and look at whether or not the issue of diversity is being addressed by the profession."
As one of the newest Architects on the block, Jason Morris is doing what he can to help turn things around.
Morris said, "As a black person myself, I’ve been working to improve the numbers of black people in the profession. So it’s cool to see one! It’s kind of awesome."
Today the AIA is holding something called Encompass: The Conference to Actualize Diversity and Inclusion. It's going on all day at the California African American Museum of History.
To hear the full story, click the blue player above.
A fast melting snowpack means CA might need to prepare for flooding
Heads up! Just when you thought it was all over - it's expected to rain this weekend.
California's been hit with plenty of precipitation this winter and that's put the snowpack WAY above normal. Good news for easing the drought. But there's some possible bad news, too. If all that snow melts too quickly, it could cause serious flooding.
Something the state already got a taste of earlier this year in San Jose and at the Oroville Dam.
So, what are we doing about it?
Let's ask Jay Lund. He's the Director of the Center for Watershed Science at UC Davis. He joined A Martinez to discuss how California deals with flooding.
To listen to the segment, click the blue play button above.