New SB City Council district maps this week revealed a decline in voting-age Latinos on the Westside, adding fuel to the simmering debate over affordable housing as tenant advocates prepare a big push for rent control.
On this week's edition of Newsmakers TV, SB Independent reporter Jun Starkey previews next week's pro-rent control demonstration planned at City Hall, and breaks down related legisation just passed in Sacramento, which extends pandemic eviction protections for some tenants through June.
Noozhawk's Josh Molina and Ryan P. Cruz of the Indy then get into the weeds about the final new district election maps for City Council seats, and its implications for the housing issue; the 2020 Census shows a significantly smaller share of adult Latinos now living on the Westside, a shift from the 2010 Census that not only required changing the boundaries of District 3, to ensure it remained a majority-minority district in compliance with state law -- but that also suggests some neighborhood gentrification, which may bolster the case of tenant rights advocates.
And Gwyn Lurie, editor in chief of the Montecito Journal, drops in to dissect the important new geological research study commissioned by the influential community group, The Project for Resilient Communities.
Among the key findings: the deadly 2018 debris flow was not a rare and freakish event, as some experts asserted in the wake of the disaster, but rather one of dozens of such occurrences that have menaced the area over the last 200 years; and the current flood control system built to protect the village is orders of magnitude too meager for the task.
Plus: The Covid pandemic locally appears to be morphing into endemic status, amid signs of a return to Before Times normalcy, from last weekend's Deltopia celebration in IV to the planned revival of the Solstice parade in June and the decision by local governments to once again allow the public to attend board and commission meetings in person, instead of on Zoom.
Plus: Josh's scoop on a new project to end the algae bloom stench episodes at the bird refuge.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV. Check out the new show via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.