Transcripts For KQEH KQED Newsroom 20140118

Good evening. Welcome to kqed newsroom. Earlier today, governor jerry brown declared a drought emergency. Were facing perhaps the worst drought that california has ever seen since records began being kept about 100 years ago. 2013 was the driest year on record in california. And forecasters dont see much rain on the horizon. Joining me now to discuss the impact of this are, heather cooley, codirector of the pacific institutes water program. Chris brown, executive director of the california urban Water Conservation council. And lauren sommer, kqed science reporter. What does the drought declaration trigger on a statewide level and does it affect federal aid for california at all . Today was largely political. Its no secret its been incredibly dry. California is in a drought. Sending a signal, saying were going to have to conserve and things are going to get tougher. He did set out a few things, making water transfers a little easier. So people who have excess water can sell it to people in need of it. And he set up a little more flexibility for state agencies that will have to make these decisions later in the year. Federal aid largely comes from the usda in farm programs. It was this week that the department of agriculture said 27 california counties are Natural Disaster areas. The farmers are going to be looking a lot to the federal programs coming up. Senator feinstein had asked president obama to step in as well. Todays declaration, maybe speed that process along. Lauren chris, i want to ask you this. The governor wants 20 water reduction. A lot of people have already over the years put in things like lowflush toilets and lowflow shower heads. What else can people do to cut water usage by 20 . For those who have done a lot, it may take a bigger effort. But a lot of this is behavior. We really are kind of were not mindful about the way we use water on a daily basis. We do let it run. We may have leaks around the house. There are Little Things we can do. We have a law now that allows us to put gray water, the clothes from our clothes washing or showers out on the lawn. But very few people actually do that. The average person that lives off the grid, on rainwater, they dont have a well, they dont have access to municipal water, uses between 30 and 35 gallons a day. In municipal california, even in very conserving areas, its closer to 100 gallons a day. If you just cut your showers down to, say, five minutes, how much water would that save . Thats just going to be a few gallons per shower. Maybe four or five gallons per shower. Its the Little Things we forget to do, like not rinsing dishes off before you put them in the dishwasher. You dont need to rinse them. Your dishwasher will wash them without rinsing them. We just kind of lost track of how much water that really adds up to. Also, too, while some people have installed the more efficient devices in their home, many have not. There are tremendous opportunities for those who have not, to put in frontloading clothes washers, to put in more highefficiency dishwashers. There are opportunities there, certainly. There are new efficient devices developed over the last several years, beyond ultra lowflush, highefficiency showerheads and highefficiency toilets. We have opportunities in our landscape. We have a tremendous amount of lawns. About half of all urban use is outdoors in california. Theres an opportunity, maybe not to take out your entire lawn, but certainly sections of it. And put in more drought tolerant landscapes. In our businesses, we can be using in our restaurants, in our hotels, schools, all of these facilities have the opportunity to save water. Weve been talking about the average consumers and businesses. Really, the folks who use the most water in this state are farmers. They use about 80 of the states water. Have they done enough to change the way they use water, and use it more wisely . I dont think anyones done enough yet. That being said, there are many innovative farmers in california. Theyre using much more drip irrigation than they were five or ten years ago. Theyre using advanced irrigation scheduling, advanced technologies to apply water, when its needed, and to apply the right amount. That being said, we still have tremendous amounts of acreage in california that uses flood irrigation, that uses inefficient sprinklers. There are opportunities there as well. I think were really going to see some of the old tensions crop up again. Northern california versus southern california. Rural versus urban. Were already seeing these things come up again. But a lot has changed since the last drought. Southern californias made big inroads in terms of Water Conservation. Thats different from the narrative from the last drought. Lauren, give me the big perspective here. Youre the science reporter. From the aerial photos ive seen, you can see how dry california is. The sierra snow pack is only 17 of normal. You see very dry farm land. How bad is this situation . And why do we have such a bad drought . Yeah, its going to break some records. I think a lot of people are saying, with ego back, way 1976, 77, is the record for the most severe drought. Were on record to break that record. There is a High Pressure ridge sitting off the coast. Its called the ridiculously resilient ridge. I almost missed that one. Its almost like a linebacker sitting out there blocking the storms that would normally be coming into Northern California. The forecast is really dry. The forecast that people have looked at, even more advanced forecasts a few months out, its still looking very dry. But why . Is Global Warming a factor . Or is it just sheer bad luck . We know Climate Change is affecting all of our weather. These every the type of events that are going to become more frequent and more intense. We need to be integrating that into our planning, to begin preparing for not a one or twoyear, even a tenyear drought. So this is the beginning. This is an opportunity for us. Theres a lot of interest, a lot of focus on how do we use and manage water better. This is an opportunity to implement the shortterm, but more importantly, the longterm measures that are going to be saving us water five and ten and 15 years out. One thing you can do around the house, if youre if you do have a lawn is recognize this is the time of year, even when were not having rain, that because of the cool temperatures, your plants are not actually using a lot of water. So saving water now means its going to be there for the hotter, drier parts of the year as well. A lot of what weve gotten into is a habit of using water year round. And if were going to have one year after another of dry weather, were going to have to lose water when we really need it, not during the wintertime when its not really needed by the plants at all. Those are things that we all need to do. In the meantime, lauren, how is this affecting cattle and fish . Were starting to see the effects already. Certainly ranchers are feeling the pain. They rely on a lot of green winter pasture. If youve seen the hills around the bay area, not so green right now. Salmon as well. The American River is incredibly dry. Theres already concerns about the salmon runs up there, the salmon that have laid their eggs. Were starting to see the beginning of it. And its expected to get a lot worse. This will perhaps hurt the fishing industry, the men who rely on this to make a living. Will we see higher food prices as well . Its possible. Depending on the crops that are grown, depending on other global conditions, we may indeed see higher food prices. We will definitely see higher electricity prices. Hydroelectric power will be down, because theres simply not water to run through the turbines. Hydropower tends to be the cheapest form of electricity. So if its not there well have to buy it on the market at higher price. Politically there seems to be ramifications already, governor jerry brown had been shying away from the idea of a water bond in this years ballot because he presumably is running for reelection. And its not something a lot of voters support. Do you think this drought will now change that, shift the Public Attitude toward that . Yeah, it will be interesting to see. This was an 11 billion bond written back in 2009. It didnt go on the ballot the last two times because it didnt seem to have enough support for it. It has projects for it, and on the state legislature, its rewriting it. Some people are saying weve got to get this thing passed because we need to invest in the water system. Theres a lot of resistance. Well see what happens this year. Are there barriers to change the way people view water and use water . It seems like it requires a whole cultural shift. Absolutely. We have a lot of problems in this state. One, we view each other as two different states, Northern California and southern california. We also base our water rights on something called prior appropriation. The people who got here first, because they invested time and were concerned about that investment of time and money, set up a water right system that now its first in time. And people are very jealous about those water rights. So thats what you see happening right now in the suburbs of sacramento. Theyre already in severe rationing of water, because theyve grown in the areas that are the most recently built, and therefore, they have the least amount of water rights. So were going to see more of that happening as the years go on. Especially if we have one dry year after another. All right. In the meantime well keep our fingers crossed and hope that a miracle march does happen with a lot of rainfall. Heather cooley, lauren sommer, chris brown, thank you all. Thank you. Still to come, is San Franciscos tenderloin area due to gentrificatiogentrification . Listing Vacation Rentals to international powerhouse, shaking up the travel industry. People use the bnb, more than 500 million accommodations in nearly 200 countries, from rooms and homes, to private castles. As for San Franciscobased company grows, its facing criticism from the hotel industry, saying theyre avoiding taxes. Earlier today scott sat down with the cofounder and ceo. Brian, welcome. Thank you. So there is a report out this week from Boston University school of management showing6pr bnb listings are taking a bite out of hotels in places where theyre advertised. Does air bnb see itself competing with hotels the same way that, say, amazon did with independent bookstores . I dont think so. I think air bnb is really an experiencedriven company. We are a little bit of an adventure. We allow you to feel like you live like a local. Imagine you feel like you live in that city. Hotels, most hotels, you stay for three nights. These are closer to a week. A lot more international travel. And i read the same report. I dont think it has a lot of cannibalizing effects. I think we compete with the people staying home, frankly. Some people are traveling for the very first time. There is, of course, a big trust factor. Yes. In the sharing economy generally. But youre inviting people into your home, youre going into peoples homes. How do you negotiate all that and how has that changed in the way air bnb deals with that . I think trust is the currency that allows the economy to flourish. We created air bnb, there were a couple core tenets. First, profiles. Every Single Person had to have a profile. So everyone has a profile and you can learn about them. The second is the reviews. Reviews are bidirectional. If i stay with you, i leave you a review, you leave me a review. The third is its a transaction. These reviews are transactional. They can only be done through a secure payment system. You cant leave an unsolicited review. You have hundreds of thousands of people using air bnb. We asked our listeners and viewers to send us their stories. One person said, you know, i had a pretty good experience. I left a review of the host that was mostly favorable but not entirely favorable. The host started harassing her, because she didnt like the review. She thought it would be bad for business. How do you deal with that interaction afterwards between the host and the guest . Well, incredibly important is our ability to be a mediator. We have a 24 7 Customer Support line, where were in 20 or so languages around the world. In San Francisco the great thing is theres recourse for both sides. If either side has an issue, were there to step in. Well do whatever we can to make things right for both parties. You really help in the service. Its rare that happens, but if something with are to happen, were there. There have been some place, new york in particular, where theres been a lot of tension between the hotel industry, and the air bnb. The attorney general in new york got involved, and there were talks about collecting taxes. Your position changed on that. Initially you were quiet about it, but recently in october, i think, you said this is the correct way to go. Tell me where you stand now, the company, and how youre implementing that. Our position never changed. It was just a matter of us making a bigger commitment. Weve always asked our users, our hosts to be able to comply with local laws and regulations. We didnt have to collect and remit or streamline that process of local taxes. But we decided after spending a lot of time in new york, that we wanted to go further. So we wanted to really aid in the host being able to streamline this process. I think the core problem here is there are laws for people, there are laws for businesses. When they look at the shared economy, what bucket do they fit into, sometimes they dont fit in either bucket. Theres a third bucket. Theyre not necessarily a business like air bnb, but theyre not a person thats not doing business. Will air bnb actually collect the tax like a hotel does or do you leave it up to the hosts . We havent even gone down that road, to that level of detail. Our commitment is being great partners with cities. We want them to want us in cities. We want to enrich them. So, you know, strengthen them. Youre in 192 countries, i think. 190 actually. Theres many different ways of being a host. Right. It varies depending on the culture and the place. How do you establish an experience with a user that is not standard necessarily, but predictable maybe . There have to be predictable standards and expectations. We dont want it to be a one size fits all experience. We want to celebrate the uniqueness for which theres only one of this experience in the entire world. Every persons different and unique. We have nine hospital standards. We actually hired the former head of a hotel group which you may know here in San Francisco, who created the phoenix hotel, and we brought him in and hes our hospitality visionary. There are Nine Hospitality standards. And you can provide a unique experience. There is a minimum threshold. You and i have something in common, we were both born in remote towns in new york city. Yeah. I checked on air bnb, there are 11 listings in my hometown. The funny thing is, i like to tell people, where did you grow up . They tell us maybe their hometown. I say, ill bet you well have a listing. I dont think ive been wrong yet. That suggests were in 34,000 different cities around the world. What does the future look like . I think it looks like us expanding the idea into more places. We have this vision you can be home anywhere around the world. Brian, air bnb, thank you so much. Thanks so much. The latest tech boom transforming parts of the bay area is edging closer to San Franciscos least affluent neighborhood. The tenderloin. But history and politics may make change in the area nearly impossible. The tenderloin has long been viewed as San Franciscos armpit. Drug dealing and drunks, prostitution, the homeless and mentally ill, troubled veterans and impoverished new immigrants, right next door to the citys thriving downtown. Today, about 28,000 people live in the 40 square block area. Judy young, executive director of the Vietnamese Youth Development center, moved here from an asian refugee camp in 1981. I was 8 years old, and we lived in this crappy onebedroom, i think it was haunted, apartment. And there was like six of us to a onebedroom. And the neighborhood was the worst you could ever find. More than 30 years later, the downtrodden still line up for free meals at st. Anthonys dining haul in the heart of the tenderloin. They serve 2,500 meals a day. St. Anthonys executive director, bar i stanger, said the neighborhood has changed, only subtly. Were seeing people now who are living their lives here, too. Because of the work that housing advocates have done over the years. One of those advocates is randy shaw, longtime director of the tenderloin housing clinic, one of many neighborhood nonprofits that own or operate housing. The buildings are in better condition than ever before. But i dont know that someone who hasnt been here in ten years would notice a dramatic change. Ive spent most of my life in and around San Francisco. And for all the changes that ive seen, the tenderloin district has remained pretty much the same. While most cities have been quick to redevelop blighted areas near their downtowns, the tenderloin has so far resisted. Thats the view of San Francisco Magazine Editor gary, in his recent book cool gray city of love, he blames Progressive Forces and nonprofits for impeding progress and creating a museum of depravity in the tender loin. San francisco is leftleaning. They have a Strong Political base in the city. They say warehouse them somewhere. Its extremely problematic. So theres kind of a theres an understandable reason to not want to make a dramatic change in the tenderloin. In the middle of our interview, we were interrupted by one resident. Why do you live in the tenderloin . We were thrust into the area. This is the best we can. Why should we have to be sitting here going through the things that we dont want to do. Were going to jail for things we dont even want to do. Gary blames the nonprofits who are providing services to residents like the man who goes by dirty red. What the nonprofits want to do is maintain their stake here. This is where they have their structures. They own or lease dozens of buildings, and thousands of people are housed and supported here. Theyre part of the solution, but ironically, theyre also part of the problem. The city is very low to step in and say, lets sweep this all away. Lets move it somewhere else. What about the nonprofits . Do they have a stake and they want to keep things the way they are . Thats absolutely false. Nobody has spent more time than me trying to reduce crime in the tender loin. I led an anticrime march with Diane Feinstein in 1985. Thats a long time weve been fighting it. The problem has been that the police allow activities to go on in the tenderloin that they dont allow in other neighborhoods. For their part, the police say they devote plenty of resources to the tenderloin, with frequent street patrols, and a special unit housed in the neighborhood. But according to captain jason churness, the basic problems here are not Law Enforcement issues. Public safety doesnt belong to the police. Public safety belongs to cooperation between the police and the community. When people get to kind of realize that, then we see success. If the environment is comfortable for drug dealers and drug trafficking, removing that drug dealer is only going to take that one drug dealer off the street. But the environment still stands. As for why not more arrests . If youre not used to seeing people who are mentally ill, who dont smell good, who are incontinent, who talk to themselves, those are things that could scare you, yes. But we dont criminalize homelessness in San Francisco. And that, you know, is different from other places in california, and in the united states. Some people find that shocking. But not all tenderloin residents are homeless or mentally ill. The area is home to immigrants from southeast asia, and latin america, looking for cheaper housing until they can get on their feet. At least 2,000 children live here, like judy young used to. Its one of the most affordable places in the city. People dont realize how high the housing is in San Francisco. And so if you can find a studio or onebedroom here, now, for 1,200, thats pretty affordable, compared to other places. With Tech Companies like twitter opening up shop in the nearby midmarket corridor, the question remains, will gentrification price out those who need the tenderloins low rents. The tenderloin has been for the last, almost 100 years, a working class neighborhood. Now its San Franciscos last working class neighborhood, because its the one neighborhood in San Francisco that cannot be gentrified for a number of reasons. And the unique Housing Stock, which has no Single Family homes, actually, one Single Family home in the tenderloin, has a small number, less than five flats. So the gentry who liked to own, do not have Ownership Opportunities in the tenderloin. Staples of that unique Housing Stock are 100 singleroom occupancy hotels, sros. Their status is protected by city laws that make it impossible to tear them down, and replace them with upscale apartments, as is happening in the mission district. Change of course will come to San Francisco. It is happening now. And the city will try to improve life in the tenderloin. But the betting is, this neighborhood will remain unique, fascinating and a seemy, sometimes unsafe refuge for the poor. Shafs spencer mic herks, ls reporting. For a look at the other stories is scott shaffer. Hi. Political announcement this week from the former lieutenant governor. He was running for governor, and decided to drop out. What happened . He did. In a nutshell, able was unable to raise any money and get any traction. You would think he would be the kind of candidate the Republican Party would like. Hes a moderate latino. But the base of the party, the conservatives have never really trusted him. So he decided, why waste my time, basically. He angered his own part when he struck a tax deal with the democrats. Who does this now leave against jerry brown . Were assuming he will run for reelection. Its a thin field. Youve got tim donnelly, a tea party favorite. Very conservative. Going to turn out a lot of latinos to turn against him, because he started the minutemen. And a liberal republican, neil, who some feel could be a very appealing face of the party, a new generation of lirds. Well have to see if he jumps in. Another big piece of political news this week, congressman george miller, one of the most influential and senior members of congress, said hes retiring after 40 years. Was it somewhat of a surprise announcement . It was somewhat of a surprise, yeah. Everyone expects these old veterans will run again, and he just decided it was time to go home. And stay home. So its a big loss in terms of seniority. Theres one person lined up, the Contra Costa County representative who will run. Its a loss of clout in congress. I want to talk quickly about the nsa as well. President obama, of course, made an announcement on that today. Announcing some changes to the surveillance program. But largely, leaving the program intact. What has been the initial reaction from Silicon Valley companies . Theyre disappointed. They like what they heard but they want a lot more detail. They have a lot of business overseas, and companies are worried that their data that they put in the cloud or whatever is not going to be secure. And so its a big problem. They want to feel confident going into their International Business clients and giving them a guarantee their data, their information is going to be secure. Of course, over the heads of the biggest Silicon Valley Companies Made their case known. Absolutely. Scott, thank you. For all kqed news coverage, go to kqed news. Org. Thank you for joining us. Have a good night. Its all right, its okay doesnt really matter if youre old and gray its all right, i say, its okay listen to what i say its all right, doing fine doesnt really matter if the sun dont shine its all right, i say, its were getting to the end of the day police radio chattering there hasnt been a murder on the rock in several years. And within 12 hours of you showing up, were pulling a body out of the water. You think weve broken your winning streak, eh . My colleagues are fighting hard to change the reputation of this place. It matters to them. To all of us. We know that. Do you . Some of them think this man might still be alive if you hadnt come here. Look, were sorry