Buckle up and grab a snack. We're hitting the road.

This week, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña are taking you on a drive through the week's local news.

We start at the bathroom shortage the city says it'll fix by putting one within five minutes of anyone downtown. Then, we're on the roads of SANDAG and some major hiccups the transportation agency is having to finalize its plan by year's end. And finally, we arrive at the the San Diego City Council chambers, where this week, Councilmember Jen Campbell was replaced as president by Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.

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You’ve probably noticed that San Diego is a really expensive place to live. The city has a large homeless population, the cost of rent eats away our paychecks, and for most people, buying a home is out of reach.

For years, we’ve been hearing about the housing crisis in San Diego and throughout the state of California. But how has it gotten so bad?

In the latest episode of our San Diego 101 series, we're going to explain how we got here — and how a long legacy of racist housing policies made the crisis worse for communities of color. Plus, we're going to build some affordable housing right here in the podcast.

Learn more at sd101.org

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Last year, Voice of San Diego sued the County of San Diego to get death records for local residents who died directly or indirectly from COVID-19.

A few months ago, we won.

Since then, a team of reporters has blazed through thousands of these records to assemble the data and reveal trends — to show the true impact of COVID, how our region works for different populations and who was most affected by the pandemic. Reporter Will Huntsberry joins the show this week to share the insights.

Also: Scott on football drama and Andrea on sidewalk vendors. 

Join us! Our year-end fundraising campaign is on now. If you support the show now, your gift will be matched. Head to: vosd.org/podcast2021

We appreciate all our listeners and supporters. 

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This week on a special Friendsgiving edition of the show, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña are joined by local journalists Alain Stephens and Cristina Kim to talk about happy holiday things like bathrooms, racist deeds and guns. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Follow Alain @AlainStephens

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This week, we jump into the fray of redistricting and discuss how new changes in the city’s population affect how people are represented in politics. Plus: Palm trees, a park tax and a new trolley line.

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Episode 4

Local government can get complicated. But there's one major distinction you need to understand in order to follow it all: the difference between the city government and the county government.

In this episode, we spoke with a few government experts to help us understand what the city does, what the county does, who the representatives are for each — and what you need to know to make it work for you. Let's roll some School House Rock music!

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San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria released a draft of the city’s updated Climate Action Plan — with an ambitious new target of net zero emissions by 2035. 

This week, we look back at the previous Climate Action Plan, which didn’t do all it set out to do. And now, even if the city does everything outlined in its new, super ambitious plan, it still falls short of its own goal.

Plus: Public comments and their place in democracy. And the Great Resignation hits San Diego schools and parks.

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San Diego’s Air Pollution Control District is forcing industries to reduce cancer risk in San Diego.

There was a major change this week in how many canceer-causing toxins local industries were allowed to spew in the air. We sat down with environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer to talk about what goes into these standards, what local industries had to do to alert residents of the risks and what changes are coming. 

And a San Diego-based nonprofit Saved in America says they save people from human trafficking. But do they?

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Episode 3

Throughout San Diego – and across the country – there are lots of meetings happening, in which communities are talking about how they can maximize the power of their vote by creating new maps.

This is because every 10 years all sorts of political entities from cities to school districts to state legislatures go through a process called redistricting.

In this episode of San Diego 101, we're going to explain how this process works, who's drawing the maps, and how normal people get sucked into the process to harness political power.

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San Diego Rep. Scott Peters is in front of an enormous choice. It's one that could sway one of the most consequential legislative dramas in decades that includes tax credits, child care and education, climate change and — importantly — pharmaceuticals.

This week on the show, we wonder: What is the point of Peters? This choice could determine that.

Plus: St. Louis got a billion dollars when it lost its football team. What did San Diego get?! And we look ahead to 2022 ballot measures starting to take shape.

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