tonight on kqed newsroom. their tents are being torn down, where do they go next? we ask in oakland city leader about options for people living in the massive wood street encampment. new legislation lives and dies this week by a stroke of the governor's pen. which bills will he signed into law and which are getting tossed aside. our politics and government team is here to catch us up on all the important races and ballot measures in the coming midterm elections. we keep our feet on the

ground while wandering in space in this week's something beautiful. hello and welcome to kqed newsroom. out of all of the states in the nation, california has the highest concentration of people who don't have a home. the latest count was two years ago and it indicated that 161,000 people in the state were unhoused. experts in the field tell us that figure is a serious undercount. they say the true numbers are much larger on the problem is, in part, a serious lack of housing across the state. right now we are seeing this issue play out in real time according to the san francisco chronicle. the largest tent city in northern california is the wood street encampment in oakland, ú blocks. caltrans is in the process of clearing out the site which was home to an estimated 200 residents and evictions began

the summer. when people are pushed out, where do they go? joining me now is oakland city councilmember for district 3 which encompasses downtown and west oakland, carol five, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> so what happens now with the people being evicted from this encampment? >> there are phases of evictions happening that started weeks ago so there are offers of shelter coming through our homelessness team and as it stands there just not enough shelter beds in the city of oakland to house everyone that needs a place to stay so tat's where we are right now. they are trying to figure out how do we keep people off the streets and give them appropriate housing? it is a struggle. >> let's talk a little bit about what the problems were at wood street and have been. we spoke with a resident there, a neighbor of wood street and this is whathe had to say about the concerns.

>> the safety issue with the fire. i haven't been directly affected but i've heard the news that multiple fires is a huge safety concern for the city and as far as driving through it's just down the block and i tend to avoid the whole area, not out of fear but it's just a mess. it's you much to deal with so i'd rather drive the other direction. >> it seems like we are caught between a rock and a hard place, we have people who need a place to live, we don't have enough housing for them and when they live on the streets than there and that being trash and debris and unsafe conditions like fires. what are we supposed to do here? >> i appreciate hearing that from the neighbor that lived in that area and unfortunately i believe that the fires, trash, the debris, everything that you listed are symptoms of a larger issue. symptoms of not having the housing that is necessary for people with no to low incomes so if we don't address our

housing situation first then we will continue to have issues so one of the things that i've offered as a solution is to open up unused acreage at the army base, eight acres where we can have immediate urgency housing for this particular population and another that has been entrenched in west oakland for several years and that's what i'm fighting for and will be pushing for at the october 4 city council meeting. >> it seems like maybe there are some spaces that could be converted into housing, so what are the obstacles? >> that's what i'm trying to figure out. i've been on the council for 18 months, a little over and when i first came into office i was told by our tax collector that there are over 600 vacant parcels that could be utilized and redeveloped for emergency homeless housing or affordable housing. we have every single agency, the school district, the city of oakland, the county of alameda, that have vacant spaces, we just need to have the political will and the

courage to push to utilize that for the housing that is needed. >> i want to read a quote, something you said to oakland side which is another journalism outlet. you point out in this quote that this is not just an oakland problem, you see this as a systemic problem and one that is representative of where we are in society. you said sometimes i look at the mess that is just society right now and that what we are witnessing is the end of an empire. it's every major urban city in the country in every state where working people earning a minimum wage can't afford a two bedroom apartment but we are experiencing some of the brunt of it because we are one of the world's most expensive places to live and we are realizing the impact, the cumulative effect of the defunding on our social safety net, people are scared and angry and frustrated and now we are in a place where the crisis and no one knows what to do. >> that woman was brilliant. because that is where we are and that's why what we have to

do is something different than we've ever done. this is not just a situation that oakland is dealing with, this is global. i've been in conversation with the un rapid were on housing and she is sayingthe same thing for visiting spain and bangladesh and places all over the world are experiencing the financial is asian of housing ad its aftereffects. if we don't change that formula, we will continue to go on this death spiral where no one is safe. we were okay when homelessness was tucked away and no one could see it, but this is our collective ignorance of being just okay with ignoring a problem for so long and now we are at crisis levels and now we are all looking at each other blaming each other and pointing the finger. we've got to come t do something drastically different than what has been done so far. >> what is that drastic something different and how do

resident citizens get involved? >> what they've been doing because what this is doing for oakland sidents is radicalizing them and i don't think that our elected officials or people who have the opportunity to do something are recognizing people are angry and scared and i'm talking about on sheltered people and sheltered people. so somethin different is we have to do you can modify housing. one of the things i'm bringing forward is a way to utilize more of our resources from the state and federal level to be able to create mixed income and wraparound suort of housing and that will be coming forward, i'm trying to pull together electives from all over the state but we are having a convening in the second week of october to have this discussion. >> thank you for being here and for sharing your insight on this issue. this week, governor newsom signed several bills into law which are intended to expand and report detect abortion

services. the bills restrict cooperation with other states investigations into abortions and provide support for low income abortion services as well as those traveling from other states for the procedure. also in a few weeks, californians will vote on proposition one, prop one would amend our state constitution to turn the choice to have an abortion or use contraception into a fundamental individual right. i'm joined now by part of our politics and government team, scott shafer, a reporter guy maserati and our correspondent marissa lagos. thank you for being here. elections are coming up soon and we sent a reporter into the field to hear a little bit about what people are thinking and feeling about abortion in particular right now, both in terms of legislation and problems. let's listen. >> i'm very freaked out about all the abortion stuff and i'm pegnant so i'm having a very

interesting reaction to all the safety that's happening around women who actually need abortions, peop with ectopic pregnancies and i've had a lot of i've i know a lot of people that have had that happen to them so that's my biggest concern. >> i wouldn't say i know too much about that. i just got my packet about the elections and i haven't read it yet, but anything that protects our right i am 100 percent for. but i do have to look at the details. >> abortion is polling as one of the top concerns for people in the state and governor newsom has made it a central point of his conversation not just here in the state but also nationally taking that message across the nation. tell us what's going on here and where this stands. >> historically, republicans have used the pro-life issue to the benefit going all the way back to ronald reagan in 1980.

donald trump did it in 2016 and then he promised to put a conservative majority on the supreme court and lo and behold he did and with the dobbs decision what was theoretil, the striking down of roe versus wade became very real so we got all the states that are passing fairly extreme bands in some cases without exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother and this is really mobilizing women who are concerned about that issue and we are seeing billboards that newsom is paying for in south dakota, basically telling women in the state where abortion is outlawed that in california we support a woman's right to choose and access to reproductive services and so on so it's now shifted and we are seeing an increase in registration of women voting, we saw in kansas 59 percent of people turning down statewide measures to restrict abortion there so it's really turning

the tables and governing some is using that to elevate his own image nationally standing up and saying where's my party there framing the issues, and he got a little push back on that labor day, president biden telling the governor to sign a bill on farmworker unionization, nancy pelosi also rare instance of a president of his own party telling him what to do and in fact this week he did, he relented. >> he did. so that pressure from biden and pelosi and kamala harris, is that a little bit of a push back to newsom presenting himself on the national stage? >> it could be but is also in line with democratic politics and i think in some ways it was surprising that newsom was opposed to that bill. he does own a winery and obviously agriculture is a big industry in this state but the truth is, drive up the i-5 and he does not have big

agriculture on his side. there's a lot of anger at democrats in general in the farm communities so i think yes, he and others might have been signaling back off a little bit on some of the stuff you've been saying, we've seen him challenge the florida governor to a debate which neither of them is on a ballot against one another. the farmworker bill, we saw him veto the safe injection site bill that would allow people to essentially do drugs under the eyes of medical professionals and we've also seen him veto some bills that you would've thouht he would support like expanding kindergarten to be mandatory like expanding unemployment to undocumented immigrants and in both of those cases he's warning about the possibility for a session and i think that you have to think about with an eye toward the national news because if in a year california is in the red, that's not going to look good if he does run for president in

24 or 28. >> so he's watching out for the bottom line as well. >> speaking of money there's a lot of money sloshing around at this time of year with all of the campaigning for different ballot measures. we just had a deadline drop yesterday where everyone had to report their filings, what are you finding out about campaign finance? >> on the ballot measure side it is the spts betting debate, these two initiatives to legalize sports betting in california that are running away with all types of spending records. prop 26 which would legalize in person betting at tribal casinos and prop 27 to legalize online betting and i know there's a lot of confusion. >> money positive for a second because our reporter went out to the field to ask about this and she heard exactly that so let's take a listen to this soundbite from a san franciscan talking about the sports betting measure in particular. >> my thought is i'm very confused as to what they actually mean. i feel like the ad campaigns

are saying the same thing but obviously one says yes and once is no so i wish there was easier access to information on exactly what those propositions mean. >> he is getting his wish, because here you are. >> the amount of ad spending that you've seen and as that voter notes, so much of it about this idea about what tribes in california support and most large tribes in the state are getting behind prop 26 because it would legalize sports betting at the casinos but prop 27 which was backed by online gambling companies throughout the country, they have gotten a few tribes to support prop 27 and it's created a lot of confusion. prop 27 alone, $285 million spent for and against it, the most expensive ballot measure campaign in american history but all of that has not really matter to voters. there's been pulling recently from the institute of california asking what measures on the ballot voters actually care about and very few set prop 27 was something that would impact them compared to

something like prop one or an abortion issue where you don't need to spend $100 million to have voters care about abortion. >> it's not even going to úchange the law. >> let's talk about electric vehicles because they are also on the ballot. >> this race is heating up. this is prop 30 that would raise taxes on wealthy californians in order to fund more electric vehicles and more charges and it's created the strange alliance where you have lyft as the top thunder for this and they have a mandate to meet as far as electric vehicles, they wanted the state to subsidize that and on the other hand you have governor newsom come out against it despite the climate initiative sees put forward and i think he feels like any governor would want control over how the tax picture plays out and i think he perhaps sees this as one company taking over and trying to figure out the tax stem to their advantage and it also needs to be noted that the teachers association is against prop 30. obviously key ally of the governor. today they have a lot of stay

at stake because of how tax revenue is allocated toward education and we are starting to see more wealthy californians throw money behind the no on 30 campaign. >> and coming back tothe national conversation about new some, we have this huge budget surplus and rebates going out to taxpayers and i've got this thing on the ballot to raise another 1.75 percent on people earning 2 million or more and already california has by far the highest income tax in the country. >> so you think there's some tax implication push back? >> absolutely, there could be real word implications for that in terms of people leaving the states. it's an incredibly small number of taxpayers who fund a lot of the general fund and if you keep, it's not infinite and people will not stick around forever with her at income tax going up and up and our sales tax is also pretty high so i think in terms of the national message i don't think newson wants to be seen as supporting attacks increase at a time when he's giving money, rebidding money and the tax rate is already so high. >> the teachers unions had no problem raising taxes on

wealthy californians multiple times on the budget. >> right. let's look at what the latest public policy institute of california poll has been saying what californians seem to care about most. californians are saying that jobs, the economy, and inflation are their top concern followed by homelessness which we just spoke about earlier in the show, housing costs. if you put those together, those are pretty close to that top concern and related to jobs, economy, and inflation. so i want to know how these themes that californians are focused on are playing a in national races. i know you've both been following congressional races in california, let's start with you, scott. >> i was in riverside county where there is a very interesting race between ken calvert, a 30 year encumbered who has been having a safe district but with redistricting he's got palm springs and indian wells, more democratic leaning with a lot more gay

voters and you have two competing narratives. the congressional races are about what's happening nationally and you've got the republicans not wanting to talk about abortion, they want to talk about gas prices and inflation and the stock market and mortgage rates in those trends were looking better for democrats but now they seem to be shifting a little bit, mortgage rates are backup, the more market is back down, so democrats want to be talking about abortion and the threats to democracy and trump and they are branding candidates as trump like and they are framing it in a different way so you got these two competing narratives. >> you been following this race in the central valley, these are both incoming republicans. >> that's in orange county race and i think very different districts but one thing in common, a majority in the central valley it's latino voters and the other is the most asian district in the state

so to scott's point, the other thing that republicans want to talk abut is crime and public safety but you will notice that's not even in the top issues on that poll and i think that's different than where we were six months ago so the question becomes, the questions about democracy and abortion in the argument the democrats are making that we've done a lot to try to tackle inflation we just pass this huge package so i think it's a messaging battle at this point in the turnout battle which always happens especially in a term race. >> just over a week until voting begins, how are using the campaigns reaching out to voters? >> i think at the start of the year, democrats had two issues, they had to motivate their base in the midterm year when as trump maybe seem to fade from the scene there were questions about will democrats still care. the dobbs decision did that. people are engaged. democrats care about the selection and the second challenge was how to find independent voters who have soured on biden and how to win

them over and i think what you've seen was rudy sallus, the democrat, and a spanish- language ad that started by attacking him and abortion but quickly pivoted to talk about what he had done to lower healthcare costs. i think eating that closing pitch on the economy to win over independent voters, they've motivated the base and what is left for democrats to do is win over more of those voters who have soured. >> kitchen table issues are top úof mind for people but on the abortion issue with a little trickier in these races, this district is purple, it trends democrat in a lot of ways but down in la there's a race with mike garcia, a very republican conservative and abortion plays differently among latino voters. >> it's a more of a religious space. >> it's how are you talking about it, are you talking about

rights being taken away? that pulls well with some republicans so i think a lot of it is framing. >> let's talk about regional and local elections. let's start with a discussion of the attorney general race and the controllers race. >> the ag, there's an old joke that it stands for aspiring governor. it's a high profile job and we've had a revolving door in california in that position. kamala harris was there until she was elected the senate. crime was a big issue, a top of mind issue as a few months ago as was covid but now not so much. you got a traditional liberal democrat supporting criminal justice reforms against the death penalty, running against nathan hot and who is a moderate republican and the problem for hochman is years ago he might've done well, but in the state if you have a r

next your name it's difficult. he's talking about crime and punishment in a more traditional way but not in extreme way so it's just so difficult i think for a republican to breakthrough. >> i will put in a plug that in a couple weeks we will be speaking with the controller and you will be hosting the show. let's turn to the mayor's races in san jose and oakland. >> we talked about public safety and those are looming large in both of those races. i don't think it simply which candidate says i will hire more police is guaranteed to win. in fact kqed did and oakland merrill form and candidates were trying to outdo each other on who would fund more violence prevention. in san jose, the same thing. both candidates have focused on staffing up police and their growing pressures to move some investigations out of the san jose police department when it

comes to internal investigations and questions frankly about the city budget. police staffing and police benefits have crippled the city in the past and i think that will be looming over this public safety debate. >> all right, last but not least, let's touch on the san francisco das race. we currently have brooke jenkins fighting to keep the seat. speak >> she is, she had a real short runway to do so but i think things are looking strong for her. i think in some ways this is one of those races where there's not going tobe a lot of name idea, people are either paying attention to the recall and if they supported it, which most people did they probably back jenkins. i think this challenge will be breaking through it and convincing voters after they ousted a progressive, do they want to give somebody else like that another chance. the polling i've seen has not

looked superstrong for him. i would say at this point it's jenkins to lose. >> whatever happens here is a bit of a reflection on mayor breed. >> absolutely. >> let's talk about that and the fact that we have mayor breed coming in for town hall. >> i think at this point the mayor is in a tough position, she's got the police chief, half the school board she put on their after that recall, the da she appointed and we are very excited to sit down with her next week, it's a political breakdown at kqed live and we will talk about these issues and how she sees all of this. i think she grew up in public housing, she came from a tough neighborhood and she has really been pretty tough on crime compared to historically how the city has looked at things. >> we do have other resources for folks as well. you will be moderating a san jose mears race coming up and we also have the voter guide that is out for people to check out. lots of places for people to

learn more before this election actually happens. >> there's also going to be ballots and bruise events such a get our page for more ways to educate yourself. >> thank you guys for being here. >> thank you so much. for more than a century, californians have peered up to the universe from the telescopes of the chevelle space in science and or protect away in east bay hills the museum hosts field trips, mill welcoming the next generation of astronomers, astronauts, and dreamers. it's this week's look at something beautiful.

the joy of those children is infectious. that's the end of our show for tonight. you can find kqed newsroom online or on twitter. you can always reach me on

social media. thank you for joining us and we will see right back here next friday night, have a great weekend.

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” as the death toll rises in florida, we get the latest on how officis and residents are recovering after hurricane ian. then, it's political season in pennsylvania -- we dig into the top races in one of the most closelwatched states this midterm election. and, we go into the kitchen with award-winning baker bryan ford, whose recipes use a dash of his honduran roots and a bit of experimentation. bryan: baking is romantic. baking is like, it's like a meditation, it's simple. you know, you don't have to be so precise. i mean, that the dough is a living creature, too. geoff: those stories and the day's headlines on tonight'