The Buzz 12.24.20

FREE SPEECH

On Dec. 15, CSU Monterey Bay students gathered in a Zoom meeting with local journalists and communications experts to talk about their findings on how to “save” local news. The discussion was the culmination of the first-ever Community Media Project class. Facilitated by CSUMB Prof. Estella Porras, students were tasked with researching the role of local media, the phenomenon of news deserts and fair and accurate representation of underrepresented communities (such as Latinx populations). “To put it bluntly, I don’t think people really have the slightest knowledge of what local journalists do, how they find sources and produce news,” CSUMB student journalist Sydney Brown says. Brown and her peers interviewed local journalists from the Salinas Californian, Monterey County Weekly and other outlets. Perhaps their biggest takeaway was that community news has to be built on trust and transparency. “People aren’t taught what journalists do,” Brown says, suggesting a good first step is media literacy. “We need to get past this barrier and gain people’s trust more.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Sometimes we work more when we have our own business than when we work for somebody else.” - Bertha Magaña, a farmer and entrepreneur in Royal Oaks, who has been successful in selling produce directly to consumers (see story ERat + Drink section).

GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK

GOOD:

A collaboration between the city of Salinas, county of Monterey and Coalition of Homeless Service Providers has resulted in more beds out of the cold for residents of Chinatown, where a large homeless population resides year-round. Using grants totaling just over $1 million, a semi-permanent, tensioned membrane structure by Sprung – a Canada-based company that started with Philip Dorland Sprung selling canvas tents in 1887 – was purchased and erected in the Chinatown Navigation Center parking lot. The Sprung Shelter opened Dec. 15, housing 31 people. (It can house up to 51, with the smaller number due to Covid-19.) Also on site are five trailers from nonprofit Homeful Foundation; two will be used for people who need to quarantine. CHSP is operating the shelter with grant money awarded to Salinas, including $892,000 in state grants and $1 million federal.

GREAT:

The bad news is that Covid-19 is surging in Monterey County. The great news is that a new six-month, $5 million effort is coming to Monterey County starting in January with an ambitious goal of stopping the spread of the virus in the most vulnerable communities. On Dec. 21, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve the funds – mostly cannabis tax revenue, plus $1 million each from strategic reserves and a contingency fund – to pay seven nonprofits to hire community health workers who will connect with at-risk people to ensure they understand how and why they need to quarantine. It’s an outreach concept recommended by the community group COPA. Funds will also go toward stipends for those in quarantine and essentials like food and lodging. “This is the biggest thing that we have ever been charged with doing,” Supervisor Mary Adams said.