There’s a new reporter here at Voice of San Diego. Ari Bloomekatz is a former Los Angeles Times reporter, but he’ll dig into some of the county’s issues for VOSD.
As he begins his journey here in San Diego, Bloomekatz and VOSD Radio hosts Andy Keatts and Caty Green had plenty to talk about on this week’s podcast. He told us about his first impressions and what he looks forward to covering here in San Diego. And a fun fact about Bloomekatz: He joined the school board while still a high school kid in Tennessee.
Download the episode below, or subscribe on iTunes for quick and easy delivery to your dedicated mobile device.
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Below are some of the takeways from Bloomekatz interview.
He’s covered the tough stuff before.
“I like to think that all of my coverage surrounded issues of justice, whether or not they would be of criminal justice, political justice, economic justice, issues involving transportation and mobility, looking at whether or not people from certain classes were able to move up socially and economically through avenues of mobility and transportation throughout the region. I covered South L.A. for a long time and worked in Watts for a good long while, as well as covering an awful lot of breaking news throughout the region.”
He’s already stoked on the wonkier sides of San Diego politics.
“One race that is occurring and that is very important is the race between Supervisor Bill Horn and Mayor Jim Wood, that’s occurring in the 5th District, which is North County. This is an absolutely fascinating place, North County, and one of the reasons is the demographics are absolutely changing over there.”
“I haven’t been in San Diego very long, but I heard tale after tale about Horn’s boisterous personality. The fact that he often says exactly what he thinks, he’s not a traditional politician – this often works to his advantage, but along the campaign right now, we’ll see whether or not he makes of those types of statements that are going to really drive up a lot of the rancor of folks.”
But he just might pick up the poverty beat again.
“A couple of different things happen when it comes to talking about poverty and people working on low-wage jobs … A lot of families are riding the poverty line; one year they’ll be above it, one year they’ll be below, and the amount of benefits that they get actually changes depending on if they’re just above the poverty line or just below it … that’s a really serious issue.”