SB 51: the California politics thread

also adult children of african americans in central bay area for whom the fact their ancestor was able to buy a house in say, West Oakland or South Berkeley, was a significant achievement considering the racist practices of zoning and real estate sales and mortgage lending that required major Civil Rights legislation to be passed. And also the fact that less than 200 years ago, their ancestors were considered property that could be bought and sold?

(to be clear, i don't think the solution is more stuff like prop 13)

otm

and there's also the history of urban/suburban development that tended to build freeways and civic infrastructure by demolishing neighborhoods that were predominantly black, latino, or Asian.

I'm guessing that SoCal has it's equivalent(s) of Highway 24, the Racist Highway?

(n.b. I am including the 980 extension as part of Highway 24, the Racist Highway)

what's the deal with 24? one side is "bad"? or both sides are bad because it hollowed out a community?

I think nearly every freeway in CA destroyed something or other.

Highway 24 was designed to improve the commutes of white people who moved to exclusionary suburbs that were traditionally Republican (up until maybe 10 years ago) at the expense of traditionally black neighborhoods that were historical organizing hubs for civil rights/black panthers

Some CA freeways were built alongside/or replaced existing roads. Like 101 which in many parts follows the old El Camino Real

I am by no means defending SoCal freeways because I am not as familiar with their history

not CA, but great article on that https://jalopnik.com/the-highway-was-supposed-to-save-this-city-can-tearing-1836529628

This is a pretty good article about 980 -- which was basically a connector for Highway 24

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2019/04/17/inside-the-push-to-tear-down-an-oakland-freeway/

I'm guessing that SoCal has it's equivalent(s) of Highway 24, the Racist Highway?

― sarahell, Friday, March 5, 2021

Leading candidate would the 10 aka Santa Monica Freeway, tho there are other contenders.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-24/bulldoze-la-freeways-racism-monument

The reason the 710 (Long Beach straight north to Pasadena) wasn't connected is largely that it went through a middle (or higher) class white area (South Pasadena). It does seem to be finally dead as a possibility now, after 50+ years of fighting.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-06/california-counties-criticism-state-contract-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-blue-shield

who could have foreseen this?

this seems like an extremely bad idea https://laist.com/2021/02/01/head-scratching_over_newsoms_choice_of_blue_shield_to_lead_vaccination_push.php

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, February 2, 2021 5:54 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Welp

Proponents of an effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom say they have enough signatures to trigger a vote. https://t.co/DV4HmT6htA

— Michael Li 李之樸 (@mcpli) March 8, 2021

such bullshit

Hope that evening at French laundry was worth it

Every time California recalls a governor an angel gets its wings

damn these pricks for making me vote for this guy again

haha otm

this is fine

Twice as many school boards in California as cities. https://t.co/LoeTaqDPb3

— Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) March 9, 2021

Sounds racist.

pretty much anything OUSD decides is gonna be considered racist by someone. ... also, did we mention the incident with the Los Gatos schools where they were so concerned about re-opening quickly, they got their teachers to jump the line in vaccinations ahead of elderly and immunocompromised people and farmworkers?

how the recall process would work

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-score/2021/03/15/the-dates-to-know-for-the-potential-newsom-recall-793982

gonna be a long summer and a lot of wasted time, but for now he looks like he'll survive the vote

A reminder that Grey Davis' recall polled at or ahead of his final margin of defeat (55% yes 45% no).

38% is not gonna get it done. https://t.co/d7x15Zg3de

— Steve Singiser (@stevesingiser) March 15, 2021

Meantime, whew.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-18/mwd-manager-left-legacy-abuse-desert-water-world

i certainly don't love newsom but this recall is fucking dumb

i want an option on the ballot that says "i dislike all these fkrs even more than i dislike Gavin Newsom THINK ABOUT THAT"

i want an option that makes the people who funded this recall to have to pay everyone $50 for having to participate in this bullshit

I'm not sure the goal is really to actually replace Newsom (highly unlikely) but rather to besmirch him, drag his name through the mud, criticize the Democrats, etc. It's a general smear campaign that feigns loftier goals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/18/trailer-explaining-california-recall/

the recall is bs, but this is not

See how @BlueShieldCA Spent Years Cultivating a Relationship with @GavinNewsom. It Got the State Vaccine Contract. https://t.co/kR8iNCNl2i via @khnews with @ahartreports

— Samantha Young (@youngsamantha) March 19, 2021

so many companies getting contracts for things related to Covid that are just ... ugh ... otoh, this pandemic is hopefully demonstrating the value of chronically underpaid, underfunded non-profit organizations which really should get more power/say in policy and systems development than some of these corporate clowns

https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/03/22/why-newsom-isnt-counting-on-his-own-government-to-manage-vaccine-rollout-1368548

Newsom, a wine entrepreneur who got his political start in San Francisco, has long been enthralled by the private sector's ability to solve problems on the fly compared to the slow pace of government. In his 2013 book, "Citizenville," he said that government doesn't have the money, programmers or engineering mindset to address problems in the technology age. But, he added, "we don't have to. We simply have to make it possible for people outside government to help us fix them."

how's that working out?

idk but Salesforce built the data infrastructure for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and a lot of the state emergency funding grants are being managed by a company called Lendistry ... there are issues with both of these things

otoh -- there is the EDD

ha! well if you run it badly and underfund it then newsom's prediction that government is bad turns out to be correct, it's true.

my hunch is he doesn't actually have an opinion about The Private Sector, but he likes that outsourcing allows him to claim he's not responsible, and that will be the #1 lesson he learns from the EDD.

otm on both counts

I think that the, uh, lack of capacity the state has had for responding to Covid, both the virus itself and the economic repercussions really shows how underfunded the state government has been, probably since Reagan tbh

the Emergency Rental Assistance Program is a mish-mash of programs with jurisdictional overlap and some of the local and regional programs aren't up and running, and there are people that qualify for both local/regional and state, but they might get a "better deal" with the local/regional programs that aren't online yet ... and meanwhile there is pressure to get people into the system ASAP due to funding timelines, and it's like ... does anyone know how this is supposed to work?

haha you love to see it

oh yeah, and so the administration of the state program got outsourced, and the organization it got outsourced to has further outsourced things to "local partners" and us local partners are supposed to be getting right to work, but we are just getting confirmation of how much we will get paid ... and of course that means, they haven't paid the local partners any of this yet, but we are supposed to be hiring new staff and increasing the workloads of existing staff ... granted it's only been a couple of weeks.

oh and the application to be a local partner -- it was literally due in 6 days from when it was announced. That included a last minute 3 day extension from Friday to Monday.

It's less messy for people in lower population areas where the whole program is administered by the state. But you have places like San Francisco and Oakland that have a city program and are eligible for the state program, and then you have places that are not going through the state and running their own program, like Alameda County, except for Oakland and Fremont. I think there's confusion in re LA city and LA county, and then there's something even messier about San Bernadino, but I forgot what it was because my org doesn't do any work there.

NEW: CA is expanding eligibility for the #COVID19 vaccine.

Beginning April 1, Californians 50+ will be able to sign up for an appointment.

Beginning April 15, eligibility will be expanded to everyone 16 and older.

The light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter.

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 25, 2021

Hshsjdkdushahs

Sorry WA is still seemingly the slowest otherwise-functioning state and I’m getting grouchier about it

This is major!

🚨🚨🚨JUST IN: MASSIVE VICTORY IN CALIFORNIA! CA Supreme Court just ruled unanimously that "the state cannot keep people behind bars simply because they cannot afford to post bail pending their trial." Cash bail as we know it over in California. Speechless.https://t.co/vnrN9E8IOt

— Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) March 25, 2021

boom

The bail bonds industry should literally be the last jobs we should try to protect.