SB 51: the California politics thread

There's apparently a separate amendment on the bill that makes me king. So, to begin with hey wait everyone get back here

if i were morbzian i would start calling him Joe Biden Jr

Our elderly president is already Joe Biden Jr for what it's worth hehe

Joe Biden Jr Jr then

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-03-14/editorial-racist-california-article-34-public-affordable-housing

Jesus how did I not know about this

i didn't know about it either! i know that we (Oakland) recently approved a ballot measure that was for affordable housing, but I thought it involved bond funds, which seem to require a ballot measure? I think some of the ignorance is due to the sad fact that in order to build affordable housing, cities in California end up having to issue muni bonds or raise property taxes.

Article 34 comes up a lot in the history of Chavez Ravine and its theft for Dodger Stadium. IIRC at least one OC city incorporated as a way to gerrymander voting against public housing.

oooh ... actually that's a historical thing that I've been meaning to read more about because I first learned about it from a James Ellroy novel (lol)

Seriously though, UC Berkeley bullies the town of Berkeley in classic "corporate company town" style especially in terms of real estate development.

tell me more about this! i don't live in berkeley or even california and i've read only a little about the current issue, but UC berkeley strikes me as fundamentally different from say, yale buying up half of new haven or similar private universities that encroach on the surrounding neighborhoods in that it is a *public* institution? maybe that is super naive bc power is power i guess --just bc it is the state doesn't mean it is for the public of course -- but i do wonder if it is really in the public interest -- apart from the locals in berkeley who don't want high rises -- for one of the best public research universities in the state (country, too) to slash enrollment by thousands? again i'm an outsider and you know WAY more about this than me, but is the claim i've heard that this is mostly berkeley NIMBYists incorrect?

no slashing the enrollment by thousands was not in the public interest.

berkeley is not a large city by landmass and it has always been hard to find housing here. I started UC Berkeley in 1990 and even then they did not offer enough campus housing for more than a sliver of the students. They have been slowly improving on this over the past 30 years but not nearly enough. There is a huge fight in berkeley between pro-development, pro-housing people (which is frankly the majority) and some very vocal anti development people, some of whom have some legitimate complaints (it is true that dense housing in areas with poor roads leading out of the neighborhoods is unsafe, I think) and a lot of whom are just angry about getting rid of single family housing zoning.

Dense housing with no roads would be better.

I'm talking about areas near and in the hills that are a fire danger.

If a neighborhood’s density is restricted by its need to evacuate in a fire then the neighborhood should not exist. Let Malibu burn.

xp akm - there are also people who are pro-housing but have concerns about gentrification and then there's the People's Park issue ...

I'm pro housing on people's park. PP's historic nature is duly noted but it's a very unsafe place at the moment. there are homeless encampments in town that self-govern but PP is a free for all and dangerous shit keeps happening.

people who gripe about gentrification annoy me for the most part.

oooh ... actually that's a historical thing that I've been meaning to read more about because I first learned about it from a James Ellroy novel (lol)

Stealing Home is a good one to check out.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-03-31/dodgers-stealing-home-eric-nusbaum

https://d1ldy8a769gy68.cloudfront.net/300/978/154/174/221/5/9781541742215.jpg

thank u!

Attn: sarahell

Here’s a 📸 photo thread 🧵of one of the first projects I worked on: Conversion of a 275,000 SF historic Office Building into 200 apartments

The (Re)Making of 1616 Walnut pic.twitter.com/gi03OtVFRG

— Bobby Fijan (@bobbyfijan) October 16, 2021

awesome!!!

it's a surprising (to me!) amount of work, but at least some of that here is due to it being a pretty high end conversion. it's possible!

Here's a cool book I have about the making of Los Angeles - it touches on the Dodgers, but also on the invention of prefab suburbs, Chavez Ravine, Aliso Village, etc... packed with photos:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/provisional-city

@sarah you hear any details on what is going on with Bottom of the Hill? Ramona (I assume it was Ramona) posted on their FB that they need help getting a petition together, city issue, existential threat. The only other thing she mentioned was that it was something to do with cyclists?

oops just saw this! ... i have no idea!

lol this fuckin guy

.@IChotiner speaks with the head of a group that sued U.C. Berkeley for violating the California Environmental Quality Act—a law meant to protect the environment that has increasingly been used to stop new housing from being built in California. https://t.co/8cwywchVfg

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) April 28, 2022

The reason that there’s so much pressure in Berkeley is that developers make more money by developing in Berkeley than they would in Orinda or Lafayette.

whaaaa? I'm confused.

I think I've driven around Berkeley a fair amount in the past month or so since I last thought about this whole thing and ... a lot of Berkeley looks like suburban San Mateo County / Santa Clara County ... if they don't want to be like those assholes in Stanfordland, they should stfu and build denser housing

this guy spouting off population growth shit like it's the 1970's or something. He just doesn't want any larger buildings near his house so he can theoretically protect his property values. why he doesn't just say that is beyond me.

These douches always think their property values will go down. It’s been empirically disproven time and again.

Any thoughts about yesterday's results?

I'm sort of annoyed about the Boudin recall, but I don't live in San Francisco

yeah not in SF either but i saw this on twitter in amongst the “progressives backlash” narrative

The effort to recall progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has in large part been led by William Oberndorf, a shadowy big money Republican who has spent at least $900,000 to remove Boudin from office.https://t.co/WLSKh4g4gp

— Truthout (@truthout) June 7, 2022

Yeah, I assume Fox et all will be merrily gloating: "Even ULTRA-LIBERAL San Francisco rejected this socialist, soft-on-crime 'progressive'..." etc.

the sf recall doesn’t seem surprising given the sf electorate tbh.

caruso winning is more concerning for November.

Yeah the recall is its own thing. There were a number of useful measures passed yesterday in the city so hey.

Have to say watching Schellenberger and Schubert's campaigns be the vaporware they were was amusing.

I knew there was something I forgot to do yesterday ... I don't think there was anything hotly contested where I live though? Honestly, I wasn't paying that much attention ... we have a mayor's race coming up this fall, and Libby is termed out so it will be "exciting" to say the least

Nice vote drop in LA.

Carusso no longer leading the mayoral primary, Villanueva in real trouble in the general and best of all eunisses Hernandez on track to win outright in her council primary. If that holds we’ll have at least two and maybe four genuinely progressive (not reactionary california democrat) council members next year.

It held.

wtf

🧵This November San Francisco voters will be asked to vote on a measure that will raise taxes on e-commerce sellers in order to fund a Universal Basic Income program.
I would LOVE to see a UBI program piloted in SF, but unfortunately I cannot support this measure. Here's why:

— Sharky Laguana (@Sharkyl) August 13, 2022

who is sharky laguana and why should we care what they would support?

no idea, but is a bill that targets amazon that fails to apply to amazon really on the ballot?

idk i feel like you are too sane and rational for SF politics --

like I recently learned about this situation involving the SF Mayor's Office of Housing making affordable housing less affordable ... anyway ... this is just one building, and not to impugn the entire department, but ... it makes me feel slightly better about the dysfunction ratio of Oakland: San Francisco

xp eh possibly. this shit happens everywhere they have ballot measures though. just amateur hour lawmaking. can't even write a bill of attainder without missing the target. insane way to run a state.

I recently found out about some new absurd consequences re Prop 19, but I forgot the specifics ... basically, it was one of those things where I was reminded of your otm-ness re ballot measures

i'm so happy i've forgotten what prop 19 was.

aren't they required to spend it or most of it due to one of the various incredibly stupid rules that make that state ungovernable

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) May 13, 2022

"the various incredibly stupid rules that make that state ungovernable" is in re: a different ballot measure (prop 4, 1979) but is a good way of describing literally all of them.

Vote Prop Me, where I make all the decisions.

Here’s your chance ned!

Wow. NOBODY filed for the two vacating #Emeryville City Council seats for the November election which means the filing deadline will be extended until 8/17. Literally all you have to do is file paperwork, get 30 signatures & you’ll likely get to be “Mayor” in yr 4 year term. 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/XJoHevBN1K

— The E'ville Eye News 👁 (@TheEvilleEye) August 13, 2022

"Hear me hear me. Pixar to be nationalized on a city-wide basis to prevent any more bad sequels and useless franchise extensions in favor of returning to their 'do something new each time' run."

Like there are 11,000 people there, why don't we all just wander over and take over the place.

Is environmentalism the main obstacle to infill housing in California?

Over last 2 years, I've done significant pro bono work on CA housing bills & the sausage-making I've observed points to a very uncomfortable answer: Yes. 1/🧵.

— Chris Elmendorf (@CSElmendorf) August 13, 2022

LA DA recall fails

RELEASE: Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Completes Petition Verification for District Attorney Recall Attempt; Petition found insufficient to qualify the recall for the ballot.

Link: https://t.co/DOnh0dtCGK

— Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (@LACountyRRCC) August 15, 2022

"520,050 signatures were found to be valid and 195,783 were found to be invalid. To qualify the recall for the ballot, the petition required 566,857 valid signatures"

lmao