SB 51: the California politics thread

this is my ft employer so take what i say with a grain of salt but to their credit ucsd is building massive high rises to expand student housing. like way bigger than anything around even including the new university town center / golden triangle high rises, taller than midcity developments, real 20 story downtown stuff

they also fucked up by promising 2000 undergrads housing, which mysteriously vaporized. oh and they also want to entice me and other "senior staff" into $5k/mo rental units close to downtown lmao. thanks but i'm happy driving in from la mesa

i like the new uniform and it seems to be catching on with the ppl

". . . where greased up old dudes j/o'd all day long . . ."

I feel seen.

https://www.lajollalight.com/news/education/story/2023-08-17/campus-housing-shortage-leaves-more-than-2-300-uc-san-diego-students-on-waiting-lists-for-beds

hard to overstate how tall these 21 story student blocks are compared to what's around them. the tallest thing that comes to mind is the space-mountain-esque mormon temple, whose tippy top spires only reach 14 stories. the hyatt regency is 13 stories i think and the geisel library is only like 10 stories

". . . where greased up old dudes j/o'd all day long . . ."

I feel seen.

― nickn, Thursday, August 17, 2023 11:29 AM (two hours ago)

haha <3

i thought the story was "this is what i have to do to attend berkeley" which sorry but unlike basic housing attending the UC of your choice cost be damned is not a basic human right

― the late great, Thursday, August 17, 2023 1:53 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

eh, california has a bigger GDP than almost every country on earth. kids with the grades to get places at its best universities should not have to live like this. or this https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/california-vehicular-homelessness-car-dwelling-los-angeles/674901/.

i mean aside from the fact that this is morally obscene for any student (K-12 or higher ed) to have to live like this, it's also not in the interests of the state, assuming you accept the premise that the state benefits from a public university. i feel like i'm losing my mind here.

there are a lot of public universities that aren’t uc berkeley

if you’re talking abt a homeless crisis, i’m highly sympathetic. if you’re telling me it’s especially bad because some of the homeless have 4.5 gpa and 1400 SAT … no

kids with the grades to get places at its best universities should not have to live like this

i realize you are not trying to start a fight about this and neither am i, but speaking as a so called “lifetime employee”, if you think the uc/csu is actually a meritocracy / tries to function like one / even should function like one then i have opinions4u

i assume m bison has opinions on this too!

Feels like there's more to that reddit post that is not covered by the umbrella of California statewide politics.

Incoming F1 students from China that may feel slighted at being undersponsored and drop reddit posts like that to call attention to their plight could very well write a grant application or secure additional funds (China is the 2nd richest country in the world and yes, has banks). There's something off about the post in general ("*Please do not suggest any advice regarding loans; I am not considering that option." nor replying to any advice to seek part-time employment). Seems like a personal matter that went awry.

if not human trafficking, hello oxford st sweatshops

i think i mean university??

i mean

_i thought the story was "this is what i have to do to attend berkeley" which sorry but unlike basic housing attending the UC of your choice cost be damned is not a basic human right

― the late great, Thursday, August 17, 2023 1:53 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink_


eh, california has a bigger GDP than almost every country on earth. kids with the grades to get places at its best universities should not have to live like this. or this https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/california-vehicular-homelessness-car-dwelling-los-angeles/674901🕸/.

that’s what i mean by basic housing

totally different than “no student should have to live like this”

the difference with ppl that want basic housing is they’re not going to insist on walking distance to uc berkeley, they just want a place where they can work and afford to live

what % of car homeless are instagram influencers tho

I lived in a converted UHaul truck for four years in California. It was very difficult. Having a trust fund and being a van-man is very different than working a full-time job at bad pay and being a van-man.

No matter what the outcome, I am ready to vote on this in November.

vote on what now? what's on the ballot that would address this?

housing at Cal has always, always been bad. I started there in 1990 and was told it was a longshot to get housing (I lived at home and commuted, which was a mistake for multiple reasons; wound up getting an apartment a year later). Cal admits entirely too many students these days, IMO, given their lack of housing. They need to build more but I frankly think they will always find a way to admit more than they can house regardless of how much they build.

santa cruz is even worse, from what I understand.

As in, I was agreeing with you, tlg— that caek’s post made it out as tho it was unseemly for students to be living out of cars or storage units when so many people live that was is what I was objecting to. No one should have to live like that, I know because I fucking did it.

Wealthy Berkeley residents want to live in a college town, but they don't want any college students there.

yeah those people are shitheads. also I don't know that they really want to live in a college town. they maybe think they do, but they don't.

anywhere can be a college town if you just act like you’re in college, duh look at guerneville

spring break twelve months of the year

their tuition is $3500 and tuition plus dorm lodging is $4100

what???? it doesn't say tuition is $3500 unless I missed something. tuition at UC is quite a bit higher than that even for in-state.

worth noting that one of the major NIMBY assholes in Berkeley is Robert Reich.

it was in the reddit thread?? idk all my kids get free rides basically

In state tuition to berkeley is 14k/yr. The poster said their sponsor paid the tuition. I'm not sure who their sponsor is and why they didn't also agree to pay for housing, that doesn't seem like a very good sponsor to me.

I think you saw this: "The cost for a full UC meal plan is $3,535. Is that what your sponsor is paying? The cost for one semester room and board in the coops is $4,131"

ohhh thx. yes i misread that

BTW, calling out NIMBYs should not absolve the UC from decades of dereliction when it comes to building student housing. It's not just Berkeley:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-14/fixing-californias-student-housing-crisis-faces-roadblocks

Why hasn’t UC Berkeley built more student housing? (good historical background - not just Berkeley, but the UC in general)

Of course no one should have to live like this, regardless of GPA or whatever.

And if the specifics of the reddit thread are bothering you then read the thing I linked about UCLA students living in their cars.

My point is not that these people _in particular_ should not be homeless. It’s that things have gotten so fucked up that some of the otherwise most privileged people in the richest state in the country are living in cars and storage units.

santa cruz is even worse, from what I understand.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Thursday, August 17, 2023 9:54 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/santa-cruz-is-a-housing-nightmare

And https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/traumatized-by-santa-cruzs-housing

yeah that's where I first read about it (followed him on twitter, when I was still on twitter)

i think santa cruz is only "worse" in the sense that people go there not expecting to commute from like Salinas or Hollister ... whereas people I know who went to UCSD and UCLA and even Berkeley were more prepared to commute.

I wondered whatever happened to that proposed Dormzilla project at UCSB, and thankfully it's dead.
https://therealdeal.com/la/2023/08/08/ucsb-wants-to-replace-charlie-mungers-dorm-design/

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/federal-judge-california-law-gun-magazines/3230467/

Courtesy of this prize.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Benitez

yeah that guy is a POS

Can't wait for more of this genius at work -- Steve Garvey confirms he's running for Senate and says things like this:

He was less anxious to touch base with what may be one of his political liabilities: his personal life. His Mr. Clean image took a hit shortly after he left baseball, when news broke that he fathered two children with different women before marrying a third, his current wife, Candace.

“You know, Joe, life is a journey,” Garvey told me. “We all go through chapters in our lives. That was back in a transitional period. I don’t talk about my family or history. People will judge me as to who I am in 2024. I pray for my children and my family every day.”

"Release the tapes!"

How many mispredictions can you spot? https://t.co/IaH8k4Cnjk pic.twitter.com/N7q4TlTmlK

— Common Ground California (@CACommonGround) February 14, 2024