SB 51: the California politics thread

Referred to here:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/AB5-to-ease-caps-for-writers-photographers-more-15036406.php

does it mention any remedies for gig musicians?

Meanwhile, AB-5 has forced the local playhouse here in Sierra Madre to cancel a show:

https://abc7.com/business/local-theater-struggles-under-ca-law-restricting-independent-contractor-designation/5899734/

Every new project in Pasadena is at least three stories, most are 4-6.

They're called Five-Over-Ones, One-Plus-Fives, etc. but the construction is the same: five floors of residential wood construction on top of a concrete box retail floor. A vast chunk of American civic land is zoned to prohibit construction over 65 feet, which makes it just right for these five or six story boxes. They're cheap as hell to build and taller/denser construction would run up against different standards for fire regulation, parking, etc. etc. The architecture derives from being the minimal legal hassle to maximize as much possible profit.

More:
http://archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-one-plus-five-is-shaping-american_27.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same

oooooh! thank you!

Five-Over-Ones, One-Plus-Fives,
No one here gets out alive.

also interesting along these lines

https://www.curbed.com/2019/1/16/18184194/mcmansion-hell-kate-wagner-modern-building-materials
https://whyy.org/segments/we-dont-build-them-like-we-use-to-why-new-houses-arent-made-of-brick/

Didn’t read but isn’t the short answer seismic safety — unreinforced masonry

Lol ok I read it and it is about Philly. But changes to building codes and the ability to use alternative methods is a relevant issue.

as a Seattle resident there's far too much unreinforced masonry still standing for my nerves

There are ways to legally and safely reinforce the unreinforced masonry, but not cheaply

Yeah and it’s not blanket-required “lol”

what a mess

https://www.patreon.com/posts/34027460

law is totally gonna get amended/re-written. not a bad thing imo. still hope it puts uber etc out of business.

anyone in LA CD12? apparently this flyer is supposed to make you not want to vote for lundquist?!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQxZyzHU0AEKvmQ?format=jpg&name=medium

she's got a good shot. she lost to lee (a republican) by a small amount in a very low turnout special election last year. she'll benefit from increased democrat turnout in march and lee knows this (he's running as an indpendent) if she gets more than 50% in the primary she wins right away.

what a mess

https://www.patreon.com/posts/34027460

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, February 14, 2020 2:47 PM (four hours ago)

What's even messier is how the people who have legal expertise in these industries (publishing, media, art, theater, music, etc.) don't even seem to understand the law -- or at least are giving sloppy advice to freelancers. Like, the forming an LLC is so not gonna qualify. I am glad the author of this article didn't do it and have to spend $800 (at least) per year for something legally useless for AB5 issues. It's possible that one could get away with forming an S-Corp where you pay yourself as an employee, and the client pays your S-Corp, though CA Lawyers for the Arts said in their toolkit they just put out that that was a bit dicey and that would fall under a "loan out" provision that is considered non-exempt from AB5.

AB5 is also interesting in relation to the Federal TCJA provisions from last year that eliminated deductions for unreimbursed employee business expenses. Like, in one way it is regressive and shitty, because it tends to affect people like teachers and non-profit staff that have underfunded workplaces, as well as people who are dues-paying members of unions (teachers again, nurses, etc.). However, one could argue, that it gives employees more impetus to get their employers to pay for things rather than expecting the employees to pay for stuff out of pocket because they care about their work.

Basically, if I were involved in unionization type work, I would be like, "this is our moment" and would be in manic activist mode right now.

california

Ladies and gentlemen, the best Palo Alto Online post of all time pic.twitter.com/wmp5kDym7y

— Mark Mollineaux 🦀🔰🕊🌹🌐 (@bufordsharkley) February 22, 2020

commute from Salinas isn't that bad tbh

It’s an hour and 20 minutes without traffic from Salinas to my office in PA and the planet is dying.

It's way longer from Tracy tho

the idea of commuting from Tracy to Palo Alto is the stuff of nightmares

I commuted for years, anything over an hour in the end is brutal

My endorsements

LA ballot measure R: yes (sheriff sucks)
State ballot measure 13: yes
CD 10: aura vasquez (ie not mark Ridley Thomas)
County 2: holly Mitchell (ie not Herb Wesson)
LA DA: Gascon (I prefer Rossi but Gascon has a better shot at Lacey in the general)
Cd 12: lundquist (climate, housing, phd astrophysicist, not a republican, might get over 50% in the primary)
Cd 4: nithya Raman (she rules and she’s not this guy https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ryu-attempted-rape-charge-dismissed-20150420-story.html)

I commuted for years, anything over an hour in the end is brutal

― Dan S, Saturday, February 22, 2020 6:24 PM (yesterday)

I did the same -- for me, it depended on the difference between how long it would take without traffic vs. actual commute duration.

The LA DA race is heating up!

#BREAKING This morning Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s husband pulled a gun out on Black Lives Matter activists who protested his wife in front of their house. @BLMLA pic.twitter.com/wnCFMMvaWV

— Jasmyne Cannick (@Jasmyne) March 2, 2020

Any good voting guides for SF specifically / CA generally?

there are LA guides but they cover some CA races

https://tjr.xxx/content/home/california-cheat-sheet-feb-2020-front-and-back-3.pdf

https://thelapod.com/posts/la-podcast-2020-voter-guide-primary-edition/

https://www.dsa-la.org/2020_primary_voter_guide

This looks lefty: http://www.theleaguesf.org/about

ha

Text from a Lacey supporter in regards to, again can't believe I'm typing this, her husband pointing a gun at demonstrators -- "This may be the all time stupidest pre-Election Day F*** up."

— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) March 2, 2020

This looks lefty: http://www.theleaguesf.org/about

― Feminism-Appropriating Regressive Transphobe (Leee), Monday, March 2, 2020 10:25 AM (yesterday)

yep.

here's another one

http://spacecats.org/

Hahah amazing!

my Glendale-resident sister reports that all her local candidates promise to do something about "traffic", which she compared to student body president candidates promising longer recess.

measure R (sheriff's oversight passed in a landslide). looks like the spending measures will pass.

jackie lacey the terrible DA with the gun-wielding husband is on 50.6%. she needs over 50% to avoid a runoff in the fall. gascon (ex-SF DA) is in second place. late reporting votes tend to move things left in LA, so she's in trouble.

on the council: david ryu will need a runoff against the nithya raman (yay). looks like john lee (the republican who switched to no registration) beat the (excellent) democrat by enough to hold even with the swing left in late count :-(

herb wesson (one half of bullshit corrupt seat swap) needs a runoff against holly mitchell and looks to be in trouble when that happens. mark ridley thomas (the other half of the bullshit corrupt seat swap) will also need a run off but is probably in less trouble.

Measure Q only got a majority and not the 2/3 needed to pass. There was a lot of anti-Q campaigning done by pro-corporate landlord PAC(s)

geez I'm surprised honestly, I thought it had a lot of goodwill. Since I've become a homeowner in the last decade I've paid a lot more attention to parcel tax increases, but I don't think there's a single one I've not supported.

While I was pro Measure Q on principle, I was sympathetic to the anti-Q people who were arguing that the City of Oakland is incompetent when it comes to managing money (e.g. the soda tax, the affordable housing impact fees) so why give them more money? I was not sympathetic to the people opposed to it because they were against the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act part of the measure because they somehow believed it would mean their property would be seized (?) ....

reminder

Ok, it is incredibly early, and we will know more in the coming days, but two things we can say about the outstanding votes in California (with gifs).

— CA120 (@CA_120) March 4, 2020

First: There are massive numbers of ballots to be counted in CA. This will be a record. More than 4 million. Could reach 5 million (with 1.2 million in LA County alone).

Put another way, we may only be half way there. pic.twitter.com/tLp3Sp2GJu

— CA120 (@CA_120) March 4, 2020

Uncounted votes aren’t from old white homeowner Reps, they mostly voted early and they are over represented in the current tabulations.

Uncounted will skew young, Latino, Dem. For candidate races and ballot measures this means the votes will go in one direction: to the left. pic.twitter.com/tXmQqjVNDv

— CA120 (@CA_120) March 4, 2020

Nice

LOS ANGELES updates: with 112K ballots counted today, DA Jackie Lacey drops from 50.69% to 50.14%.

She received 45% of the vote in this batch.

I'd expect hundreds of thousands of more ballot, & for them to be also much less favorable to her than earliest mail-ins (55%).

— Taniel (@Taniel) March 5, 2020

our experience here in Seattle is that the T+2 days ballot drop will see the biggest bolus of progressive votes in this kind of race

Who got the biggest bolus
I got the biggest bolus

i know silby likes this account

If you’re voting this weekend, don’t forget to vote for Nithya Raman for City Council!

The Americana: The Galleria: pic.twitter.com/3lBHCl9Ox5

— Americana at Brand Memes (@americanamemes) February 29, 2020

ryu now well under 50%, runoff time!

jackie lacey at 50.3% for DA, clinging on :(

lundquist catching up to john lee (47/53) and refusing to concede, but that's a big lift.

If you really want to go crazy, find out how many ballots are left to count and the absolute vote spread and start calculating the vote ratio necessary in uncounted ballots to make up the leads

💥 Los Angeles DA Jackie Lacey is below 50% threshold for the first time... at 49.999%.

She dipped from 50.29% to that based on ≈150K new ballots. But that's out of 800K+ remaining this am; so a long way to go!

— Taniel (@Taniel) March 7, 2020

Yep she’ll keep going lower. The “late liberal” (sic) phenomenon in mail-in votes is extreme

on the other hand 100% of ppl I have polled IRL blew their primary vote on Warren, ten days before polls close

lundquist catching up to john lee (47/53) and refusing to concede, but that's a big lift.

now 48/52

sic they should still be able to spoil their WA ballots if they want to vote for someone else I think.

Nithya is pretty impressive -- met her a couple times recently and she seems like the real deal. Levy was based on what i know also a good candidate...didn't hear anything negative about her.

Yeah legitimately excited about nithya

looooooool

Ex-L.A. Councilman Mitchell Englander surrenders in federal probe -- more details to come https://t.co/wlbrWLZlWk

— Emily Alpert Reyes (@AlpertReyes) March 9, 2020

(i know this stuff is boring for the non-LA people, but LA council people are incredibly corrupt and have had a totally free hand for a long time, and it does feel like things are getting kind of interesting electorally right when they're all going to jail)