SB 51: the California politics thread

But seriously -- dude really needs to extend that eviction moratorium. If he wants the goodwill of the progressive left, and many democrats working at the local level ... like, if I were someone like say, Libby Schaaf (the female Gavin), a moderate Democrat with aspirations to higher office that really doesn't want to deal with the huge shitshow that would be managing a City where a significant portion of the population are at risk ... I would hold a motherfucking grudge if Gavin wasn't a team player and stuck me with that shitshow. Pretty much everyone at the local level that I'm aware of that are either "anti-capitalist left" (pro-tenant) or "POC to the front" progressives will be out for blood if that moratorium isn't extended.

otm. i am going to use his 25 point win as an excuse to hold him to a standard consistent with his overwhelming mandate and stop worring about what people in beverly hills and eureka think.

Newsom's ever cared about what people in Eu-tweaka think?

there are rich people there, I'm sure some of them own wineries!

my only Eureka memory was having to go to the Eureka Kaiser ER when I was 7 and had a severe asthma attack ... it was quite nice! Much nicer than the Kaiser ER in San Jose.

I'm pretty sure most of the money in Eureka is coming from marijuana, tbh

I guess that it's just that in comparison to Arcata, Eureka is a total dump.

Parts of Arcata are a total dump, to be fair.

One thing about driving through Eureka on the 101.. normally when you pass through a town, you might see rough characters on the outskirts, but in Eureka it's all the way through town: befuddled trimmigrants with pitbulls on a rope, sad drug refugees pushing shopping carts right through traffic, drunks snoozing on the sidewalk.. it's pretty sad from one end to the other.
It wasn't always like that, but it sure is now.

Yeah, it's been like that since I first went there, often went through a few times per year for the decade or so I lived in California. Only stopped for any amount of time in Eureka twice— once to go to a surprisingly decent Vietnamese restaurant, and the other to go to Lost Coast Brewery to drink Fog Cutter from the tap.

I guess parts of the outskirts of Arcata are kind of dumpy, but compared to Eureka, it's a quaint Victorian village lol.

Eureka as seen from the road is rough, but they have a nice downtown.

my Eureka experience was in like 1981

it's probably like when I moved to Oakland in the late 90s, and my parents were ... concerned about safety, because their perception of Oakland was based on the news in the 1970s/80s of white flight, poverty, the crack epidemic, and there were regular driveby shootings even in the "nice parts" ... but my grandmother remembered Oakland as a very very nice place that she went shopping sometimes in the 1940s/50s back when those beautiful old department store buildings downtown were actually department stores where ladies bought gloves and hats.

Another feel good read https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-18/rural-red-california-recall-election

Ok

“I went to bed really wanting to put a For Sale sign in front of my house,” said Pickens, 50, as she sipped a chai tea latte outside Artisan Coffee in Janesville, population 1,400.

Here's a response to the la times lassen county trump diner article:

1/ I’m normally a big fan of the LA Times rural CA dispatches but no one really paints an accurate picture of how rural California votes. “overwhelmingly” misses a lot, without even counting the also rural North Coast the whole region…https://t.co/xQmJm3BSaI

— Travis Legault (@travisl_97) September 18, 2021

hehe

Orange County results in CA Governor elections:

2003: R+47
2006: R+44
2010: R+20
2014: R+11
2018: D+0.3
2021: D+3

— Ryan Matsumoto (@ryanmatsumoto1) September 23, 2021

lovely stuff

GOP in CA hurting from party’s own conspiracy theories. Voters have bought into “my vote doesn’t count in California, so therefore I’m not going to vote,” said Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Orange County GOP.
Via ⁦@LATSeema⁩ https://t.co/oMbOeSXrOZ

— Stuart Leavenworth (@sleavenworth) September 26, 2021

Typically a boisterous gathering, the three-day meeting in San Diego was among the grimmest in recent memory.

That was a joy to read.

another

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/california-republicans-gop-514337

For years, Republicans in California ran candidates for marquee statewide races, lost and regrouped, certain that the next time might be different. That thinking has changed following their drubbing in the recall.

As the convention unfolded in half-empty meeting rooms at a waterfront hotel, there was no feting of Larry Elder, the conservative radio show host who excited the party’s rank-and-file in the recall — and who discovered that was nowhere near enough to unseat an incumbent Democratic governor. Elder himself was on the opposite coast, tweeting that he was “recovering from the campaign in Key West, Florida.”

Nor was Kevin Faulconer, once widely considered the future of the state party, on the convention program. The former San Diego mayor, who did even worse than Elder in the recall election, took private meetings on the patio of a restaurant several blocks from the convention hotel, avoiding any confrontation with party activists who disdain his moderate politics.

apparently he's a democrat?

Newsom signs AB 43 - greater flexibility on setting speed limits - and AB 917 - allowing camera enforcement of bus lanes/stops. Vetos legislation on "safe stopping" for bicyclists and banning enforcement of "jaywalking."https://t.co/QYJg2GSfe8

— Streetsblog CA (@StreetsblogCal) October 9, 2021

big Friday night!

BREAKING: @GavinNewsom vetoed #AB1456, arguably the most significant expansion of state financial aid in a generation and one that would have made about 150,000 more students, including 110,000 at community colleges, eligible for the Cal Grant. Context: https://t.co/bfxqjwIUKI

— Mikhail Zinshteyn (@mzinshteyn) October 9, 2021

Where would we ever get the money for that?

Seriously though, the surplus is needed so bad. We are looking at huge school budget cuts here in SF. Hopefully this will help.

Yeah SFUSD this year for us is looking great because the reality of the enrollment drop hasn't kicked in. Still, we've lost some great support staff at the nearby elementary school. Here's hoping this surplus + new board members (in my view) can keep it ok.

But as we like to point out in this thread, the coffers are filled overwhelmingly from the tech industry, and some day that might come back to haunt us again if we dont diversify...

Love it that even The Economist is shitting on SF these days. Hey assholes, I remember when Capp St was a red light district and people regularly got shot in the Mission. Fuck this right wing propoganda.

I remember when Capp St was a red light district and people regularly got shot in the Mission.

ah sigh, the good old days ...

I remember when I could walk down 16th street and buy a 16oz beer for $1, table-score leftover burrito at Pancho Villa, emerge to find a guy with his eyeball hanging out of its socket and blood everywhere in the Mexican bar next to Pancho Villa, then get propositioned by a guy outside the same bar. and that was just the block between Mission and Valencia! lol

Hey man I did all that in the Mission earlier this morning. By all that meaning I went to a bank, got some cash and went home.

I remember doing a performance art piece at the L@b that involved cleaning a toilet I got from the San Pablo Flea Market (R.I.P. demolished for condos I think) and then left it around the corner of 16th and Capp, and it apparently got used fairly extensively before it got hauled away by the City as trash

!

lmao but also D:

this was 2000 and there was regularly deposits of human excrement on the sidewalk in that spot, so I knew that people did have a tendency to "go there"

it was not a case of "if you build it they will come"

more like "if you build it they will shit"

welp

BREAKING: The mayor of Oroville, CA declared the city a "Constitutional Republic" in an effort to get around vaxx and mask laws.

THIS YEAR Oroville used federal funds to fight fires AND rebuild their damn. If they were independent, they would be both on fire and underwater.

— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) November 26, 2021

The most ridiculous part is the idea they'd be able to be independent from Butte County.

The county is the largest employer in the city. Over 15% of the entire population works for Butte. Though the 2nd largest employer is the hospital - which will probably need more staff.

— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) November 26, 2021

Clarification - the vice mayor requested it and the city council voted for it.

Well, good luck on your independence, Oroville. I'm sure you will be sending back all the federal and state money shortly.

— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) November 26, 2021

Oroville always been the shittiest of the towns and small cities in that area.

Christ

Looking like the local control over housing ballot initiative is getting to the point where they'll have enough money to qualify for next year's ballot https://t.co/H0qPgS6Kbj

— Liam Dillon (@dillonliam) November 28, 2021

Alameda is a weird place.

Any thoughts on the proposed PUC rules to stop allowing net usage metering for solar and charge solar customers for the PRIVILEGE of having installed solar panels? As someone who just installed solar, plus a battery, it smacks of utility rent-seeking. Plus, they are doing this pathetic woke-washing where they claim if they don't get this money, it will hurt minority communities, since they won't be able to use all that money to build desert solar installations.

nothing to add beyond OTM

That sounds like immense bullshit

disincentivizing installing solar *should* be a non-starter

as opposed to the massive tax credits the Federal Government gives for installing solar?

It all smacks of entitlement and regulatory capture. The utilities would like to just keep getting the same amount of money from every Californian forever, and that's probably how they've done all their budgeting. And I guess the PUC thinks this is a convincing argument to charge people for using their solar panels.

tbf this has a similar tone to Republican home owners and landlords complaining about paying extra property taxes for services that don't benefit them personally

otoh, at least one client of the org I work for had the city want to charge them affordable housing impact fees for legalizing units that are currently affordable housing in order to preserve affordable housing ...

xp otm

"woke-washing" seems like a tell tbh

tbf this has a similar tone to Republican home owners and landlords complaining about paying extra property taxes for services that don't benefit them personally

If utilities aren't getting enough in usage fees, I'm fine with paying, say, taxes, or a fixed fee, to fund power, a centralized service that we all need. Charging people to use solar, though, is stupid.