California matters

Since the US politics thread generally talks more about national issues rather than per-state issues, I was figuring for a while that we might want more specific threads such as on particular states.

To start off, apparently this year\'s legislative period has ended and there are a few interesting new laws on the way in Sacramento:

• A bill already signed would disallow cash bail and thus effectively dismantle the cash bail industry that has raised concerns about predatory behaviour in the past. There is apparently a referendum against it going, though.
• One bill allows electricity companies to raise bills in order to pay for wildfire liability costs. That relates to last year\'s wildfires in northern California which were started by broken power lines.
• A bill that disallows cities from charging residents the cost of legal services used to prosecute them. This relates to an episode last year when cities in Southern California were caught hiring law firms to prosecute people who had broken city ordinances and then making them pay fees for the firms. Notably, this one bill was written by a Republican lawmaker.
• Two bills to expand childcare access in the state.
• (Already signed) A bill that requires background checks for drivers in say Uber services. Apparently relates to a case where a driver raped four women when he was driving them.
• (Signed) A bill that makes surfing the state sport of California. We did discuss this one in the US culture thread, and I think the comments that skateboarding would be a better candidate are on point.
• One bill that disallows that 14 and 15 year olds be tried as adults in court.
• One bill that would make penalties for accomplice-ship in murder less severe than for actual murder.
• A bill that lengthens the time that renters have to challenge eviction.
• A Net neutrality bill, that would \"prohibits fixed and mobile internet service providers that offer broadband internet service from taking certain actions that would interfere with a consumer’s ability to access content on the internet. It would also prevent providers from performing actions that include blocking content, speeding up or slowing down traffic, engaging in paid-prioritization, and selectively zero-rating specific content.\"
• A bill that prevents people under 21 from buying guns. I am a little concerned that \"People age 18-21: disproportionately commit more gun homicides & use guns in suicides\" is given as an argument in support but without evidence.
• A bill that requires that by 2021 schools may not start earlier than 8:30 AM.

The bill ending bail has problems of its own, but I really hope that referendum doesn't get traction. Better to fix the problems with it than throw it out to let those industries keep gouging people.

The wildfire bill is crap, though. They shouldn't get to force customers to pay for their screwups.

The rest is good or not that important (surfing bill, for example).

Meanwhile, it's fire season so far with a dozen fatalities, a new "largest fire in state history" less than a year from the last, over 1200 damaged structures. Is it just me or have these two years been super bad in terms of wildfires? Also, if these fires were happening in Switzerland the better part of the country would be in cinders.

Well, perversely, it rained a lot during the winter of 2016-17, which besides setting off a bunch of mudslides and flooding we were not prepared for, caused a lot of new shrubbery to grow again. Then summer came dryer than ever and all that new vegetation made everything even worse than before when the fires started again.

wonder if they make an attempt to fix the housing market?

Because where I live it's basically impossible to live by yourself.

They are trying, seems like. For example. I believe the issue is a culture that gives an almost irrational value to the worth of one's own home and the knockoff effects of said culture and the tendency of even medium sized building projects to become years long court battles between all interests that support or oppose a given project.

Slight skepticism on the eviction restriction (eviction truces and bans are generally a really dumb idea), but it seems that this one isn't too bad.

So this does not look promising in regards to the housing issue. Apparently there is total disagreement about what the cause is and the most commonly given explanation - lack of rent control - aside from sounding somewhat wrong to me (does California really have enough rented housing?) does not seem fixable in light of this counter effort.

The most effective solution to the housing crisis is, has always been, and will continue to be build more housing (preferably robustly funded public/social housing but that's a whole other kettle of fish).

However that would require rewriting zoning laws to encourage more dense housing construction, which would probably be even more politically unpopular then rent control.

So I believe that tomorrow (?) is election day and there are eleven referenda pending per [1]:

1. Funding for housing affordability measures.
2. Funding for homeless housing.
3. Funding for water projects.
4. Funding for childrens' hospitals.
5. Property tax break for older homeowners.
6. Repealing California’s gas tax increase and new vehicle fee.
7. Daylight saving time all year long. Note that this is a trigger law that only kicks in if state legislature & Congress agree to it.
8. Profits at kidney dialysis centers. Persay "would impose a cap on the profits earned by large companies" that are active in kidney dialysis.
9. This one's been deemed invalid.
10. Allows municipalities to institute rent control.
11. Rest breaks for ambulance workers.
12. Larger cages

Wonder what folks' thoughts on these are.

eta: Expanded with two Propositions I didn't see.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Nov 6th 2018 at 9:11:40 PM

I am really glad Number Nine was struck down before it got to be on the ballot. That it even got on the ballot at all is bad enough, and I fear this will only encourage that VC fuckwad to try again.

Most of them seems to be pretty good, except for 9. That one will probably make things worse.

1. Yes - It's part of the larger package of bills passed earlier this year to help with housing pricing. For some reason they had to put it on the ballot, but it had been widely supported.

2. Yes. The biggest controversy with this one was that it took money from homeless mental health programs for housing those homeless with mental health issues. But it was reasoned that those mental health programs would amount to nothing if you just send them right back into the streets.

3. No. Most everything I've read suggests it's mostly pork for Big Agriculture in the Central Valley. You know, the guys who already get most of the water money.

4. Yes. Is anyone really gonna say no to this?

5. No. Most of what I've seen says senior Californians move a lot anyway, so lowering their property tax just gives them unfair advantages over everyone else in the market. Not to mention lowers tax revenue wherever they go.

6. No. As much as I dislike it for a number of reasons, I've seen the good results of having money to fix the roads and I want to keep seeing those results.

7. Yes. I'm honestly surprised it took this long to get voted on.

8. Abstain. Wasn't able to make up my mind.

9. Draper and his douchebag posse can shove it.

10. Yes. It's a really tiny step all things considered, but it's something. As Mio mentioned a few posts above, the most effective solution would be to build more housing.

11. Abstain.

12. Yes. Chicken love.

If California successfully ditches DST, maybe the rest of the country will follow suit. We sure as hell don't need it anymore.

I actually appreciated the extra hour of sleep I got at drill over the weekend. DST is one of those things I don't particularly care about one way or the other.

I think I had one regarding ambulance crews having to be on-call at all times during their shifts. That one was a bit tricky to decide.

I voted no on that one because it kinda seemed messed up to force anyone to be on-call during their breaks, even ambulance workers.

On other matters, Tuck is leading Thurmond in Superintendent of Public Instruction and I really hope that turns around.

Edited by TheRoguePenguin on Nov 6th 2018 at 11:00:09 AM

I think I voted no on that one (I sent my ballot a while ago). Because as important as it is for an ambulance to be ready in case of an emergency, having them being driven by exhausted people doesn't help anyone.

I think the argument in favor of that one was that ambulance crews spend a lot of time just loitering about waiting for a call anyway, which justifies not giving them actual scheduled break times. I still voted no, because I think having a designated break time is a lot better than just tacitly encouraging them to treat non-active work time as breaks.

And Prop 10 failed to pass, which sucks. Rent prices are growing out of control, especially here in the Bay Area. I'm lucky I live with my parents in a mobile home.

Edited by danime91 on Nov 7th 2018 at 11:32:53 AM

13 dead including deputy, shooter, in bar shooting in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Dozens injured. Yet another mass shooting.

Suspect had been identified as a former Marine, Ian Long, with PTSD.

I live not too far from Thousand Oaks. This tragic news is shocking but not surprising to hear.

Meanwhile, the wildfires are at it again. This time round it's a town called Paradise that has been reduced to cinders.

There's also the Hill and Woolsey fires down near the LA/Ventura county border which have caused their own mandatory evacuation orders. I would add a link to more information, but I'm currently on mobile due to said evacuation order.

Seriously, the fire spread to 2 exits down the freeway where I live.

Edited by TheProdigy on Nov 9th 2018 at 7:26:09 AM

Ooh, California thread!

My impressions on California is that it's a great, populous place to live...except for the natural disasters and high cost of living. XD

I went to California (and Nevada and Utah) more than three years ago for vacation with my dad; I think they were still suffering from the effects of the drought. Anyway, I really liked San Diego. And since I want to work in the animation industry, I was thinking of moving to California someday anyways. I love it there even if it gets ridiculously hot.