Take a look at SoCal and NorCal to see what we’re missing
Every once in a while it’s a good practice to pull our heads out of the lovely Eastern Sierra and take a quick peek south to see what we’re missing. Here are some of the headlines I found in the Jan. 18 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
“In Beverly Hills, no kitchen remodels or pool grottoes as judge orders building moratorium over lack of affordable housing.”
It seems the ultra-rich city has not approved any new housing for years, thus breaking any number of state laws. A construction moratorium seems to be minor punishment for a city that pronounces Rodeo Drive ROE-DAY-OH.
Pitiful.
“From ‘Bad Vegan’ to mass restaurant closures – inside Matthew
Kenney’s crumbling raw food empire.”
I don’t even want to know.
“‘I just grabbed my gun for some reason’: Trial opens in freeway shooting death of 6-year-old.”
The defendant said the boy’s mother flipped him a bird in traffic so he just grabbed his 9-millimeter semiautomatic gun and fired into her car, hitting and killing the 6-year-old boy.
“Interview: California’s newest senator, Laphonza Butler, on Trump, Gaza and her future.”
Did you even remember we had a new senator? I thought so. She was appointed to fill out Sen. Diane Feinstein’s term, but is not running in 2024, in a rare case of a non-powerhungry politico. Good for her. Whoever she is.
“As EVs gain traction, how will California pay for road repair?”
This is the “no good deed goes unpunished” scenario. California leads the nation in the number of electric vehicles on the roads. But those roads are crumbling because the state and counties pay for roadwork with gas tax revenue. Sell less gas, get less gas tax, get less money to spend on roads. This doom loop will accelerate in coming years and in 2035 the state will ban the sale of most gas-powered passenger cars. Do you see what I see coming down the road? Yep, that would be a tax increase of some sort.
“The owner of Vroman’s, a historic independent bookstore in Pasadena, is looking to sell both of its locations in the city, along with Book Soup in West Hollywood.”
Here’s the story: “The bookstore, the oldest in Southern California, was founded in 1895 and has been under the same family’s ownership for more than a century. Its current owner, Joel Sheldon, who is nearing his 80th birthday … is retiring after nearly 50 years of leading the establishment.” That is one dedicated bookseller.
“Despite California exodus, the well-off and well-educated still flock here. Will they stay?”
That sounds great as long as they stay on the coast and only come to the Eastern Sierra for wallet surgery (clinical definition: extracting large, wads of green blobs from wallets or bank accounts). Census data dispels the idea of a California “brain drain,” thanks to the state’s “strong economy in such sectors as technology, medicine and entertainment, as well as its admired higher-education network,” which keep attracting big-brained people with big wallets.
“How doomed is San Francisco? Some say rumors of the city’s downward spiral are greatly exaggerated.”
Hmm. The tech bros and pros said the Bay Area is still a money hub full of billions in venture capital, a talented tech workforce and a history of innovation.
“Billionaire-backed futuristic city no longer shrouded in secrecy. Here are the details.”
On the other hand, a bunch of ultra-rich tech and venture capital billionaires want to build a brand new city from scratch. They have purchased 60,000 acres of ranchland between Rio Vista and Fairfield in Solano County for the bargain price of just $900 million.
The plan is to build a new city with about 5,000 homes, with room to grow in the future into a sprawling monster with as many as 400,000 residents. It will all be walkable, livable and every other urban planning buzzword anyone has ever heard.
First thing on the agenda: Get Solano County’s 20,000 residents to approve a ballot question tossing its current zoning and growth policies into the ash heap of history. The battle has just begun.
OPINION
(Jon Klusmire of Bishop is considering never going farther south than the In-N-Out burger in Palmdale.)