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| Senior center to mark 50th year – Times-Standard | | The Humboldt Senior Resource Center was founded in Eureka in 1974 as a small information and referral service for seniors at a time when services for older adults in Humboldt County were almost nonexistent. Today, it offers numerous programs and services that support healthy aging and help older adults be as independent as possible. [Article] | | by , Eureka Times-Standard. 2024-04-30 | | | | Closing California prisons should be the easiest budget cut - Los Angeles Times | | California is facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that will require lawmakers and the governor to make painful decisions. Nobody wants less funding for their child’s school, road maintenance, environmental progress or other essential services.
There is one area, however, where spending can and should be cut: prisons. Thousands of California prison beds are not in use. Simply consolidating and closing some facilities could ultimately save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
This can be accomplished safely thanks to important reforms that have confronted our state’s incarceration crisis and reduced its prison population. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, nearly 130,000 people were in state custody in 2019; by the end of last year, that number had dropped to 96,000, a decrease of about 25%.
Today the state’s prison population is down to roughly 93,000. That leaves a surplus of about 15,000 prison beds, a number that is expected to grow to 19,000 in four years as the population continues to decline. It’s fiscally irresponsible to maintain those beds while social safety net programs are on the chopping block.
The empty beds mean that beyond the excess prisons, we’re continuing to incur unnecessary billions in staff, operations and maintenance costs. Consolidating and deactivating prisons provides a straightforward way to address the state’s budget deficit over the long term.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has closed two prisons and eight yards — each state prison typically comprises several yards — and discontinued one private prison contract, with another prison closure slated for next year. Even with these reductions, however, the vacancies are equivalent to four or five more empty prisons.
New York offers an example of what’s possible. With a prison population that has halved since 1999, the state has closed dozens of facilities in recent years. Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed closing five more in the coming fiscal year.
California should follow suit. The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently estimated that the state could save $1 billion in operating expenses annually and up to an additional $2 billion in capital expenses by closing five prisons. Otherwise, the office expects one-fifth of the state’s prison capacity to go unused.
A billion dollars a year could not only help close this and future deficits but also support real public safety measures: safety-net programs, education, housing and workforce development. The state’s current corrections budget is nearly $15 billion. The state’s general fund budget for the University of California? Under $5 billion. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Southern California leads state’s 1st population gain since 2019 – Press Telegram | | California posted its first population increase since the pandemic struck – a gain that was driven geographically from the south. [Article] | | by , Long Beach Press Telegram. 2024-04-30 | | | | What’s up with the fallout shelter sign in downtown L.A.? - Los Angeles Times | | The sign in front of the Los Angeles County Superior Court building downtown is one of thousands administered federally by the Office of Civil Defense. The first mention of this version of the public fallout shelter sign in the L.A. Times came in December 1961, following the Department of Defense’s announcement that it was launching a $93-million program that would afford “a large segment of the population almost immediate protection” from radiation poisoning, also known as fallout, following a nuclear bomb. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Why LA Is Considering A Centralized Department To Keep Homelessness Efforts Accountable | LAist | | The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted to begin the process of potentially creating a homelessness department as a way to bolster accountability across programs and initiatives.
Details on the vote: The council voted 13 to 0, with two council members sitting out, in favor of a motion to evaluate the creation of a homelessness department. The aim would be to centralize oversight of city-funded efforts to address the homelessness crisis, including outreach to encampments, interim and permanent housing, prevention, contracting, and collection of real-time data. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | Judge Demands OC Prosecutors Show They've Reformed After Jailhouse Snitch Scandal | LAist | | A hearing began this week to determine whether Orange County prosecutors continue to hide evidence of misconduct in the wake of a long-running informant scandal that has tainted criminal cases and marred the county justice system's reputation over the past decade. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | Thousands of new apartments in L.A. have rent caps. Is yours one? - Los Angeles Times | | Alexa Castelvecchi was glad when she and her roommates found their new apartment about a year ago, in a modern building in Hollywood with a big, sleek kitchen and oversized windows. It was nothing like the aging, rent-controlled apartment she once sublet in Venice, where she often had to cook using a toaster oven.
But with the end of her lease on the three-bedroom apartment fast approaching, she has found herself worrying about how much the already high monthly rent of nearly $4,000 might increase.
Little did she know that she has some of the strongest protections available. Unbeknownst to many tenants across the city, an obscure city rule requires some newly built rental properties to be put under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, commonly referred to as rent control.
Developers have built more than 10,000 such units since 2007, city records show, adding a new crop of rent-controlled housing across the city.
The buildings offer a counterpoint to real estate industry claims that rent control limits new construction. But they also raise a question: do their tenants even know they live in rent-controlled units?
Castelvecchi said she had no idea that she lived in a building with rent caps until a Times reporter told her recently.
“Nobody said anything,” she said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Basic income could house thousands of homeless people, researchers say - Los Angeles Times | | A monthly payment of $750 to $1,000 would allow thousands of the city’s homeless people to find informal housing, living in boarding homes, in shared apartments and with family and friends, according to a policy brief by four prominent Los Angeles academics.
Citing positive preliminary results of pilot studies in several cities, including Los Angeles, they argue the income could provide access to housing for a portion of the population who became homeless primarily as the result of an economic setback. This could ultimately save millions of dollars in public services, they argued, and leave the overstretched and far more expensive subsidized and service-enriched housing for those who have more complicated social needs.
“If the idea is to reduce the number of people on the street, definitely the fastest way to do that is money and not this incredibly complex system that we have built up primarily to help people with serious disabilities,” said lead author Gary Blasi, a professor emeritus in the UCLA School of Law.
The paper offers no prescriptions for how the payments should be funded or who should receive the money. Instead, the authors, coming from four separate disciplines, contrast the simplicity and documented effectiveness of basic income with the high cost and inadequate results of programs to provide standard housing for every homeless person.
“The truth is, we cannot afford not to do better than the current system, which spends a huge amount of money to house a small fraction of those in need,” they wrote.
That system, relying on housing navigators to “seek very scarce subsidized housing subject to strict criteria” is a “lengthy and expensive process” leaving thousands of rental subsidy vouchers unused and thousands of people unable to find housing. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | A Dozen Southern California Cities Have Issued Ceasefire Resolutions. What Do They Mean? | LAist | | Hedab Tarifi is from Gaza, but she's lived in Southern California for over 30 years.
She's watched from afar for more than six months as the Israel-Gaza war unfolds. Since October, she said Israeli airstrikes have killed 150 members of her family. The youngest was just three months old.
“There's not a week that passes without me hearing and finding out about family members who were killed,” she said. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | California's population rose last year for first time since 2020 - Los Angeles Times | | California’s population rose last year for the first time since 2020, according to new state data.
The state’s population increased by 0.17% — or more than 67,000 people — between Jan. 1, 2023, and Jan. 1, 2024, when California was home to 39,128,162 people, according to new population estimates released Tuesday by the California Department of Finance.
“The brief period of California’s population decline is over,” H.D. Palmer, a department spokesman, said in a phone interview. “We’re back, and we’re returning to a rate of steady, stable growth.”
That resumption of growth, Palmer said, was driven by a number of factors: Deaths, which rose during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, have fallen nearly to pre-pandemic levels. Restrictive foreign immigration policies imposed during the Trump administration have been loosened under President Biden. Domestic migration patterns between states also have changed, boosting the state’s population.
In 2021, as the pandemic raged, more than 319,000 people died in California and fewer than 420,000 were born, the data show. Last year, about 281,000 died in the state, while nearly 399,000 were born. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | The dream of East L.A. as its own city rises again - Los Angeles Times | | 1931. 1933. 1961.
1963. 1975. 2012.
Those years were on the lips of the 130-plus people who crammed into the cavernous East Los Tacos on Friday morning to hear from Eastside Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo. She was there to address the crowd about the dream that never dies: making East L.A. its own city.
Famous across the world as a cradle of Chicano politics and culture, East L.A. is also the most populous unincorporated community in California, with about 119,000 people under the governance of L.A. County instead of their own city officials. This has rankled some residents for decades, who have pushed state and county officials to help them create a standalone municipality.
Others have fought to keep the status quo. Voters rejected incorporation in 1933, 1961 and 1975, and campaigns in 1931 and 1963 went nowhere. The late L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina was always skeptical of the idea, arguing it didn’t make financial sense. In 2012, the Local Agency Formation Commission — known as LAFCO — rejected a petition for cityhood signed by over 16,000 people, citing a study that said the proposed city would run a budget deficit within three years because of a lack of revenue. Services such as libraries, law enforcement and parks — which would be funded by the new city — would suffer unless residents immediately paid more taxes, the report said, also warning of an “adverse fiscal impact” on the county.
Carrillo is now sponsoring legislation, Assembly Bill 2986, asking LAFCO to create a task force to once again study the issue, this time also examining whether East L.A. can at least become a special district. That would allow residents to vote for an advisory board that could help County Supervisor Hilda Solis, whose district includes East L.A., better administer the community. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Invasive Beetle Kills At Least 90,000 SoCal Trees: Can Indigenous Cultural Burns Help? | LAist | | Tree limbs and tops began falling off century-old black oak trees on the La Jolla reservation in northern San Diego County around 2014 and nobody knew why. The die off was puzzling and tribal fire chief Wesley Ruise Jr. couldn’t remove the dead trees fast enough.
The oak trees’ acorns are a vital food source for the birds, deer and other animals on the reservation. But at one point they were also a vital food source for the Indigenous peoples across the state. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | California law that ended single-family zoning struck down for 5 cities - Los Angeles Times | | A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled that a landmark law ending single-family-home-only zoning in California is unconstitutional, a decision that could lead to the law being invalidated in the state’s largest cities.
Judge Curtis Kin determined that Senate Bill 9 does not provide housing restricted for low-income residents and therefore cannot override state constitutional protections afforded to local zoning practices.
“Because the provisions of SB 9 are not reasonably related and sufficiently narrowly tailored to the explicit stated purpose of that legislation — namely, to ensure access to affordable housing — SB 9 cannot stand,” Kin wrote in a April 22 ruling.
Kin’s decision now applies to the five Southern California cities — Redondo Beach, Carson, Torrance, Whittier and Del Mar — that challenged SB 9, which passed in 2021. If his ruling is appealed and upheld, it would affect 121 communities known as “charter cities,” including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, that have greater autonomy under state law.
Redondo Beach City Atty. Michael Webb hailed the ruling as a victory for communities fighting against state overreach on housing laws. State lawmakers have passed SB 9 and other “one-size-fits-all” measures in recent years without regard for how they would affect the ability to provide water, policing, fire and other municipal services, and without guaranteeing new development would help those most in need, he said.
“SB 9 had all the bad impacts on disrupting the community with none of the positive features of ensuring affordable housing actually be built,” Webb said.
A spokesperson for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, whose office defended the law, said the attorney general is reviewing the decision “and will consider all options in defense of SB 9.”
SB 9 is one of the highest-profile laws approved in response to California’s housing affordability problems as Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have aimed to spur new homebuilding.
The law affects vast swaths of the state. Between half and three-quarters of the developable land in much of the state would be reserved only for single-family homes if not for SB 9, according to UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation. Under the law in most cases, property owners statewide can build up to four units on those lots.
So far, SB 9’s effects have been muted, especially compared to a series of state laws first passed in 2016 that aimed to increase the construction of smaller, secondary units, known as ADUs or casitas, on single-family home parcels.
Bay Area NPR affiliate KQED recently surveyed 16 cities of varying sizes across California and found that between 2022 and 2023, the cities approved 75 lot split applications and 112 applications for new units under SB 9. Over the same period, those cities permitted 8,800 ADUs, the news organization found. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Saying the stakes could not be higher, Newsom to speak at Vatican climate summit - Los Angeles Times | | SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking his climate change advocacy overseas next month to the epicenter of Catholicism, where he was invited to speak at a summit of mayors and governors hosted by Pope Francis at the Vatican.
State and local leaders will gather at the summit from May 15 to 17 to discuss the effects of rising temperatures in their communities, with the goal of broadening the conversation from combating climate change to include strategies to adapt to the reality of a warming planet.
Newsom, who aides said will talk about the impact of fire, flood and drought on California, is expected to be one of a few speakers to address the pope and more than two dozen leaders from around the world.
“This year holds unprecedented significance for democracy and the climate, two intertwined issues which will define our future,” Newsom said. “With half the world’s population poised to elect their leaders amidst a backdrop of escalating political extremism, and global temperatures hurtling towards alarming new heights, the stakes could not be higher. There is no greater authority than moral authority — and the Pope’s leadership on the climate crisis inspires us all to push further and faster. “
Francis is the first pope to make climate change a top priority of his papacy, seeking to marry scientific facts about greenhouse gas emissions with a moral call to the 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide and leaders across the globe to protect the planet for future generations. Critical of the lack of urgent action, the Pope called climate deniers “foolish” in his first interview on U.S. television last week.
For Newsom, a Catholic, the invitation from the Vatican provides an opportunity to show that he’s aligned with Francis and appeal to the 50 million Americans who follow the religion. The trip also gives the Democratic governor an international stage to stress the importance of 2024 elections — and the choice between President Biden and former President Trump — on the climate crisis.
Biden is considered a friend of the climate movement and his Inflation Reduction Act, a 2022 law to increase renewable energy production and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the nation’s largest climate investments. The president has sought to reduce the country’s reliance on coal and gas plants, which Trump has said he would reverse. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | What A Judge's Ruling Could Mean For Building Multiple Units On Single-Family Lots In California | LAist | | In a case that’s expected to test how far the state can go to order cities to approve more housing in low-density neighborhoods, an L.A. County judge agreed with Southern California cities who argue a 2021 state law overstepped.
About SB 9: Redondo Beach, Carson, Torrance, Whittier and Del Mar filed the lawsuit to overturn SB 9, a 2021 state law that increased the density of housing allowed in single-family neighborhoods. The law grants homeowners the right to split single-family lots and build up to four units of housing. These zones make up about 78% of residential land in the greater L.A. area. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | LA Has Terrible Air Quality. How To Minimize Your Exposure | LAist | | Los Angeles has the worst ozone pollution in the nation, according to an annual report by the American Lung Association.
The area also received failing grades for high particulate matter. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | Editorial: Even with tax and rate hikes, SoCal water is still pretty cheap - Los Angeles Times | | It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water, you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water use plummets.
And for all that trouble, your water supplier raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less that the agency is losing money.
That’s the dynamic in play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two of history’s wettest winters. The Met, as it is known, acquires and stores water to sell to 12 districts and 14 cities that serve about 19 million people in Southern California.
It has one additional revenue hammer that its member agencies, which resell the water to consumers, lack: It can raise property taxes without getting approval from voters.
Under a budget adopted April 6 by the Met’s board, both taxes and rates will go up next year.
The rates charged to water agencies and cities will rise by 8.5% in 2025 and another 8.5% in 2026. Ratepayers in cities such as Los Angeles that have their own water supplies may not notice, because they will need relatively little Met water after the wet winter. Compton and other cities that buy no Met water won’t be affected by the rate increase. Beverly Hills and other cities that get almost all their water from Met will be affected right away.
But all property owners in the Met’s six-county area will see a tax hike, although it will amount to well less than $100 a year for most. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2024-04-30 | | | | Will Los Angeles get a ‘Department of Homelessness’? – Daily News | | The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, April 30, approved a motion calling for the creation of a Department of Homelessness that would be responsible for overseeing the city’s efforts to reduce the problem.
In a 13-0 vote, council members instructed staff to report back on how best to create a department, or other means of centralizing coordination and oversight on homelessness efforts. Council members Bob Blumenfield and Katy Yaroslavsky were absent during the vote. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2024-04-30 | | | | The OC Jailhouse Snitch Scandal Is Back In Court — And Here's Why It Matters | LAist | | One of the biggest law enforcement scandals in Orange County history could resurface in a hearing set for Monday.
The Orange County Public Defender's office is accusing Ebrahim Baytieh, a former high-profile prosecutor who's now an Orange County Superior Court judge, of being at the center of an "enormous web of deception" designed to cover up misconduct that helped prosecutors win cases while cheating defendants out of their right to a fair trial. [Article] | | by , . 2024-04-30 | | | | Southern California home price hits record $753,000 as sales drop – San Gabriel Valley Tribune | | The budget-busting mix of rising mortgage rates and record-high prices squashed Southern California homebuying in March. [Article] | | by , San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 2024-04-30 | | |
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