Bob Lee knew suspected killer, police say // Satellite views of spring blooms

Good morning. It’s Friday, April 14.

Suspected killer knew Cash App creator, sources say.
Emotions run high in Antioch’s racist police scandal.
And incredible satellite views of the spring blooms.

Please note: The newsletter will be off Monday. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.

Statewide

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In the past three years, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Elk Grove, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Milpitas — all run by Democrats — have passed ordinances cracking down on homeless encampments. San Jose and San Diego could be next. Daniel Conway, who was chief of staff to former Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, led a 2022 effort to criminalize encampments in the capital city. “I think there’s a recognition that the kind of status quo of having over 100,000 people in California living and dying on the streets, it’s terrible for those people,” he said. CalMatters

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Maxar Technologies on Wednesday released an incredible set of satellite images showing California’s vibrant spring blooms from space. Palmdale, a typically dusty brown community in the High Desert, is a now medley of violet, orange, yellow, and lime green. See the photos. 👉 The Guardian

More than 91% of California is now free of drought, according to the latest update from federal scientists. U.S. Drought Monitor

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On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with author Dean King, whose new book “Guardians of the Valley” chronicles the relationship of the naturalist John Muir and the East Coast editor, Robert Underwood Johnson, who published him. King talked about how the men would trade letters giving each other credit for helping awaken a public reverence for nature. “They were very generous, open-hearted guys,” he said.

Northern California

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Nima Momeni, the man arrested Thursday in the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee, had been driving with Lee through downtown San Francisco in a vehicle registered to Momeni before the killing, according to reports that cited police sources. An argument appeared to spill into the street, the sources suggested. Police shared no details about what led them to suspect Momeni, while people who knew the men said they were at a loss to imagine what might have precipitated the killing. Mission Local | S.F. Chronicle

Associates struggled to square their image of Momeni, a 38-year-old tech consultant from Emeryville, with the man now accused of murder. They called him “warm,” “sweet,” and “charming.” S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
San Francisco leaders denounced those who had used Lee’s death to portray the city as awash in violent crime. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins called out Elon Musk specifically, whose remarks, she said: “serve to mislead the world in their perceptions of San Francisco.” SFist | SFGATE

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While San Francisco’s rate of violent crime may be lower than that of most major U.S. cities, locals’ perceptions of their city are at an all-time low, a new poll found. On Wednesday, Supervisor Aaron Peskin called for Mayor London Breed to hold question-and-answer in the city’s central square, where drug use is common, to force a public discussion about what he called a “humanitarian crisis.” “We need real accountability,” he said. SF Standard | S.F. Chronicle

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Mayor Lamar Thorpe lashed out during a Council Meeting on Tuesday.

An Antioch City Council meeting got heated on Tuesday when the mayor stood up and yelled at a resident who just delivered public comments. Responding to the release of racist text messages within the police department, the constituent had defended the police and called for an investigation of the mayor instead. That prompted Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who is Black, to rise from his seat and say he was sick of people excusing racism. “You want to go outside right now? Let’s go!” he shouted. Mercury News | KTVU

See video of Thorpe’s outburst. 👉 YouTube (~3 mins)
In a new batch of texts revealed on Thursday, Antioch detectives used wildly racist language and bragged about injuring suspects. Mercury News

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The new tower would be hard to miss. (Solomon Cordwell Buenz)

A developer revealed plans for a 50-story skyscraper that would soar like the Washington Monument above a neighborhood in San Francisco. After an earlier proposal for a 12–story building met fierce resistance, CH Planning, a Reno real estate company, returned with an even more audacious plan, drawing immediate pushback from city officials. Sonja Trauss, a housing advocate, told the Chronicle if the city was serious about building housing it would embrace the development. “More housing is more housing,” she said. SF Examiner | SF Standard

Southern California

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After getting elected in 2020, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón vowed to reopen four cases of officer-involved shootings that his predecessor declined to prosecute. One of those reviews has now led to indictments. Two Torrance police officers, Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez, have been indicted in the 2018 killing of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell. Prosecutors said the officers pulled up to Mitchell in a Ralph’s parking lot and opened fire when they saw he had what looked like a gun. It turned out to be an air rifle, and neither officer alleged that he reached for it. L.A. Times | O.C. Register

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Dril is “the undisputed poet laureate of shitposting,” Ringer said.

A Twitter user who goes by the handle Dril has amassed 1.7 million highly engaged followers with his absurdist humor, establishing himself as king of what’s often referred to as “weird Twitter.” After 15 years of anonymity, he just emerged from the shadows: Dril is Paul Dochney, 35. During a wide-ranging conversation with a reporter at a Los Angeles diner, Dochney said he never really cared for Twitter. “I still really don’t care for it.” The Ringer

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A party for a 6-year-old. (Leesa Zelken/Send In The Clowns LA)

Rich people in Los Angeles are paying $75,000 and more to throw children’s birthday parties. William’s sixth birthday party, held at a park in March, had a fire station-theme. Attendees got their own fire-hose backpacks and slid into a ball pit detailed with flames and the slogan “Let’s Get Fired Up.” There was a wooden fire station backdrop, 40 feet of balloon garlands, and customized drink stirrers. “Everyone wants that Instagrammable moment,” a party planner said. N.Y. Times

California archive

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The Redman Hirahara Farmstead. (Micah Diele)

For years, a deteriorating Queen Anne Victorian along Highway 1 in Watsonville has been a source of curiosity among passing motorists. It’s known as the Redman Hirahara Farmstead, a national landmark, and the region’s ethnic and agricultural history is embedded in its crumbling walls.

Built for a wealthy farmer in 1897, the home eventually passed into the hands of the Hiraharas, a working class family who became among the first Japanese-American households to own farmland in the U.S. When the family was sent to an internment camp in Arkansas during World War II, they managed to hang on to the house as sympathetic neighbors tended their lettuce crops and raised money for the property taxes in their absence.

The Hirahara family in Watsonville in 1945. (UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library)

Upon their return, the Hiraharas turned their barn into something of small-scale displaced persons camp for Japanese families who lost their homes. Over the generations since, a series of new owners have proposed restoration projects for the property, but none have gotten off the ground. So she stands today, precariously, like “a grand woman fallen on difficult times,” as one preservationist put it. The architectural photographer Johnny Joo visited the Redman Hirahara Farmstead in January. Architectural Afterlife

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Northern California

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Southern California

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California archive

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In case you missed it

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