Governor breaks pledge on tiny homes for homeless // San Francisco tickets stolen cars

Good morning. It’s Thursday, Oct. 12.

Governor breaks pledge on tiny homes for the homeless.
San Francisco tickets stolen cars rather than recovering them.
And $900,000 homes in L.A., Palm Springs, and Oakland.

Statewide

1.

In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that his administration would gift 1,200 tiny homes for the homeless in cities across the state by the fall. “There’s no humanity,” he said at the time. “People are dying on our watch.” Seven months later, officials haven’t selected a builder or awarded any contracts. The delay comes as Newsom has been increasingly critical of municipalities for dragging their feet on solutions to the housing crisis. Asked for comment, Newsom’s office declined. Sacramento Bee

2.

Here is a roundup of notable legislative moves as Gov. Gavin Newsom decides on hundreds of bills ahead of a Saturday deadline.

He signed measures that will:
- loosen standards for involuntary medical treatment to include people whose mental illness or drug addiction makes them unable to care for themselves
- allow Californians to request that all data brokers in the state delete their personal information
- prohibit landlords from charging more than one month’s rent as a security deposit
- establish an “Ebony Alert” for missing Black children (a move that generated considerable pushback online)
He vetoed bills that would have:
- provided free condoms for high school students
- given cash aid to seniors in the country illegally
- forced cities to establish independent redistricting commissions

3.

A 2021 home is listed for $899,000 in Palm Springs. (via Sotheby’s)

A loft-style condominium in the heart of Hollywood, a stylish three-bedroom house in Palm Springs, and 1912 bungalow with two bedrooms in Oakland.

A recent “What You Get” column in the New York Times highlighted three residential listings in an increasingly rare price category: under $1 million in sought-after communities.

4.

Waking up in the Girard Ridge Lookout. (Marcin Rebisz)

You can stay in an amazing old fire lookout in Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Built in 1931, the Girard Ridge Lookout was restored in the 1990s and opened to public use for $75 a night. The views unfold all around, with lines of sight to Castle Crags, Mount Lassen, and Mount Shasta. Active NorCal

More photos of Girard Ridge and its surroundings. 👉 Imgur
Other fire lookout rentals across California. 👉 Californist

Northern California

5.

With auto thefts surging in San Francisco, parking control officers aren’t bothering to check if the cars they ticket have been reported stolen. An analysis found that between May 1 and Sept. 17 officers cited more than 400 vehicles that were officially considered stolen. Frustrated victims have resorted to finding their stolen cars by checking online for tickets. S.F. Chronicle

After the Chronicle story ran Wednesday, Mayor London Breed gave city agencies 45 days to fix the problem. S.F. Chronicle

6.

Over the last few years, high schools in one Silicon Valley district eliminated freshman-year honors classes on the theory that starting everyone on equal footing would help usher more Black and Latino students into advanced courses in later years. But a new report revealed that there’s been no such improvement. “We’re not fixing anything,” said Jacob Yuryev, a student board member for the Sequoia Union High School District. “We’re simply delaying the emergence of these realities.” Wall Street Journal

7.

Dozens of Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, condemned the university on Wednesday for issuing a tepid response to the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians. In a letter to interim President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez, the academics took issue in particular with the university’s reference to the killing of at least 1,200 Israelis as the “Middle East conflict.” “This situation calls for a clear condemnation of terrorism and a strong stance in support of basic human rights and dignity,” they wrote. S.F. Chronicle

8.

San Francisco’s Chinatown, circa 1895. (Hulton Archive)

During the Chinese Exclusion era, some of the Chinese men who came to work in California goldfields, railroads, and laundries suffered a form of double exclusion: The law forbade not only bringing wives over from China but also interracial marriage. In Fae Myenne Ng’s new memoir, “Orphan Bachelors,” she writes about the “tragedy and romance” of the lonely old-timers in San Francisco’s Chinatown. “Beyond telling her family’s story, Ng memorializes an enclave stuck in time, its demographics twisted by cruel constraints,” the Atlantic wrote.

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9.

San Francisco’s Brock Purdy is like a penny stock that exploded, the Journal said. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Top NFL quarterbacks get paid more than $50 million annually. San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy? $930,000. Yet by any metric he is performing like a superstar. He has the highest passer rating in the league and is a contender to win Most Valuable Player on a team that is favored to win the 2024 Super Bowl. His paltry pay is a story of obscure contract rules, market inefficiency, and a young quarterback’s improbable rise from rookie third-stringer to the 49ers’ savior. Wall Street Journal

Southern California

10.

Two men who were sexually abused as middle schoolers in the 1990s won a $135 million judgement against the Moreno Valley Unified School District and their abuser on Tuesday. The jury found the accused teacher 10% responsible and the district 90% responsible, saying school officials failed to protect the boys from a predator who had previously faced charges of molesting his foster son. That means the district must pay $121.5 million. “The jury recognized the severe and profound effect that this long-term abuse had,” a lawyer for one of the victims said. A.P. | L.A. Times

11.

Signs around New Cuyama call for a carrot boycott. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/A.P)

During the drought in 2014, California ordered communities to form groundwater sustainability agencies to moderate the use of depleted aquifers. The law has now given way to legal battles across the state as powerful growers haul cities into court over water rights. In New Cuyama, just over the coastal mountains from Santa Barbara, a costly fight is now playing out between the tiny farming town and two of the nation’s biggest carrot growers. Jean Gaillard, a resident, said his well water has dropped 30 feet in two decades. “We feel we are being totally overrun by those people,” he said. “They are taking all the water.” A.P.

12.

“Old Growth (New/Now)” shimmers above Culver City. (Oldgrowthnewnow.org)

In 2017, as Culver City officials faced the chore of tearing down a couple of old wooden utility poles, they decided to go another way. They turned the poles over to the artist Alison Wright, who transformed them into glowing sculptures comprised of 56 glass panels imprinted with historical images of the city. Titled “Old Growth (New/Now),” they’ve been a big hit with locals. Atlas Obscura | Oldgrowthnewnow.org

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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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