Good morning. It’s Thursday, Oct. 6.
- A call for decency in the handling of homeless camps.
- Kidnapped Sikh family found dead in Central Valley grove.
- And the first Native American woman launches into space.
Statewide
1.
The crackdown on homeless camps across California is intensifying. In recent days, San Diego’s mayor ordered tents to be removed during daylight hours, Riverside banned camping along the Santa Ana River, and Bay Area authorities forced hundreds of people to scatter from the region’s two largest encampments. Voice of San Diego | CBSLA | Bay Area News Group
Jay Caspian Kang visited a city-run encampment under a freeway in San Rafael that seemed almost designed to make life uncomfortable: “As we wait for a decades-long process of gutted public housing and mental-health services in the state of California to somehow undo itself,” he wrote, “we can still choose to treat people decently.” New Yorker
2.
A wave of pro-building legislation.
A new “accountability unit” to combat housing obstructionists.
A YIMBY war chest funded by tech billionaires.
The economics writer Binyamin Appelbaum argued that there’s been a sea change in California. The heartland of the housing crisis, he wrote, “is starting to take power back.” N.Y. Times
City planner M. Nolan Gray said a housing revolution is coming in the form of accessory dwelling units: “Besides the fact that many of them go in literal backyards, the success of their legalization reveals the extent to which we’ve locked our cities in a straitjacket.” The Atlantic
3.
Few naturalists write anymore like Donald Culross Peattie, who embraced a high-lyrical style that sounds antiquated to the modern ear. But Peattie, born in 1898, was among the most popular nature writers of his time. Here he is crowning the giant sequoia as the king in the kingdom of plants: “The calm deposition of the rings (rosy pink spring wood ending in the sudden dark band of summer wood) has gone on millimeter by millimeter for millennium after millennium — advancing ripples in the tide of time.” The essayist Maria Popova wrote about Peattie and the mystery of world’s most majestic tree. 👉 The Marginalian
Northern California
4.
“Our worst fears have been confirmed.”
Four members of a Sikh family kidnapped at gunpoint from their business near Merced were found dead in an orchard on Wednesday, authorities said. The discovery came after authorities released surveillance video showing the Monday kidnapping of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39. Sheriff Vern Warnke said the suspect, Jesus Salgado, spoke to investigators, but he didn’t disclose what was shared. A.P. | Merced Sun-Star
5.
Petaluma’s own Nicole Mann made history as the first Native American woman launched into space on Wednesday. Part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission, Mann lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to the International Space Station, where they plan to conduct research for six months. Mann, a Stanford graduate and Marine Corps pilot, flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. Petaluma Argus Courier | NPR
6.
In 2018, cannabis enforcement in Humboldt County shot up 700% thanks to a new program that relied on satellite imagery to catch illicit growers. But targets of the dragnet have now filed a class-action lawsuit, saying the county simply cited any property owner with a garden or greenhouse. Blu Graham, a restaurant owner in Shelter Cove, faced $900,000 in fines for a vegetable garden, he said. Times-Standard | Courthouse News
7.
Descendants of the namesake for San Francisco’s UC Hastings College of the Law sued California on Tuesday after Gov. Gavin Newsom authorized the school’s renaming. Historians say Serranus Hastings, a wealthy rancher and California’s first chief justice, orchestrated the killing of 283 Yuki Indians. But the lawsuit says California committed in 1878 to pay Hastings’ descendants $100,000 plus interest if the law school ever changed its name. After 144 years, that would amount to more than $1.7 billion. S.F. Chronicle | Reuters
8.
Chris Rock once said, “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.”
If the uprising comes, its seeds may be found in San Francisco, where a new restaurant opened last week. Dogue is fine-dining for dogs. Located in the Mission District — once a starting place for immigrants where rents now average more than $3,000 a month — Dogue offers “dogguccinos,” venison heart pastries, and a $75 three-course tasting menu on Sundays. S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
9.
Southern California’s landlocked Salton Sea has been dying a slow death as result of drought, evaporation, and runoff pollution. For years, a chorus of engineers and local residents have pushed a radical solution: Fill it back up by laying 125 miles of pipe to the Gulf of California. Last week, a state panel established to review the proposal delivered its verdict: It would be too expensive, too laborious, and too harmful. They suggested people get used to the idea of a smaller sea. Desert Sun | L.A. Times
10.
Democratic Party rule is “tyranny.”
Covid-19 vaccines kill.
And if God would answer his prayers, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would be the next president of the United States.
The Ventura County Star charted the rise of Rob McCoy, a Newbury Park pastor whose brand of culture-war rhetoric has catapulted him to prominence among parts of the evangelic right.
11.
Condé Nast unveiled the results of its 35th Readers’ Choice Awards, based on nearly a quarter of a million reader questionnaires. In the “best big cities” category, San Diego came in No. 3 behind Honolulu and Chicago, but ahead of New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, and other great cities. It’s not just the sunshine. The magazine cited San Diego’s hot hotels and rising reputation as a foodie town. Condé Nast
Bon Appétit: The best new restaurant in San Diego is Kingfisher, a Vietnamese “stunner.”
12.
The news photographer David McNew flew his drone above the famous Blythe Intaglios near California’s southeastern border with Arizona over the weekend. The age, origin, and purpose of the gigantic human- and animal-like figures, discernable only from the sky, are mysterious. They’ve been dated to anywhere from 450 to 2,000 years old and credited possibly to Mohave and Quechan Indians.
👇 A few favorites from McNew’s series of 28 photos.
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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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