So, your telling us that Gavin Newsom will reward his cronies instead of Jerry Brown's. He will ignore the real problems of California such as the disgraceful public education system, socialist waste, water storage, farmers and workers, illegal immigration, homeless situation "Calcutta of the West" and live like the other elites ignoring everything else.
He will of course crow and strut, that will be the one lasting similarity.
There's "high speed rail", that exists in Europe and Asia, and there's "pie in the sky Musk fantasy space tube", which is never going to work. Just witness Thunderf00t's numerous criticisms on youtube!
As a Democrat, Gov. Newsom appalls me. His vision extends only so far as his ambitional goals and is firmly and uncritically based in Bay Area concerns and trends. This does not bode well for the future of CA.
Maybe one day when the left begins to question those they elect and not just repeat everything they say. Why not question why are we still blaming firearms and the NRA for all these tragedies? It happens everytime, the first thing they want to do is make yet another worthless gun law. Why aren't they trying to solve this problem by doing something about the mental illness? Would that possibly work to well ? Alot of folks like myself believe that's a very good possibility. Now remember that these are the same people who keep passing these laws but want me to believe they just are waiting for a common sense gun law. Maybe question why they told you there was a gun show loophole, we need to start allowing for gun research, or there needs to be more of a universal background check. Did you know there was no loophole, firearm research has always had funding. But it must be unbiased neither for or against. I believe thats the way it should be. And just about every firearm purchase a background check must be done. Maybe they should ban all private armed security for politicians, those in sports and entertainment. Why should the wealthy be the only ones who are special enough. Now please ask them why do they careless about our kids being killed. Why dont we blame the liquor or the automobile industry for all the people killed by a drunk driver? It's not the persons fault. Right?
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It is a shame that we can't even build one high-speed rail when even countries like Italy have extremely successful high speed rails and can't even come close to California's GDP. I don't know why this is, it's really a phenomena to me. I mean how can you say you want to lower emissions but provide no alternative to driving?
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Like the governor said, housing is the #1 issue and it's frankly madness to have let local governments stonewall needed construction for so long. Building more housing and repealing Prop. 13 would also go some way towards getting more public education funding.
Also, every time someone brings up 'property values' as a reason not to build more housing: those values are inflated by an artificial scarcity, which is no different than gangs controlling the flow of drugs or Middle East nations controlling the flow of oil. Is that who we are?
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Surprising good sense on his part. The high speed line was a mistake from the beginning. Now if he can only admit the need for housing has some vague connection to immigration he might actually be able to make a start.
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This article indicates that Govenor Newsom focused on encouraging aggressive building in California. As a previous commentator pointed out, California is a semi-dessert. Water is a limited resource that is essential to life. California has been on a building spree and is already having trouble managing its limited water. Developers in some communities are nominally supposed to account for how water will be supplied to the tracts they build, but this appears to be a fantasy exercise, as no new water projects are in existence in the county that I live in, nor in the surrounding counties. Meanwhile, reservoirs are silted up and cannot catch enough of the precious rainwater that falls. Desalinization is touted as a solution, but few have been built. These plants are extremely costly to build and run, and they use lots of air-polluting energy. We need a real and honest discussion of the limited water resources in this state and of how many souls can be supported with the little water that we have.
I like the start by Mr. Newsom.
Jerry Brown was a very good Governor for California over the past few terms, but I'm ready for new perspectives on how we should be dealing with the housing crisis and with spending in infrastructure.
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As a Californian I am always aware that I am living in a semi desert. When I look at satellite maps of suburban California I see swimming pools. The wealthier the neighborhood the more private pools. Most don't have covers. There is no reason to give water to a population which then pores it into a hole in the ground. There are rural people without fresh, clean water to drink. I would say no more water going south until private pools are banned. This is a semi dessert.
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Though I do not have prior knowledge on Californian history or socio-economic background and archive, the relationship of natural phenomena and infrastructure cannot be dissevered. It is primitive to give a thumbnail sketch of coping with the rampant earthquakes and the statutory deluges. An upward trajectory might seem feeble unless the hazards can be addressed.
@Brigitte I live in San Diego and I'm curious about the "rampant earthquakes" comment. Knock on wood, if necessary, but I don't recall a serious earthquake in California in the past decade.
Earthquakes? Not a problem for new development. This is the 21st Century, and we have a greater understanding of what happens during quakes and how to engineer buildings and other infrastructure to withstand even very strong quakes. We now have stricter building codes, and the state and localities have mandated rehabilitation of older buildings, especially those with characteristics likely to be problematic. Other Pacific Rim countries have built incredibly tall buildings in earthquake zones, have high speed trains and mega-bridges, tunnels and other complex infrastructure in areas even more seismically active and destructive than in California. There is no reason to be afraid of building up and building densely, as long as it is appropriately engineered and built.
Water? Urbanites use less water per-capita than suburban and rural users, with their vast and wasteful lawns and swimming pools. Yes, our food is typically grown elsewhere, but most suburbanites aren’t growing gardens (and even if they do, they’re certainly buying other food as well), so all people generally have externalized water consumption. California agriculture consumes (and wastes) water at massive scale, often growing thirsty crops that are specialties and exported; not basic foodstuffs. The state should massively subsidize and invest in water conservation upgrades for agricultural use, mandate best practices, and phase in much stricter requirements, along taxing private swimming pools and lawns too.