Issue No. 108 – May 13, 2022
City Politics
- DSA-LA has released its voter guide for the June 7 primary! Knock-LA’s voter guide is also available, and takes a cursory look at elections in the smaller cities of LA County. Ballots have already begun being mailed to registered voters county-wide.
- The Los Angeles Times editorial board aligned with DSA-LA on some races this week, endorsing Erin Darling in Council District 11 and Eunisses Hernandez in Council District 1.
- Councilmember Joe Buscaino dropped out of the Los Angeles mayoral race on Thursday, following polls which had him at 1%. The announcement was made at a joint event with fellow candidate Rick Caruso, whom Buscaino immediately endorsed.
Coronavirus and Relief
- COVID infections continue to rise in Los Angeles County, placing it on track to hit “medium” levels of community transmission for the first time since the CDC instituted more lax benchmarks at the end of February. People ages 12–17 currently have the highest infection rates.
- The LAUSD voted unanimously to delay adding the COVID vaccine to the list of vaccines required for K–12 students. The mandate was scheduled to go into effect for the fall but has been delayed until July 1, 2023. This follows a corresponding delay at the state level, hinged on waiting for full FDA approval for a youth vaccine.
Labor
- Today, two Starbucks stores, in Lakewood and Long Beach, have become the first in Southern California to unionize!
Housing Rights
- Article 34 — a 70-year-old amendment to California’s constitution designed to enforce racial segregation, which prohibits the building of any public housing without a public ballot measure — may be on the way out. An amendment to repeal has just advanced out of the Assembly Housing Committee, having already cleared the Senate unanimously. The charter amendment will still need to be approved by statewide ballot, and it is unclear where the money for that campaign would come from.
- Every eight years, all California municipalities must release their Housing Element, a plan to meet the housing needs of their residents, at least on paper. The Los Angeles Daily News looks at how some cities game that system.
Environmental Justice
- Governor Gavin Newsom called for the California Air Resources Board, the state’s top climate regulator, to “evaluate pathways” for the state to become carbon neutral by 2035. But CARB’s newly released draft plan for meeting the state’s emissions targets rejects that goal as too expensive, arguing instead for backing off to a 2045 target.
- CalMatters provides additional analysis on the CARB draft plan, noting that while it scales back reliance on “cap-and-trade” incentive programs to reduce emissions relative to its 2017 plan, it does not account for the intervening years’ revelation that these programs might not have any significant effect and does not explain how or why these programs are expected to work.
- California regulators are about to take another crack at reforming the state’s contentious solar net-metering policies. In December, it was proposed that compensation paid to new rooftop solar owners for power they send to the grid would be reduced, but following a massive public backlash, the California Public Utilities Commission issued a ruling reopening public comment until June 24, after which the CPUC will revise its proposal. That pushes the timeline for the release of a new policy into July at the earliest.