November 28, 2016 TRANSPORTATION / INFRASTRUCTURE The surprise first big winner from Measure M’s transportation tax: LA County’s buses (Daily News) Recently, Norwalk Transit heard from disappointed customers complaining about elimination of weekend bus runs on two routes and truncated service along Imperial Highway stopping short of the Brea Mall. It was a familiar scenario affecting smaller, city-based bus services. City revenues were tight and cuts were made. Now, with guaranteed revenues from Measure M, a half-cent countywide sales tax approved by voters Nov. 8, Norwalk Transit will get a 10 percent bump in its annual budget starting in 2017 and continuing each year for perpetuity. Compared with the $860 million annually the measure provides, Norwalk’s $1.3 million is a drop in the bucket. But like other smaller bus agencies, their Measure M share may show up sooner and be more relatable to bus riders than any mega-project funded in the measure. Norwalk, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, Arcadia, Pomona   HOMELESSNESS/POVERTY Children’s emergency food bank’s new facility opens (East Bay Times) A new and improved food locker for the Children’s Emergency Food Bank has been completed and is open for business to serve the Tri-Valley. The recent grand opening and dedication of the new building was attended by about three dozen supporters and received a certificate of appreciation from U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s office. The Children’s Emergency Food Bank, a local nonprofit group serving San Ramon, Dublin, Pleasanton and Danville since 1966, provides food for families in emergency situations. The food bank was started by members of the Junior Women’s Club and local teachers and is an all-volunteer organization that operates on the property of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Dublin, says volunteer Delilah Vanderpool. More than 20 volunteers work to take the calls, stock shelves, pick up donations and more. Dublin, San Ramon   We can’t fix homelessness without regional strategy (Sacramento Bee) Most of the time, the old adage about California is true. Where we go, so goes the nation. But not on homelessness. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that homelessness is actually on the decline nationwide, down 14 percent since 2010 among families, veterans and people with disabilities. That clearly doesn’t apply to this state, which, for far too many years, has been home to more than one-third of the nation’s homeless population. In the Sacramento region, men and women continue to sleep under highway bridges, on street corners, along the American River Parkway and, when they’re lucky, in crowded shelters. Children doze off alongside their parents in cars and in tents pitched in backyards before heading off to school each day. This is despite Sacramento County spending upwards of $40 million a year to get people into emergency shelters, treatment and housing, and the city of Sacramento spending millions more. Cities in Sacramento County   HOUSING City council approves controversial Walnut Residences apartment complex (East Bay Times) The Fremont City Council approved the controversial Walnut Residences project on Nov. 15, culminating an 18-month span of community meetings, study sessions and hearings. The 3-2 vote, with council members Vinnie Bacon and Lily Mei dissenting, followed nearly three hours of comments and deliberation. San Francisco-based Carmel Partners plans to build a 670-unit apartment complex at 1031 Walnut Ave., roughly a half-mile east of the Fremont BART station. The project initially was proposed with 882 units, but concerns raised by area residents and planning commissioners drove Carmel Partners to downscale it. Fremont Affordable housing frustrations mount in San Diego (San Diego Union-Tribune) The recent Union-Tribune Data Watch story that reported billions of taxpayers’ dollars has been spent on affordable housing in San Diego since the San Diego Housing Commission was launched in 1979 without a net increase in such housing is the latest frustrating evidence of the futility of the California approach to keeping housing costs down. To address the state’s severe housing crisis, California needs far more housing stock — not programs that create the appearance of addressing a problem without actually doing so. The Data Watch report found that over the past six years, the city has allowed 10,000 units to be “demolished, converted or otherwise removed from low-income housing stock” — equal to the number that the Housing Commission has opened in its 37-year history. San Diego ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Jerry Brown finds himself at forefront of climate-change battle (San Francisco Chronicle) Less than a week after the election, Brown announced that 29 new members had joined his Under2 Coalition, representing jurisdictions committed to keeping temperatures below the 2 degrees Celsius rise that scientists have set as a rough threshold for global catastrophe. The new members included Beijing and other Chinese cities, the Mexican states of Michoacán and Tabasco and a small territory in Australia. Together, the coalition has grown to 165 jurisdictions worldwide, representing more than a billion people and more than a third of the global economy. Statewide   Is one small California city exempt from the state’s plastic bag ban? (Sacramento Bee) As plastic bags are taken off checkout counters across California, one Placer County suburb says its businesses are protected from the statewide plastic bag ban. In August 2014, Lincoln passed a resolution intended to allow businesses to choose whether or not to follow a statewide bag ban. Now that voters have upheld the ban by voting in Proposition 67, Lincoln says its businesses are exempt. The state legislation underlying Proposition 67, SB 270, contains a clause that any local public agency that “adopted, before September 1, 2014, an ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule relating to reusable grocery bags, single-use carryout bags, or recycled paper bags may continue to enforce and implement that ordinance, resolution, regulation, or rule.” Lincoln   PUBLIC SAFETY Sacramento City Council to vote on police reform (Sacramento Bee) Nearly five months after police officers shot and killed a mentally ill man in North Sacramento, prompting community demands for police reform, a proposal before the Sacramento City Council this week may increase oversight of the department. On Tuesday, the City Council will vote on a package of reforms, including a recommendation for a revised community police review commission and a requirement to release video in officer-involved shootings within 30 days unless the City Council votes to withhold it under special circumstances. The proposal also includes a resolution directing the Sacramento Police Department to put more emphasis on using nonlethal methods to subdue suspects. Sacramento   MARIJUANA Marijuana doctors get new business buzz from legalization in California (Sacramento Bee) In the weeks since Californians voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, the phones have been ringing more intensely and the flow of walk-in patients has picked up at 420 Med Evaluations, a midtown Sacramento clinic specializing in medicinal pot referrals. The passage of Proposition 64 on Nov. 8 instantly allowed adults 21 and older to consume marijuana, regardless of medical need. Along with that, went the thinking, people seeking pot for pleasurable pursuit no longer had to endure the inconvenience of going to a doctor and citing a physical ailment to get a medical recommendation to legally light up a joint. Statewide   PENSION Supreme Court agrees to rule on its own pensions (CalPensions) The state Supreme Court last week agreed to hear an appeal of a groundbreaking ruling that allows cuts in the pensions earned by current state and local government workers, including judges. When judges have an obvious conflict of interest and excuse themselves from ruling on a case, the legal term is “recuse.” But the seven Supreme Court justices seem unlikely to recuse themselves from a possible landmark ruling on this Marin County pension case, mainly because there is no clear alternative. Cities in Marin and Orange Counties

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