Ben Christopher

@frombenc.bsky.social

1251 Followers 511 Following

Housing reporter @calmatters.org. Occasional dad tweets. Tell me things: Ben@calmatters.org / signal: BenC.2017

A map of California's cities with municipalities color-coded in three ways: blue communities accelerated housing growth to at or above the national median and would receive a CDBG bonus; red communities fell below the median and would lose 10% of their Community Development Block Grant; green communities are exempt (a statutory carve-out for low-cost or slack rental markets). Los Angeles, San Diego, Huntington Beach, Irvine and Santa Barbara are all read. So are San Jose, Stockton and Elk Grove.
Despite Arreguín’s promise to pursue a future compromise, “(I) don’t think he understands the hard part…his lack of leadership,” said Danny Curtin, director of the California Council of Carpenters in a text message. A number of Democratic members of the committee expressed similar, if less pointed, frustration.
A screenshot from the New York Times article "Firm Tied to Trump Donor Got No-Bid Contract to Clean Reflecting Pool": "The contract shows that the National Park Service bypassed the competitive-bidding process that is typically required, and gave a $1.7 million contract to the firm, Greenwater Services of Brookfield, Ohio."
District 4 election results. Jaron Brandon, a Democrat, with 39.4%, Alexandra Duarte, a Republican, with 32.4%. Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Republican, trails in 3rd with 28.2%.
A web comic from 2015 by Tumblr user cupcakelogic that has since achieved memetic status. The comic depicts a dog with a ball in its mouth. "Pls throw??" the dog says. When a human hand reaches out to take the ball, the dog responds, "NO TAKE!!...ONLY THROW"
Adam Hardesty looks through the construction at his home in Carlsbad on Feb. 19, 2025. Hardesty wanted to convert the garage of his three-story condo into a ground-floor apartment despite opposition from his own Homeowners Association. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
Adam Hardesty looks through the construction at his home in Carlsbad on Feb. 19, 2025. Hardesty wanted to convert the garage of his three-story condo into a ground-floor apartment despite opposition from his own Homeowners Association. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
Two side-by-side posts. The first by David Roberts: "Yes, the obvious solution to fossil fuel wars is obvious: ' The fragility of global fossil fuel supply underscores why scaling renwables and electriciation is essential for lasting energy security." The second by the Economist: "An LNG crunch is good news for the world's dirtiest fuel," with a photo of a barge towing five mounds of coal.
I am being cheeky. The chart shows a fairly low level of spending each year (bumping around $1 million since 2020) and then a giant spike to well over $4 million in 2025.
Mr. Bean stands alone in a field of wild flowers, waiting for something. The image has become a meme, taken from the film Mr. Bean's Holiday, often used to depict exasperated impatience.
The situation had deteriorated so dramatically that the San Benito district attorney, Joel Buckingham, found himself worrying about the people his office was trying to send to prison. Their attorneys didn’t contest the evidence Buckingham’s prosecutors presented, no matter how it was obtained. Each year, they filed an average of just 10 motions to suppress evidence based on violations of constitutional rights — including unjustified stops and searches, illegal interrogations, and arrests without probable cause. “Police officers must make mistakes sometimes,” Buckingham told a researcher conducting the evaluation. The sheriff, Eric Taylor, was also alarmed. If his deputies were never challenged in court, how would they know when they had crossed a line? What would stop them from doing it again?
A picture of Bandit, the cartoon dog from the Australian kid’s show Bluey, doing a silly dance.
Press release from Governor Gavin Newsom: A hiss-torical day: Governor Newsom signs bills establishing state snake, state shrub
Now that the state's 800,000 drivers have gained those rights, they will need to choose a union to represent them.  The SEIU, which sponsored the legislation, will likely become the drivers' representative, thanks to late amendments to the bill. They include new requirements that make it tough for fledgling drivers unions to qualify to represent drivers. One of those requirements is experience negotiating union contracts.  "This is so outrageous," said Nicole Moore, president of Los Angeles-based Rideshare Drivers United, adding that because the ride-hailing industry is fairly new, even a group like hers, which has been organizing drivers since 2018, does not have that experience. Moore said her group had supported the bill and been engaging with lawmakers as well. "They pulled the rug out from under us," she said.
In an unattributed statement from Mission LLC, the company slammed the deal and said it would sue, “as California prohibits legislation attacking a single project.” “This bill is an example of the control of public policy by a few wealthy NIMBYs in an attempt to obstruct desperately needed low-income housing,” the company wrote. “The project, located in a wealthy area of Santa Barbara, would provide 54 low-income units and this attempt to block it demonstrates the kowtowing of some legislators to wealthy NIMBY constituents.”
A common meme image (used to express an unlikely shared viewpoint) of two muscled arms in a firm grip. In this case, one represents Donald Trump, the other Gavin Newsom. Where their hands clasp together, the text says "pushing cities and states to use law enforcement to get unhoused people off the streets."
Cover of San Francisco Magazine, January 1976. The cover photo is George Moscone. The lede headline: "Meet your new mayor-elect."
Quote from the story: The court records and driving histories reveal a state so concerned with people having access to motor vehicles for work and life that it allows deadly drivers to share our roads despite the cost. Officials may call driving a privilege, but they treat it as a right — often failing to take drivers’ licenses even after they kill someone on the road. We found nearly 40% of the drivers charged with vehicular manslaughter since 2019 have a valid license. That includes a driver with two separate convictions for vehicular manslaughter, for crashes that killed a 16-year-old girl in 2009 and a 25-year-old woman in 2020. In July of last year, the DMV issued him a driver’s license. The agency gave licenses to nearly 150 people less than a year after they allegedly killed someone on the road, we found. And while the agency has since suspended some of those, often after a conviction, the majority remain valid.
Experts agree clearing or “sweeping” encampments alone can’t end homelessness. But here’s what we did see over and over as a result of sweeps in those cities: people becoming more likely to lose touch with support services, people losing essential items they need to get into housing (such as birth certificates) or to survive the elements (such as tents) and people still stuck on the streets — sometimes in new locations. In some cases, cities try to pair enforcement with offers of a shelter bed or other services. But shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don’t work for everyone on the street.
From the San Francisco Chronicle: Once again, opponents are demanding the Planning Commission deny a housing project in the Mission: a 10-story building with 181 units, including 30 affordable units. Advocates want the owner to sell the site to the city for affordable housing, but based on the comments of city officials, they’re unlikely to prevail this time. That’s because of two state laws: the density bonus law and the Housing Accountability Act, which set objective standards governing whether a city can reject or modify a housing project. Because the proposal conforms to all city rules, the city can’t reject the project, the Planning Department told the Chronicle.