Weekend Links: June 3-5
Lifeguard moneybags, 'Top Gun' in Tahoe, and 8 other stories to consider in your quest to understand the Golden State
Greetings from What is California? HQ, where the recycling bin runneth over with political mailers ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. After a month of receiving unflattering Photoshops of opponents and stacks of floppy cards telling me how many endorsements candidates have received from special interests, I still don’t know whom or what I’m voting for on Tuesday. Do you? Help a guy out here. And either way: Please vote!
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ICYMI
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On with the Weekend Links!
Meanwhile, I hope you'll consider checking out some of these nifty California stories if/when you are so inclined:
CalMatters 2022 California Voter Guide - CalMatters
California’s primary election is set for Tuesday, and if you’re anything like me, you have been deluged with campaign media in every platform and also, somehow, emotionally and intellectually detached from the process. Perhaps you’ve shaken it off, punched your ballot and dropped it off already. Great job! Or, perhaps through some combination of self-preservation and procrastination, you’re just letting the pink envelope and sample ballot and other materials molder in a sad stack somewhere out of the way. (Guilty as charged.) But this guide from CalMatters helps demystify a few things (particularly the state controller’s race) while accessibly answering the basic voter questions so often overlooked by news organizations. If you do want to cram before voting, this is a great place to do it.
Bees are ‘fish’ under Calif. Endangered Species Act – state court - Barbara Grzincic, Reuters
Can there possibly be a more California story than the state’s embattled bumblebee population earning legal protection under the California Endangered Species Act—as a fish? It turns out that the state’s four species of bumblebees, on which we depend for the pollination of flowers and at least a third of the food crops grown in California, weren’t at risk when the law was originally passed. However, as insects, they belong to an animal group that has sworn foes in the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry. What to do? Litigation, obviously, followed by some very… interesting logic from California appeals court Justice Ronald Robie: “CESA itself does not define ‘fish,’ but the law is part of the California Fish and Game Code. The code’s definition includes any ‘mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate (or) amphibian,’ Robie wrote. All those categories ‘encompass terrestrial and aquatic species,’ and the state legislature has already approved the listing of at least one land-based mollusk, the opinion said. […] ‘Accordingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like each of the four bumblebee species, may be listed as an endangered or threatened species.’ “ Now you know.
On a block full of lawns, she ditched grass for a DIY drought-tolerant oasis - Lisa Boone, Los Angeles Times
Welcome to What is California? Garden Corner, where this week we return to the land that irrigation forgot for another look at all you can do with drought-tolerant native plants. Sarah Lariviere and her husband tore out the lawn at their Burbank bungalow and replaced it with a lovely array of sage, succulents, wildflowers and other low-maintenance options. The $4,700 rebate they received from the Metropolitan Water District paid for nearly the whole project. I wish I’d opted for their sod cutter method when I did my hellstrip (sheet mulching over Bermuda grass is pure folly), but I can attest to everything else here as a winning solution for a water-efficient landscape. (And the hummingbirds, butterflies and fish bees will love it!)
The Pacific Crest Trail may become 'all but impossible' to hike as climate change intensifies - Gregory Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle
Well, this isn’t good: Fires, heat, drought, and other climate crises are likely to make the iconic Pacific Crest Trail inhospitable to hikers not just in California, but throughout the West. According to a recent article published by the Pacific Crest Trail Association (and cited here by Thomas), “hikers will face heightened risk of heat stroke by the end of the century, as triple-digit summer temperatures on the trail ‘will become exceedingly common.’ Early-season snow may be minimal, and the streams hikers rely on for drinking water may dry up, leaving no place to get water for stretches as long as 40 miles.” Ooof.
Does California have enough water for lots of new homes? Yes, experts say, despite drought - Liam Dillon, Los Angeles Times
Have you ever seen a subdivision of hundreds of new single-family homes being built and wonder, Where are they getting the water for those? This story responds to that instinctive question as clearly and thoroughly as anything I’ve read… maybe ever. I’m still not totally convinced (especially for subdivisions going up in Southern California), but I’m enlightened nevertheless. For the TL; DR, Dillon summarizes the key takeaways in the thread below:
4.1 million-square-foot warehouse in Ontario will be Amazon’s biggest ever - Jeff Collins, The Orange County Register
Congratulations (?) to the Inland Empire, soon to be the home of the world’s largest Amazon warehouse: At 93 acres and five stories tall and occupying a former cattle feedlot, the warehouse “would hold all of Disney’s California Adventure theme park — with 21 acres to spare,” Collins reports. This is in addition to the nearly 18 million square feet of warehouse space Amazon already leases in Southern California, but somehow despite reported excess capacity in warehouses in California, New York and New Jersey.
Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021 - Adam Andrzejewski, OpenTheBooks Substack
This story is wild: After studying the salaries of Los Angeles lifeguards, Andrzejewski found that last year, 98 lifeguards made more than $200,000 in compensation (including base pay, overtime and benefits). One lifeguard in particular, a captain named Daniel Douglas, made more than $510,000 in total compensation—nearly half of it in overtime. It gets better: Between 2016 and 2021, Andrzejewski writes, “[t]he top three high earners made between $505,579 and $980,007 in overtime alone: Daniel Douglas ($980,007); Jaro Spopek ($513,365); and James Orr ($505,579).” Can you imagine? I am in the wrooonnnnng business.
Wastewater Recycling Made Sewage Valuable. Now East County and San Diego Are Fighting Over It. - MacKenzie Elmer, Voice of San Diego
This complicated story has it all—municipal slap fights, eminent domain, raw sewage, existentially high stakes… kinda like the movie Chinatown, but with poop in the water. I can’t say I totally understand the ins and outs of what’s happening, but I chose to interpret it to mean that as sewage appreciates in value around the state, our net worths are higher today than they were before the drought. So go off! Down with NFTs—up with wastewater! Put it in the bank! Buy a sports franchise or a small town or something.
In Los Angeles, a Tree With Stories to Tell - Tim Arango, NY Times (gift article)
This is incredible: At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a Black high jumper named Cornelius Johnson won the gold medal in his event. The Nazis, who hosted the games, gave gold medalists oak tree saplings signifying superiority and strength. (Particularly of the Aryan variety.) Johnson planted his tree in the backyard of his childhood home in Los Angeles (now part of Koreatown), where it survives today despite neglect and a plan by local developers to acquire the property, cut down the tree, and build luxury townhomes. Only a handful of the “Olympic Oaks” remain, and a preservation effort to save and restore the tree is underway, Arango reports: “The preservationists fighting to save it see it as a living link to historical events, from the rise of Nazi Germany to the achievements of the Black American athletes at the Berlin Games that many historians now regard as precursors to the civil rights movement.” Amazing photos with this one, too.
And finally…
Hunting Big Game, Or That One Time I Stalked A Movie Star - Jared Manninen, YouTube
You may have heard the climax of Top Gun: Maverick was filmed in and around South Lake Tahoe. But did you know a South Lake Tahoe resident and outdoorsman named Jared Manninen hid on the set at Washoe Meadows State Park, photographed Tom Cruise during shooting, wrote a terrific essay about it for the literary journal at Lake Tahoe Community College, and then read the essay—with radio-style sound effects and everything—over a slideshow of photos on YouTube? I stumbled on this after reading Dan Gentile’s article this week about Top Gun: Maverick filming in Tahoe; I figured some locals had to have uploaded some celeb sightings—and boy, did they ever. This video is worth every minute:
Thanks for reading, and have a safe, happy weekend!
-Stu