Weekend Links: Nov. 19-21
Crypto arenas, deaf football stars, and 8 other stories to consider in your quest to understand the Golden State
Happy Friday! Greetings from What is California? HQ, where the leaves are piling up outside and we haven’t seen the sun in about eight days. And I couldn’t be happier! I’m under a blanket and three layers of clothes. This is my kind of season. Don’t hate. It’ll be 116 degrees again and we’ll all spontaneously combust soon enough.
Anyway, how are you? Have you gotten your COVID booster yet? Just a friendly reminder that all Californians over the age of 5 are cleared for vaccinations, and all adults are clear for boosters, depending on the timing of your original shot. Flu shots are worth a… um, shot, too, but word to the wise: I got my booster and flu shot at the same time and had about 24 hours of pretty brutal headaches and fatigue. But at least now I’m done. 🤷🏻♂️ Your mileage may vary.
Thank you for subscribing, sharing and/or dropping by to read the “Weekend Links” news roundup. If you’re new here, welcome! Be sure to check out this week’s podcast with journalist Jaime Lowe, the author of the stellar new book Breathing Fire: Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California’s Wildfires.
And I hope you'll consider checking some of these links out if/when you are so inclined:
Goodbye, Staples Center. Hello, Crypto.com Arena - Sam Dean, LA Times
A Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange has paid $700 million for the naming rights to the erstwhile Staples Center, the home of the Lakers, Clippers, Sparks, and Kings. A lot of people are snickering or indignantly huffing about the change online, but I think it’s a great idea and portends great things for naming and crypto deals around California in the future. For starters, I can’t wait to auction my cat’s DNA as an NFT and someday host What is California? from the Crypto Hippo Studio at my residence, better known as the Dogecoin Media Pavilion. Meanwhile, this was pretty good:Underdog No More, a Deaf Football Team Takes California by Storm - Thomas Fuller, NY Times
I will see your swaggering, predictable prep-school powerhouses and raise you the most thrilling, inspiring story from the Golden State gridiron: The California School for the Deaf, Riverside, has built a football powerhouse deploying a lightning-fast offense and system of hand signals that have confounded its opponents. There’s so much interesting stuff in this story, like the “burly and effervescent” deaf coach having two deaf sons on the team, and this: “Friday night games at the Riverside campus are not totally silent, but they are not boisterous either. The generators that power the lights hum and the crowd reacts with scattered claps. But there is no public address system, no play-by-play commentator to call out players’ names after a touchdown pass or run-stuffing tackle.” And they look like they’re having such fun! Love it.
As UN tackles twin climate threats, California struggles with them, too - Rachel Becker & Julie Cart, CalMatters
From its geography to its industry to its population, California is often regarded as a microcosm of the world. But our proliferation of two major contributors to climate change—methane and deforestation—are no less emblematic of the heightened global challenge to avert catastrophe. That challenge drew world leaders to Glasgow this month for the UN climate summit, but this report outlines what’s wrong at home: Cows and the agriculture industry generate the methane, while worsening wildfires wipe out vast swaths of carbon-storing forests. Not good, folks.
California college students live in vans and hotels as campus housing plans spark backlash - Teresa Watanabe, LA Times
A few weeks ago we brought you the story of UC Santa Barbara’s plans for Munger Hall—also known as Uncle Charlie’s Airless Student Hellscape, a dense block where thousands of students are to be warehoused in pods with no windows or natural light. But we shouldn’t let that indignity overshadow the current shame of universities whose students live in hotels and cars and on couches while attending (and, of course, paying for) college. One student featured here is “so stressed about finding housing when her hotel contract ends next month she can’t sleep well, grinds her teeth and, at age 22, has grown white hairs. Faced with unpaid housing bills, she has started a GoFundMe.” What a disgrace.
A protest runs through it: Hikers traverse Kern River bed to highlight lack of water - Lois Henry, SJV Water (via Bakersfield.com)
A few years ago, the last time I was in Bakersfield, I dropped by Cafe Smitten for a cup of coffee, checked out a bike, and rode east to check out the Kern River. The cafe is still there (highly recommend!), but apparently, the river is not: A few dozen protesters marched nine miles down the dry riverbed to challenge water policy that has diverted “forfeited” Kern River water to irrigation districts around the region. Of course, the big issue here is the drought—you can’t have a river without snow or rain—but the surreal sight of marchers strolling down the parched riverbed with handmade signs says a lot about the very real peril we’re in. Related: The Chronicle’s Kurtis Alexander reports from the North State with this haunting dispatch about another depleted water source: “Lake Mendocino, once a plentiful reservoir nourishing the vines and villas of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, today is little more than a large pond, cowering beneath the coastal hills.”
California backslides on water conservation amid drought - Adam Beam, Associated Press
While we’re on the topic of water, remember earlier this year when Gov. Newsom asked California residents to reduce their water usage by 15%? You don’t? Oh. Well, you’re not alone, according to the sobering data reported here: “Californians reduced their water use by a measly 3.9% in September, down from 5.1% in August. Overall, California has reduced its water consumption by just 3.6% since July, when Newsom made the request.” Next year is going to be… interesting.
‘Ghost Guns’: Firearm Kits Bought Online Fuel Epidemic of Violence - Glenn Thrush, NY Times
California is ground zero for the market in “ghost guns,” cheap, unlicensed and often untraceable do-it-yourself firearms built from kits shipped straight to buyers. The number of online ghost gun retailers has more than tripled since 2014, resulting in a flood of weapons and the resulting shootings, murders, suicides, and accidental deaths that accompany the proliferation of guns. “This is the biggest threat in the country right now,” says one expert quoted in this harrowing but necessary read. Related: For more information about how cities and officials around California are battling the ghost gun scourge, check out this excellent roundup from Justin Ray in the LA Times.
MUNI driver’s viral thread analyzes Shang-Chi bus fight scene - @that_mc, Twitter
I haven’t seen the Marvel hit Shang-Chi, and now I don’t need to, thanks to this forensic—and very, very funny—examination of its most celebrated sequence. Hats off to a masterpiece of the livetweet genre… as instant an “instant classic” as instant classics ever were. An excerpt:Dean Witter’s 27,000-acre ranch closes escrow, becomes nature preserve - The Wildlands Conservancy
Great news from the North State, where the heirs of the late San Francisco finance kingpin Dean Witter have closed a $25 million deal to hand off Witter’s ranch to conservationists who intend to make the land available for public use. The newly christened Eel River Canyon Preserve includes 16 miles of frontage on the river spanning Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt counties, and state officials plan to work with the Wildlands Conservancy to link up trails and other recreation options. I’m told my offer of $18 million in cryptocurrency and a pledge to rebrand the ranch PancakeSwap Exchange Canyon came in a close second. Alas.
And finally…
“Stop with the Los Angeles bullshit 49ers fans” - Peter Hartlaub, Twitter
Nothing beats a good NorCal-SoCal culture war, and no culture war is more enduring or polarizing than… The Wave. I’m against it and will always mutter “Go back to L.A.” under my breath at fans around me who attempt it at live events, but just how bad is it, really? And is it an all-California phenomenon now? I’m not sure anymore. Either way, I still love a good, salty rejoinder when I see one:
Thanks for reading, and have a safe, happy weekend!
-Stu