Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 26.
- Mike Davis, iconoclastic chronicler of California, dies.
- Los Angeles schools are bright spot in national test scores.
- And the charisma of the women of the Black Panther Party.
Statewide
1.
Valero reported $2.82 billion in third-quarter profits on Tuesday, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to accuse the energy giant of “ripping Californians off.” A consumer advocacy group estimated that Valero’s western region profits exceeded 60 cents a gallon. Valero executive Scott N. Folwarkow defended the company earlier this month, blaming California’s high gas prices on a “hostile regulatory environment.” L.A. Times | Bloomberg
2.
Next week, the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the future of affirmative action in cases challenging admissions procedures at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. While California already bans affirmative action at public universities, the court’s decision could apply to the state’s private colleges, which serve more than 356,000 students and have continued to use racial preferences in admissions. In an amicus brief, Stanford argued that there is “no race-neutral alternative” to achieving diversity on campus. EdSource
3.
Dispatches from California’s cooling housing market:
- San Diego home prices are falling at a rate unseen since the Great Recession, down 2.5% from July to August, the Case-Shiller index showed. It was the third straight month of declines. S.D. Union-Tribune
- In 2021, San Francisco fell below New York to become the second most expensive place to rent in America. Now it’s dropped below Boston, making San Francisco the third costliest city. Median one-bedroom rents are hovering around $3,020. SFGATE | SF Standard
- In a measure of home price shifts between March 2020 and September 2022, the city with the largest peak-to-trough decline was San Jose, down 10.59%. That made the city the first to earn Fortune’s “Pandemic Housing Bubble” label. Fortune
4.
“You feel a little loopy here, dontcha?”
California’s highest driveable road carries you 14,252 feet above sea level. That’s a mere 250 feet or so below the summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. The Navy first built a structure near the summit of White Mountain, facing the upper Owens Valley, in 1948 to perform high-altitude tests. Today, the University of California operates three tiny research stations on the mountain, including a hut on the top reached by a bone-rattling dirt road. A journalist paid a visit. 👉 YouTube (~4 mins)
Northern California
5.
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake centered near San Jose on Tuesday had a lot of people talking about California’s ShakeAlert system, which went fully live for cellphone users across the West Coast last year. The system, which relies on a network of sensors near fault lines, sent alerts to phones as much as 18 seconds before the rattling was felt, officials said. Alexis Madrigal, a journalist, said getting an alert right before shaking began was “one of the most futuristic experiences I’ve ever had.” Mercury News | KQED
Officials recommend downloading this app. 👉 MyShake
6.
Last week, the CEO of the outdoor-gear brand Cotopaxi, Davis Smith, announced on LinkedIn that he would temporarily close his company’s flagship store in San Francisco after dozens of robberies. The post set off a lively discussion, with some accusing Smith of unfairly tarnishing the city. In a Q&A, Smith said, “I’m not an expert on crime. I don’t know how to solve it. All I know is that this is scary for our team. It’s unsafe.” The Atlantic
7.
The figureheads of the Black Panther Party in Oakland were, with a few exceptions, men. But its membership was estimated to be two-thirds female. “Comrade Sisters,” a new photobook by Stephen Shames and Ericka Huggins, a former party leader, highlights the overlooked role played by the women of the Black Panthers. “It was something to do with the pride they instilled in their people,” Shames said. The Guardian
Southern California
8.
Mike Davis died at his home in San Diego on Tuesday. The author was best known for “City of Quartz,” a literary tour de force that perceived Los Angeles as a city, as one reviewer put it, “where the ruling elite crushes the poor, whites exploit people of color, public space is turned into fortresses, police abuse the citizenry, and traffic, pollution and urban decay conquer all.” An immediate bestseller, the book became regarded as a defining social history of Los Angeles. In July, Davis, stricken with terminal cancer, gave one of his last interviews. “If I have a regret,” he said, “it’s not dying in battle or at a barricade as I’ve always romantically imagined — you know, fighting.” He was 76. L.A. Times | The Nation
An appreciation by David L. Ulin: “The Master of Urban Dialectic.” Alta
“An alternative view of California”: In 2019, Davis appeared on the California Sun Podcast.
9.
The release of the national student assessment known as the Nation’s Report Card this week showed a distressing, if expected, plunge in academic achievement during the pandemic, with a notable exception — Los Angeles. Despite keeping schools closed longer than other places, the district posted improved scores in three out of four measures of reading and math proficiency. “The data was so good,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “It bodes very well for our L.A., and is really a testament to our strategy.” Wall Street Journal
10.
“No resignation, no meeting!”
“Is it you? Is it me? Is it white supremacy?”
“Fuck you white man!”
In a surreal scene, Los Angeles’ City Council resumed its regular Tuesday meeting amid a din of invective from protesters angry over the audio of a redistricting meeting punctuated by racist remarks. For two hours, the sounds of nonstop protest filled the chamber as police officers stood by and council members wearing earbuds went about their usual business projecting a forced sense of calm. Courthouse News | Los Angeles Magazine
Los Angeles police are investigating who leaked the racist audio at the request of the members who took part in the conversation. A.P.
11.
Lisa Kudrow wrote that the first question people ask about the sitcom “Friends” is often “How’s Matthew Perry doing?” Perry answers the question in a new memoir that chronicles how decades-long addictions led him to a stint on life support at a Los Angeles hospital, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag, and more than a dozen stomach surgeries. “There is a hell,” Perry wrote. “Don’t let anyone tell you different.” N.Y. Times
12.
When the San Diego Chargers announced plans to move to Los Angeles in 2017, attention to turned to the aging stadium where the team played since 1967. Within months, San Diego State advanced a plan to buy the property and erect a new home for its Aztecs. The stadium rose at breakneck speed between 2020 and 2022. Ahead of the debut football game on Sept. 3, the columnist Bryce Miller called it “a shimmering San Diego miracle.” The satellite imagery company Overview shared a great time-lapse video showing the demolition of San Diego Stadium and the rise of Snapdragon Stadium. @dailyoverview
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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