California descending to Third World status with planned electricity blackouts for up to a week

[Geee]

American Thinker

The elites who run California like to pretend they have a better way. The highest taxes in the nation have not killed (yet) the current success of the high tech sector in the Bay Area, generating immense tax revenues that can be squandered on a useless "high speed" train line that will never be completed and still leave a budget surplus.  

Money, good weather, great food, amazing scenery, and other amenities make for The Good Life, such that the political and business elites who seem to never get tired of congratulating themselves for creating the closest thing to paradise.  The fact that this leaves behind the non-coastal areas of the state, and the taxes and cost of living (especially housing that is in short supply due to zoning and other land use restrictions) make life difficult for middle-class Californians everywhere is of no concern.

But this summer, in the wake of disastrous wildfires sparked by poorly sited and maintained power lines, the deep thinkers running the state have come up with plan that can't be papered over: to stop the wildfires when the wind blows, just shut off the juice.  Bloomberg reports:

A plan by California's biggest utility to cut power on high-wind days during the onrushing wildfire season could plunge millions of residents into darkness. And the vast majority isn't ready for it.

The plan by PG&E Corp. comes after the bankrupt utility said a transmission line that snapped in windy weather probably started last year's Camp Fire, the deadliest in state history. While the plan may end one problem, it creates another as Californians seek ways to deal with what some fear could be days and days of blackouts.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

[Valin]

 

I'd feel sorry for them, except they keep voting the same people in. They've made their bed...now lay in it.

[Valin]

 

[Valin]

 

[Valin]

Daily Mail

 

 

[Geee]

@Valin  How on earth would someone want to live there, much less pay the sky high taxes and Real Estate Cost plus taxes.  My sister lived there 20+ years ago (job transfer). They had a little condo with no yard. When they got transferred to Nashville, they bought a four bedroom, two and half bath on half acre for less than they sold their little condo for.

[Valin]

2 minutes ago, Geee said:

@Valin  How on earth would someone want to live there, much less pay the sky high taxes and Real Estate Cost plus taxes.  My sister lived there 20+ years ago (job transfer). They had a little condo with no yard. When they got transferred to Nashville, they bought a four bedroom, two and half bath on half acre for less than they sold their little condo for.

 

I remember in the 60's it was the place everyone wanted to go. The Left has ruined it. Thing is (as I understand it) there's a combination of virtue signaling + NIMBYism.

I could feel sorry for people living there, but they keep voting the same people in....lay down with dogs, you're gonna get fleas.

[Valin]

LA Times:Filth from homeless camps is luring rats to L.A. City Hall, report says

Dakota Smith and David Zahniser

Jun 03, 2019

When faced with complaints earlier this year from city workers about rats infesting L.A. City Hall, most city officials said little about whether the problem was connected to several homeless camps right outside.

But a newly uncovered report from a pest control company hired by the city has raised fresh questions about whether officials wrongly downplayed that possibility during discussions at City Council meetings.

CatsUSA Pest Control, brought in to assess areas outside City Hall and nearby buildings, warned that homeless people create “harborage for rodents,” according to the report issued Dec. 28 and obtained last month through a public records request by a frequent critic of City Hall.

The company said it found “poor sanitary conditions” — including leftover food, human waste and hypodermic needles — and recommended that the city clear away the homeless population living in the Civic Center.

(Snip)

Asked about the December report from CatsUSA, Greenwood said through her attorney that the city did not take seriously the recommendations of its own pest control firm.

“Ms. Greenwood believes weekly cleaning of the trash and human waste is not sufficient,” said Gayle Eskridge, Greenwood’s lawyer. “Ms. Greenwood states that the trash, urine and feces are occurring on a daily basis.”

In a separate report issued in February, CatsUSA said it found no evidence of fleas inside City Hall or other municipal facilities. The report was posted on the council’s website, unlike the one issued two months earlier about unsanitary conditions in the Civic Center.

[Valin]

Ten Plagues of California Are Turning The Golden State into a Third-World Hell Hole.

Stephen Green

June 3 2019

n your typical Third-World megalopolis, basic city functions fall into disrepair, while once-eradicated diseases run rampant -- and the local bigwig boasts about saving the world.

Los Angeles is quickly becoming a typical Third-World megalopolis, and the rest of the state isn't far behind.

Yesterday the New York Post reported "rats running everywhere among piles of decaying garbage," in a "sprawling 50-block area that is believed to be the base for around 4,200 homeless people."

Local columnist Steve Lopez called his city a "giant trash receptacle" and asked, "Did someone turn back the calendar a few hundred years?” No, Steve, the city government turned hard left is all. Although debate fans might note that that's a distinction without a difference.

(Snip)

[Valin]

 

[Valin]

But Wait! It Gets Better!

June 7 2019

The city of Los Angeles agrees to pay $645,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed L.A. sanitation workers stole or destroyed property of homeless people during periodic clean-up efforts in the city's sprawling Skid Row area. Do homeless people have a Constitutional right to squat on public property, stockpile pallets, refrigerators and other scavenged items, and generally drag down property values and tourist appeal?