WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.279 So there's a story in the local news that the City of Fresno is planning 2 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:11.080 to do some stuff with this big lot near chik Chancy Park. They want 3 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:20.960 to put in a big parking garage and a new housing unit. It's going 4 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.760 to be discussed on the Thursday city council meeting. Basically that they want to 5 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:35.479 build an affordable housing unit and a parking garage on this one lot that's just 6 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:43.520 south of chi Chancy Park. So basically there's a lot. Basically it's bounded 7 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:49.799 by let's see, what are the streets here, corner of the corner of 8 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:56.000 H Street and Mono Street in downtown Fresno, sort of south of chik Chancy 9 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:03.799 Park. So and it goes along H Street as far as in you, 10 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.280 and it kind of stops it in you, all right. So it's actually 11 00:01:07.480 --> 00:01:11.959 it's right next to the big parking lot that people use for parking to go 12 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:21.319 to Grizzlies games. Now I am sort of questioning this a little bit. 13 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.680 And granted I'm coming from a place of not knowing all the ins and outs, 14 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:32.280 but I think there are some questions. I think the whole project of 15 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:38.519 downtown revitalization is just completely fraud right now due to a number of problems. 16 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:44.879 One the disastrous developments that have happened over the last several years with the high 17 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:53.920 speed rail that which is going to be a signature building block component of our 18 00:01:55.079 --> 00:02:00.000 downtown revitalization efforts over the next twenty years. Building this big new high speed 19 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:07.680 rail station which was sold to Fresno. And let's recall that the citizens of 20 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:13.360 Fresno County voted for the ballot initiative to establish the high speed rail, a 21 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:17.199 majority of Fresno County voted for it. The high speed rail was sold to 22 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:21.840 Fresno as this will be the great connector. It's going to connect Fresno to 23 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.680 the rest of California. You know, a high speed rail system connecting you 24 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:27.639 know, Los Angeles to San Francisco, you know San Diego, San Francisco, 25 00:02:28.199 --> 00:02:30.080 and Fresno will be a hub in it. And this will allow Fresno 26 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:35.520 to This will fundamentally transform the economy of the San Lanquin Valley, will give 27 00:02:35.599 --> 00:02:37.919 us connection to the rest of the state that we've never been able to have 28 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:47.000 before. Well, that fundamental promise is no more. All we have a 29 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:52.919 commitment for and boy, the state legislature and state legislators from Los Angeles are 30 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:57.319 really grouse have been grousing about this for years now. The only commitment we 31 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:01.520 really have right now is Mercaid to bake Field, that the high speed rail 32 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.280 is going to go from Merced to Bakersfield. We're struggling to get the funding 33 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:13.199 even to complete that. Even that is ludicrously expensive. And the you know, 34 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:20.039 the the commitment from Governor Newsom, who's not going to be around forever, 35 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:23.800 by the way, who's going to be out of office, you know, 36 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:28.919 this time two years from now, and maybe we have a pharaoh who 37 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:31.639 knows not, you know, a pharaoh who knows not Joseph in the governor's 38 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:38.080 office two years from now. The commitment from Governor Newsom is we're going to 39 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:45.599 finish the Merced to Bakersfield stretch to establish the viability of the broader system. 40 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:53.120 And there's nothing about a Merced to Bakersfield train that demonstrates the viability of a 41 00:03:53.159 --> 00:04:00.800 train that's supposed to connect San Francisco to La Nothing about the conditions between of 42 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:08.400 travel within the San Joaquin Valley is at all similar to the conditions of travel 43 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:14.560 that would have to take place for a genuine San Francisco to La connection even 44 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:24.480 down to like logistical construction legal Okay, you know, if you're using eminent 45 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:29.759 domain to seize a corner of farmer McGregor's field out in the middle of nowhere, 46 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:34.839 you know, north of Madera somewhere, that is a lot less costly 47 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:42.680 than trying to seize property in downtown San Francisco, or property you know in 48 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:47.800 Burbank or something for the high speed rail to go through. It's also, 49 00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:57.639 I think also there's the just a physical engineering difficulty building the high speed rail 50 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.839 across the San Joaquin Valley. We're said to Bakersfield, which is the flattest, 51 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:12.040 least populous, least mountainous stretch of the high speed rail is going to 52 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:15.000 be a lot easier and does not demonstrate the viability of building, you know, 53 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.199 trying to build a high speed rail train where you have to somehow blast 54 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:24.160 through the grapevine. You can't really go over the grapevine, it's too steep, 55 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:29.720 So you got to blast through the grapevine somehow through the mountains. You've 56 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:31.279 got two different sets of mountains. You got to figure out how to cross. 57 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.199 You got to figure out how to build a train. That's able to 58 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:40.439 withstand being built over the San Andreas fault. Anyway, the high speed rail 59 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:48.360 station is supposed to be this big hub of downtown Fresno revitalization, and I 60 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:53.319 just don't think very many people are going to use it. And the estimates 61 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:55.879 for the number of people who are going to use the high speed rail they 62 00:05:55.959 --> 00:06:00.800 keep going down. As has you know, with the development of Tesla did 63 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:05.560 not exist in two thousand and four, the continued development of electric cars and 64 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:11.879 California's California's commitment to this wasn't my commitment, California's commitment that by twenty thirty 65 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:15.040 five, one hundred percent of all the new cars being sold in the state 66 00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:21.360 are going to be electric cars. With that commitment from the state, the 67 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:27.759 reasons for building the high speed rail, the environmental reasons for building the high 68 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:30.600 speed rail, get fewer people driving gas power of cars, that rationale is 69 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:34.600 going down. So I just don't think a lot. We're going to build 70 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:41.160 this big train station, and I just wonder how quickly it's going to turn 71 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:46.480 into a husk. I just wonder how quickly it's going to look like an 72 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:57.160 abandoned Greyhound station. Added on to that, the city had all these grand 73 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:04.279 plans for downtown revitalization that we're premised around this promise from the State of California 74 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:14.279 made in the bumper days of twenty twenty two. So in those rosy sunshine 75 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:16.680 days for the state budget where we had a big old budget surplus because the 76 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:27.040 state was flush with federal COVID money, Governor Newsom makes this grand pledge to 77 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:29.680 good old Jerry Dyer. Hey, Jerry, we're going to give you two 78 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:34.720 hundred and fifty million dollars for downtown development. Here's the first fifty and then 79 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.639 in twenty twenty three we'll give you one hundred million, and then in twenty 80 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:41.639 twenty four we'll give you one hundred million. Wow. Thank you so much, 81 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.199 mister Governor. This is great. I Jerry Dyer, trust your promises. 82 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.920 I shouldn't be too mean to Jerry Dyer about all this. I mean, 83 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.439 you know, Newsom is the only governor he is able to deal with. 84 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:00.800 So you know that's the whatever promise he can get is the promise he 85 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:05.000 can get. It's not his fault that Gavin Newsom is not great on keeping 86 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:13.879 promises. So twenty twenty three comes along. Oh sorry, city friends, 87 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:16.279 No, you know that one hundred million dollars we were supposed to give you 88 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:18.720 this year and one hundred million dollars next year. We're gonna just bump that 89 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:22.560 to next year. We're gonna we're gonna delay that by one year cause the 90 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.040 state budget is facing a massive deficit in twenty twenty three. Now that we're 91 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.920 out of the sunshine days of twenty twenty two, where we're a dishing out, 92 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.879 you know, grants left and right, giving a million dollars to a 93 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:35.600 planned parenthood clinic and Fresno just for funzies. No, sorry, guys, 94 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:41.600 we're out of money. So we're gonna bump your one hundred million dollars instead 95 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:43.679 of twenty three and twenty four, we're gonna bump it to twenty four to 96 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:48.559 twenty five. Then last week we hear, oh, sorry, guys, 97 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:54.120 we gotta bump it by another year. So now it's gonna be in twenty 98 00:08:54.159 --> 00:09:05.279 five twenty six. So the city's plan for this lot, and again this 99 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:13.159 is the proposal here is it's this lot bordered by H Street and Mono Street, 100 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.120 a sort of Inyo H Street, Mono Street or sort of the streets 101 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:22.759 that are sort of nearby. It's the This is the lot that's right next 102 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:28.080 to the main parking lot that people use for going to Grizzlies games. We're 103 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:35.759 gonna take this lot and we're gonna turn it into lower income housing plus a 104 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:45.240 parking garage the point. And we're going to use that first installment of fifty 105 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:52.039 million dollars to pay for it. Now, the idea for the two hundred 106 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:58.919 and fifty MILI was to help support projects like this, build more parking struct 107 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.480 matures, build more housing units. You know. I think the city's plan 108 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:09.080 was to have you know, part of the way to revitalize downtown is we 109 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:13.960 need more people to live there. We need more people to live there in 110 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:20.200 order to sustain more businesses. So I think the overall plan with Okay, 111 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:24.279 if we have all this two hundred and fifty million dollars, is to do 112 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:31.159 all the infrastructure and building necessary for ten thousand more people to live in downtown 113 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:35.559 Fresno. Okay, it's an ambitious goal, understandable goal. You want more 114 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:43.120 people there that will support more businesses, that will help revitalize downtown. So 115 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:48.600 we're going to use this fifty million just for that. But the problem is, 116 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:54.840 from my way of looking at it. You know, halfway doing something 117 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:01.159 is almost can in certain circumstances, almost be worse than doing nothing at all. 118 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:09.840 So I guess this is my fear. We've got this money, so 119 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:16.039 we're gonna build housing, We're gonna build a parking lot, will put in 120 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:22.399 some more people. But if that two hundred million dollars never comes through, 121 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:26.159 and that is, by the way, my prediction, I don't think that 122 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:31.000 two hundred million is ever coming, or at the very least, I think 123 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:37.039 it's gonna get delayed far enough out that it's gonna be in the hands of 124 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:46.919 another governor. Basically, the problem the state faces is that our normal for 125 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.440 the state budget is going to be deficits for the foreseeable future. California is 126 00:11:52.039 --> 00:12:03.279 way dependent on a really rather small band of high income taxpayers, a relatively 127 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:07.480 small number of people who are sustaining the entire tens of billions of dollars state 128 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:15.840 budget through they're paying a very high income taxes and particularly very high capital gains 129 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:20.279 taxes, and the amount that the state has been collecting in capital gains taxes 130 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:26.440 especially has dropped like a stone basically from like twenty two to twenty I think 131 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:28.399 it was from twenty one to twenty two or twenty two to twenty three, 132 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:39.200 the amount of capital gains taxes dropped by like eighteen billion dollars. So basically 133 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:46.159 people were selling off their assets and not wanting to invest in California or pulling 134 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:54.200 their investments from California. Capital gains tax, by the way, that's the 135 00:12:54.279 --> 00:13:00.879 tax that you pay for selling an investment, some kind of investment, either 136 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.440 real estate, property or stock or something. So when you buy a stock 137 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:13.519 at X value, the value of the stock increases by let's say, the 138 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:20.159 value of the stock increases by a million dollars. When you sell that stock, 139 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.240 you then pay capital gains tax on it. But it's only when you 140 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:28.559 sell it. You don't pay tax on gains that you have not yet realized. 141 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:31.279 You have to realize them by selling the stock first. Anyway, we're 142 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:35.279 getting way less revenue from that. So I guess this is the question that 143 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:39.879 needs to be asked for the city council. What if the other two hundred 144 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:50.120 million doesn't come through, is it wise then to build this housing unit here 145 00:13:52.240 --> 00:13:56.679 and this parking garage If the rest of the downtown revitalization program is just not 146 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:01.000 happening, we'll dig into that question more after the break. This is the 147 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:07.799 John Girardi Show on Power Talk. The city wants to buy this lot, 148 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:13.720 or well, the city wants to develop rather this lot just south of Grizzly 149 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:20.360 Stadium into a housing unit and a parking garage, using the first fifty million 150 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:22.519 dollars of the total of two hundred and fifty million dollars that the State of 151 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:28.600 California has pledged to give for downtown development. I think someone's got to ask 152 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:33.519 some questions about, you know, the idea of a job half done, 153 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:39.120 of a job half done or in this case, one fifth done, and 154 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:43.799 whether that is worse than a job not done at all. So let me 155 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:52.320 explain, we're going to use part of the first fifty million dollars that the 156 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:58.200 State of California gave us for downtown development. And again the idea was fifty 157 00:14:58.200 --> 00:15:01.279 million dollars in twenty twondred million in twenty three, one hundred million twenty twenty 158 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:05.360 four. Then that got pushed to, well, instead of twenty three and 159 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:09.039 twenty four, we'll do it in twenty four to twenty five, And now 160 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:11.840 it's been pushed to Okay, well, we'll hit you up in twenty five, 161 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:16.279 twenty six. So who knows if that two hundred million is coming in 162 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:20.720 My guess is that it's going to continue being kicked down the can as we 163 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:24.519 have, you know, deficit budget after deficit budget, year after year in 164 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:30.000 California, and that eventually we will get to a point where maybe it's not 165 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:35.480 Governor Newsom, maybe it's governor somebody else who says, hey, Fresno, 166 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.960 we don't have this money. We're not going to give it to you. 167 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:41.120 I know Gavin Newsom pledged it, but I'm not going to give it. 168 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:48.879 Sorry. I think the city kind of needs to just plan as if that 169 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:54.559 two hundred million's never coming. That's my thought. I think they need to 170 00:15:54.639 --> 00:16:00.639 start planning as if that two hundred million might never come, because I don't 171 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:07.600 think it will. And so here's the thing. Yes, that two hundred 172 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:12.879 fifty million was in part designed to sustain one more housing in downtown Fresno at 173 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:18.000 a population of about ten thousand, additional people to downtown Fresno that will help 174 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.440 support and sustain businesses. There are parts of downtown Fresno that are ghost towns, 175 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:29.799 that are sparsely populated. Basically, we can't really sustain enough business down 176 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.679 there. We don't have enough people down there, so let's have more people 177 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:36.960 down there. To have more people, you need more housing, all right. 178 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:40.559 If you're gonna have more people, you're gonna have more business. You 179 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:44.240 need more parking. Parking has always been a problem in downtown Fresno. Let's 180 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.120 build more parking, okay, but the other But then there's the other less 181 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:52.159 sexy stuff that we were supposed to do with that two hundred and fifty million. 182 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:57.840 There was a lot of stuff with sewer, basically sewer stuff that needed 183 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:04.920 to be revitalized, water drainage stuff that needed to be revitalized, and that's 184 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:11.559 what a lot of that money was going towards. I guess I'm sort of 185 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:18.039 wondering if we're going to use this first fifty million. Are we using this 186 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:23.200 first fifty million the right way? Should we? How would we be using 187 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:27.680 this first fifty million if we thought this is the only fifty million that we 188 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:30.720 are going to get from the state. Obviously, it seems like we're a 189 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:34.279 little hemmed in as far as the kinds of things we can use the money 190 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.079 on. Has to be for downtown, has to be for certain kinds of 191 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:41.640 development, and I'm sure, there are more strings attached to this money, 192 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:51.880 but I sort of wonder, like, are there other things that we need 193 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:57.160 to do that are are there? Basically, what is the wisest way to 194 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:00.319 use this If this is all we're going to get, And that's the thing, 195 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:08.119 I'm afraid this is all we're going to get. Are we going to 196 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:12.839 have enough as far as infrastructure to support the new people coming into this housing 197 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:21.640 unit? Is just building one lower income housing unit? How much is that 198 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:29.279 going to help sustain business growth downtown? Are we just going to bring in 199 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:34.119 more people who aren't sustaining business growth? I mean, is this going to 200 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:38.599 be a middle class community that's coming in. I mean, certainly people who 201 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:42.319 are sub middle class need a place to live. I mean that that's critically 202 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:47.920 important. I guess I'm just not sure that this development is going to really 203 00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:53.519 vitalize you know, you know, booming businesses in downtown or the hottest the 204 00:18:53.559 --> 00:18:59.000 hottest restaurant in Fresno. Is this new place in downtown everyone's talking about. 205 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.400 People are coming from all of the city. You have to at some point 206 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:07.599 be able to build and sustain businesses that people want to drive from Northeast Fresno. 207 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:11.000 To go to go visit and go see and I don't know that we're 208 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.680 I don't know that just doing this is going to sustain it. And maybe 209 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:25.759 it's unreasonable to expect that. And honestly, I saw this in I think 210 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:33.319 it was in the Fresno b this idea in politics that there is a good 211 00:19:33.319 --> 00:19:36.680 answer, that there's always some good answer, there's something that someone should be 212 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:41.680 doing to fix the problem, there's a fix for the problem. Where After 213 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:45.799 Governor Knwsom announced, yeah, we're delaying the two hundred million dollars by a 214 00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:52.640 second year to Fresno, Fresno B has this editorial saying that the city leaders 215 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:59.759 need to hold Gavin Newsom accountable for his promise to bring to bring this pledged 216 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:04.160 fund to the city of Fresno. How that's easy to say in an editorial, 217 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:11.559 they need to hold him accountable. Newsom has no accountability. Newsom has 218 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:18.279 won three elections. Now he's in his second term. He's not running for 219 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:23.880 reelection anymore. He's not account He doesn't need to give a flying rip about 220 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:30.920 what voters think. Nobody's gonna try and recall him again after the disaster of 221 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:37.680 the first recall. Accountability what do you mean accountability? He made a dumb 222 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:41.920 promise when the state was flush with money, and now he realizes he can't 223 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:47.039 follow through with it because we have deficit. What do you mean accountability? 224 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:51.440 Guys, there just might not be a solution for this. We might have 225 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:57.240 just totally screwed up downtown development. Through one the high speed rail, which 226 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:02.839 construction is taking flipping forever. We're gonna have this big old train station that's 227 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.599 supposed to have all these businesses and all these things that for a train that 228 00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:11.599 I just that both I doubt and the research is indicating fewer and fewer people 229 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:15.359 are interested in riding on. So I don't know who's going to all these 230 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:19.319 people who are allegedly going to be at this train station supporting all these businesses, 231 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:27.839 allegedly building one new lower income housing unit with this fifty million dollars, 232 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:30.960 And maybe there's more we can build. I don't know. Maybe I'm overstating 233 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:34.119 this, but we're limited in how much more housing we can build if we're 234 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:37.880 not also going to use the other two hundred million dollars for infrastructure stuff, 235 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:41.519 for sewage stuff, water drainage stuff, all the other stuff you need to 236 00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:49.799 sustain this grand plan of ten thousand more people living in downtown. Maybe we're 237 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:53.960 just completely screwed. You've got the again, it's not just that the high 238 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:57.200 speed rail is not a lot of people are gonna write it in the meantime 239 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:04.960 until it's established. It's completely gunking up downtown with all the construction that's taking 240 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:11.240 forever to actually build the stinking thing. I don't know, like, well, 241 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:12.759 well, we got to be sure to hold Gavin Newsom accountable for that 242 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:18.400 money. We can't hold him accountable. He's accountable to nobody. He fears 243 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:22.240 neither God nor man. Even when he was up for reelection, What does 244 00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:26.640 he care if every single person in the city of Fresno votes against him, 245 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:33.319 He'd still win with sixty percent of the vote. He fundamentally doesn't give a 246 00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:41.720 rats behind about being accountable for Again, what was probably just a dumb promise 247 00:22:41.759 --> 00:22:45.480 he made for the one year where our state had a big old budget surplus 248 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.440 because we had a bunch of COVID money, And he's probably just regretting it 249 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.960 now. All right, when we return, I want to talk about this 250 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:59.440 as far as my long running opinion that the central value should be its own 251 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:03.440 state illness happened, but why it should be its own state and the idea 252 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:06.359 of what a state is or should be. Next on The John Girardi Show, 253 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:12.160 I want to talk about my long standing belief that the Central Valley, 254 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:18.200 the San Joaquin Valley, should be its own state, even though I'm somewhat 255 00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:22.680 ambivalent about this because I think every project for splitting the state of California up 256 00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:29.200 is kind of a helpless lost cause and doomed to fail just because of the 257 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:38.599 basic political realities of the US Senate. If you actually created a state called 258 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:47.720 San Joaquin, basically the way that you do it that people first have to 259 00:23:47.799 --> 00:23:52.319 understand, how do you create a new state? How does a new state 260 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:57.160 come into being? Well, basically you need a vote on the part of 261 00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:07.720 whatever existing state the proposed new state is being created out of. Okay, 262 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.920 So the California State Legislature would have to vote to say, yes, we 263 00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:21.559 are authorizing the approval of the establishment of a new state to be separated from 264 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:29.880 US in California based on this territory. So the State of California would have 265 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:37.759 to vote for it, and Congress would have to vote for it. And 266 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:44.759 there's no way that's going to happen. All right, First, I just 267 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:48.319 highly doubt that state legislators would go for it. I don't know that a 268 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.200 lot of our Central Valley legislators would even go for it, even the Democrat 269 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.559 most of the Democrat legislators, I don't know that they'd actually go for it. 270 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:03.240 They like the Central I mean, the Central Valley, for one thing, 271 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:10.440 gives California a bunch of extra electoral College votes every presidential cycle. And 272 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:15.319 the only way that Congress would vote to approve it is if there was some 273 00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:19.079 kind of even split as far as the likely new Senate seats that we'd be 274 00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:25.200 generated by creating a new state. So they're not going to vote to establish 275 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:30.200 a new state of Central California. If that's going to just give Republicans two 276 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.279 more seats in the US Senate. Democrats are not going to stand for that. 277 00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:41.079 They would want to, you know, simultaneously create some other Democrat stronghold 278 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:48.880 state that would guarantee them to extra Senate seats and plus Democrats really like getting 279 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:53.799 that big fat stack of however many electoral College votes California has, I think 280 00:25:53.799 --> 00:26:00.000 it's about fifty. California gives the Democrat candidate for president fifty electoral college votes 281 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:04.599 every single election, so Democrats don't want to give that up. That's the 282 00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:11.039 only way they that's like the cornerstone, the foundational building block of Democrats winning 283 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:15.480 presidential elections is they start with this huge fifty electoral college vote advantage. So 284 00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:18.480 they're not going to give that up. They don't want to risk that. 285 00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:25.839 So it's never going to happen. Let me preface that, but by rights 286 00:26:25.880 --> 00:26:30.640 it should. Let me explain why I think a lot of us just kind 287 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:38.039 of accept the boundaries of the current fifty American states as a given, like 288 00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:42.519 this is just the way it is, California being as big as it is 289 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.720 both physically but also population wise, and I think both are important. Actually, 290 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:52.559 it's just kind of taken as this as a given. Well, that's 291 00:26:52.599 --> 00:27:00.880 just how California is. And people meet proposals for splitting the state into smaller 292 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:07.000 states with a mixture of bewilderment and like, that's ridiculous. Why would you 293 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:12.880 split up California? As if the boundaries of the state of California were drawn 294 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:18.680 by the hand of God himself? What is a state? What is a 295 00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:26.559 state supposed to be? Now, the founding fathers had all read their Aristotle. 296 00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:33.119 They were all sort of educated westernmen, had all read Aristotle's political theory, 297 00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:38.480 and they were also reading Enlightenment thinkers political theory. But I think there's 298 00:27:38.519 --> 00:27:42.880 still a decent bit of Aristotle that's sort of rattling around in them. And 299 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:51.519 Aristotle's politics, one of the things he does is kind of describes what a 300 00:27:51.599 --> 00:27:56.160 polus is supposed to be, and the polis, the Greek word polis polis 301 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:07.319 was kind of the main building block of governance of political communities in ancient In 302 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:11.960 the ancient Greek world in which Aristotle was writing, the polis that was sort 303 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:19.079 of the central political entity, sort of like the way countries are today. 304 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:23.160 That's sort of what polises were, and alis for Aristotle was basically a city 305 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:33.039 center and its outlying rural environs, the suburbs, the smaller villages, smaller 306 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:38.599 cities surrounding the big city, so Athens and its surrounding area, Sparta and 307 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:45.680 its surrounding area. That was sort of the most fundamental way that Plato and 308 00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:52.119 Aristotle, Greek political thinkers, the way they thought of politics was with the 309 00:28:52.119 --> 00:29:00.920 building block of the polis. So a polis for Aristotle made sense as a 310 00:29:00.119 --> 00:29:10.759 community bound together by shared ties of loyalty, affection, love that's based in 311 00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:15.759 sort of various kinds of commonalities. We are all this kind of a people, 312 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:22.359 this kind of a people with this kind of in this for Aristyle, 313 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.000 this kind of a racial background, this kind of a shared history, this 314 00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:32.119 kind of a shared religion, this kind of shared devotion and cults to these 315 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:41.079 particular kinds of gods. This kind of people does this kind of thing. 316 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:45.599 And you could see with the different city states of Greece, the different pulleys 317 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:52.440 of Greece, that their form of government even was different from place to place, 318 00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:02.279 depending on the character of the city. So one of the things people 319 00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:04.839 talk about Athens was the first true democracy. That's true, but all of 320 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:11.400 the city states of Greece had, or many of the major city states of 321 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:18.759 Greece, most of them did have some form of basically an ability for the 322 00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:26.519 citizenry to vote as a body on certain kinds, on laws of different kinds. 323 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:30.519 Okay, so they weren't. It's not like Athens was the one government 324 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:34.319 that wasn't a monarchy and everyone else was a monarchy. Even city states like 325 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:40.640 Sparta that had some kind of monarchy. They actually had two hereditary monarchical lines 326 00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:48.599 in Sparta. Even in those places there was some sort of assembly or boult 327 00:30:48.720 --> 00:30:52.880 as the Greek word was, where people would vote on stuff, and the 328 00:30:52.960 --> 00:31:00.680 idea was Greece was characterized by what's called hoplight warfare, where the standard fighter 329 00:31:02.359 --> 00:31:08.440 was a hoplight, a heavily armed infantry infantryman. Where the idea in the 330 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:14.039 ancient Greek world was that you provided your own gear. Okay, so it's 331 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:15.799 your sword that you paid for, your helmet, your armor that you paid 332 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:22.039 for, and you served as a hoplight defending the city, defending the police. 333 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:27.240 And basically the idea was, well, if you're fighting, you get 334 00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:32.400 a vote on whether or not we go to fight. So pretty much every 335 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:37.640 city state had some sort of mechanism for and this is also a little bit 336 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:44.880 reflected in the Roman Republic and its republican system that a lot of their voting 337 00:31:44.920 --> 00:31:48.759 bodies of the citizenry were There was one in particular that was almost set up 338 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:55.559 like a military unit. So basically the idea was if you fight, you 339 00:31:55.599 --> 00:32:01.039 get to vote. And Athens there form of warfare was actually, yes, 340 00:32:01.079 --> 00:32:05.799 they did do hotlight warfare, but also they had a navy. They were 341 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:13.319 the most developed naval power in the Agan world. And to be in the 342 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:15.640 navy you just needed to pull an ore, You just needed to row. 343 00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:20.079 You didn't need to have all the money to afford all the expensive hotplight armor. 344 00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:27.160 So hey, if I'm going to be on this boat rowing to go, 345 00:32:27.240 --> 00:32:30.279 if to fight in this war, I should have a vote too. 346 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.880 And that's part of the reason why some people think that Athens in particular was 347 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:39.799 a democracy. Was more spread out anyway, So sorry to get on that 348 00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:45.519 tangent. That's why more Athenians voted than did Spartans or Thebans or whatever. 349 00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:53.279 So the character of the place is what made the political community, that all 350 00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:58.839 of these people who are bound together by common interest, economic interests, social 351 00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:04.359 interest, religious interests. Aristotle probably would have emphasized more so than we would 352 00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:12.759 today racial and religious union. Unity. But these common ties of affection and 353 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:16.839 love that give you sort of an identity as I am this kind of a 354 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:24.319 person. And when you look at California, do we really have that? 355 00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:32.079 I mean, when someone asks me, are you a Californian? I mean 356 00:33:32.319 --> 00:33:39.839 I don't really identify as a Californian. I don't think of myself as first 357 00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:45.640 and foremost a Californian. I might say I'm an American, or I'm from 358 00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:52.160 Fresno, I'm from the San Joaquin Valley. I have a much stronger cultural 359 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:58.880 life experience. I have many more ties of love and loyalty and affection to 360 00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:04.240 the San Joaquin Valley, having grown up here and lived here and loved the 361 00:34:04.240 --> 00:34:12.679 people here. I care about those things I'm about. I'm far more different. 362 00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:15.679 Basically, I have a lot more commonality with people from Nebraska than I 363 00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:23.159 do with people from San Francisco. And I think the Founding fathers were like, 364 00:34:23.159 --> 00:34:27.960 all right, well we have all these different colonies that were established, 365 00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:31.239 and they were all established by groups that were very similar. Okay, the 366 00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:36.719 people in the Virginia Colony, they were all Anglicans, and most of them 367 00:34:36.760 --> 00:34:40.360 were they were English settlers for this. This this everyone in Pennsylvania had all 368 00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:44.320 these Quakers in Pennsylvania. They were all this one kind of people. A 369 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:46.719 Massachusetts, We're all people this other kind of people. A lot of them, 370 00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:51.280 you know, were Puritan settlers, had this kind of religious background, 371 00:34:51.320 --> 00:34:59.119 they had this kind of economic interest. The original colonies sort of made sense 372 00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:01.679 as political entities sort of in the way that the Greek city states did, 373 00:35:02.280 --> 00:35:07.199 and your political life was chiefly lived under the founder's vision of federalism at your 374 00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:13.480 state capital. That was the key thing. That's why we were United States, 375 00:35:14.360 --> 00:35:21.039 a group of thirteen states almost pretty much like little countries that united together 376 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:27.280 for certain kinds of federal purposes as established in the US Constitution, which is 377 00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:34.119 a restrictive, exhaustive list of Basically, the federal government can only do what 378 00:35:34.280 --> 00:35:45.159 is enumerated in here. So that was sort of the idea was, let's 379 00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:52.159 have states that people with your political life has chiefly lived in your state, 380 00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:59.360 because that is your version of the Greek polis centered around your state capital, 381 00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:06.800 the outlying rural areas surrounding it, and your care your concerner with the economy 382 00:36:06.800 --> 00:36:08.840 of that region, the culture of that region, the health and well being 383 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:15.239 of that region, and that's where you focused your political energies. We don't 384 00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:21.159 have that in California. We are fundamentally governed by people in Sacramento who are 385 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:24.000 from the Bay Area, who are from la and who fundamentally don't care about 386 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:28.159 us. They're not from here. They don't care about agriculture, they don't 387 00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:32.519 care about the things that we care about that fundamentally is why I think California 388 00:36:32.519 --> 00:36:37.239 should be split up into different states. I think this state is fundamentally not 389 00:36:37.719 --> 00:36:44.559 a natural political community. When we return, just to close out the show, 390 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:47.559 Oh my gosh, do you know why that one women's basketball player from 391 00:36:47.599 --> 00:36:52.119 Iowa is popular? It's only because she's white. Liberal sports writers at it 392 00:36:52.159 --> 00:36:58.320 again next on the John Girardi Show. So I don't know how many of 393 00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:04.280 you know who Jamel Hill is. Jamel Hill was a female sportswriter who worked 394 00:37:04.360 --> 00:37:09.840 for ESPN for a while and basically got herself fired from ESPN by being a 395 00:37:10.079 --> 00:37:20.559 huge liberal jerk. And she has since just failed continued to fail upward basically 396 00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:24.280 because she's so liberal. People just keep giving her more and more prestigious jobs 397 00:37:25.840 --> 00:37:34.920 and she just plays the same notes all the time. Caitlyn Clark is a 398 00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:38.559 basketball player in the WNBA. Now, she was a very famous college basketball 399 00:37:38.559 --> 00:37:44.360 player at Iowa. She was extremely exciting. Lots and lots of people were 400 00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:47.119 watching women's college basketball. Actually it was getting better ratings than men's college basketball 401 00:37:47.280 --> 00:37:52.039 several points over the last two years because of her. And she thinks it's 402 00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:58.960 racist. Why because Caitlyn Clark is white and not a lesbian, and it's 403 00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:04.559 problem that she's so popular. Okay, I mean, what do we want? 404 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:09.840 Finally women's basketball is getting some popularity and this gal has to be the 405 00:38:09.880 --> 00:38:14.239 turd in the punch bowl. Oh, it's not gay enough, and it's 406 00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:16.840 bad that she's white. All right, that'll do it, John Girardi Show, 407 00:38:16.840 --> 00:38:19.000 See you next time on Power Talk.