Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 3/6/24

Clearing | 253 View | Early Returns | Rogers Leads | Yard Signs | Hopland Tap | Ed Notes | Overpass View | Skunk Hearing | Neil Benefit | Lightning Fire | Skatepark Video | Circle Petition | AVA Guam | FB Trestle | History Monitor | Peters/Garvey | Dial Phones | Yesterday's Catch | Jail Deaths | Ganja Giant | Biased News | Lying Media | Little Psychopaths | Spring Superbloom | Undress | Prop 1 | Embrace Fate | Blame/Credit | Bourbon Dinner | Monkey Engineer | Seals Stadium | American Psycho | Beach Run

RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Leggett 2.44" - Laytonville 1.61" - Willits 1.36" - Covelo 1.12" - Yorkville 0.88" - Boonville 0.80" - Ukiah 0.63" - Hopland 0.53"

RAIN will continue to weaken and move south today with cool and clear conditions to end the week. Waves of light rain will return this weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Light rain at 5:30am this Wednesday morning on the coast with 49F & 1.17" more rainfall. The rain is forecast to clear out mid-morning bringing dry skies thru Friday. More rain Saturday thru Tuesday then some drying to follow. We hope.

SHAPING UP AS A DISASTER

Early returns in the First District Supervisors race (Redwood/Potter Valley), posted a little after 8pm Tuesday night show Madeline Cline with a large lead over her opponents with almost 60% of the 1405 votes cast. Adam Gaska, Trevor Mockel, and Carrie Shattuck trail with about 23%, 9% and 8%, respectively (rounded to the nearest whole number percentage). If Ms. Cline’s more than 50% percentage is sustained after the rest of the votes are counted, there will be no run-off and she will assume the seat vacated by Glenn McGourty in January 2025. (For reference, in March of 2020 McGourty got 48% of the 4729 votes cast with Jon Kennedy, James Green and John Sakowicz trailing with 30%, 16% and 6% respectively. So there probably are around 3,300 votes yet to be counted.)

In the Second District (City of Ukiah) Incumbent Maureen Mulheren has a narrow 51% to 49% lead over challenger Jacob Brown with 1,056 votes cast. There will be no run-off in this two-person race. (For reference, in March of 2020 Mulheren got 42% of 4512 votes cast, with Mari Rodin and Joel Soinila trailing with 36% and 22% respectively. So there are probably around 3,400 votes yet to be counted.)

In the Fourth District Fort Bragg Mayor Bernie Norvell has a sizable 82% to 18% lead over Georgina Avila-Gorman with 1883 votes cast so far.

The Abandoned Vehice abatement $1 license fee add-on measure is ahead by 80% to 20% with 6,922 votes cast countywide.

For detailed early returns for other races in Mendocino County go to the County’s election office election results website: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/government/assessor-county-clerk-recorder-elections/current-election-results

YARD SIGN POLL

Mike Jamison:

Yard sign “poll” for 2nd Dist Supe race, just completed via extensive and winding drive:

Mulheren: 16

Brown: 27

(Largely covered most of north – south all west of South State and North State)

Turnout for this supe race 4 years ago was 80% and Mo got 4163 votes and Mari 2705.

Chris Rogers by far has the overwhelming lead in yard signs in Ukiah with Ariel in second and a last minute surge for Myers. Haven’t seen a single one for Hicks.

Have seen 1st Dist Supe signs in Ukiah for Gaska, Cline, Shattuck, and Mockel. Not many altogether.

Only Prez sign I saw was for West.

ED NOTES

WHEN ROSS LIBERTY of Ukiah's booming industrial manufacturing business, Factory Pipe, came out for Madeline Cline for 1st District supervisor, he was only the latest inland bigwig to endorse Ms. Cline, a young, inexperienced person who had shown no prior interest in local matters and still hasn't demonstrated that she's ready to steer the Good Ship Mendo.

LIBERTY'S endorsement translates to me as a vote for nihilism, that he doesn't care how dysfunctional the County is and how much more dysfunctional it will be be if Ms. Cline is elected to the 1st District seat and Mo Mulheren is re-elected in the 2nd District. Liberty's flying blind. Of course it's possible that the Ukiah tycoon spends his off hours among the dozen or so people who watch the supervisors' meetings on-line, but I doubt it.

FOR ME, today's Supe's elections are a rare opportunity to radically upgrade Mendo's civic functioning. Adam Gaska, Bernie Norvell, Jacob Brown, and Carrie Shattuck are four of the strongest candidates at the local level we've had for years and, as the times grow more difficult it's important who sits at the local power levers because the persons at the state and federal power levers seem oblivious of the looming disasters. We'll need to be strong locally.

I HAVEN'T had a party or a candidate at the state and national level for many years who I had any enthusiasm for. As a kid, I was enthusiastic about Kennedy. As an adult, McGovern was the last Democrat I voted for, having gone 3rd party since George in '72.

THE DEMOCRATS were on all their tv shows Tuesday morning lamenting the Supreme Court's unanimous, and unanimously correct decision to not allow Democrats to keep Trump off the ballot, while the same Democrats have put in plenty of OT keeping RFK Jr. off Democrat ballots, as the presidential race rumbles on between a Democrat who doesn't know where he is or what he's doing and a bellowing child, the diff between the two being that Beller Boy will make things worse faster than the figurehead, Biden. Prediction: Politics will at last become all local, which is why rural Mendo is going to be a good place to be in the turmoil to come, and which is why it's important to elect capable, sensible people to local offices.

TRAIN TALK

Public Hearing Notice

Energy, Ocean Resources, And Federal Consistency Division

The California Coastal Commission will consider the following Energy, Ocean Resources, and Coastal Development Permit item:

Thursday, March 14, 2024, 9:00 a.m.

Executive Director’s Report.

a. Negative Determination No. ND-0008-24 (Federal Railroad Administration, Mendocino County)

Pending Negative Determination by the Federal Railroad Administration for approval of a Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan to Mendocino Railway for its Railroad Rehabilitation Project that, generally, includes re-opening a collapsed tunnel, replacing up to 34,000 railroad ties and lines, purchasing rolling stock, and rehabilitating bridges to bring into use an approximately 35-mile stretch of rail line between Willits and Fort Bragg that has been out of service since 2015, Mendocino County. (CT-SF) Staff reports and staff recommendations. Staff reports and staff recommendations are available at www.coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html.

Click on the Thursday tab and scroll down to agenda item 8a. If you wish to receive a hard copy of a report, please contact the Commission’s Energy, Ocean Resources and Federal Consistency Division at EORFC@coastal.ca.gov or (415) 904-5240.

How to provide written comments on an item. To submit written materials for review by the Commission, either email (via EORFC@coastal.ca.gov) or submit such materials to Commission staff no later than 5 pm on the Friday before the hearing. Staff will then distribute your materials to the Commission. Such materials received after this time will not be distributed to the Commission. Alternatively, you may also submit such materials directly to the Commissioners (a current list of Commissioner names and email addresses is available from Commission staff or from the Commission's website) as long as such materials are submitted to all Commissioners, all alternates for Commissioners, the three non-voting members of the Commission, and Commission staff. You are requested to summarize the reasons for your position in no more than two or three pages, if possible.

Please note that this will be a hybrid meeting, with both virtual and in-person participation allowed. Please see the Coastal Commission’s Hybrid Hearing Procedures, posted on the Coastal Commission’s webpage at www.coastal.ca.gov for details on the procedures of this hearing. If you would like to receive a paper copy of the Coastal Commission’s Hybrid Hearing Procedures, please call (415) 904-5202.

When will my agenda item be heard? 

The items listed above will be considered by the Commission at a meeting at which other items are also scheduled. It is not possible to specify the exact time at which each matter will be heard, or to guarantee that an item will not be postponed. No one can predict how quickly the Commission will complete agenda items or how many will be postponed to a later date. The Commission begins each session at the time listed and considers each item in order, except in extraordinary circumstances. Questions? Questions regarding this agenda item and/or this hearing should be directed to EORFC@coastal.ca.gov or (415) 904-5240.

---

Hello Friends,

The more we dig into this, the more important it appears to be. The hearing will be held in Sacramento on March 14th and participation by interested parties is welcomed (both in-person and via Zoom). Written comment will be accepted up to 5pm on March 8th and should be provided to the email address included in the notice: EORFC@coastal.ca.gov

At the hearing, Commission staff will receive input on the draft letter that will be posted to the Commission's online agenda early next week. The purpose of the response letter is to either concur with FRA’s negative determination, agreeing that no coastal effects are reasonably foreseeable from the project, or object to the negative determination by asserting that coastal effects are reasonably foreseeable.

While many of us want to see the restoration of rail service between Fort Bragg and Willits, we must demand more openness and transparency from the rail authorities and SNR/MRY. To the best of my knowledge no one in our community has seen the loan application. This is unacceptable! I have also learned that the Great Redwood Trail Authority has been denied a copy. If what I heard is correct, denied by the Federal rail authorities as well as the out of town owners of the Skunk Train. Those out of towners are SNR/MRY.

As you all know the CCC’s primary concern is the Coastal Zone. So first of all we should all request that we want to see this loan application. Also, any impacts down stream that could negitavily impact the Coastal Zone are important, such as water quality or air quality. We should inquire about insecticide of pesticide use. All the old creosote ties must be handled properly. On and on. We will discuss this today. Please reach out to all interested parties and get them to write as well.

* * *

Frank Hartzell 

I would think the tunnel is a good thing for the future of Fort Bragg. Could be a lifesaver someday

* * *

Chris Hart: 

Neither the loan, nor the planned work, has anything to do with the coastal zone. It is only improving the existing 40-mile right of way and doesn't relate to the former millsite.

The Coastal Commission and the Great Redwood Trail are both chaired by the same person, Caryl Hart (no relation to me).

So regarding the trail, if Hart has her way, they will remove Mendocino County's only connection to the national railroad network in favor of a 300-mile trail that I believe will be primarily built in Sonoma & Marin only. Cannot believe an environmentally focused Mendocino County is letting themselves be duped into forever embracing truck traffic.

Chris Hart

Mendocino Railway

* * *

Chris,

From your use of eminent domain and the lack of transparency of the land use in Fort Bragg. And potential shady business holding transfers.

Many here do not want you to be the one holding the keys to these investments.

You are untrustworthy.

There is a reason we as a society walked away from trains. Because of greed and monopolies.

Even if it has been at the expense of our environment. We have had more control over our daily lives. Which is something we all in a free society want.

Health, wealth, and happiness.

Carlon LaMont

Fort Bragg

REMOTE CALIFORNIA POST OFFICE DESTROYED BY FIRE AFTER EXPLOSIVE LIGHTNING STRIKE

by Andrew Chamings

A rural post office in Northern California has been destroyed by a fire after an explosive lightning strike Friday. 

The branch off Highway 271 in Leggett, Mendocino County, suffered extensive damage from fire, the U.S. Postal Service said in a statement Saturday. The Leggett Valley Fire Department reported Friday that after the fire that started during a severe storm with lightning and hail, the post office is a complete loss, though the responding agencies saved the neighboring grocery store. 

Videos shared on social media show flames billowing from the charred structure, with a nearby redwood tree having fallen across Highway 271. “The tree was shattered and fell through the building,” the Fire Department said in a statement. “The building was quickly consumed by flames despite the deluge of rain and hail.”

 “I’ve lived here my entire life and never heard thunder like that,” Leggett resident Shelby Felton told SFGate. “It was so long and so loud.”

Felton works at Leggett Valley Mercantile, the neighboring store that escaped much of the damage, beyond a power outage, thanks to a fast response from firefighters.

“It was crazy. The lightning hit the tree, it exploded, then fell onto the post office and it caught on fire,” Felton said. “Our fire department saved our store.”

The fire started at around 5:40 p.m Friday, according to the Fire Department, which was during the severe storm that hit California, drenching the Bay Area and dropping over 7 feet of snow in parts of the Sierra. Leggett Post Office customers are advised to use the Garberville Post Office for service for the foreseeable future, the postal service said. 

“We thank our Leggett community in advance for their patience as we work to provide continued service,” the statement read.

(SFgate.com)

AV SKATEPARK VIDEO: The Community Foundation of Mendocino County came to AV and interviewed us for a video project about all about the Service Learning Team, and our Skatepark Project! We want to say a HUGE thank you to the Mendocino Community Foundation, and the videographer, Thomas Delgado. We are so, so honored that Thomas and the Foundation took the time to tell our story, and we're so excited to see the finished product!

CIRCLING THE DRAIN

Dear Editor

I've started a petition and I'm hoping you'll share it with AVA readers and contributors, who may talk in circles from time to time but probably don't wish to drive, walk or bike in them all over Ukiah.

https://chng.it/NMQsphj4Sb

Thank you for reading,

Andrew Lutsky

Ukiah

NORM CLOW: I may have been the only AVA subscriber in the Caroline Islands and then Guam. I was having lunch one day in Kolonia Town on Pohnpei once, reading the paper, when a voice behind me piped up, “Wow, reading the AVA on Pohnpei in the Palm Terrace.” It was a fellow I’d met earlier that day from San Francisco who had a place in Manchester, and whom I’d told I was from Philo. “Do you know Bruce Anderson?” “One of my best friends.” You never know.

WHEN SWEETNESS FADES

To: Philip Zwerling,

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Your Shakespeare quote has lost its sweetness. Anyone who has smelled a rose lately knows that the sweetness has been bred out of them. I haven’t smelled a sweet rose since my grandmother’s rose bush.

Maybe you could be designated Offensive History Monitor and given a great big eraser. You could go back in history and erase anything that offends you. You must be very careful though. You might accidentally erase yourself.

Ernie Branscomb

Willits

PETERS & GARVEY: You decide

I don’t know who first thought I looked like Steve Garvey but this is not photo-shopped.

Also, I am truly sorry to hear the AVA print version is becoming extinct. So much history.

Lindy Peters

Ed note: Do they look alike? (Lindy interviewing Garvey for Bay Area station, circa 1979.)

ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…

March 5, 1955 - Rotary dial telephone service arrived in Mendocino. Although local phone service had been established between a few businesses in 1878, and new telephone lines connected Mendocino to the outside world in 1897, the Mendocino switchboard still required human operators to connect calls until 1955. Following the switch to dial phones, operators still handled long distance calls, answered phone number lookups, took repair requests, and provided the time of day.

Construction of a new telephone building to house the dial equipment had begun the previous July on an empty lot on the southeast corner of Pine and Howard streets. The original one-story frame and stucco building measured 19 feet by 22 feet in size, although additions were added later. The total cost of bringing dial telephones to Mendocino was nearly $160,000, which included the property and building, the dial equipment, a new switchboard for toll and assistance calls, and the replacement of every telephone in town with a rotary dial phone.

Installation of the new phones began in January, but telephone users were told not to use the dial phones until the service change occurred. Pacific Telephone manager Frank Phelan warned, “These phones aren’t completely dead. They are just alive enough to cause trouble on your line if you should leave the receiver off the hook or practice turning the dial.”

On February 5th, representatives from the telephone company held a public meeting at Kellieowen Hall on the southwest corner of Lansing and Ukiah streets. They explained how the new telephones worked and demonstrated how to operate them. Attendees were told that they would know their dial telephone was ready to operate when they “hear the hum of dial tone when they lift the receivers of their dial instruments. This is the dial telephone’s way of asking ‘Number, please.’ If dialing is started before the tone is heard, the new equipment cannot complete the call.”

At 11 pm on March 5th, the new dial telephone system was switched on, and telephone operators were no longer needed to make a local call.

(www.kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY: Tuesday, March 5, 2024

MAURICIO CHAVEZ-GARCIA, Ukiah. DUI.

JAMES FARRIS, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

JAVIER GARCIA, Willits. County parole violation, resisting.

JARED KIDD, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs. (Frequent flyer.)

MACLOVIO MAGANA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, loaded handgun-not registered owner.

BENJAMIN MILLER, Laytonville. Vehicle theft with prior, paraphernalia, suspended license.

ANTONIO MUNOZ, Redwood Valley. County parole violation.

MICHAEL OLVERA-CAMPOS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

MOHAMED SEMLALI, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI.

JACOB WALTRIP, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SHAWN WANT SR., Covelo. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

MAZIE MALONE: I found this quite interesting in light of our own Jail Fentanyl Overdose situation that occurred this week. Hope you are both doing well…. 

https://krcrtv.com/news/local/shasta-county-sherriff-responds-to-string-of-inmate-deaths-still-under-investigation

PD IGNORES PAUL

Editor: 

Rand Paul, a U.S. senator, came to Sonoma County and spoke to a sold-out crowd, and there was no coverage of this event in the Press Democrat. Are we living in Russia now? I’m so tired of biased local news media reporting. If a Democratic senator had visited Sonoma County, what would the news coverage have been? Wondering why circulation is down? A Pulitzer Prize newspaper not able to report unbiased coverage. I’m very disappointed.

Mary Ann Bainbridge-Krause

Windsor

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

It was also suggested that this young coed was dressed ‘provocatively’, that is, she was wearing shorts.

That was from AP, which failed to mention that this Jose chap was an illegal. He was simply described as an assailant.

See how those lying media sonsabitches obfuscate the truth? Nothing makes me happier when they have mass layoffs, file for bankruptcy, or at the very least get called out for their mendacity.

IMPRESSIVE’ SUPERBLOOM SEASON COULD SOON UNFOLD IN CALIFORNIA

by Sam Whiting

Last year’s vibrant superbloom season in California could soon get a vivid encore.

Once the rains subside, state parks officials say, the wildflowers will open up into a rare kaleidoscope of color — starting in Southern California deserts, where landscapes will be covered in densely packed blankets of purple and blue, red, and gold. Superblooms will then unfold in the north state, when temperatures warm past the 60-degree mark.

Spectacular but fleeting, the displays are expected to be “impressive” for the second year in a row, California State Parks officials said in a recent news release.

“The wildflowers should take another couple of weeks after this recent series of storms for things to start popping up,” Ryan Forbes, State Park interpreter for the Bay Area District, told the Chronicle on Monday. “A good year of rain tends to mean a good year for flowers, and we’ve certainly been getting rain recently.” 

The California Department of Parks and Recreation issued viewing guidelines late last week, while announcing that early bloomers had already been spotted in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in Borrego Springs in San Diego County. From there the flowers will barnstorm north, park by park, to Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Chino Hills State Park and Fort Tejon State Park.

This is a follow-up to last year’s ultra-wet winter, when wildflowers carpeted the state and people came out in droves to mingle among them. There were so many flowers in bloom that the larger swaths in Southern California could be seen from satellites in space. A second consecutive wet winter might increase the number of flowers on display, particularly if the weather is mild in March and April.

Superblooms are not an annual phenomenon — the last three occurred in 2017, 2019 and 2023, officials said. Their beauty and their rarity have drawn increasingly large and sometimes destructive crowds eager to see the fleeting sight before it disappears. 

In one notorious example, Lake Elsinore in Riverside County was overrun in 2019 by crowds of up to 100,000 people, leading to chaos, with illegally parked cars blocking streets and paralyzing the city, and many visitors arriving unprepared for hikes, leading to injuries. 

Some people have also ended up trampling the flowers they came to view, or picking some as souvenirs, which is prohibited. 

That’s why state parks officials are urging people to be on their best behavior and follow guidelines — including staying on designated paths and trails where the flowers are usually out of reach. 

“In recent years, California has been lucky to see spectacular wildflower blooms in many public lands, including in state parks,” said State Parks Director Armando Quintero in a news release. “We welcome all Californians and visitors from around the world to experience this natural phenomenon and ask all to keep the ‘Beauty in the Bloom’ by staying on designated trails and taking only photos, not flowers.”

Forbes predicts that this year, the earliest places that Bay Area residents could see the bloom will be in Trione-Annadel State Park near Santa Rosa. “It is a little more inland and will probably get warmer sooner,” he said, “but once it starts, you will see it all over the Bay Area.” 

Last year, the Chronicle published a map of public superbloom viewing sites in the Bay Area and surrounding region, from Santa Rosa to San Jose, San Francisco to Sacramento.

Superblooms are most common in desert regions like Death Valley where wet soil conditions don’t last. Plants must take advantage of these wet conditions to reproduce before it gets too hot. The seeds then stay in the soil until another season comes when it is wet enough for them to safely emerge and start the life cycle over again. 

Lupine, coreopsis, desert sunflowers, evening or brown-eyed primroses, desert bells, desert poppies, and desert lilies are already getting ready to blossom in the inland wilds of Southern California, state park officials said.

In Northern California, superblooms aren’t quite as large and vivid, experts say. That’s because wildflowers must compete for space with annual grasses, which have a tendency to grow fast and crowd everything out. Wildflowers adapt to areas with less competition, such as places that have been burned by wildfire and areas where the soil is harsh or compacted. 

Once the flowers take hold, they are amazingly resilient. That’s why the California golden poppy can be seen flourishing in median strips on the major roadways of San Francisco, and sprouting up from cracks in the sidewalk.

“They are an adaptive species,” said Forbes. “They are able to handle harsh conditions and are so resilient. That’s why it makes sense for the California poppy to be the state flower.” 

Tips for viewing

The California Department of Parks and Recreation has issued guidelines for people who plan to make a trip to see the wildflowers:

• Respect the landscape: Stay on designated trails whenever possible. Tread lightly, and don’t trample on or pick flowers.

• Understand the area: Cell coverage can be spotty in many areas, so prepare in advance. Read about the destination online and download a map, especially if you are visiting a desert. Pull off the road when you stop to view or photograph flowers. Leave roadways clear for vehicle traffic. Leave your itinerary and list of travelers with a friend or family member, to help rescuers find you if an emergency occurs. 

• Check the weather: Read the forecast and prepare for all types of conditions, including bringing appropriate clothing and equipment. 

• Know your limits: Bring food and water. Stay hydrated. Bring sunscreen, a hat and layers of clothing, and wear closed-toe shoes. If an emergency occurs, call 911.

PROP. 1, GAVIN NEWSOM’S MENTAL HEALTH PLAN

California voters today are considering Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6.4 billion plan to build mental health treatment beds and housing through a ballot measure that he characterizes as critical to addressing the state’s homelessness crisis.

Proposition 1 is a two-part ballot initiative. It includes a bond to build treatment facilities and permanent supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges. It also proposes changes to a longstanding tax on personal incomes over $1 million, known as the Mental Health Services Act, by requiring counties to spend 30% of that revenue on housing instead of other services.

Newsom has previously said Prop. 1 will help California fulfill a decadeslong promise to get “people off the streets, out of tents and into treatment.”

The Yes on Prop. 1 campaign amassed a nearly $21 million war chest for the ballot measure, drawing support from law enforcement groups, major health care organizations and the mental health advocacy group NAMI California.

In contrast, the opposition campaign raised very little money. Opponents are led by clients of mental health services and some small mental health agencies who worry their programs could lose funding if the measure passes. Others, including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, opposed the measure because of its cost.

Recent polling casts uncertainty over what many initially considered an easy win for the governor. Fifty percent of likely voters supported the measure a week ago, according to the latest poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. The poll tallied opposition at 34% and undecided at 16%.

Prop. 1 needs a simple majority of the vote to pass.

Here’s a look at what the measure would do.

What does Prop. 1 promise?

The dual bond measure and change to California’s so-called “millionaire’s tax” are Newsom’s attempt to increase the state’s mental health and addiction treatment capacity and get people living in encampments into stable housing.

The number of unhoused Californians had ballooned to 181,000 people in 2022 during the most recent point-in-time count, a 60% increase over the past decade. New research from UCSF estimated that more than 21,000 homeless people currently experience hallucinations. Meanwhile, the number of acute care mental health hospital beds decreased by at least 30% between 1995 and 2016, according to the California Hospital Association.

The bond measure is supposed to build a combined 11,150 treatment beds and housing units with some set aside for veterans.

Where will the money go?

Money raised by the bond would be funneled into two existing state programs: the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program and Project Homekey.

The behavioral health program would get a $4.4 billion infusion to build 6,800 in-patient mental health and substance use disorder treatment beds. The Department of Health Care Services will award grants to counties and local organizations to construct, acquire and expand treatment capacity. To date the department has awarded more than $1.6 billion to a variety of programs including crisis care and children’s facilities as part of a pre-existing budget investment.

Project Homekey would get $2 billion to build 4,350 units of supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges. A little more than half of the units will be reserved for homeless veterans. Project Homekey is an extension of Newsom’s pandemic-era efforts to house people living in encampments during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state budget previously gave the Department of Housing and Community Services $736 million to convert hotels, motels and other buildings into housing.

How much will it cost?

Bonds allow government agencies to borrow money and repay debt over time. Prop. 1 is estimated to cost $310 million annually over 30 years, totaling $9.3 billion, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. Payments would be made from the state general fund.

California is facing state budget cuts for the second consecutive year with some estimates projecting a $73 billion dollar shortfall.

What other changes have happened recently?

Newsom has made mental health a signature issue. If Prop. 1 passes, it would represent another milestone in his overhaul of California’s behavioral health system.

Last year, Newsom signed a law easing restrictions on California’s decades-old’ conservatorship law, which limits who can be placed in involuntary treatment programs.

In 2022, his signature mental health push established a special court system to compel people with untreated mental health and addiction challenges into treatment programs.

And in 2021, Newsom poured more than $4 billion in one-time funds into children’s programs to address rising suicide rates and overdoses among youth.

Who opposed it and why?

A coalition of small mental health organizations, disability advocates and current clients of county mental health programs opposed Prop. 1. They argued that the measure would increase the amount of involuntary treatment and divert money from local organizations that serve hard-to-reach populations, such as LGBTQ people and communities of color.

(CalMatters.org)

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called 'the love of your fate.' Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, 'This is what I need.' It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment--not discouragement--you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.

Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.

— Joseph Campbell

WHEN you are young you get blamed for crimes you never committed, and when you are old you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.

— I.F. Stone

MONKEY AND THE ENGINEER

Once upon a time there was an engineer.
Drove a locomotive both far and near.
Accompanied by a monkey that would sit on a stool
Watching everything the engineer would do
One day the engineer wanted a bite to eat,
He left the monkey sitting on the driver's seat,
The monkey pulled the throttle, the locomotive jumped the gun
And did 80 miles an hour down the mainline run.

Big locomotive right on time, big locomotive coming down the line.
Big locomotive No. 99, left the engineer with a worried mind.

The engineer called up the dispatcher on the phone,
To tell him all about his locomotive was gone.
Dispatcher got on the wire, switch operator to the right,
Cause the monkey's got the main line sewed up tight.
The switch operator got the message on time,
Said there's a Northbound livin' on the same main line,
Open up the switch I'm gonna let him through the hole,
Cause the monkey's got the locomotive under control.

Big locomotive right on time, big locomotive coming down the line.
Big locomotive No. 99, left the engineer with a worried mind.

— Jesse Fuller

With a capacity of only 18,600 seats, Seals Stadium wasn't a major league ball park. I saw the Seals play here as a small boy, and the Giants in '58, before a major civic scandal resulted in Candlestick Park. There's a good chance I was there for game 9.

ON ADAPTING AMERICAN PSYCHO

by Mary Harron

(On Monday 26 February the LRB in partnership with MUBI screened ‘American Psycho’ at the Garden Cinema as the latest in a series of events exploring the art of literary adaptation. Mary Harron, the movie’s writer and director, spoke about it beforehand.)

Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho was much reviled, much loathed when it was published in 1991. There was a big scandal and I was really surprised that in all the furor, no one said that the book was really funny. As well as being very violent, it was a great Evelyn Waugh-style social satire. Fast forward to 1996. I had my first film, I Shot Andy Warhol, at Sundance, and I’d been getting some very boring mainstream scripts. And then a producer called me up and asked if I’d be interested in looking at a script of American Psycho.

I thought: oh my God, they’re going to try and make a movie out of that? Well, that would certainly keep me off the safe mainstream. I read the script they sent, and thought if I’m going to do it, I’m going to have to write my own. I said to the main producer, Ed Pressman: “I don’t know if you can make a movie out of this book, but if you give me some money, I’ll write a script and see if I can.”

And he said: “OK, but you’re going to have to direct it.” Signing on to do a screenplay is one thing, but actually directing it, I was still a little frightened of. But anyway, I started working on it. One of the first things that encouraged me, and I remember having this thought after I hung up the phone in my New York apartment, was that just enough time had passed since the 1980s that you could make a period film about the 1980s.

I had a lot of thoughts about the 1980s and a lot of things I wanted to criticize and make fun of about the 1980s. And I thought that this film could be about something interesting that was not about the violence or the torture. Anyway, I started working on it. In the meantime I’d been working on a different script, The Notorious Betty Paige, with Guinevere Turner, who I’d become very good friends with.

I don’t really like writing a lot on my own, and Guinevere had just done a very successful lesbian romantic comedy, Go Fish. And I felt I needed to write this with another woman, but another woman who had the same sense of humor I do and wasn’t scared of the material. I said, “You’re going to find this a bit rough” when I gave her the book, “but do you want to come in with me on writing the screenplay?” And we collaborated very well.

There are no rules on literary adaptation. You’re trying to keep the plot. And obviously there are key plot things that we do keep. And we keep almost all the dialogue: apart from one big scene, with the secretary and the date, almost all the dialogue’s from the book. Because I think Brett has a great ear for dialogue.

But as a novel, American Psycho is quite experimental. It’s very slippery. It shifts unexpectedly from first person to third person. It’ll go from something very realistic into a sort of dreamscape or something very hallucinatory. And I wanted to keep that, but there was no way to keep the shift of perspective from first person to third person. We went for bookending it with a certain amount of narration, to say that this is his story. This is from his perspective.

But I really wanted to keep one of the most startling and disturbing things about the book, which is the way it shifts very abruptly with no warning from a scene of social comedy to a scene of horrific violence. You’re being whipsawed back and forth between worlds, which I found really startling, but also amazing that a book would do that, and I wanted to keep that, so that you would never know where you were. There would be no safety in this film: you’d be really enjoying yourself at something funny and light, making fun of the yuppies in New York, and then suddenly you’re in a terrible scene of violence.

I had been a music writer in my youth, writing about rock music, and I always loved in the novel the three chapters about Patrick Bateman’s favorite music. I thought they were hilarious. They were brilliant parodies of a Rolling Stone-style, somewhat self-serious music criticism. But they’re about these very bland mainstream artists: Huey Lewis, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston. And what’s great about this is that it’s the one place in the book, in these three chapters where he talks about his favorite music, his favorite songs, that he really reveals himself.

He’s very emotional about how much he loves this mainstream pop music. Somehow this is where he sees his soul reflected. There was something very funny about this. I was like, how do we keep this? How do we introduce this? And I remember being at a beach house with some friends and I had the book with me and I had what I thought was my one great idea: we’re going to take some of this dialogue, this music chapter, turn it into monologues, and he’s going to deliver one of them just before he kills someone, the first one. And then the next time he starts talking about music, and every time he starts talking about music, you’re going to be afraid he’s going to kill somebody. Apart from the business card scene, the music monologues are the things that most get memed, and are part of the film’s strange and enduring popularity.

I’ve done much more difficult adaptations. Guinevere and I have worked together several times (we’ve just got a new script). I’ve also written scripts with my husband and other people. And this was actually the easiest – the dialogue is so great – even though I spent a lot of time shifting scenes around to try and create a structure, because there isn’t a structure.

Gwen and I went to Mexico for a couple of weeks and and just bashed it out. We sat down and we’d take turns – well, I think I made her do most of it – to type everything that we liked into the computer. And then we’d talk about it. We knew it was very controversial. I think people had warned us that we shouldn’t be involved with it. This would be a career ruining project. As Christian Bale was told it would ruin his career if he did it.

I think that we bolstered each other. Guinevere is very iconoclastic. She doesn’t care about convention and she wasn’t afraid. She had just made a successful lesbian comedy and I had done this film about a radical 1960s feminist. How was anybody going to tell us that we’re misogynist? How was anybody, especially a male critic, going to tell us what we should or shouldn’t make a film about?

I had reread Crime and Punishment quite recently and one of my favorite things in Crime and Punishment is the interrogation scenes. Porfiry, the detective, is interviewing Raskolnikov, and he’s playing games, he’s playing cat and mouse, and there’s one scene where he describes exactly how the murder happened. But he says to Raskolnikov: that could never happen, that would be absurd. How could that possibly have happened? And he’s just laid out the murder, leaving Raskolnikov thinking: what the fuck’s going on?

So I took a bit of that for Willem Dafoe’s character: the interrogations are very slippery and you would never know where the detective is coming from. In the book, the detective is more ineffectual and doesn’t really know. I wanted to keep him more on a knife edge. I told Willem to do it three different ways. (The producers were horrified that I was burning so much film when I was doing this.) I said do one take like you think he’s lying, one take like you believe him and one take like you’re not sure, so I could switch between them. You can see these little variations in Willem’s performance and he really ran with that.

Christian and I had talked about how Patrick Bateman is not really a human being. The story is a bit like Frankenstein, I think, in the sense that the character is a tragic monster. Not as tragic as Frankenstein, but Bateman is a pathetic monster in a lot of ways: he cannot help himself, he is a deformed human being, and he’s trying to learn how to be a human being by watching normal people.

Christian really enjoyed this idea. There’s a scene we shot on the first day of shooting, where they’re in a steakhouse. And he’s watching Willem eating his steak, and Willem takes some salt, and Christian’s watching this very intensely, and then he takes the salt shaker and shakes salt all over his steak in a crazy mechanical way.

People are always asking me about whether the movie’s “real” or not. I would say there’s a point when he starts to put a kitten into the ATM. I think you can say that after that things are not so real.

(You can watch ‘American Psycho’ by signing up for thirty days free on MUBI. The next film in the series will be James Ivory’s ‘Quartet’, based on Jean Rhys’s novel of the same name. The screening will be introduced by Miranda Seymour, Rhys’s biographer. London Review of Books)