Eco Terrorists Push Out Family Farms in Point Reyes

[00:00:13] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:35] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning into another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I'm your host, Phil. This is the most trusted podcast, all things California politics. Thanks for tuning in. And as always, with being my trusty co-host, the best, the fastest researcher in the West. Camille, how are you doing today? How are you?

[00:00:53] Good. Just before we were just talking about migraines, so no migraines, no issues with migraines. Anybody out there who has migraines knows it's a...migraines suck. I don't like migraines. I had one a couple weeks ago. But I saw that the unofficial cure for migraines is McDonald's, french fries and Coke or Diet Coke. So next time I have a migraine, I might have to try that out. I guess it's a good excuse.

[00:01:20] Why not? Any excuse to go get McDonald's french fries is always a good excuse for me. Anyway, not the point of tonight's episode. I don't know if eating just the fries would be okay, but I've never eaten McDonald's without feeling horrific afterwards. And so I don't eat McDonald's. I can't remember the last time I had McDonald's. But french fries, all their french fries dipped in milkshakes. I can't have milkshakes either. I can't do theory.

[00:01:51] Oh, but I don't know. French fries and a Diet Coke sound pretty good. And we are not a McDonald's or migraine podcast, but... No, we were just talking about it before we hopped on. So I was like... We're basically talking about how today's subject was so... We both went down like separate rabbit holes of it that both of our heads were just like... And I was talking about how I had a massive headache yesterday and I'm like, it has to be because of all this...

[00:02:21] All this research that we had to... Which we won't even be able to get to. All the things... That's a good way. Yeah, it's... We were taught... The good way to kind of ring this in together is we were talking about migraines because we were researching today's subject, today's top subject, so much, it actually kind of makes your head spin about all the players and what's going on.

[00:02:44] We're talking about the Point Reyes ranchers and farmers that are being kicked out of their ranches after decades, if not decades and decades and generations. They're being kicked out in 15 months. We're going to get to that in a little bit. We're also going to talk about San Diego, city of San Diego facing an enormous budget deficit. And Todd Gloria made the bold move to make a cut that resulted in 2% of the deficit.

[00:03:12] So good job, Todd. You got a long way to go on that. We're going to talk about that as well. But before we jump into that, make sure if you're watching, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review, hit the notification bell, all that stuff, which helps with the algorithm, helps people find us and help support the show.

[00:03:27] So our moment, our cringe moment today is we're going to show a montage courtesy of Kevin Dalton on X regarding homelessness and Gavin Newsom's ever ending quest to fix homelessness. You know, he's been working hard at trying to fix homelessness just as much as he's been working hard to get that high speed rail going.

[00:03:51] Which, you know, that's a whole nother thing is the high speed rail and how much money they've dumped into that and how much they think it's still going to work. I mean, I know everyone talks about it. It's all over the news all time. But someday we're really, we're going to, we're going to get our headaches and our migraines in and really research that topic. We're going to go down the rabbit hole with McDonald's fries and Cokes ready to go just in case a migraine comes on. But we're going to watch this video real quick about how long has Gavin Newsom been promising that he's going to take care of homelessness here in California?

[00:04:21] So, oh, I got to play our little stinger. Don't worry, anything. It's on your laptop and it's then therefore up here in this cloud. Yeah, it's up there. That exists above us. Right above there. Uh-huh. Kamala Harris, ladies and gentlemen, the next governor of California. God save us all. All right, here's the video of Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California. What we call a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness in San Francisco.

[00:04:51] How are you going to solve homelessness? What are you going to do as a new mayor? And I said, well, what are you going to do? Focus on a housing first model, direct access to housing. Shelter solve sleep. Housing with wraparound and support services solve homelessness. Homelessness absolutely can be solved. Laid out a detailed homeless strategy. There's been no intentionality on homelessness in this state for decades. It's not been a focus. I don't think we can solve homelessness. I know we can solve homelessness. We will reduce street homelessness quickly and humanely through emergency action.

[00:05:20] The highest investment the state's ever made is $1 billion on homelessness. We are poised to pass a budget in the next few hours that will provide $12 billion of investment. I can literally quantify 58,000 people that we got off the streets last year. And none of you would believe it. This state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homelessness. Why? We're not interested in funding failure.

[00:05:47] We're not interested in failing more efficiently when it comes to the issue of homelessness and the crisis on the street. It's funny he said we haven't made any progress in the past decade. Yet he's been vowing to solve homelessness for the past decade. Because that video goes all the way back to 2012. Right. Past the decade. I think when he said that, he was like last year or whatever, like when he was five years into being governor. So 25% of that time, he's like, we haven't done anything.

[00:06:15] And it's like, well, what have you done in that 25%? We should see some movement since you promised that. Yeah. For him to admit that there's been no progress in a decade. Well, who's been at the helm for almost a decade? That would be you. And the fact that they upped their investment as a homelessness from $1 billion to $12 billion, that was 2021. So that was not that long ago.

[00:06:41] And this is that number that keeps popping up to $24 billion that everyone talks about. Right. It's scary to think the $24 billion was lost and we have no idea where it was spent in just the past couple of years. Like it hasn't been $24 billion over how many years. Like we've, it's been a couple of years since $24 billion has gone missing and we don't know where it is. I think it's all that bullet train to know where. That's. It's somewhere. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, no, I was just going to say it's somewhere.

[00:07:12] We have no idea where it is. They haven't kept the receipts of it. And no one wants to tell us where it is. It could be on the bullet train, but the bullet train doesn't even have one operational track at this point. So it can't be going too far anywhere. But another money pit and more Gavin Newsom saying that he's going to fix homelessness over the course of a decade. That was way back, like when he was mayor. Yes. Of San Francisco. He had that whole 10 year plan of like, he was going to fix homelessness. And that was 2012.

[00:07:39] And it's been way past 10 years and he still hasn't fixed homelessness. So any other thoughts on Gavin Newsom promising for 12 years? When he's like, we're now going to invest 12 billion. Like he like brags about it. Like I'm taking $12 billion tax dollars, obviously. And he says it in such a bragging way. And it wouldn't be bragging rights if they actually fixed homelessness. Sure. But it's just like, we know they didn't.

[00:08:05] And so you're bragging about $12 million of tax, tax funded dollars to nowhere. And 12 billion, you guys, 12 billion, billion, billion is not a small number. Like, you know, we joke today that like, if you like won a million dollars, like, okay, sure, you'd be better off. But you could barely buy a home with that in California. Like, yeah, I just won a million dollars. Let's forget about the tax part. But let's just pretend you actually have a million dollars cash.

[00:08:33] And you're like, okay, I can go get like a three bedroom, 1,400 square foot home with that. You know? And that's great. But then it's gone. It's used. But that's all it's going to get you. You know, as a kid, $1 million. Remember that Richie Rich movie? $1 million was like, you could buy the world. But no, you can get that fixer up or down the street. You'd be able to put a nice down payment on a house in California. $1 million in comparison to 12.

[00:09:03] Billion dollars. 12 billion is just 1 billion, 12 billion. A billion is just so much money. So much money. And I just want to emphasize it's so much money. And unrelated to all things, just a reminder about in two weeks from today, it's daylight savings time. Our clocks are going to spring forward. And we're going to start having longer daylight. That's just fun. Longer days. Everybody appreciates more daylight. Even though we voted to get rid of daylight savings time. But another promise not Captain Calvin.

[00:09:33] That wasn't the point of what I said. But yes, another. We're almost there. It's funny how in California, it's gotten a little warmer here in San Diego. And we were talking about, oh, it's so nice. It's warmer here. It's got up to 75. And it's sunny. It feels like spring. And then you realize how spoiled you are because we're arguing or we're talking about the difference between 65 and 75. And the rest of the country is freezing their butts off. And we're like, oh, it's warm now. We can take our sweaters off.

[00:10:02] The temperature drops low 70. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. I need a whole new winter wardrobe. Oh, yeah. You're putting all the sweats on and everything. And you're putting slippers on. It's below 70. It's catastrophic here. I need blankets and everything. And as I wrap myself up, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I should watch a movie with my kids while we get through this freezing time. Put the fireplace on. 67 degrees. Yeah. The one last thing I want to say about that video is that in 2021, he said that we were going to increase it to $12 billion.

[00:10:32] $24 billion. We've spent that amount of money in three years. And then by the time that three years was up, the government was already asking you for $6 billion more. Correct. So just to put that in perspective, the government spent $12 billion, over two years, $12 billion, $24 billion. And then they asked for $6 billion more. And they had the audacity over three years to ask for $30 billion, which will end up being way more because of interest and paying back the bond. Right.

[00:11:01] Just keep that in mind that the government of California asked you for $30 billion to fix homelessness over the course of three years. And they never did. And it got worse. So that's going to be my final point on this is just remember, $30 billion. And almost this has not gotten better. So, and they always want more. They just won't stop asking for more money. All right. All right. Let's dive into this top topic because this is, I'll preface it like this.

[00:11:30] So I don't know why the algorithm was telling me about this story. It just started to pop up all of a sudden. I started to get a lot of these Instagram accounts that were talking about this Point Reyes story. And I was like, oh, it's California. Let me check out what's going on. And I kept seeing more and more accounts talking about what's going on in Point Reyes. And I'm like, what's going on in Point Reyes?

[00:11:51] That I keep seeing all these videos and people commenting and, you know, influencers who are in the agricultural sphere, which, yes, there are influencers out there in the agricultural sphere. Um, we're constantly talking about what's going on at Point Reyes. So I had started to do a little digging and I sent this to Kumey. I was like, this is pretty wild. What's going on in Point Reyes? And most people don't even know about it.

[00:12:13] I actually looked up on YouTube more videos about this because sometimes it's just nicer to see a video and it's, you know, it's a good podcast element. It makes it easier to, for people to kind of see firsthand and listen to and kind of comprehend. And there was not much out there. Funny enough, there was really not a lot out there. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there, a lot of people are under signed non-disclosure agreements over this.

[00:12:42] Um, but I'll give you the top line, which is that there are these Point Reyes ranchers and farmers who have been here for generations, um, dating back to the 1830s. So think about this, you know, the gold rush happened. Tons of people came out. Um, all these new people came out.

[00:13:04] There was no way to get any dairy products because California was a sleepy, like pastoral Western outpost, even though it was at that point. It was American territory. It was not a state yet, but people started to rush out. Gold rush happened, became a state. And then people, all these new people were like, Hey, I want products. I want dairy. I want milk. I want butter. I want, you know, eventually ice cream. And they had to ship a lot of this stuff from the East coast.

[00:13:32] So smart businessmen said, we need to figure out what we're going to do with this dairy problem. Um, they found Point Reyes. Point Reyes was perfect for raising cattle. It was nice moisture, nice climate, ton of greenery, ton of grass. They could grow and, um, perfect for raising cattle is basically what they figured out. A couple of well-to-do businessmen, there's the shape Shafters and the Hoffmans were a group that went up there and bought all the land.

[00:14:00] And then they divided it up through all the ranches, A through Z. Those ranches were then leased out to a whole bunch of other people. Um, and those leases in those ranches fast forward, basically are still with the same families from way back when to today. So think about a lot of these farmers got these plots of land around the turn of the century, late 1800s, early 1900s.

[00:14:28] And then now all of a sudden after generations and generations of being there and farming the land and taking care of it and raising cattle, they are now being told they have to leave in 15 months. So is that basically summarizing a good kind of overview of what has happened or what's going on in Point Reyes? Yeah. You left out a couple of things that just take it as you will.

[00:14:52] Um, they were, the ranchers were here before it was actually a national state park. So at some point they decided that, um, the national park service did like a study and they decided that they need to acquire a bunch of this land. And so Point Reyes, in case you don't know, it's up north of San Francisco and it's like a little hook on the map of California. Like if you like go, like it's literally like, like finger hook part.

[00:15:18] And, um, let me see, I wrote notes on this real quick, but, um, so in the 1950s, okay. So the ranchers were there like in the 1830s, which was almost 200 ago, 200 years ago, considering we're in 2025. But, um, so the national park service did a study in the 1950s and they recommended that they acquire this land, um, like immediately. And I think it was 30, 35,000 acres is that they were hoping to get.

[00:15:47] And so over the course of a few years, a compromise was made that the ranchers could then lease back the land from the national park service. And so from the government, of course, and while coexisting with tourists. So in, uh, JFK actually was the one that signed the bill in 1962, authorizing the acquisition of, it was 53,000 acres. And then eventually the national park services leased back 18,000 acres to the ranchers.

[00:16:15] So they have been there since the 1830s, at least leasing back land since now the early 1960s. And now here we are. Yep. And here we are. They're being shoved out. So this article is from the press Democrats. One of the only comprehensive articles I have found on this, um, again, probably because. They've all been signed to non-disclosure. So a lot of information is coming out. This is kind of like a developing story.

[00:16:45] So we don't have all the facts yet. Um, more facts are slowly coming out. Like people are reporting on it. And I guess that's why slowly, but surely I've started to see more on social media, more people talking about it. Uh, there's one podcast. Uh, gosh, I feel bad is discover AG was the podcast. They had done a little bit on it. Um, I, you know, I reached out to him. I thanked him for giving you the introduction, like the overview of what's going on. So basically here's what happened.

[00:17:14] This is from the press Democrat. Uh, the dust continued to settle this week around the announcement Wednesday of a landmark settlement in a nearly three year lawsuit that will phase out most private ranching in the point race national seashore. The deal marks the end of an era for the family owned dairy farms and cattle ranchers in the seashore, which predated the 63 year old public park. And trace back multiple generations on the scenic windswept peninsula in Western Marin County.

[00:17:40] The dozen ranching operations that agreed to fold within the park in the next 15 months did so under voluntary buyouts brokered by the nature conservancy. Uh, we're going to talk about, so we're going to talk about a lot of these players. And again, this is a lot of like evolving information and we want to kind of like, we want to talk about this because no one's talking about this and at least let people know what's happening.

[00:18:02] Uh, the lengthy mediation began in June, 2022, six months after the three environmental groups, resource renewal Institute, the center for biological diversity. That's one. And definitely want to talk about. They are very shady. Um, and the Western watershed project filed a lawsuit against the park challenging its 2021 general management plan amendment to offer new 20 year leases to the ranchers. So they were planning on extending these ranchers, the national park.

[00:18:32] And then these environmental groups stepped in and said, no, no, no. We're going to sue the park so that because they're violating the clean air and water act. Um, the lawsuit alleges among other things that dairies and beef cow ranches are contaminating the local watershed and violating the clean water act. Restricting to Tule elk, which are not endangered. We had just learned right before the show. And as a result should no longer be able to operate on public lands.

[00:19:01] The C shorts, unique history and warring views over its future management have figured prominently in that fight. So while there's a bunch that have to fold, not all of them are being full or asked to leave. There are some that are actually being asked to say, not asked to stay, but they're allowed to stay. The park is negotiating long-term leases with two remaining point Reyes beef ranches.

[00:19:22] The D Rogers ranch, including K ranch and AT&T ranch operated by Dave Evans and the common wheel grazing allotment operated by Bill Nimmin, the southern tip of the seashore near Bolinas. Additionally, the park service has issued 20 year leases to seven beef cattle ranches in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which takes in federal and southeast of the seashore outside its boundaries. So it's not all of them. All of them are not being because like I said, it's 15 out of 31 are being asked to leave.

[00:19:53] Let's see. I want to get to tribal collaboration. The National Park Service and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in 2021 entered into a management partnership for Point Reyes National Seashore, which is part of the ancestral territory of Sonoma County's tribe, tribes Pomo and Miwok people. As part of the agreement, the tribe collaborated with the park during the latest process, including the management plan updates unveiled with the settlement park official said. We'll come back to them as well.

[00:20:21] If you recognize the name Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, they are very active politically. We're going to talk about that. This is from Representative Jared Hoffman. Quote, on the other hand, I think we can all be excited about the expansion of elk herds and some of the restoration opportunities are likely to follow this deal. I love the fact that there was a partnership with the Graton tribe as well. Again, there's that Graton tribe. That's a great thing. It's just a mixed bag, I think, for a lot of folks.

[00:20:49] And you know you're going to see environmentalists celebrate this for what they think it is. And then they're going to be mad as hell when they see that cattle grazing will continue in pretty much most of these properties. All right. Jeff Miller, the senior conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. I think this is kind of a historic opportunity to expand elk. Point Race is going to have two of the largest elk herds in the state and bring back some of the coastal prairie habitats.

[00:21:15] There's still some fragments there, but bringing it back on a larger scale is going to make an amazing park even more amazing. So that's the overview. They've been sued as part of their big settlement. 15 ranchers have been told that they have to leave. The Nature Conservancy is setting up a fund that they're going to pay out a lot of these ranchers money to leave and settle somewhere else.

[00:21:40] But I mean, the story is kind of sad because it's a lot of these farms have been in the family for a long, long time. And that's kind of, you know, you brought up a good point that a lot of these farms were in place long before the National Park even was established.

[00:22:02] And I remember reading one of the advocates or ranchers who said, look, we've been here for over 200 years taking care of this land. We've been good stewards of this land. And for 200, where have you guys been for 200? Now, all of a sudden, you care about it because of some federal law for clean water and air act. And we're going to get in. I want to talk about why, you know, the Center for Biological Diversity. Do they really care about biological diversity or do they care about money?

[00:22:33] It's sad for these 15 farmers who are being pushed out by what I have no other way to say is like eco-terrorists, people who use lawfare and money to bully people to get what they want, even though more than half are still going to be able to stay there. It's just these 15 have to leave. Any initial thoughts?

[00:22:52] Well, like I discussed with you, I'm trying to figure out what is their end game here because I don't feel like it's 100% to just preserve this particular piece of land. And maybe it is, but they talk about, I sent you a couple articles. I don't even know if you had time to read them, but these elk, the tool to lay whatever they're called. I'm just going to reference them as elk from now on.

[00:23:17] These elk, I understand they were, their numbers were historically, they were starting to get low and they were worried about that. And there was efforts made to up their numbers and that worked. And so they're not endangered. They're not necessarily thriving. And I understand wanting to have these elk thriving once again in California, they're native to California. That's fine. That's good. But then in some of these other articles I sent you, they talked about how they actually, they need to control the population of the elk.

[00:23:47] And having the, the ranchers there helps in that effort. And so if these elk are then allowed to just roam free on the land, eventually they're going to have to hire professional snipers to go and start taking out some of these elk once they start to overpopulate. And so it's like right now it's kind of working together. The elk are, are being allowed to, you know, preserve and thrive and procreate while the ranchers have their farms. Some are dairy, some are cattle.

[00:24:16] Cattle, cattle, cattle, some are sheep. Like they, they're producing cheeses. There's some of these have owned cheese shops. Some of them owned some other restaurants and stuff. And so all that brings in tourists as well. And that's, I think that they want this land to just be for tourists and tourists will still come. Of course, it will be beautiful. But with these, a lot of these places shut down, I wonder if the tourists will drop off because it's not like, oh, I really need to go to that restaurant.

[00:24:44] I really need to go see that, that cheese shop, that deli. I really want to visit that particular cattle ranch. Which I haven't been there, but I've actually been wanting to go. And those things were all on my list of like why I want to go. And you take that all away. It's pretty gorgeous land. Yes. Like I love visiting Yosemite. Yosemite is gorgeous. But I do wonder if then there's going to be people like me who were like, well, I wanted to go see all those things. And now all those things are gone. And so it's not, to me, it's not as beneficial. Yeah.

[00:25:13] And I don't think that the nature conservancy group is nefarious. But I'm just trying to figure out if there's like some plot to take this land away from the ranchers. We think cattle are bad and, you know, they're running the environment. So if we can get less cattle, I keep wanting to say catalog. I don't know why. Less cattle, get the ranchers gone, and we preserve this land.

[00:25:40] Or is it like in a few years, it's going to be like reparations, whether it's for the Native Americans or for, you know, former families of slaves. Like, I just wonder what, if there's, if there is a nefarious underlining. And I'm not blaming that on the nature conservancy whatsoever, because that's historically not their thing. But these other groups who are coming in and claiming things, I'm just like, is this a land grab? That's, that's what I want to know.

[00:26:10] Yeah. Yeah, it is. The timing is really fishy to me. Because, you know, these farms have been around for a long time. They are part of Point Reyes. They are taking care of the land. I know that they're saying, well, they contaminate the water. But this, this Clean Water and Air Act has been around for a long time.

[00:26:32] And the fact that now, out of the blue, you've decided to come in and sue right when, around 2021, when the National Park Service said, we're going to renegotiate another long-term 20-year lease. So obviously, the National Park Service, who has an interest in maintaining that property and that land, didn't have an issue with the ranchers and the farmers being there.

[00:26:53] And it wasn't until these groups came in and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't give them another 20 years because we think they're contaminating the land and we're going to sue over this. And they could have sued at really any point, I think. Right, right. Like this. If this was such an issue. You're part of the lease is that you need to, you know. Not destroy Point Reyes. No, but like you have, in your end of the lease, you have an obligation.

[00:27:23] And to not contaminate the water, to have clean systems in place. And so, yes. Yeah. Why didn't they do that 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when it was allegedly an issue? Right. It is. The timing is weird. And it's so fast to tell people who've been there for decades, if not over 100 years. Get the hell out in 15 months. That's not a long time.

[00:27:51] And if any of them are planning on moving their ranches, which they might be able to do, they might be able to move their dairy ranches or their beef cattle ranches somewhere else. Maybe they move them out of state. Maybe they move them within the state. I think they're only getting like, some of them are getting like two, two and a half million dollars to do so, which to move an entire range is not a lot. No, it's, I mean, we were just joking at the beginning of this episode. You win a million dollars in the lottery.

[00:28:17] It's not a lot of money to even go buy a house, let alone go buy enough land for a ranch. So if they're going to do anything, they might just fold and take the money and go do something else. And a lot of these families don't really know what else to do. You know, they've been rangers and farmers their whole lives. I wanted to show this specifically regarding the Federated Grattan, Federated Indians of Grattan Rancheria. We've talked about them before.

[00:28:47] And the reason I'm bringing this up is because they're very active and they are also very, very wealthy. As you can see, they've given $40 million to 80 different filers spanning just 13 years. So they give him $40 million. They've given a lot to, if you pull up Gavin Newsom, they've given a ton to Gavin Newsom, his lieutenant governor. Rebecca Bauer-Kahn, who is Assembly District 16.

[00:29:16] I was looking to see if this Jared Hoffman was a part of this. I didn't see his name, but it is definitely a leaning Democrat. As you can see, they, you know, Jerry Brown back in the day, they supported him. Matt Haney from San Francisco, Rob Bonta, Josh Newman, who was recalled and came back. There are a ton of people. Scott Wiener, our favorite legislature, is in there as well.

[00:29:43] It's all Democrats who they donate to. Are they a PAC or are they lobbyists? Both. Well, I think this is just them as a contributor. So I guess the tribe themselves. They have a PAC. The associate, like the friend, the federated, what was it? Associate of France. I found it before and it was like, they are the friends of the federated Indians of Grattan Rancheria. Yeah.

[00:30:13] Um, have also donated. But if you look at what they've donated to, obviously this makes sense. Yes on 26, no on 27. If you don't remember, that was the props a couple of years ago where they wanted to legalize gambling in California. That's who they were. Okay. Right. They were the big ones behind pushing out. They did not want sports gambling to happen in California. So they, they spent $30 million on this campaign for yes on 26.

[00:30:42] So they were the big, because when we looked at this, this is why it reminded me. I look, when we were looking at these propositions and we found this group, we're like, damn, they spent a lot of money on this. Um, stop the Republican recall of Gavin Newsom. Um, yes on marriage recall and Newsom ballot measure committee. Um, so you can, you can see really the, um, I guess you can see their, their trend of who they support, um, is all Democrats.

[00:31:11] Did they, is there anything that shows that they donated to these other groups? You know, I, we haven't, again, there's so much information here. The players here, there's a lot of money. They have a lot of power, but when I saw that they were involved as part of all this and like a partnership that didn't sit well with me. Cause they do make a lot of money through casinos. Hence why they were opposing, uh, prop 27. And they wanted 26.

[00:31:39] If I remember correctly, 26 was, they were going to allow sports betting only at casinos on tribal lands. 27 was, they were going to allow it basically everywhere. Um, which is why they were, yes, on 26 and a no on 27. Um, so that was interesting to me, but I want to talk about this center for biological diversity. And who they are and why they, they, I call them eco terrorists.

[00:32:06] Um, the house committee on natural resources released this memo or this press release. This was back in 2012. So again, about the same time that Gavin Newsom started to promise he was going to end homelessness. Gives you an idea how long it's been. The center for biological diversity today sent a letter to the house natural resources committee, chairman doc Hastings claiming their organization had only received $553,000 in taxpayer funds resulting from endangered species act.

[00:32:36] Uh, related attorneys fees and court cases. Keep that in mind. This claim conflicts with the data obtained from the department of justice, which shows over $2 million in taxpayer dollars, which in paid out to the center for biological diversity and their attorneys for cases open between 2009 and 2012. Why this is important is because I had sent you some stuff last night. They don't get direct government funding, the center for biological diversity.

[00:33:05] That doesn't mean they don't get taxpayer money because they do receive taxpayer money. Whenever they sue agencies or the government over anything related to something like this, enforcing the endangered species act. Um, there was another, the cleaner justice act or something like that.

[00:33:28] Um, so they make a living off of, or suing people to make money based on these tax returns. It is a loophole way to get tax funds. It's a loophole way for them to make a ton of money. Um, I'm trying to see if I remember where's the number that I sent you. It was something like, I'm trying to remember.

[00:33:55] Uh, it was 20 million, I think. $20 million. Uh, since 2017, uh, that was contributions and supporters and organizations alike. Um, but they have raked in millions and millions of dollars based off of suing. Just like this case where they're suing. In the tweet.

[00:34:21] It's like at one part says, for instance, in 2017, it's total revenue exceeded $20 million. Drove mostly by, Oh wait, that's what you just said. The contributions. Drove mostly by the government. Mm-hmm. But yeah, you sent it to me and you didn't even send me context. And my response was, so they sue the governor, the government to get funding. And you're like, yes, it's a loophole. Yeah. It is a way for a lot of these eco-terrorists to make money hand over fist is because they

[00:34:49] sue agencies or they sue in federal court based off the Endangered Species Act. The idea or the public policy behind it is that it was like a private, private citizen, attorney general kind of idea of like, well, the private citizens can enforce these Endangered Species Act and these environmental laws by going to court and having the, you know, the, the carrot at the end of the stick is that if they win, they get attorney's fees and they can get a lot of attorney's fees.

[00:35:19] Now the Center for Biological Diversity has made it quite a business to do this over and over and over again. I looked into the other two groups. They were the Resource Renewal Institute and the Western Watersheds Project. And they're like, they're, they're so small potatoes compared for the Center for Biological Diversity. Like when I went to Open Secrets and looked at the Center for Biological Diversity and saw their revenue compared to these other two, I was like, okay, so this is the big fish that's driving all of this.

[00:35:50] Out of there is 170. This is a couple of years ago. 170 staff members, more than 50 have the title of attorney or counsel. So, which for a nonprofit that is supposed to be dedicated to environmentalism, it seems like quite the, quite the law firm to me.

[00:36:16] It seems like a legal organization to me, not necessarily an environmental group. If you go on their site now and you look at their staff, it's just like every other person is senior counsel, senior attorney, counsel, counsel, counsel, senior attorney, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm no expert at any of this whatsoever. But you know, I have looked at, up to my eyeballs in nonprofits and their tax forms.

[00:36:46] And it's not uncommon for, they have their board members and then a lot of their, what they're paying out is to a legal firm for legal purposes, which that's, that looks normal. They need, you know, to consult with lawyers or they might have a lawsuit or whatever. And so hiring a law firm, having a law firm on retainer is very normal with a nonprofit. But having your whole law firm be your board members and staff, that's, I've never seen that before.

[00:37:16] What's going on everybody? I want to take a quick minute and talk about today's sponsor for our show, Stopbox. If you're not familiar with Stopbox, it is a firearm retention device. No electronics, no biometrics, nothing like that, that can get in the way. If there's an oncoming threat and you need quick and easy access to your firearm, it is literally just this finger combination on the top. You push it in, boom, hear that nice little click. And it is wide open for you, for your firearm.

[00:37:43] It can fit compact, subcompact, even full-size pistols, which is nice. They have added this new magazine, extra magazine holder. Also very nice. My wife and I both have our own Stopbox because we both know that when there's an oncoming threat in seconds count, you don't want to be fumbling around with electronics or keys or biometrics or anything like that. So now listeners of this show can enjoy 10% off their order at Stopbox.

[00:38:08] If they go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground, they'll get that discount. Support the show. You can support Stopbox. And this is proudly made in the good old U.S. of A. So go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground for your discount. And let's get back to the show. I sent you a part of the article that we keep referencing. Okay. And I'll read it just because it was a valid point.

[00:38:37] This is kind of so the article from the Press Democrat that talks about what we're talking about. There's actually two parts published so far this year. The third part isn't even now yet. That's how new this information is. So they're long articles. They're very interesting. They're long articles. I would encourage you to go read them. This is just a small, very small part from the second article. There was like a town hall meeting basically.

[00:39:03] And so there was a whole lot of, you know, back and forth arguments going on in that town hole because you have people, the ranchers, you have the conservancy, like all that are battling each other. And another key question that was posed in Nature Conservancy representatives, how did they plan to pay for management of the vacated grasslands? And the answer was, well, there will be government funding available, which really struck me as kind

[00:39:29] of flippant, a flippant way of saying, you know, there will be taxpayer dollars instead of working ranchers. That was somebody quoted in the article who like the author was interviewing. And yeah. Interesting. Like, so the ranchers are maintaining the land while they're there and they're asking, okay, so who's going to maintain the land when we're gone? And it's the government, of course. Okay. So taxpayer dollars always. It's all taxpayer dollars. Yeah.

[00:40:01] We're all going to be on the hook for what they're doing to these poor ranchers and farmers up in. This is really interesting. So where does this leave the ranchers? This, um, this actually was pretty interesting that I saw this a couple of days ago, back in 2017, Donald Trump, when he was president did know this was like, he wanted to protect the ranchers and point Reyes. He had made a comment about this at a press conference.

[00:40:27] Um, I wonder if this does end up reaching Donald Trump, if he has any, if he's going to weigh in on this or he just completely forgot about it at this point because of everything else that's going on and all the other stuff that he's finding. Um, but this has been going on for a long time. And I, I remember I did see a video where he did talk about point Reyes and what's going on with these ranchers.

[00:40:52] So, um, we, this is a developing story and, uh, we're finding out as much as possible. And I feel like this could be like a multi episode kind of story where we're probably gonna have to check back in on point Reyes and see what's going on. And if we find out anything else, like we're definitely going to let people know about what we find if there's anything fishy, but we're, we're just getting to the surface of this. There is so much to talk about. There's so much to uncover.

[00:41:19] Um, but we did want to talk about it at least so that it could like bring light to this story that nobody's talking about for some reason. And nobody's done any research. We absolutely welcome your comments. If you, you know, you know, more information, like we said, we, our heads were hurting. Our heads were hurting. We're trying to look into all this and follow all the money. And so, you know, those of you that are local to this and have more insight, please reach out. We would love to hear your thoughts. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:46] If you're, if you know, and you want to send us a DM, or if even if you want to come on the show for a little bit and talk about this stuff, because we are not educated in the area of agriculture and ranching. Um, especially on the subject, this was a crash course in Point Reyes and what's going on up there. So I didn't even know about this at all. And then Monday, Phil and I saw each other at the sheriff Fianco announcement party. And then he's like, Oh, so we're going to talk about this issue. And he like brought it up. And I'm like, wait, what?

[00:42:16] What's going on? I hadn't heard about it until people on Instagram. Which is insane that it was, it was literally the algorithm for some reason pushed it to me to talk about Point Reyes. And I started to like dive into it. Um, so we'll continue to dive into it. We wanted to let people know, start researching it, look it up. If there's anything that could be done. I don't know if there is anything that can be done at this point, but it doesn't hurt for us to be aware of what these eco terrorists and these environmentalists are doing to poor

[00:42:45] ranchers who've been there and taking care of the land for better part of 200 years. Um, just because they, they think that they have to preserve one thing or another. If, if these eco terrorists had their way, they'd probably push all of us off of our land. That's all I'm going to say is they, they'd push everybody out of California if they could. And if, and in the process make tens of millions of dollars, if they could do those two things, these groups like the center for biological diversity would do those two things. They, they'd push everybody out of California.

[00:43:14] So there's no one left in California doing anything to harm whatever environment is left and rack up tens of millions of dollars. So I just get so confused because they're on the one hand, these same people are YIMBYs and they want to build up all the land and all this multi-housing land and, you know, high rise apartment buildings. But then you turn the corner and they're like, kick everyone out. No one should set foot on this land. We must preserve this land. And I'm like, which is it?

[00:43:44] But I don't understand. Yeah. They don't want, they're like 90% of the land in California's environmentalists don't want us living on. So they all want us living in 15 minute, like compact cities all on top of each other. They're all fine with high density and we're all living on top of each other, but. You know, spreading out and actually living out in the country, not allowed according to eco terrorist environmentalists. I have a half an acre, which for, for urban, that's, that's a lot.

[00:44:12] But, and you guys know, cause I talk about all the time I have chickens, so I get eggs and I have like 15 or 16 fruit trees. And I, and I love that. I love that. Like we, we have our own fruit. We give fruit to our friends. We have our own eggs. We give eggs to our friends. And, and I'm always like of the belief that everyone should do that. If they have even a little bit of land, you know, if you have even an apartment, you can have on your balcony, a dwarf tree that can grow something. Your kitchen window can grow herbs.

[00:44:42] And, and I'm just like, like everyone can grow something and contribute to something. And so when I hear about them pushing stuff out like this, and then yes, like the 15 minute cities and let's all live in high rise buildings to conserve all the rest of this land. And I'm just like, no, we should all be producing something and helping each other and trading with each other. Like, I just believe that. And so it makes me sad. Yeah. We were actually talking about today about setting up a planter in our backyard to grow our own herbs.

[00:45:09] So you have a decent sized backyard. You can actually do a lot with that and you can do vertical. So we're, we're looking into it because why not save money on herbs and grow our own herbs? Exactly. Anyway, um, homesteading, isn't that what that called? Homesteading. When you do like stuff at your house, like you grow, you raise chickens and I was gonna say grow chickens. I do not call myself a homesteader, but yes, that's, that's what they call it. Okay. That's what the cool kids are calling it nowadays. Okay.

[00:45:39] Um, all right. Speaking of, uh, money troubles, San Diego, not doing so well. Not a house for a million dollars, but you could probably get an apartment in high-rise building. Yes, exactly. Um, good luck finding any house, even in like South County and Chula Vista, getting a house for a million dollars is going to be rough. Uh, San Diego, not doing so well financially. We are facing an enormous city deficit and, uh, Todd Gloria.

[00:46:09] If you don't know a lot about Todd Gloria, because you don't live here in San Diego, let me describe Todd Gloria is a mayoral leadership style. Todd Gloria is fine with doing absolutely nothing to not cause a stir, to not cause a controversy, to not get a black mark on his political history. Cause he's like every other California Democrat on his way up the ladder, trying to reach for that next brass ring, whatever it may be for him.

[00:46:35] Um, and he's never wanted to do anything too controversial or work too hard because he doesn't want to ruin his reputation and hurt his political future. Is that a good summary? I think it's a good summary of Todd Gloria. Yeah. He doesn't want to walk. No. And he doesn't really, he doesn't come out in strong stance of anything. He doesn't really push for anything. The city's sort of slowly decayed because he's not very aggressive on anything.

[00:47:02] Um, he is very aggressive on one, one thing, bike lanes recently talked about the floods and the drains. Yep. Like he's, he's ignored that and it's caused problems. Yeah. So sorry. Just wanted to point that out that like, that's, that's his leadership style. Yeah. He didn't do anything on that. Uh, the city got plenty of requests and asked for help for the storm drains in South San Diego and they got nothing.

[00:47:30] They got flooded and all their homes got ruined. And to this day, they're still rebuilding and they don't have any help from the city. Keeping that in mind, the city is now facing a $285 million budget deficit, meaning there is more money that we are spending than we have or that we're bringing in. Um, we'll get into measure E, which had a role to play in this.

[00:47:58] And I think it's funny that they're now admitting that measure E was not what it was cracked up to be, but let's watch this video first. This is from NBC seven. I think it gives a good overview of what is going on and then we'll discuss afterwards. Mayor Todd Gloria says he is making the city of San Diego more efficient as a budget shortfall looms. The cuts he announced today make a small dent in the deficit.

[00:48:24] NBC seven political reporter Joey Savchak is in our newsroom right now with details on those cuts and how much work the city still has to balance the budget. One of the headlines today is that the city is eliminating a total of 31 positions immediately. 30 of those are already vacant, meaning no one is losing their job. But the one other is the city's chief operating officer. The mayor is getting rid of that job altogether and his office will take over the job's responsibilities.

[00:48:55] The mayor's main message Tuesday. This is just the beginning of budget cuts. More is coming, but I want to communicate how serious we are and how we're prioritizing internal cuts to this organization before we ask taxpayers to experience a lower level of service. Those internal cuts amount to $5.4 million. For perspective, that's about 2% of the city's $258 million deficit.

[00:49:23] And the deficit is about 4.4% of the city's $5.8 billion budget this year. Of course, everything is on the table. We are, you know, we can leave no stone unturned. Between the 30 vacant jobs on the chopping block, letting go of the COO and consolidating several departments, the city saves $5.4 million, which means the city still has a long way to go before balancing its budget.

[00:49:53] That balanced budget that we're legally required to provide. The mayor says the city is raising new revenue to fill the gap, while still mourning the narrow failure of the sales tax increase, which would have brought in $400 million a year. The city has increased parking meter rates and nearly every fee it charges. Those two combined, at least currently, is somewhere on the order of $40 million. Then there's the trash collection fee, still in development, but already facing headwinds.

[00:50:21] And the tourism tax that's tied up in the courts. There's a lot between now and final budget adoption in June that we're going to have to go through. Today is simply a step in that process to show how serious the situation is. The mayor reinforces the city intends to increase or at least maintain homelessness, housing and infrastructure programs, noting that will come at a cost. We also press Gloria on whether the city should have given union members raises,

[00:50:50] which in turn raised pension payouts to record highs, knowing this shortfall was impending. I think the adjustments that were made were positive. It's got us to a situation where, you know, we're not hemorrhaging talent like we have previously. Changes the mayor hopes will turn the tides of his coastal city's budget in years to come. The catch-22 there is that the higher payouts in order to have high-quality people in those jobs

[00:51:18] means the city has to find other places to trim the fat. Reporting in the newsroom, Joey Safchick, NBC7. All right, we'll see what happens, Joey. Thank you. All right, so I was trying to do some quick math for some reason my application is not working. I'm just having all sorts of troubles today. As you can see, he did a whopping $5.4 million out of a budget that is $5.8 billion.

[00:51:47] Hold on, I'm doing this math right now, covering, carry the two. It is, give it a second. Okay. Why are you giving me all these different answers? I don't know. I don't want to. Oh my gosh. What math are you trying to do? I'm asking Grok to figure out what this is, and it's just spitting out a ton. I don't want to see why you're... What is going on here?

[00:52:16] Okay, so I'm just going to comment that... Yeah, go ahead and comment while I'm waiting for Grok to figure it out. Mostly what I want from that video is government causes inflation. If you don't believe that, I'm sorry for you. Right. Well, let's talk about the first thing regarding that video, which I found really interesting. Measure E, if you remember way back when, I'm old enough to remember way back in November

[00:52:40] of 2024, there was a measure on our city ballot for the city of San Diego, where it said they were going to raise taxes, the sales tax by a half a percentage point. And the ballot title, this was from Ballotopedia. This was what they were saying it was going to do. To invest in neighborhood upgrades, which can include fixing potholes, repairing streets,

[00:53:05] sidewalks, and streetlights, improving parks and libraries, updating police, fire, paramedic, and 911 response, and providing infrastructure and delivering general service across San Diego neighborhoods. Shall the measure enacting a one-cent sales tax be adopted, generating approximately $400 million per year until ended by voters requiring citizen oversight and blah, blah, blah.

[00:53:27] So Measure E was advertised as this measure that was going to fix our roads and infrastructure. Was this the city or county? This was the city. There was a county one, which also did not pass. I don't live there. And I remember you guys all talking about this on group chats, but sorry, it's not my district, not my district. No, it's perfectly fine.

[00:53:55] It's not your area, not your measure, not your circus, not your monkeys. Yeah, the thing was a promise that it was going to be all for infrastructure. We needed this to fix our infrastructure, our roads. We need to help our first responders. It's always the same sort of people and arguments that they run out when it comes to taxes in California is, well, we needed to fix our roads and we needed to fix our infrastructure. And what do you mean?

[00:54:24] You want to vote against first responders? You hate first responders and firefighters and emergency? Why do you hate firefighters? We need to support them. Now, it is a stark admission on the part of Todd Gloria and those in City Hall in San Diego. Measure E was never really for infrastructure or first responders, was it?

[00:54:47] It was a veiled attempt to raise taxes on San Diegans to fix the absolute mess that you guys have gotten yourselves into and you've overspent more than you have. And you said, crap, next year we're going to probably have a $300 million budget deficit. I got it. Let's raise taxes and say it's for infrastructure and first responders and then it will cover the deficit and we'll have no problems and we can keep spending money like we want to.

[00:55:18] That, I think, is the funniest thing is that no one's really picked up on the fact that they are admitting that Measure E was a lie. The whole thing was a lie. It was a farce. And again, this is I don't feel like I need to tell listeners of this show particularly, but this is why whenever I see a tax proposal with some BS kind of sob story, emotional strings attached kind of description of what taxes are going to, I still vote no because at the end of the day, they're lying.

[00:55:47] They're not telling you what it really means. In fact, going back to when I was on NBC7 on election night, I was part of a panel and we were talking about Measure E failing. And James Cain is, you know, on the opposite side of the aisle. I guess you could say for me, he's a good guy. We have a lot of, you know, mutual respect for each other, love debating and stuff like that. He had made the point of like, well, if Measure E passes, then we don't really have any other solution.

[00:56:15] The city doesn't really know what else to do. And to which I had replied, there is another solution that the city doesn't want to talk about. They're going to have to buck up and they're going to have to tighten their belt and they're going to have to figure out where to cut. That's the bottom line. That's the solution. The solution with Democrats in California cannot always, well, it always has been, but it always is. We raise taxes or we take out a bond. We spend more money.

[00:56:46] And the fact that that had not crossed a lot of people's minds of, well, I guess we have to cut the budget and figure out what we're going to do because we didn't get this tax increase. Didn't really occur to a lot of people. And now you have someone like Todd Gloria who doesn't like to head, take these things head on because he's not big at these confrontational, big controversial things. Now he has to figure this out. And he's cut a total of 5 million out of a, a budget. So, all right.

[00:57:15] Grok finally spit out the answer. 5 million is approximately 0.0862% of $5.8 billion. To give you an idea, Todd Gloria cut 0.0862%, less than 1% of less than a half of a percent, literally 0.08% of the entire budget.

[00:57:42] But something that you're going to get to it a little bit regarding Todd Gloria, add those numbers back in and that number is going to decrease even more. And you guys all know what I'm talking about when Phil talks about the next subject. I'm not trying to be like all like secretive, but I just know we're not there yet. And so I just wait for that because he trimmed out less than 1% of this $5 billion budget.

[00:58:10] But when we get to the next topic, it turns out he add some things back in. Uh-huh. Um, if one thing that Todd Gloria loves, if you, you live here in San Diego, you will know he loves bike lanes. He has been a huge proponent of bike lanes so much so that bike lanes ever since he became mayor have been popping up over all, all over your favorite streets and avenues all over San Diego city.

[00:58:40] Do you know, I have actually watched some, um, San Diego County. Uh, so well, other cities within San Diego County, some of their city council meetings, because you guys have had a lot of controversy down there over the years and it's kind of fascinating. And so I've watched some of the city council meetings, not, not specific San Diego, but San Diego County. It does seem like the Democrat city council members love bike lanes.

[00:59:06] And a lot of the people, the residents in the room will get up and be like, nobody uses them. This is different cities in San Diego County, not specific to San Diego. All you talk about specific San Diego. I'm just saying what I've seen. Mm-hmm. San Diego County loves the bike lanes. That. Building them. This is an episode where we're both putting on our, our, our research, uh, tinfoil hats

[00:59:33] because this raises my kind of suspicion as to why, why do we spend so much on bike lanes when there is no demand? Like there's no demand. There's not like, there's, I mean, there's probably less than 1% demand. There might be 0.0862% of demand out of everybody in San Diego. It's just, it's not a bicycling city. It's, it's very hilly. It's, you know, it's hard to bicycle around. It's so hilly. That's what I was thinking. Like, okay.

[01:00:03] I don't live there, but I have been to San Diego plenty of times in my life. I live in Orange County, which is not that far. Grew up visiting San Diego. My mother-in-law had a house in La Jolla forever. Like I have been to San Diego plenty, plenty. And it's hills. It's beautiful. It's hills. And I love the idea of like, I'm going to ride my bike to the farmer's market, you know, and pick out my fresh made sourdough bread and flowers, you know, and, and wear a dress

[01:00:31] like Belle and Beauty and the Beast, you know, like, sure. I love that idea. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice idea. It sounds great. I mean, it, it, we don't live in that kind of European style town where we're, we're very close together and people can bike around and it makes sense. Um, but he loves his bike lanes and they've been increasing ever since he's become mayor. And I had to look up the numbers since 2015, the city of San Diego has invested approximately

[01:01:00] $55 million on bike lane projects. Um, the County itself, which is run by Sandag, uh, initially plan to spend $200 million to build 77 miles of bike lanes and pass by 2023 as outlined in their 2013 plan. However, due to delays and cost overruns, the estimate rose to 279 million for 70 miles.

[01:01:24] So we lost miles and it also went up in price by 2024 quoting to roughly $4 million per mile by late 2021 Sandag had spent 145 million and completed about nine miles suggesting significant additional spending. And then to approach this revised target. If we extrapolate completion of the 70 miles at the updated cost, the total could now be close to or exceed 279 million, 300 million. It's sickening.

[01:01:52] Um, so when you want to talk about, you know, this is not city of San Diego itself, but a large majority of revenue in San Diego is generated by the city of San Diego, uh, 279 million right there in the County overall has been spent on bike lanes and Sandy city of San Diego has a $300 million budget deficit. That is a lot of money to spend on bike lanes.

[01:02:16] It's a lot of spent on a lot of things that's that no, but per mile 4 million per mile. It's to me, it doesn't make sense to me how it's for $4 million per mile. It's, it's getting rid of parking spaces and painting. Right. Putting up some safety. I don't understand how that avoids the $4 million there's going to have to be a few like concrete

[01:02:42] and asphalt repairs and digging, but then that's not going to be like every mile. That's not going to be all like, I'm baffled at where, well, no, we know where this 4 million actually went. We just need to find the contracts to prove it. But we went to, I was looking for, and I, I, we were down there with the research rabbit hole. It was, uh, I was trying to find, but go ahead.

[01:03:05] No, I, I, we need to find that because we know that it was mostly probably went to attorney's fees, um, and, and other just staff, this so-called staff that they're letting go of in the city of San Diego. Well, like there, there's just people, people are making huge profits. Again, I said last time on the podcast, people deserve a living wage. I pay people for their work. Absolutely.

[01:03:31] But what is with this, this government inflated everything they do by the time that the work actually gets done, it probably costs them the actual labor and materials. I wouldn't be surprised if it was like 200 K per mile, but then they had a nine point. What's the math on that? 9.8 million somehow went to a bunch of staff members along the way that sent emails that, you know, and okay, there's planning involved.

[01:04:00] There's, there's legit jobs involved, but I wouldn't be surprised if 15 to 20 people profited off of that 9.8 million. No, it was 4 million. I'm saying the math all wrong. So anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if 15 to 20 people profited off of those millions per mile and only 200,000 went to actual labor materials per mile. Seriously, I would not be surprised.

[01:04:26] Well, I mean, with a lot of these no bid or bid contracts, these with, you know, well-connected union contract companies, um, contractor companies, they, they always run it up because they, they work in overages. They work in these contracts that if they go over a certain amount, it's fine that they'll keep paying. And these construction companies are like, cool, you were going to go over this by this amount. Guess what? We're going to go over by this amount. You've promised you're going to pay it. So who cares? We'll go, we'll go over by that amount.

[01:04:55] No one ever tries to get under budget when it comes to these companies, uh, getting government contracts. That's why they're so lucrative. This was supposed to be completed by when, or how many miles have been completed one amount of time? You said it all, but, uh, by late 2021, only nine miles have been completed out of 70 miles. So they're, uh, they're crushing it. People are like trying to do a bike lane and they're like, we can't even walk here. Sir, this is.

[01:05:24] They're like, they start one and then like, this is a bad idea. This try, try another place. Or they found weeds, like some amateur botanist was like this weed, we must work around. And they're like, we can't. The coastal commission came in and was like, stop your bike lanes. Um, and don't do that. Um, there is a gnat that is only native to this sidewalk. Exactly. We must.

[01:05:49] Uh, there is a new project that is again, going in the bike lane, sort of theme for Todd Gloria that he was very excited about, uh, that he had, this is a video that I just found. We're going to, we're going to watch it fresh off, um, from NBC seven. And this is a big project that he's very excited is happening. So let's take a look at this, um, this video.

[01:06:18] Oh, need to turn on the sound that might help. NBC sevens. MG Perez has more on the new public space and he's paying for it. Alex Morin is the cook here at Rosemary and time cafe. He is also the owner and the boss of this Hillcrest brunch spot open only on the weekends, along with an adjoining bar. Everything has been a struggle. It's been, you know, ups and downs.

[01:06:47] You, uh, you think you're going to close one, one year and then the next year you're doing a little bit better. So you just continue to keep it going. Morin's businesses are located just feet away from the pride flag at normal street and university Avenue for the past 10 years, business owners, community leaders, and local politicians have been debating, disagreeing, and desperately trying to determine the best way to convert this area of the neighborhood into a public multi-use space.

[01:07:16] Three, two, one. This morning, the ceremonial groundbreaking finally happened on normal street. Artist renderings show details for the approved plans. What, what, what did that show? Did you, did you catch that? What did? The artist renderings of the approved plans. No, let me, what, what do we see right there? What are those? Oh, well, I see pride sidewalks, bike lanes. We see more bike lanes.

[01:07:45] Todd Gloria loves his bike lanes. They include a children's play area, more than a mile of bike lanes, additional parking spaces, and room for new businesses and a hundred trees. This will be called the pride promenade. A promenade like this does not come cheaply. The total estimated cost is about $27.5 million. That's a lot of money. So where is it coming from?

[01:08:13] A large portion of $17 million of it will come from parking meters. That's the city of San Diego's financial responsibility. The San Diego Association of Governments will contribute almost $11 million. The best way for us to grow out of any challenges we have is to create business and activity and energy. And this place has really, over the years, become the gathering spot.

[01:08:38] Ryan Finstad and his wife, Catherine, are raising their young daughters nearby in Mission Hills. We actually were talking about biking here today, but we weren't sure if we would find parking for the bike, so we decided to drive. We would love the bike over here. There is also a promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion, even if that is not politically correct in some circles these days.

[01:08:58] It's more important than ever to celebrate our pride that we are a loving, caring community that welcomes all, including those who are undocumented and refugees. Politics involving a promenade yet to be built, but already providing some hope. April 4th, M.G. Perez, NBC Show. Good luck, San Diego. Thank you. So, there you have it.

[01:09:25] Basically, $28 million is being spent on a promenade. A promenade. And again, I'm not in construction. If there's anybody who wants to DM me or say in the chat why this does cost $28 million, I'd love to hear it. Because it sounds like, to me, you clean up the street, which is a driving street right now. You clean up that street. You put some new pavement down. You build a playground.

[01:09:56] And you paint over a lot of it. Does that sound like $28 million worth of work? Well, what is the official plan? Just a playground? That's it. Literally, it's... It's like a playground and it's no longer a drive-through street. Yeah, it's a promenade. It's walking, biking, park benches, stuff like that. The idea is it's a public walk. Basically, it's just a place where pedestrians can walk up and down.

[01:10:25] And you're not adding new businesses or anything on the promenade. You're just cleaning up that street so people can walk on it. And I don't understand where $28 million is going to. That you've got to speak just right now. I'm not in construction either. And I'm trying to think of some recent local projects that maybe we should have looked up for comparison purposes. I can't imagine a playground costs that kind of money.

[01:10:54] And then it does seem like demolition costs money. And there will be some repair after demolition. But I feel like... I feel like, hey, hire me and me and my kids will come in. And you can just pay us like $2 million and we'll get it done. We'll get it done well. We build things. It's... I'm speechless.

[01:11:20] I've looked at this plan and I go, I'm not understanding where $28 million is going. Bike lanes. More bike lanes. It's going to bike lanes and pedestrians who are going to walk. But they said one mile of bike lane. So... It's going to be one mile bike lane. Well, with inflation, it's by five or six million at this point. Well, it's not even one mile because it's one... It's like one city block is the amount of the promenade. Maybe you can make those. I don't know. Maybe they can make...

[01:11:50] I don't know. It is... It'll be like a... I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. Or big structure bike lane. It'll be... It'll be like rants and stuff. You can ride your bike up like four... Four stories high and back down. I don't know. I'm confused because I don't know much about this project, but... It looked like from the rendering, like there was like tables. So for those of you who are from San Diego or familiar, if you know where the Hillcrest Farmer's Market is,

[01:12:21] that whole street... Think about where the Hillcrest Farmer's Market is and how far it goes down. That's what they're turning into a promenade. Okay. So if it increases spending at the Farmer's Market and these local restaurants, then of course that increases tax dollars that the... That the businesses have to pay. So there's that. And then they talked about the parking meters. But if they're so proud of all their bike lanes, like why are they adding parking meters? Shouldn't people be biking, not driving?

[01:12:51] Like it doesn't sound like we have a lot of faith in their bike lanes working. Excellent point. They... In favor of all these bike lanes that they're now paying exorbitant amounts to build, they've taken out how many parking meters that they're now doubling the price of overnight. Like they've just doubled the price of what it is to use a parking meter. Yeah. So they're taking out for bike lanes, but then they're adding more in. And like there's places they've added parking... It's very confusing.

[01:13:21] And again, Democrats don't know... I'm confused. Democrats don't know how to solve a problem without raising money. I'm really dumb right now because I'm so confused about this project. Well, it's supposed to be done in 18 months. Okay. So in 18 months, we'll think about this. Over or under of whether or not this will be completed, 18 months, I think it'll be... About 60 million cost. It'll be over... Yeah.

[01:13:49] I don't even know what your parking fees are now, but the parking fees will be insane. I'll be surprised. Let's put it this way. I'll be surprised if it's done in two years. We... You know what? No. I'm just going to say, Yerba Linda had this plot of land that my whole life... Okay. So I've talked about it. I was like born and raised at home in Yerba Linda. And then I have now since moved back with my own family to raise my family here. There was this plot of land like two blocks from my parents' house that was always an empty, large lot of land.

[01:14:19] And it's right on, I would say, our city's biggest intersection. And so every year there's like a pumpkin patch there and then Christmas tree lot. And my sisters and I grew up like... We'd, you know, like walk to our local deli and go play in this plot of land and stuff. And then they kind of started building around it. But there was always... And it was past like plans. Like this...

[01:14:49] It was city approved for a town center. My whole life, as far back as I can remember, this town center was approved. It was going to be built. Okay. They built it like four years ago. And I don't know how much it costs. It's a town center. I think that like, well, like I've accepted that it's there. I hated it. I hated the idea of it. I was like, oh my gosh. My husband's like, I like the progress. And I'm like, I hate this. But like now it's there.

[01:15:18] And there's places we eat. We have this Bristol Farms there. Great grocery store that's overpriced. But so it's like, okay, I appreciate it. It's here. I'm going to take advantage of it. Sure. They planned it so stupidly though. And that's not the point of our podcast. But just with the way the parking is and everything that they did, it was very poorly planned. And I'm so surprised that after 30 years of planning it, they did such a terrible job.

[01:15:45] Anyway, all that to say, I appreciate some of these projects. I do. We like to have local town centers to go to. You know, local farmers markets and small little eateries and stuff. Like, I mean, I told you I'm not a foodie, but still I appreciate good food. You know, like it's nice to be like, oh, that's just a three minute drive to go get a pizza or cookies fresh baked. Or there's new coffee shops. Or like I mentioned, the Bristol Farms.

[01:16:12] But your project is, you're not going to go swing on the swings and pay over like way inflated parking prices. And you're probably not going to bike there either. No. And we haven't even brought up the fact that this will be a great resting place for homeless people in San Diego. So that'll be fun. That's a very good point. But also, why does it have to be pride related?

[01:16:41] How much is that adding to the cost of this? Well, I mean, it is Hillcrest and it's the LGBT. It's the neighborhood. LGBT neighborhood is here in Hillcrest. So that's why it is pride themed. I wonder if the paint. By the way, the rainbow is very pretty. I like all those colors. Like, you know, the painted sidewalk is actually pretty. The renderings like they show. It's pretty. It's colorful. The renderings are pretty.

[01:17:11] But when it comes out, we'll say. You know? Yeah. So that's, you know, we're talking about how San Diego is way over budget. And they have to cut, they cut 5 million of their $285 million deficit. So they got a long way to go. And 30 million is going to this promenade. Some swings and some bike lanes and some sidewalks and places to walk. So priorities for San Diego.

[01:17:39] What about 8K going to some private security for Todd Gloria travel? Oh, we didn't even talk about that. Well, yeah. Real quick. After all this came out, a story, you know, we're way over at this point. But there was a story that came out. Todd Gloria, who said because of the budget deficit, he was not going to do any non-essential travel while he was mayor. He had said there should be no non-essential travel for anybody while we have this budget deficit. Well, it came out not too long ago. He went to the Philippines.

[01:18:10] And albeit, he did pay his own way because he said, based on the deficit, I paid my own way. But he did have to pay two security details, a detective and an officer, San Diego PD detective, who went there two days before Todd Gloria stayed there. And he was staying at some luxury resort, which I guess they had to check out the security at a luxury resort. That's what I was assuming. Like, swept the room, make sure, you know, Todd Gloria is not bugged. Yeah.

[01:18:37] And so they had to spend, the city had to spend over $8,000 on that. Now, comparatively, in a $5 billion budget and $285 million deficit, does it make a drop in a bucket? Probably not. But at the end of the day, you're talking about deficits and trying to cut money and save money. Yet this Philippines trip, probably the worst optics you could have been doing right after all this news broken, what you got to do? Confused why he needs security.

[01:19:06] I'm confused why he's in the Philippines in the first place. I'm confused why any of these mayors have to go to foreign countries. What the heck do you have to do there? Why is Karen Bass in Ghana? Why is Todd Gloria in the Philippines? I don't understand. I know he said because, like, I guess a large majority or not, maybe not a large majority, but there's a portion of San Diego City that is Filipino. And so he's hoping to kind of like make the relationships there.

[01:19:33] If it causes travel, you know, if the outcome of this is that, like, oh, San Diego is friendly to us Filipinos and we would like to go visit it. Like, certainly that's a benefit. We'll see if that happens. Maybe it's mentioned, like, maybe they'll hopefully invest in some business and whatnot there. Yeah, sure. That could happen. But it is kind of weird. It's not a good look.

[01:20:02] Basically, it's. You know, even if you look at the details, the headlines was horrible for Todd Gloria. Well, we're trimming the fat, but not for my selfish needs. Not because I want to go to the Philippines. Because I'm part Filipino. That's what he said. You literally meet with people over Zoom. Yeah. Why did he have to go to the Philippines to do this? And say, like, hey, I would like to come here and meet you eventually or I'd love to host you out here.

[01:20:26] But right now we're facing, you know, I'm trying to work with my people here because, you know, worldwide, everyone knows the economy is bad. Like, you can easily say, like, we're just trying to cut down on expenses. And so I'd like to have this meeting online initially. And hopefully we meet here or there in the coming years. I guess he's turned out. But, like, that's an option. And it's basically free. True.

[01:20:52] But Todd Gloria actually facing some real problems, which goes back to my theory that I would say 95% of elected officials are not equipped mentally or emotionally to handle tough problems. And that's just, you know, they're not superhumans. They're not superheroes. I think we need to stop treating them like superheroes.

[01:21:16] And a lot of them, when push comes to shove, they can't handle the big situations and the tough situations. And Todd Gloria is definitely not one of those. Too big. Like, I'm not even trying to justify any of or defend Todd Gloria here. But I think that you guys probably need districts within the city and elect your own mayor from there. I don't know. That's a whole other topic. But San Diego is huge. And that's a lot for any one person, no matter how competent, to handle.

[01:21:46] Well, La Jolla is trying to break off. So they did meet the signature threshold, and they're going to try and break off, which would not be good for the budget problem in San Diego, because majority of the taxes for San Diego City come from La Jolla. Okay. So I told my mother-in-law that, because I was like, oh, did you know this is going on? Because she now lives in Minnesota. But when I mentioned her La Jolla house, it was her mom's, and it was her mom's brother prior to that.

[01:22:14] And it was in their family for like 70 years. So not to say that she's like well-versed in the politics, but my mother-in-law lived there for a long time. But she also lived there like for a long time prior to her officially moving there, taking care of her mom. She said they've been trying to do this for decades. Yeah. They finally got, they took the first step, and they got the signature. Okay. It's actually happening. So they're trying to do it. Okay. All right.

[01:22:43] Two stories that are developing, and I'm sure we'll revisit in the future. The ranchers being pushed out in San Diego, trying to figure out how to make up $300 million in a budget deficit. Any final thought? Oh, episode coming up on Tuesday night is our 300th episode. Big, big snaps for us. Now we need the reactions. We need the balloons. We need the... Oh, yeah. I don't know. I think you turned it off.

[01:23:13] I turned it off. It doesn't do it anymore. What? 300th episode. We're going to talk about one story, the Karen Bass. We can't not talk about Karen Bass firing Kristen Crowley. We would have talked about it on today's show, but as you can see, there's more than enough material for us to talk about on today's show that we need to get to. But most of it is going to be listener-driven. We are going to be opening the mailbag. If you want to ask a question, we're going to be taking questions, whether you're live in the chat on Tuesday night,

[01:23:42] or if you want to send it in beforehand, and we can check it out. So it's going to be... Keep an eye out for that. You can DM on Instagram. You can find us any way you want to. Be like, I have a question for the show. Can you guys address this? Shoot it our way. Sometimes it might be better to shoot it our way, so that way we're not caught off guard, and we're kind of like, oh, I don't know. Why don't you open a question box on Instagram?

[01:24:06] So go to his Instagram, which is at California to ground on Instagram. And then his stories, he'll open a question box tomorrow, Monday. Probably tomorrow. Yep. And ask all your questions there. Yep. And that way we have them. So. All right. With that, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review, all of that stuff. And the best way to support us that is 100% free, that always helps the show, is you can

[01:24:36] share it with somebody else. And until then, we'll see you on the next one. Later. Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground. If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like, and review it. And follow California Underground on social media for updates as to when new episodes are available.