San Francisco, CA
San Francisco has gotten so blue it’s finally starting to turn purple
Here’s a riddle: What species is more endangered than the Delta Smelt?
The answer: Registered Republicans in San Francisco.
The last “census” on Jan. 5, 2024 as reported by the Secretary of State’s office indicated Republicans accounted for 7.22 percent of all registered voters in that county.
It is actually a more robust percentage than back in January 2020 when 6.4% of San Francisco’s registered voters identified as Republicans.
Before anyone in the Grand Old Party starts popping bottles of champagne and waxing eloquently about the Great Republican California Comeback starting, there is one little detail you need to take into account.
The percentage of San Francisco voters indicating they were Democrats as of January 5, 2024 was 63.97 percent compared to 56.8 percent back in January 2020.
That’s an increase of 7.17 percent for the Democrats compared to 0.82 percent for the Republicans.
To put San Francisco in perspective, it is the only one of 58 counties where Republicans account for less than 10 percent of the registered voters.
Statewide, as of six weeks ago, 46.76 of registered voters identified as Democrats and 24.16 as Republicans.
There were 8 counties where more than half the registered voters are Democrats — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Yolo, Sonoma and Napa.
Believe or not, two counties had more than 50 percent of those on their voting rolls who identified as Republicans.
They were two adjoining counties in the extreme northeast corner of California — Lassen and Modoc.
As for the local percentages, San Joaquin County at the start of January had 43.68 percent of those registered that are Democrats and 29.62 percent identifying as Republicans.
It’s a little closer in Stanislaus County where former Congressman Gary Condit was part of a group known as the Blue Dog Democrats.
Stanislaus County’s registered voter party percentages earlier this year was 38.43 percent Democrat and 34.64 percent Republican.
Blue Dog Democrats, by the way, were elected House of Representative members who were moderate or conservatives. There were no less than three of their ranks at one time from the Central Valley
How conservative back then were they and the Democratic voters that advanced them from primaries to the general elections?
Back in 1991 when I moved to Manteca from Placer County, I was asked my party registration.
After replying I was Republican with the added caveat I rarely vote straight party line, the lady who asked said, “good, it means we’ll have a liberal editing the Bulletin.”
She shared, after that response, that she was frustrated as a registered Democrat with how conservative the elected Democrats were in and around San Joaquin County.
It didn’t make sense at the time to me, but after a few years I understood her point.
Given the vitriol that hardcore Republicans and hardcore Democrats hurl toward those that share their party affiliation but don’t mindlessly toe the party line, I can see why “no party preference” is the fastest growing box to check when registering.
The days are over when the major political parties pursued the big tent philosophy.
Both have long since traded the big tent for straight-jackets.
Times have changed.
But what hasn’t changed is the fact both parties have members that hold more moderate views than positions staked out and pounded incessantly into the ground by hardcore party animals that view red and blue as the new black and white.
It is why the Good Ship California is showing signs that the blue captains are easing up in veering hard left away from a middle course.
And nowhere in California are there as many signs that is happening than in San Francisco.
No, I haven’t sustained a concussion from being hit by a renegade driverless car on the streets of San Francisco.
And while the gap between “true” Republicans and “true” Democrats will always have distance similar to that between the Golden Gate and the Farallon Islands, they are clear signs the City by the Bay is starting to see a more purplish tinge in that mile wide deep blue stripe they’ve painted.
Consider these developments in recent years:
*The hard left leaning district attorney Chesa Boudin that made law and order subservient to social justice was recalled.
*The recall of school board members that were more concerned about championing woke culture than educating kids.
*An organized effort to elect moderates for the purpose of tackling crime, homelessness, public education, and business flight is growing.
*The push of a ballot measure to modernize police to fight crime instead of shackling them with social justice agenda.
*Advocating a ballot measure aimed at bringing back algebra to middle schools after it was dropped in the name of promoting racial equity.
For those that say San Francisco is essentially a one party town, there are serious issues that are being seriously debated with successful political pushback that is moving the dial toward the middle than there is in the State Capitol that at times seems interchangeable with the headquarters of the California Democratic Party’s progressive wing.
Granted, it is new moderate Democrats taking on hard left Democrats that prefer the seemingly softer and more tolerant sounding label progressive Democrats.
Given politics once upon a time was about advancing different ideas in a bid to find common ground, government in San Francisco these days is showing signs of being more representative than what is up in Sacramento.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
Santa Rosa prepares for next big earthquake
The Great 1906 earthquake devastated the Bay Area, destroying much of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000 people. The city marked the quakes 120th anniversary this weekend, but whats not as widely recognized is the damage to surrounding comunities like Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – While the Great 1906 Earthquake was a centerpiece of news around the world when its massive damage and fire destroyed much of San Francisco and took 3,000 lives, another far smaller, far less famous town, suffered massive damage almost forgotten by history.
Nearly forgotten
On this day 120 years ago, stunned people were digging for survivors two nights after the quake. Like a demon in the night, the Great 1906 Earthquake also came to Santa Rosa also bent on mass death and destruction.
Eric Stanley is the history curator and deputy director of the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa that supplied these pictures. “Santa Rosa, in particular, was devastated by the 1906 earthquake,” he said.
Survivors were shaken awake as whole buildings collapsed around them or on them. “A good portion, a really significant portion, of downtown Santa Rosa was completely destroyed,” said Stanley.
Many never woke up; crushed to death in their sleep. There were over a hundred people killed in the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa that only had 7,000 people in it at the time,” said the curator.
Active fault line
Sixty-three years later, in 1969, a time of budding, but far better science-based building codes, a double shaker nonetheless did significant damage and killed one person. “Even understanding all those things, you kind of at the earlier stage of that in the sixties,” said Stanley.
Today, four of Santa Rosa’s School buildings lie near or on the Rodgers Creek Earthquake Fault, capable of up to a 7.3 magnitude rupture. One is already closed with another due to close at the end of the school year for budgetary reasons.
That leaves two elementary schools, Hidden Valley, alongside the fault and Proctor, on the fault. The school board says both are seismically sound and safe to continue operating. “The two that are remaining open are both the ones that have the potential and the ability to grow because the entire site is not impacted by the fault line,” said Nick Caston, Santa Rosa City School Board president.
Staying prepared
In other words, things can and will eventually be moved around.
“What we’re gonna end up having to do is redesign the campus over the next several decades to have our fields and our parking in the front, which are totally acceptable to be over a fault line and actually move our academic builds and our student-serving buildings to the back,” said Caston.
Ultimately, the pictures and relics museums hold from natural disasters are given to those who come, a lesson and a warning. “Real people went through these experiences and we really do have to be aware of that and do our very best to prepare for those kinds of things,” said Stanley.
The 1933 Field Act requires earthquake-safe construction of schools, with evolving seismic codes as we learn more.
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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