Multiple people were seriously injured after a truck backed into them moments before a Christmas parade in California was set to begin Thursday night.

A Ford F-150 pickup was reported to have hit three people at around 5:30 p.m. along the parade route in Downtown Bakersfield, according to the Bakersfield Police Department.

“BPD is conducting an investigation at H St and 21st St which is affecting the original parade route. The Parade Marshall is working to see if rerouting the parade is an option,” the Department posted on X.

The three pedestrians were rushed to a local hospital in serious condition.

The truck backed into a crowd of partygoers waiting for the parade’s 6 p.m. start time, Vice Mayor of Bakersfield Andrae Gonzales revealed.

“What we know is at least 3 are seriously injured, after a truck backed into a crowd of parade-goers on 21st and H Streets. The injured have been taken to a nearby hospital,” Gonzales wrote on Instagram, adding, “Lots of misinformation circulating.”

Police say they have arrested the pickup truck driver, and the scene remains under investigation. 

There is no threat to public safety, the department said.

Parade officials, however, continued with the Christmas parade as they pushed back its start time on an alternate route.

Bakersfield is about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

This is a developing story

Are California property owners using historic preservation as a way to prevent new development? “It turns out, even a parking lot can be deemed historic — if your city’s local historic preservation committee is amenable to it,” writes Kate Talerico in The Mercury News.

As Talerico explains, cities can apply for national or state designations. “Cities also have the power to create their own historic preservation ordinances, which allow them to create custom standards for what can be designated as historic, and how those historic districts or sites should be regulated.”

Since the state cracked down on its housing production mandates, some California cities have come up with novel ways to block development. “Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, for example, declared a parking lot historic because it might contain Native American artifacts beneath its surface, which stalled a developer’s plans to build an apartment on the site.”

Talerico adds, “More recently, in San Francisco, possible historic designation of an empty 1970s movie theatre may determine whether a proposed 2,900-unit housing development can move forward.”

California faces a $68 billion deficit in its budget, largely as a result of a severe revenue decline in the current 2022‑23 fiscal year, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Thursday.

“The state faces a serious budget deficit,” the analyst’s office said. “We estimate the Legislature will need to solve a budget problem of $68 billion in the upcoming budget process.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom must present a proposed 2023-2024 budget early next month.

Typically, the budget process does not involve large changes in revenue in the prior year, in this case, 2022‑23, the LAO said, because prior‑year taxes usually have been filed and associated revenues collected. But because of federal tax filing extensions this year, the Legislature is now gaining a complete picture of 2022‑23 tax collections after the fiscal year has already ended.

The LAO said that 2022‑23 revenue will be $26 billion below budget estimates.

“This creates unique and difficult challenges — including limiting the Legislature’s options for addressing the budget problem,” the LAO reported.

For the near term, though the shortfall “will be challenging,” the Legislature has options, the LAO said. The state has nearly $24 billion in reserves to help tackle the budget problem. In addition, there are options to reduce spending on schools and community colleges that could take care of nearly $17 billion of the budget problem. Further adjustments to other areas of the budget, such as reductions to one‑time spending, could address at least an additional $10 billion or so.

These options and some others, like cost shifts, would allow the Legislature to solve most of the deficit largely without impacting the state’s core ongoing service level,” the LAO said.

But the LAO said the Legislature will have fewer options to deal with multiyear deficits in coming years.

“Given the state faces a serious budget problem, using general purpose reserves this year is merited,” the LAO said. “That said, we suggest the Legislature exercise some caution when deploying tools like reserves and cost shifts. The state’s reserves are unlikely to be sufficient to cover the state’s multiyear deficits — which average $30 billion per year under our estimates. These deficits likely necessitate ongoing spending reductions, revenue increases, or both. As a result, preserving a substantial portion — potentially up to half –of reserves would provide a helpful cushion in light of the anticipated shortfalls that lie ahead.”