California

Woman berates wealthy California tech workers for moving to her city and inflating its housing market: ‘Real estate is cooked’

Published

2 years ago

May 7, 2024

Woman berates wealthy California tech workers for moving to her city and inflating its housing market: ‘Real estate is cooked’

A TikTok user lambasted California tech workers for invading her city, leading to inflated prices and a low supply of homes.

In a clip that has racked up over half a million views, Austin native Dani berated those who fled to Texas during the pandemic and bought up cheap homes, which they later demolished, turned into pricey Airbnbs or flipped for a profit.

She placed most of the blame on people who fled the Golden State, lured in by the low cost of living and absence of a state income tax.

‘They’re trying to sell houses for crazy, crazy inflated prices, and that’s not going to work,’ Dani said.

The housing market, she lamented, was ‘cooked’.

Austin native Dani berated California tech workers for ‘cooking’ the housing market in her home city. She placed the blame on those who fled to Texas during the pandemic and bought up cheap homes to rent as Airbnbs or flip for a profit

Last June, Austin’s rentals ranked among the most expensive in the country (pictured: an Airbnb listed in May 2024 for $3,942 per night)

Dani said many new arrivals were leaving amid sweeping tech layoffs, without much of a return on their housing investments (Pictured: an Airbnb listed in May 2024 for $3,920 per night)

Austin had the highest net inflow of tech workers of any major city in the United States from May 2020 to April 2021, according to LinkedIn user data.

And while it is debated whether there was a significant ‘exodus’ of Californians into Texas – studies from the University of California determined otherwise – San Francisco saw a sharp increase in people leaving.

A March 2021 policy brief from the California Policy Lab concluded that departures from the city in the second through fourth quarters of 2020 were 31 percent higher than during the same period in 2019.

And data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that California lost 75,423 residents in 2023, following a steady pattern that began during the pandemic.

Dani’s claim about skyrocketing Airbnb prices holds some weight as well. Last June, Austin’s rentals ranked among the most expensive in the country.

A study by ChamberofCommerce.org found that rentals in the city boasted an average daily rate of $373 across all property sizes. An average one-bedroom rental in Austin cost $127 per night, while two-bedroom properties averaged $203.

In her viral TikTok, Dani also pointed out that residents, including those who arrived during the pandemic, are now leaving the city amid a turbulent tech job market.

‘We’re having a ton of tech layoffs – this city’s economy is based in tech, so a lot of people are moving away,’ she said.

Tech companies have historically maintained a foothold in the Texas capital (Pictured: the original Apple campus at 5501 West Parmer Lane in Austin)

Tesla opened its ‘Giga Texas’ factory east of the city in April 2022, but now plans to lay off 2,688 workers beginning in June

Austin has long been hailed as a pioneer of innovation, beginning with the genesis of IBM and Texas Instruments in the 1960s. It is the birthplace of Dell, which went on to become one of the largest computer manufacturers.

Despite concentrating in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, tech giants have also maintained a foothold in the Texas state capital.

Google leased Block 185, a sail-shaped skyscraper on the bank of the Colorado River, in 2019. The company was supposed to move in sometime this year, but the timeline hangs in the balance amid sweeping layoffs.

Apple, meanwhile, shows no signs of slowing down after quietly leasing an entire office building in the Westlake neighborhood. This followed a $240 million investment in its North Austin campus, which is set to open in March of next year.

Auto manufacturer Tesla opened its ‘Giga Texas’ factory east of Austin in April 2022, but now plans to lay off 2,688 workers beginning in June.

Companies including Apple and Tesla were offered packages worth tens of millions of dollars in property and payroll tax reimbursements as an incentive from the city. However, that may not be enough to get them to stay.

After relocating its corporate headquarters from the Bay Area to Austin, business software and services company Oracle has plans to move out.

As tech companies leave the city, so do their workers – and few are seeing much of a return on their housing investments.

Home prices in the city increased 60 percent from 2020 to 2022, and despite seeing an 11 percent drop in 2024, the prices remain near record-high levels.

The initial influx of newcomers during the pandemic also sparked the construction of apartments. There has been so much of it that rental rates decreased in Austin by 7.4 percent since last year.

These conditions make it even more difficult to sell property, Dani pointed out, as many would rather rent an apartment than shell out considerably more to buy or lease a home.

‘This is what you get for trying to take advantage of people who are just trying to buy in their city or their state that they’ve lived in their whole life,’ she declared.

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California

After failed 911 calls, man’s death may be linked to California’s flawed 911 overhaul

Published

7 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Press Room

After failed 911 calls, man’s death may be linked to California’s flawed 911 overhaul

When Rickey Spivey Towner had a heart attack in his Coachella Valley home last September, his stepdaughter Megan Conner found him unconscious and called 911.

But there was a problem: The equipment used to answer 911 calls at the Desert Hot Springs Police Department malfunctioned and Conner couldn’t connect with a dispatcher for more than two minutes, according to dispatch records obtained by NBC Bay Area.

In a recording of one of Conner’s 911 calls, the dispatcher is immediately disconnected, and Conner is met by silence for 25 seconds until the dispatcher can get back on the line.

Towner did not survive. His family said he died of a heart attack.

Ricky Spivey Towner’s death is the first documented fatality that may be linked to Cal OES’ problematic 911 upgrade.

Towner’s death may be the first documented fatality potentially linked to the state’s ongoing 911 system overhaul.

Newly obtained records under the California Public Records Act reveal the connection problems were linked to call processing equipment approved by the state as part of California’s troubled Next Generation 911 rollout, sold by a state contractor called NGA 911, and deployed by the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in 2023.

Police records reveal emergency dispatchers were unexpectedly logged out of their phone system as Conner called 911 to report her stepfather lying unresponsive on the floor.

Records obtained by NBC Bay Area show all of the dispatchers were logged out of their systems when the 911 call came in.

It’s unclear if Towner could have been saved had his stepdaughter been able to summon help faster, but records show a police dispatch manager sent a scathing email shortly after his death to NGA 911. She also copied top officials with the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).

“People’s lives are on the line and your failed system may have just cost this person their life,” the dispatch manager wrote on September 12, 2025. “I believe that your engineers are continuously making changes to our live environment which is affecting our user experience. Which again is unacceptable, especially when I had continuously asked you to stop.”

Desert Hot Springs dispatch manager’s email to NGA 911 and Cal OES shortly after Towner’s death.

Records from the police department lay out the details of what went wrong and show Conner had to call 911 three times that morning before she was finally able to relay any information to a dispatcher. It took nearly two-and-a-half minutes.

The national standard calls for 90% of 911 calls to be answered within 15 seconds.

The equipment that failed is called call processing equipment (CPE) and it was purchased by Desert Hot Springs police after Cal OES suspended new sales of existing call processing equipment and began pushing dispatch centers toward cloud-based systems designed for the state’s Next Generation 911 network.

State officials say the Next Generation 911 project is a critical upgrade to California’s antiquated 911 system and will improve emergency response.

After a series of reports by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit, however, the overhaul has faced mounting scrutiny from lawmakers over delays, technical problems and a rising price tag exceeding $450 million.

WATCH NBC BAY AREA’S INVESTIGATIONS CA 911: TOO BIG TO FAIL

Like most emergency dispatch centers across California, Desert Hot Springs has not switched over to the new Next Gen 911 network. However, it was among the first to use the new cloud-based CPE that Cal OES promoted after suspending sales of legacy call processing equipment that failed to meet Next Generation 911 standards.

NGA 911’s equipment had passed state lab testing conducted by Cal OES and was among a handful of vendors approved to sell the new cloud-based CPE when Desert Hot Springs purchased its equipment.

While Cal OES, NGA 911, and Desert Hot Springs police were discussing the equipment failure during Conner’s 911 call, the family says they were left in the dark. They say nobody had told them about what happened until they were recently contacted by NBC Bay Area.

“Why didn’t I know any of this,” said Lakisha Romero, Towner’s daughter. “My dad has been talked about around the state and I had no clue what was going on.”

Lakisha Romero (left) and Megan Conner (right).

A timeline of “major events and challenges” in the state’s implementation of Next Gen 911 that has since been posted on Cal OES’ website shows the CPE purchased by Desert Hot Springs had been plagued by persistent problems since it was first deployed more than two years before Towner’s death.

“911 calls that were disconnected before being answered by the [911 center] are not displaying for dispatchers,” the Cal OES timeline states. “A workaround was immediately implemented that required dispatchers to use third party technology. NGA 911, LLC is notified of the problem and indicates it is working on a solution.”

About a year later, the Wasco Police Department also purchased NGA 911 call processing equipment and experienced “the same problems as [Desert Hot Springs],” according to Cal OES.

By May 2025, police in Desert Hot Springs and Wasco had opened roughly 300 trouble tickets concerning issues with NGA 911’s CPE, including 17 of “critical importance” and 99 of “high importance.” Two months later, both departments canceled their CPE orders with NGA 911.

In a statement, the Desert Hot Springs Police Department said it “worked collaboratively with NGA and Cal OES regarding operational and technical concerns that arose during implementation and operation.”

Cal OES said it took “immediate steps” to help both departments swap out the problematic CPE with equipment from a new vendor, but the process took months to complete and had not occurred before Towner died.

Three weeks after his death, Cal OES said it removed NGA 911 from the approved CPE vendor list and the agency eventually cancelled the company’s CPE contract in March of this year.

Cal OES declined an on-camera interview request but said in an email the agency is committed to oversight and accountability of its contractors.

NGA has not responded to NBC Bay Area’s repeated requests for comment regarding Towner’s death and the equipment failure in Desert Hot Springs. It has posted this timeline on its website explaining its project record in California.

California’s Next Generation 911 project is years behind schedule, but state officials say there’s a new plan in place to get the project moving forward again and hope to have the Los Angeles region hooked up to the network in time for the 2028 Olympics.

The state agency recently requested another $142 million to meet that goal, which would be paid for by an additional 13 cent surcharge on the phone bill of Californians.

As the state moves forward with Next Generation 911 and upgraded call processing equipment that 911 centers desperately need, Towner’s family continues to seek answers.

Romero visited the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in May to get some clarity about what happened in her father’s case but said she was disappointed by the response.

Lakisha Romero is still searching for answers about what went wrong.

“I went asking for answers and nobody wanted to tell me anything,” Romero said.

In a statement, the department said it’s “committed to transparency and reliable emergency response services.”

Towner’s family said nobody has contacted them about the long history of problems associated with the 911 equipment and questioned why it wasn’t removed a long time ago.

“Why should it take someone dying for them to do that,” Romero asked.

Candice Nguyen is the reporter on this story. If you have a comment or a question, email her at candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.

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California

Coast Guard increasing patrols for Northern California salmon season

Published

17 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

Coast Guard increasing patrols for Northern California salmon season

HUMBOLDT, Calif. — As Northern California’s recreational salmon season ramps up, the U.S. Coast Guard says they are increasing patrols to help keep anglers safe and ensure boaters are following federal and state safety regulations.

This marks the second recreational salmon season after several years of closures, bringing more boat traffic to the water as anglers head out in search of salmon. The Coast Guard says their focus during the busy season will be less about fishing violations and more about making sure boaters are prepared before leaving the dock.

“The majority of the violations that we see on the wreck side from the Coast Guard standpoint typically are safety here,” said Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Bourgeois with the U.S. Coast Guard. “So, less living marine resources and more safety recreational. So you’re looking at like fire extinguishers, flares, personal flotation devices, that kind of thing.”

According to Humboldt Bay Surface Operations Chief Scott Bock, some of the biggest violations seen during Northern California’s salmon season involve missing required safety gear and paperwork.

“It is imperative that boaters carry the required safety equipment per state and federal law,” Bock said in an emailed statement. “As a reminder, children under 13 are required to wear a lifejacket all times, above decks, on a moving vessel.”

Bock said officers also regularly encounter boaters without vessel documentation and registration paperwork onboard.

“It is also important that boaters carry their vessel’s documentation and registration paperwork onboard, similar to what you carry in your vehicle,” Bock said. “Last year, we saw numerous boats that did not have that paperwork onboard.”

The Coast Guard says the most common citations involve not carrying required safety equipment for the size of the vessel or the number of people onboard.

“Not carrying the required safety equipment, including lifejackets, fire extinguishers, and flares for the size of vessel and number of people onboard,” Bock said.

Bourgeois said the Coast Guard often works alongside California Department of Fish and Wildlife during enforcement operations, particularly when it comes to fishing regulations and living marine resource violations.

As for catch limits, Bock said the current recreational limit remains two salmon per person per day with a minimum size requirement of 20 inches. However, he said anglers should continue checking with California Fish and Wildlife throughout the season, as regulations can change.

While California Fish and Wildlife manages state waters within three nautical miles of shore, Bock said federal regulations take over farther offshore, though recreational limits currently mirror state rules.

Before heading out, Coast Guard officials are also encouraging boaters to check weather and ocean conditions, follow safety regulations and make smart decisions on the water.

“Our pitch in the Coast Guard is always please be safe, follow the recreational and commercial safety regulations, be smart about being out there, check the weather, and as always follow all laws and regulations,” Bourgeois said.

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California

Steyer’s exit from California governor’s race could spell bad news for climate policy

Published

1 day ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

Steyer’s exit from California governor’s race could spell bad news for climate policy

A showdown between Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer in the California governor’s race would have made climate policy one of the most talked-about issues through November.

Now, environmental advocates are preparing for their work to fade into the background.

Steyer, the billionaire climate activist who ran as a progressive, finished third in the primary behind Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, the Trump-backed political commentator. His loss ended a campaign that spent millions on ads attacking Becerra for accepting oil industry money and promising to break up power companies.

“I’m proud of the enemies we made,” Steyer said in a concession statement Tuesday, singling out energy corporations like Chevron and PG&E that infused millions in independent expenditure committees opposing him.

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