Inland Empire Progressive

Shane Shifflett from Bay Citizen has reported on debt that local school districts have indebted the taxpayers with and it ain't pretty. SBVC had to retrofit buildings that were built on fault lines back in the day and the campus looks very modern and professional. If only Capital Appreciation Bonds can be renegotiated, leaving the taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars in debt just seems criminal. Just look at these interest payments! We need to replace that caps that were in place pre-2009 as Shifflett reports: "Ohio, for instance, prohibits the type of ballooning debt structures found in many California deals by requiring bonds to maintain a flat debt service. That means the annual payment amount must remain roughly the same each year. California removed its flat debt service requirement on long-term bonds in 2009 with the passage of AB 1388. The bill was sponsored by the California Public Securities Association, which lobbies state lawmakers on behalf ...

Why are Progressives backing a measure that on it's face seems anti-union? If you don't live here in San Bernardino you wouldn't understand. But if you were to stay awhile, you would feel that something is fundamentally wrong. When I first moved here 10 years ago, I didn't pay attention to local politics much but as I did I started to get that feeling of wrongness. The wrongness is that the public safety union (whom up to 80% don't live here) dictated our budget. There was a palpable fear on the council dias to cross them and when anyone did public safety moved swiftly to remove him/her. When we stood up in a bi-partisan fashion in 2011, we dealt a severe blow to that wrongness. However, work to build a San Bernardino for San Bernardino residents continues. Some residents are so consumed by the fear of the "criminal element" that they vote no on this measure. Public Safety at any expense, budget be damned!! This is the wrong mentality to have because ...

I have to hand it to the Republicans in this election year here in the Inland Empire. They have launched a concerted effort to stave off their irrelevance, not by switching their stance on issues but by trying to paint themselves as the aribiters of good governance with a homely appearance. Republicans have tried to make some cities more competitive, targeting specifically San Bernardino and Highland but have generated mixed results. In San Bernardino, the advantage is with the Democrats and remains a bastion of working class populism due to its impoverishment and general malaise due to bankruptcy. While Pete Aguilar has struggled here, Paul Chabot's extremism is a turnoff to those rely on government benefits directly to make ends meet. Chabot's talk of cutting taxes and not saying how you will pay for them means giveaways to so called job creators will be paid for on the backs of the poor. No matter how much Chabot harps on his belief that conservative Democrats are the major...

Economic Development needs to be a priority. This budget doesn’t reflect that priority. This council pays lip service to economic develop ment  but if the money doesn’t back the words, then the words  are just wind  instilling false hope in our residents who need jobs .  Hiring just one person, even a great person will ensure slow growth at best.  We need a professional  economic development team. Right now Riverside has 25 planners, Rialto has 12, and Fontana has 15. We only have 2.   And those cities also have other economic development personnel which puts us in a distinct disadvantage.  San Bernardino and its residents will continue to suffer and not develop any competitive advantage if  this council doesn’t  make economic development a priority by the putting the money behind their words. In o rder to grow our way out of this  bankruptcy and develop the quality of life we deserve ,  we  need an econo...

As a passage to the middle class, warehouse jobs are not for the city of San Bernardino. The range of wages for various warehouses is: Evolution fresh: $8  Fresh and Easy: $10  Amazon: $10.50  Khols: $11   While they do provide entry-level jobs for low skilled workers, the drain on social services is not ameliorated. In addition, warehouse jobs take up too much space that might be subject to creative destruction in the future which would leave the city with large blighted subclass properties. I don't know where the advocates of warehouse get the number $45,000 as a median income most wages are way below that as shown above.  San Bernardino needs to tread cautiously to ensure that this type of development is in the long term interest of its residents.

As Ezra Klien points out, the Ryan Budget (which Rep. Gary Miller voted for) is a radical document that balances the budget in 10 years on the backs of middle and working class folks. Mr. Miller's states that he doesn't want to raise taxes on middle income and low income folks. No, he wants to cut the programs that they are currently relying on to help make ends meet, while asking the higher income folks for little sacrifice. Mr. Miller's also states that other budgets raise taxes on middle and low income folks. This is a lie. The Progressive Caucus Budget, the most liberal of all the budgets creates 5 tax brackets on high income folks, while holding middle and low income folks harmless. Mr. Miller is so elite and out of touch that he thinks folks in the North End of Rancho Cucamonga are low income. Hey, Mr. Miller try living in San Bernardino on minimum wage and see what real  poverty feels like. 

When times are good some folks on the city council don't want to cut Public Safety, the city might lose officers to other cities. When times are bad, some folks on the city council don't want to cut Public safety because of fears that the crime rate goes up. Damned if you and damned if you don't. Either way your damned. What baffles me is why we aren't using a comprehenisve approach to Public Saftey. Gathering Churches, Non-Profits, Local Businesses, and the City Government staff to canvass the afflicted neighborhoods trying to figure out the symptoms of the chronic crime seems like the most logical thing we can do to reduce crime. Supposedly, Operation Pheonix was a good program, but once the funding ran dry it was dead. We need something that is inexpensive, but lasting. I think actually canvassing these neighborhoods and surveying the needs would be step in the right direction.  

According to some residents, the city of San Bernardino is a populated by pimps, prostitutes, and panhandlers. But as I walk through the city, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. We are a tough, yet proud people that hustle hard just to rub two nickles together. Sometimes I think this bad mouthing is political. I know why outsiders would bad mouth us, it's because it will economically benefit them if our citizens increase their sales tax revenues. These elitist cities would economically vulturize our community for their own gain. But our own folk? Where's the end game? I just don't see the benefit.

San Bernardino has a shortage of professional class employees and entrepreneurs that is keeping our city from improving upon our median income. I watched this video and give full throated support for the need of more programmers as well as engineers and other STEM folks. In addition, in most cases it's free to learn to code! We just have to apply ourselves and make a dedicated effort in this area because it is not easy. However, this is not to disparage our need for blue collar folks, but we need to get them out of the construction trade. We need more mechanics, truckers, and electricians for people who feel college is not the right fit for them.

What I would like to see in San Bernardino mayor is someone who will tell it like it is, and then make the decisions necessary to lead us in a foundational direction. A balance budget, safe maintained streets, and economic localism would be a start. I really do think some sections of the population are getting shafted and used as a political punching bag (mainly the young) and others are not being brought into the fold and celebrated. Have we ever had a Cinco de Mayo parade? Or celebrated the Chinese New Year? We don't celebrate our diversity like we should.  In addition, I don't like public safety charity. They feel like handouts, when what we really need is a hand up. It's nice to have new sewing machines, lighted baseball fields, or some park benches, but will that really heal our budget woes in which a large percentage is Public Safety.  Public Safety: We need your property taxes and sales taxes! We need you to live here! When our so called heroes don't ...

Aww Spring, out with the old and in with new. Well for San Bernardino that out with old sometimes means abandoned mattresses, mattress boxes, couches, and sofas. My street (Pumalo St) is a favorite dumping ground because it's relatively isolated. Because of our highly mobile population (renters are like 49% of the population), this can happen.  I has an idea to start a mattress recycling biz, because I think we have a market for it. In the meantime, San Bernardino residents (including those in unincorporated areas, Highland, Rialto, Redlands, and Colton) our city is not a dumping ground, no matter what you might think. Thank You.

The thing that surprised me the most about my hometown voter registration stats is that the Reps did not seem substantial gain in the online wave like other cities did. You can clearly see it helped the Dems out. Rep voter registration peaked during the 2010 Conservative wave, but then sloped off gradually to June '10 levels. That established a new baseline for them, but we will see what happens in the future. The Bankruptcy will play a part in registration going forward. 

Another Blog Post, another bash on Public Safety Unions. Why you may ask, do I hold such animosity toward these folks? Is it because I hate Unions. No, being a Progressive I believe in economic equality and Public Safety does hard work. However, public safety has been quite Conservative and even votes against their own economic interest which is odd to me. I hold such animosity for one reason: Political Power. Political Power It is no secret that the Public Safety Unions hold considerable sway over San Bernardino. We are a poor community with our median income at approximately $36K. Some of the members of the Public Safety Union make roughly 2-3 times that much, with the Union taking a bi-weekly or monthly cut of that. That is a considerable amount of cash at the end of the year. Combine that with the fact that they are the most organized force and we hold off year elections (non-gubernatorial or presidential), their power has just been multiplied exponentially. You can tell t...

My embrace of localism was a process that developed over time. When I first became engaged in political activity I didn't pay attention to what was happening locally. I was too focused on what was happening nationally. But as I became more active and participated in local activist activity, I heard a constant refrain about the city that I lived in. San Bernardino was ghetto, and it was violent, and it was impoverished, etc. Then I heard it again in Op-Eds and reporting in both of our local newspapers. It was a constant badgering of negativity and no one was stepping up to defend or protect San Bernardino. Most of its residents either didn't care, were oblivious, or were part of the defamation and degradation process. I said to myself enough is enough, someone has to defend San Bernardino's honor and that was my beginning of the embrace of localism. At first, I defended San Bernardino in the online arena trying to lance every negative boil that appeared. As I learned mor...

I lament the fact that the political leaders in this city of mine continue to disregard data that will help build this community into a 21st Century All American City. By now they should all know the statistical data necessary  to establish a foundation for the necessary economic growth, at least I hope so. Nonetheless, I want to make clear what I want to see going forward. These things I will push for politically (running for office or trying to recruit others to run) because that is the only forum where these folks seem to pay the most attention. I know some of the economic policies I pursue will be unpopular, but they are necessary to begin a discuss about where we as a community would like to see ourselves going. Local Control A new localism must be established in order to secure precious sales tax revenue in our city. I want to educate folks that a lot of our money should reside here, in San Bernardino. A 70/30 split is necessary in the formative years because as our sal...

Bonds are a complicated feature of public finance, even after reading some books on finance and studying public budgets it can be hard to account for how much a bond release costs. But it would seem to me that if interest payments are equal to the principal then you walk away from the deal. These are not even standard bonds, these are Capital Appreciation Bonds; the same bonds that have been in the news and caused problems at Poway Unified School District where the school district owes $1 Billion Dollars on a $100 Million Dollar bond loan. From the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports of 2011 : In October 2005, the City issued City of San Bernardino Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, 2005 SeriesA, consisting of $36,050,000 principal amount of Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, Series A-1 (standard bonds) and $14,351,583 principal amount of Taxable Pension Obligation Bonds, 2005 Series A-2 (capital appreciation bonds). The City issued the bonds in order to prepay its unfund...

I screen-shot this from the San Bernardino City Police Crime Mapper. I chose to do the homicide rate because it is more accurate than other forms of crime. As, you most homicides are clustered around Waterman Ave. and Baseline St. We have to develop a comprehensive plan that involves churches, non-profits, large/small businesses, and government. These resources should be leveraged to let those residents know that we have a presence in that part of the community. This will help reduce crime and increase trust between the residents and the San Bernardino Police Department by helping them develop resources.

  The Rio Ranch Market on Highland and Sterling Ave is not renewing its lease on the property pod. They could not compete against the Walmart Neighborhood Market that opened across the street. Rio Rancho attempted to compete by establishing a Persian and Middle Eastern food section, but in the end it wasn't enough. In essence the planning commission replaced one empty building with another. I hope next time they take a look at the territory before they decide to put another grocer to fill that spot.