California Blues

There's just as many reasons to be ashamed of living in California as there are reasons to be proud, and our deep-rooted aversion to paying taxes for anything is, I'm afraid, one of them. Despite our reputation as a deep-blue bastion of liberalism, the state of California is actually an odd blend of coastal progressives, suburban conservatives, and rural reactionaries. This does accurately reflect our state's diverse makeup of mega-urban centers and nearly pure wilderness, but it also leads to intense arguments within the state legislature up in Sacramento. While the state voted Democrat on Tuesday (even normally beet-red San Diego County, which has only gone blue once since World War Two), it also passed Proposition 8 - ironically, largely due to a massive African-American turnout. One step forward, one step back (or two).

When I first moved to California in 2005, the notion of ballot initiatives and propositions seemed exciting - a real chance at direct democracy, with citizens circulating ideas and later voting them into state law. I've now come to view these initiatives far more skeptically, as I've seen how poorly-worded bills and uneducated voters have combined to create a volatile mix of reactionary politics and long-lasting impacts. Prop. 8 is merely the most recent example of an issue adopted by a specific group (in this case, the Mormon Church, which produced the bulk of the estimated $27 million spent in support of the bill) and wedged onto the ballot between more mundane matters involving tax increases in police spending and high-speed rail initiatives. If one wants to see how destructive California ballot initiatives can be, one need only look back to 1978 and the epochal passing of Proposition 13.

This amendment to the state constitution capped property tax rates in California, and reduced them, on average, by 57%. On the surface, this bill was unbeatable. As property rates along coastal regions in the state started to rise, the fear of older home owners being priced out of their homes began to grow. And who wants higher taxes?

Well, cities that hope to thrive and offer excellent services for its citizens, that's who. The result of the enormously popular Prop. 13 (it is now considered untouchable in Sacramento) has been a sharp decrease in city programs and community growth, especially in coastal areas which have always enjoyed / suffered higher property prices. State funds have been necessary to keep cities and municipalities afloat. Sales tax revenues have become an integral part of the California economy, and the current nationwide blight of consumer sprawl and big box stores are a direct result of our state's need to bring in added revenue to make up for the lost property taxes. California schools have fallen from among the best in the nation to some of the most poorly funded and lowest achieving. And libraries - don't get me started on libraries. I've never before witnessed such a cavalier attitude - in hours, staffing, holdings, housing - towards what many of us consider a civic virtue and community necessity.

So it was with little surprise that I read yesterday of San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders' plan to cut the city's $43 million budget deficit by eliminating, among other things, 7 city library locations. Not trimming hours - that's already been done, with the result that our massive central downtown library, with holdings of 3 million items and serving a city population of nearly 1.5 million, is only open 52 hours a week, not opening until noon on Mondays and Wednesdays, and shutting its doors before 6 PM on Tuesday and Thursdays (for some comparison, my old library in downtown Albany, New York, was open 70 hours a week, 9 AM-9 PM, Mon-Thur, with adjusted hours on weekends). And not by letting go of positions - that's already been done, too. The plan now is to actually shut down 7 library locations completely and utterly, including our Ocean Beach branch, a tiny structure just four blocks from my house that recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. It's not a beautiful building, it does not boast a pleasant indoor environment, the staff can be moody, and the collection isn't impressive. But losing it will be a community tragedy, and one more example of how short-sighted laws can help destroy the fabric of a community.

On Tuesday, a large number of California voters decided that chickens have the right to live in larger cages (Prop. 2) while announcing that certain human beings have not yet earned that opportunity. And as we face another library closure, we live with the decisions of 1978, in which the birth of the tax revolt announced that civic pride was nothing compared to private property. Sometimes, it's really hard to be proud to live in California.