Wimbledon finally completes first round 2 days later than planned

• July 7, 2023

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

WIMBLEDON, England — Let the record reflect that the rain-logged first round of Wimbledon 2023 finally concluded at 3:23 p.m. local time on Thursday, Day 4 of the tournament, 48 hours later than originally planned, when Alexander Zverev finished off his 6-4, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer.

Zverev was supposed to start and, naturally, finish, on Tuesday. Instead, he didn’t take the court to play his first point of the fortnight until about 17½ hours after Novak Djokovic already had made his way into the third round.

“Took me three days,” Zverev joked, “but I’m here.”

For once this week, the sun was out at the All England Club, and the showers were nowhere to be found.

Instead, there was plenty of play, plenty of results – 56 in all – and plenty of drama, perhaps none more than in one much-hyped showdown that did not conclude: Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray vs. two-time major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas was suspended at 10:40 p.m. and will resume Friday.

Played with the roof closed at a loud Centre Court filled with “Let’s go, Andy! Let’s go!” chants from fans, that one was stopped just after Murray took a two-sets-to-one lead. Tsitsipas took the opening set 7-6 (3), but Murray took the next two 7-6 (2), 6-4. Murray, 36 and with an artificial hip, slipped and fell behind a baseline but arose and finished that third set just before play was halted.

There were tears for Alizé Cornet, who slipped to the turf and hurt her leg at 5-all in the second set of what would become a 6-2, 7-6 (2) loss to defending champion Elena Rybakina.

There were tears for Donna Vekic, too, and she won. She came back from a set and 5-2 down in the second to eliminate 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens.

“I was losing,” Vekic said later. “Not that I was just losing – I felt like I was getting killed.”

There was realism for Stan Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion who is now 38, coming off years of injuries and operations, and, while he was pleased to defeat Tomás Martín Etcheverry, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, knows what comes next: a matchup against Djokovic, who has won seven of his men’s record 23 major championships at this event.

“There’s zero opportunity to win Wimbledon for me, I think,” Wawrinka acknowledged.

“It’s an honor to play Novak here. … Hopefully I can make a competitive match,” he continued, “but if you will look at recent results, I don’t really stand a chance.”

There was new ground for a group of men who won to reach the third round at the All England Club for the first time: No. 14 seed Lorenzo Musetti, qualifier Maximillian Marterer, Mikael Ymer, Quentin Halys and Roman Safiullin.

Ymer came back from a two-set deficit to knock off ninth-seeded American Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Two American men stuck around for the next round by winning: No. 10 Frances Tiafoe, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open last September, and No. 16 Tommy Paul, a semifinalist at the Australian Open in January.

They were joined in the third round by two American women, No. 4 Jessica Pegula and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin.

There was familiar disappointment at the grass-court major tournament for Casper Ruud, who was the runner-up at three of the past five majors but lost to British wild-card Liam Broady on Centre Court, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Ruud has never been past the second round in four appearances at Wimbledon.

“I’m going to keep trying. I have a goal, of course, in my career to try to do well here at some point,” said Ruud, who was seeded fourth. “It didn’t happen this year. I’ll come back. I honestly love coming here. It’s such a special place.”

There was the end of the line for Anett Kontaveit. She was the last player to lose to Serena Williams – at the U.S. Open last year while ranked No. 2 – and said before Wimbledon she would be retiring because of a chronic bad back.

And there was the latest sign of promise from Mirra Andreeva, a 16-year-old qualifier from Russia.

Andreeva made her way into the third round at the second consecutive major when 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova quit because she was hurt while trailing, 6-3, 4-0.

“For sure, it’s not the way I wanted to win the match,” Andreeva said. “But still, I advance to the next round, so I’m happy with that.”

KENIN ON COMEBACK TRAIL

Sofia Kenin reached the third round for the first time on Thursday. Or as the 2020 Australian Open champion put it: “Just trying to prove some people wrong.”

Kenin beat Wang Xinyu of China, 6-4, 6-3, to back up her victory over seventh-seeded Coco Gauff that ended a streak of three straight first-round exits at Grand Slam tournaments.

The 24-year-old American came into Wimbledon ranked 128th and had to go through qualifying to reach the main draw – and she’s fine with that.

“If I know every time I’m going to get to the third round at a Slam, I’ll play qualies,” said Kenin, who was ranked No. 4 after her title at Melbourne Park. “Yeah, definitely I feel like that for sure helped me. Grass wasn’t always my favorite surface, and I felt like I had some really good solid wins in qualies even though they were against tough opponents.

“Looks obviously easy, but it was tough and I feel like those matches definitely gave me confidence.”

Kenin’s win on Court 4 wasn’t a work of art – she hit 11 winners to 17 unforced errors – but she jumped on Wang’s second serve and broke her four times.

The Russian-born Kenin next faces Elina Svitolina, a Ukrainian who is making a comeback of her own. Svitolina is back on tour after the birth of her first child in October. She beat five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round.

Kenin, who has dealt with foot and ankle injuries, said she’ll prepare for “a long, tough match” because Svitolina “gets a lot of balls back, from what I remember.”

Svitolina followed up her win over Williams by eliminating 28th-seeded Elise Mertens, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

The Ukrainian, who is ranked 76th, remembers Kenin as an aggressive baseliner.

“She loves to strike the ball, dictate on the baseline. I’ll have to react quick. I’ll have to move my legs really, really well and expect a quick ball,” Svitolina said.

Regarding proving people wrong, Kenin didn’t point to anyone specific.

“It’s just like I didn’t have maybe the best results, but I felt like this year, you know, I started off pretty good overall and I just had to find my way,” she said. “I have been fighting it. Yeah, just hope that I can keep it going.”

TIAFOE SENDS FOOTWEAR MESSAGE TO TRAVIS SCOTT

Tiafoe is still waiting on his sneakers from Travis Scott.

The American tennis player, who advanced to the third round at Wimbledon on Thursday, playfully nudged the rapper to send him a pair of his new Nike sneakers.

“His manager keeps saying, ‘Yeah, it’s coming, yeah, it’s coming,’” the 25-year-old Tiafoe said, noting that Scott is performing on Saturday in London. “Yeah, no, this is all good fun. It’s just funny. Yeah, I’m excited. That’s definitely my guy. It’s cool that he’s out here.”

The 10th-seeded Tiafoe had noticed top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz wearing a pair at practice during the Queen’s Club Championships, a Wimbledon warmup event.

The Maryland native beat Dominic Stricker, 7-6 (11), 6-4, 6-2, and next faces 21st-seeded Grigor Dimitrov.

AP sports writer Ken Maguire contributed to this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach lifeguard suffered spinal cord injury while on duty

• July 7, 2023

A Huntington Beach city lifeguard is in the hospital following a serious spinal cord injury while on duty on July 3.

The lifeguard, identified on the Huntington Beach Fire Outreach Foundation fundraising site as Elizabeth Lovat, was transported to a local hospital following the injury where she is reported to be in stable, but serious, condition. She was not actively involved in a rescue at the time of the incident, authorities said.

“Our priority at this time is to provide support for the injured lifeguard and her family while she recovers,” Huntington Beach city spokesperson Jennifer Carey said. “Out of respect for the family’s privacy, no other information will be provided at this time.”

Lovat attended Huntington Beach High School, where she graduated with honors, and has been studying speech pathology at Iona College in New York, where she plays Division 1 women’s water polo.

She was recognized as an All-American athlete and received numerous athletic awards. She has been on the Dean’s List (4.0) in the last year, according to the foundation site.

“Elizabeth has a passion for helping others and has learned and used her communication skills with American Sign Language to help her community, which has in turn shaped her career and educational goals,” the foundation post says. “She knows what it takes to overcome life’s most challenging setbacks and persevere. Her dad taught her ‘not to be afraid of failure’ and her attitude has inspired those around her.”

Lovat was a recipient of a Ben Carlson Fund scholarship in 2021. Lifeguards up and down the coast on Thursday, July 6, paid tribute to Carlson, a Newport Beach lifeguard, on the anniversary of his death during an ocean rescue in 2014.

Lovat’s injury comes just two weeks following Hoag Hospital’s annual Project Wipeout, a gathering of local lifeguards who talk about spinal cord injury and other dangers at the beach.

“Most neck and spinal cord injuries are caused by the tremendous strength of the ocean’s waves forcing your neck and spine into harmful, unnatural positions,” the Project Wipeout website says.

A big swell hit the region on Monday, with waves in the 4- to 6-foot range, causing hazardous conditions along the coast that are expected to continue into the weekend.

The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimates that 12,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury each year, with 8% of those suffered during a recreational activity.

According to a story in 2015, there are typically anywhere from 40 to 50 spinal cords injuries of varying severity each year in Huntington Beach.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Ben Carlson Day in Newport Beach remembers lifeguard’s legacy

• July 7, 2023

The moments on the sand and in the sea pay tribute to Ben Carlson, a remembrance for the lost lifeguard. But Thursday, July 6, was also a reminder of his legacy to inspire the next generation of guards.

Ben Carlson Day is an annual tradition in Newport Beach following the lifeguard’s death nine years ago as he rescued a swimmer in distress during a big swell that hit on a busy Fourth of July holiday weekend. The swimmer made it, but Carlson died.

“It’s very uplifting and that’s how we want to remember Ben and celebrate his life, what he did for our department and for lifesaving,” Newport Beach Lifeguard Chief Brian O’Rourke said.

Carlson was the first and only Newport Beach Lifeguard to die in the line of duty since the department formed in 1923.

His death was a somber, yet pivotal moment in the city’s lifeguarding history, one that sent waves of shock through the tight-knit coastal community as well as lifeguard departments across the country.

Following his death, family and friends set up the Ben Carlson Memorial & Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to drowning prevention and education.

Related links

Lifeguards train surfers in skills to save lives in the ocean
Newport Beach junior lifeguard building faces construction delays
Lifeguard hopefuls test for summer job at the beach
Lifeguard and big-wave contest winner Luke Shepardson coming to South Bay, San Clemente
Beaches trashed after July 4th crowds depart

“It’s very important to keep his legacy going, not only for what he did, but what he stood for. He was someone who believed in hard work and supporting the lifeguard team here and really represented an image of success by being mentally tough and working hard,” O’Rourke said. “He was a role model.”

The group hosts an annual conference dedicated to saving lives and each year selects scholarship recipients that mirror Carlson’s qualities of outstanding achievements in academics, athletics, service to society and sense of independence.

This year’s recipients include Newport Beach’s Chester “Chet” Clark,  a Cal State Fullerton student studying communications, Valeria Gamez Hernandez, from Long Beach, who is earning a computer science and engineering degree from USC, and Samantha Tadder, of Virginia Beach, who is studying biology and pre-med at Stanford University.

On Thursday, young guards heard a presentation from Ben Carlson Foundation board member Spencer Pirdy, who shared stories about the junior lifeguard instructor and 15-year veteran, who was just 32 when he died.

Some of the junior guards did a run-swim-run event, one of Carlson’s favorites, to mark the day. And, lifeguard boats paraded down the coast in front of the junior lifeguards, flashing sirens to the cheer of the crowd.

In the afternoon, the Carlson family and foundation provided lunch to all guards on duty from Sessions West Coast Deli, which this year ran a promotion to “buy a lifeguard lunch,” bringing meals to not just Newport Beach guards but also State Parks lifeguards in Huntington Beach and Crystal Cove.

At 5:15 p.m. a moment of remembrance was planned at Tower 17, the area and time where Carlson died during the ocean rescue.

Carlson was also a big-wave surfer, a waterman with years of ocean experience who embraced the lifestyle of being around the ocean, someone who “really believed in what lifeguards stood for and wanted to be the best he could be,” O’Rourke said.

As part of the Newport Beach Lifeguard Department’s centennial celebration, the city will be hosting an event on Aug. 9 that will have a presentation from the Newport Beach Historical Society and a showing of the film “Part of Water,” a documentary about Carlson’s life.

This past weekend, when big crowds and big waves showed up for the holiday, was a reminder of the role lifeguards play in keeping people safe at the beach.

On July 4, lifeguards conducted 1,407 preventative actions and 146 rescues, officials said, mostly in the afternoon hours as waves started to grow.

Big surf in the 4- to 6-foot range is expected to continue into the weekend, meaning the department will be staffing up as rip currents and strong surf pose hazards to beachgoers.

“It’s continuing,” O’Rourke said. “There’s some pretty solid energy in the water.”

The guards will spend long days in the sun, racing to save people from rip currents and scanning the sea for potential dangers that loom, he said.

“We have an amazing team,” he said. “It’s very demanding. We’re really proud of our staff, every year.”

​ Orange County Register 

Long Beach, LA ports receive nearly $600 million in state infrastructure grants

• July 7, 2023

The nation’s busiest shipping gateway hailed a windfall of nearly $600 million in state infrastructure grants for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on Thursday, July 6.

The Port of Long Beach hosted California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin on Thursday, who during a press conference called the occasion a “historic and momentous” day for the ports and people throughout the state.

The total statewide funding announced on Thursday, Omishakin said, amounts to more than $1.5 billion in port and freight infrastructure. That money will pay for long-term upgrades for goods movement capacity and efforts to lessen environmental impacts on neighboring communities.

The ports of LA and Long Beach combined received more than one-third of that funding.

The Port of Long Beach will get $350 million total, which will go toward completing a series of construction and clean-air technology projects designed to speed up the transformation to zero-emissions operations. That money will be split into two major efforts:

$225 million will fund a variety of zero-emissions cargo-moving equipment and supportive infrastructure projects across the port, including top handlers, along with tugboats and locomotives. It’s the single largest grant the port has received to support zero-emissions goals as part of the 2017 Clean Air Action Plan Update.
$158.4 million will go toward the planned Pier B On-Dock Rail Support facility, which will shift more cargo from trucks to on-dock rail. The $1.57 billion facility will be built in phases, with construction set to begin in 2024 and be completed in 2032.

At the Port of Los Angeles, $233 million in state grants will support three critical supply chain and safety projects:

The Maritime Support Facility and Expansion Projects, which will provide chassis and empty container storage for all 12 container terminals at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, with the additional funding providing for an improved expanded area from 30 to 71 acres.
The Rail Mainline/Wilmington Community and Waterfront Pedestrian Grade Separation Bridge project, which involves demolition work, soil remediation and construction of a 400-foot dedicated pedestrian bridge over freight tracks. The goal is to create safer connections among the Wilmington community, several local schools and the Port of Los Angeles’s Wilmington Waterfront area. The project will also include building retaining walls, storm drainage, electrical and utilities, sidewalks and landscaping.
The State Route 47/Seaside Avenue and Navy Way Interchange Improvements project, which will modify the intersection of Navy Way and Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island to improve traffic operations, reduce collisions and improve safety. A new westbound auxiliary lane, eastbound two-lane road and new off-ramp will be among the upgrades.

The Port of Los Angeles last week also received a $15 million grant from the California Transportation Commission for a four-lane grade separation on Terminal Island to reduce truck delays and improve safety.

“Roughly 20 months ago,” Omishakin said at Thursday’s news conference, “Gov. (Gavin) Newsom stood right here at the Port of Long Beach as dozens and dozens of vessels were backed up in the water in the harbor behind you. The governor made a promise that we were going to come up with solutions both short-term and long-term.”

The ports of Hueneme and San Diego also received funding from the package.

“You asked for our reaction,” said Kristin Decas, CEO and port director of Hueneme. “Wow.”

The milestone funding will help that port, in Ventura County, make progress toward possibly becoming “the first zero-emissions port,” Decas said.

At the Port of San Diego, part of the funding will be used to improve and modernize industrial activities, including an auto processing terminal, as well as to provide more park space and other recreational areas within the port’s footprint.

“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of investing in our infrastructure,” said Rafael Castellanos, chair of the Port of San Diego commissioners. “The Romans knew it, building roads (and other infrastructure) throughout the ancient world.”

Related Articles

The Port of San Diego, he added, helps build and repair ships for the U.S. Navy, providing more than 64,000 port-connected jobs.

For the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — which move 35% of the nation’s imports and exports, Omishakin said — the funding is also a boon at a time when deadlines to meet environmental mandates are fast approaching.

The twin ports must convert all of their cargo handling equipment to zero emissions by 2030, and have a 2035 deadline for implementing an entirely zero-emissions truck fleet.

“This funding not only helps us to be competitive and grow cargo,” said Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero, “but to do it in a way that keeps in mind our environmental principles” to reduce impacts on surrounding communities.

“It’s not just about moving cargo,” Cordero said. “It’s about how we do it.”

David Libatique, POLA’s deputy executive director, called the funding “phenomenal in its scope and scale.”

“The ports on the West Coast have been chronically under-funded” when compared to the East Coast, Libatique said.

The state funding, said former Long Beach Mayor and current U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, “is a huge injection of money and support for our ports.”

​ Orange County Register 

Should California’s coast be affordable too?

• July 7, 2023

Over the past five years, there haven’t been a lot of happy stories in California housing, with rents and home prices hitting historic highs, forcing many hundreds of thousands of families to leave the state. But Senate Bill 35 is an exception: since adoption in 2018, the law has helped to permit at least 18,000 new homes—homes that are overwhelmingly priced at rates affordable to moderate- and low-income Californians. 

The idea behind SB 35 was simple: if a jurisdiction is falling behind on housing production, projects that aim to build mixed-income housing and comply with the underlying zoning should enjoy streamlined permitting. The law expires soon, but Senate Bill 423—which is under consideration this legislative session—would extend it for 10 years. A slam dunk for policymakers, right?

Not so fast: As part of SB 423, legislators are working to expand applicability to include urban areas along the coast, which are currently exempt from permit streamlining. Of course, nobody wants to see natural areas of the coast developed, but the coastal zone covers over 225,000 acres of land that are already developed. Subjecting anything and everything built in these areas to additional layers of review simply does not make sense.

This zone includes some of the richest parts of the state, including cities like Coronado and Carmel-by-the-Sea, as well as affluent coastal sections of cities like Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. By any reasonable metric, these places are well-suited to additional housing: all enjoy easy access to jobs and universities, and as our state’s interior burns, their temperate coastal climates remain resilient. 

And yet, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) has come out in opposition to any streamlined permitting for affordable housing within its domain. The commission insists that the added hurdles they impose are not a barrier to affordable housing while insinuating that the bill would strip the CCC of all of its oversight authority and ignore environmental hazards. But they’re off on all three counts.

First, few can doubt that California makes it uniquely difficult to build housing anywhere near the coast. Even in the best of cases, added hearings and appeals can add months, if not years, to the process—as has recently been the case with mixed-income housing proposals in Santa Cruz and Venice. According to one team of UCLA researchers, this added discretionary review has served to stymie housing production along the coast, raising prices and driving gentrification.  

Related Articles

Second, the bill in no way strips the commission of its oversight power. On the contrary, all that would change is that the commission would be held to the same standards as any other agency in California: permitting would need to be objective, predictable, and fair. Unnecessary public hearings and arbitrary decisions would go, but rules that genuinely protect the coast would remain on the books.

Finally, in areas at risk of sea level rise, SB 423 would virtually never apply. The vast majority of the coastal zone is not at risk, even in an extreme five-foot sea level rise scenario. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only projects a one-foot sea level rise through 2050). And those pockets that are at risk are already largely excluded by SB 423 prohibitions against building on wetlands, floodways, and protected habitats. 

The CCC has a mandate to protect public access to the coast. And in many respects, they’ve done a laudable job. But in opposing streamlining bills like SB 423, the commission is missing the mark. What could possibly do more to improve coastal access than to allow more Californians of all incomes to live by the coast? In what sense is access improved by limiting our coast to a strip of aging mansions and strip malls?

If California is going to get back on a path of housing affordability, every part of the Golden State needs to be building its fair share. That includes the coast. 

Nolan Gray is the research director for California YIMBY and a professional city planner.

​ Orange County Register 

Bob Baffert’s extended punishment is horse racing’s latest unforced error

• July 7, 2023

I love horse racing. Chances are good you also love racing or you might not be reading this column. It’s safe to say that anyone who has a keen interest in the sport hopes the decision makers are spot on with their rulings.

Sad to say, racing’s hierarchy again has shot itself in the foot. One bad decision after another continues to plague a sport that at one time was one of the nation’s top attractions. Now it can’t get out of its own way.

Churchill Downs Inc.’s decision to extend trainer Bob Baffert’s two-year suspension, which originally was scheduled to end Monday, through the end of 2024 is another example of a sport gone wrong. It’s not based on merit, but rather a vendetta against the face of horse racing.

CDI is upset that Baffert won’t beg forgiveness and holds a grudge against the Hall of Fame trainer because he cost the company money in attorney fees by fighting his case in court.

“Vindictive. Personal attack. Three years for a legal medication overage is not justice,” an industry insider told me via text this week.

This insider is a part-time horse owner who has no professional connection to Baffert. His opinion is based solely on the facts as he sees them.

This all started when Medina Spirit, who died from an apparent heart attack following a workout at Santa Anita in late 2021, won the 2021 Kentucky Derby and then tested positive for betamethasone, a legal anti-inflammatory that is not permitted on race day, in a post-race drug test. CDI banned Baffert from all of its race tracks for two years after a second sample of the post-race test also came back positive. Nine months later, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stripped Medina Spirit of his victory and made runner-up Mandaloun the official winner.

Baffert initially maintained innocence, claiming Medina Spirit was never treated with betamethasone. He made comments he later said he regretted and then disclosed that the horse had not been injected with the drug but instead had been treated for a skin condition with a topical ointment that contains the corticosteroid.

The case has been hung up in the courts for more than two years, but Baffert paid his dues and everyone thought the ordeal was over this week. Guess again. Remember, this is a sport that is its own worst enemy.

It wasn’t enough that 12 horses died at Churchill Downs during its spring meet, forcing the company to move racing to Ellis Park. Instead of the country focusing on the Kentucky Derby itself, the vast majority of attention was negative because of the breakdowns. Maybe CDI needed a scapegoat in the aftermath. Who better than Baffert, who has more than his share of critics on social media?

CDI, in announcing the continuation of the suspension this week, cited Baffert’s refusal to admit guilt and peddling “a false narrative concerning the failed drug test of Medina Spirit.” But isn’t this America? Isn’t Baffert allowed to defend himself? If Baffert believes he was treated unfairly, he’s entitled to that opinion. As much as CDI wants to control the sport, it can’t regulate how a person feels.

I’m not excusing the fact that 21 picograms of betamethasone were found in Medina Spirit’s bloodstream. It was a Kentucky rule at the time that it was not allowed on race day in any amount and CDI was within its rights to suspend Baffert, but if anyone believes the colt won the Kentucky Derby because of those 21 picograms, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Death Valley I’d like to sell.

And here’s the kicker: If Medina Spirit won the Derby today with the same amount of betamethasone in his blood, it wouldn’t be an issue. The new national rules via the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority allow for that level of medication on race day.

I find it interesting that CDI, the same company that let two historic race tracks – Hollywood Park and Arlington Park – fall by the wayside, is worried about the integrity of horse racing. Didn’t CDI also rush to judgment and suspend trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. without proper cause after two of his horses died? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Joseph was reinstated almost two months later when no wrongdoing was uncovered.

CDI, in its original ruling against Baffert in May 2021, said the trainer’s suspension would be evaluated when completed and that he must avoid future drug positives. Baffert has had no infractions since Medina Spirit and CDI, in its latest statement, said it will re-evaluate his status at the conclusion of 2024.

We can hardly wait. After this week’s bombshell, anything’s possible.

Follow Art Wilson on Twitter @Sham73

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Creating a new ‘right’ is the wrong way to fix California’s housing crisis

• July 7, 2023

SACRAMENTO – Several California Assembly members this year introduced a constitutional amendment that declares housing a “fundamental right.” Who knew? Lawmakers have wrestled with innumerable complex issues over the years, but finally someone realized that all they needed to do to magically solve any problem is to pass a new “right” to something.

Expected soon: constitutional amendments declaring “rights” to a million dollars, to a brand-new electric SUV and to a dog that’s properly housebroken. Sorry for the facetiousness, but Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10 epitomizes the lack of seriousness we’ve come to expect from the Legislature. Actually fixing the housing problem is a tough slog.

The legislation, which would need approval by California voters, is modeled on United Nations measures from 1948 and 1966 declaring similar rights. The world’s housing stock has dramatically improved since then, but anyone who thinks that two toothless UN measures were the cause – rather than a booming market economy – really should claim the right to a therapist.

This proposed amendment is remarkably demanding. The Assembly analysis explains that the measure isn’t a right to “shelter,” which it finds inadequate. “The right to adequate housing should not be interpreted narrowly,” it notes. “Rather, it should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.” Yet a state that can’t provide basic shelter for 180,000 homeless people shouldn’t be promising inchoate benefits such as dignity.

The legislation also defines the right to housing as “a right to protection from forced evictions, equal and nondiscriminatory access to housing, and that housing must be adequate.” That means housing “with security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure” along with a location that offers “cultural adequacy.” Huh?

I have no idea what it means to have housing with “cultural adequacy,” but I do know what it means to have “protection from forced evictions” and with “security of tenure.” That seems to mean that landlords would no longer be able to evict tenants for almost any reason, perhaps even including nonpayment of rent. That creates a practical (not to mention a constitutional) problem.

If a property owner can’t properly vet tenants and potentially can’t evict them, then they aren’t going to invest in or rent out apartments. They certainly aren’t going to make repairs to houses lived in by non-paying tenants, which will make the housing stock less adequate. We need more housing, not less, and such edicts discourage housing investment.

For precedent, ACA 10’s supporters point to the state’s “Human Right to Water” law declaring “that every human being has a right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” Signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012, it sounded noble. Who doesn’t want everyone to have potable water?

But in the ensuing years, the state failed to provide clean drinking water to poor, farm-worker towns in the south San Joaquin Valley, even though the fix (hooking up those communities to infrastructure in neighboring water districts) was a tiny expense relative to the state budget. Apparently, the state is willing to grant human rights as it sees fit – but only if they’re cheap and easy. Following that law’s passage, the state continued to neglect its duty to build more water infrastructure.

So spare us these meaningless “rights” bills, which seem designed to result in press conferences rather than meaningful solutions. In fairness, some of ACA 10’s goals are reasonable – e.g., pushing localities to approve more housing construction. But this law wouldn’t accomplish that.

The state already is taking a serious approach toward deregulating land use through laws such as Senate Bills 9 and 10, which create a “by right” approval process for duplexes and mid-rise condos. The state also is battling NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) cities such as Huntington Beach, which are fighting the laws’ implementation in the court system.

Related Articles

Those laws – and ones that reduce parking minimums and allow developers to build housing on commercial sites – were the result of hard work that involved tough negotiations, coalition building and the usual legislative sausage-making. This “housing right” amendment is an affront to those efforts by pretending that there’s a shortcut.

There’s also much wrong philosophically with creating new “rights” via legislation and voter initiative. Historically, there are two types of rights – “negative” ones and “positive” ones. The former protect individuals from government usurpations. The First Amendment’s speech protections (“Congress shall make no law …”) is the premiere negative-right example.

By contrast, your positive right to housing means the government must force others to give it to you by taking their money (via taxation) or undermining their property rights (by limiting their right to evict you). Not only is that approach ethically wrong, but it will only lead to fewer available rentals. Then again, there’s nothing we can do to rein in lawmakers’ right to introduce worthless legislation.

Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board. Write to him at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register 

LA County nursing home workers kick off protests over low staffing

• July 7, 2023

Workers from several Los Angeles County nursing homes kicked off the first of a series of protests Thursday, July 6, claiming severe understaffing and high turnover are undermining patient care.

Employees at the facilities — owned by Brius Healthcare and operated by Rockport Healthcare Services — are represented by SEIU Local 2015.

They plan to hold eight pickets over the course of three weeks in July, including Thursday’s protest at Centinela Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre West in Inglewood. Additional rallies are planned at nursing homes in Los Angeles, Vernon, Claremont, Maywood, Pomona, Norwalk and Montrose.

Brius currently operates 77 nursing homes statewide. SEIU Local 2015 represents about 4,000 workers at 28 of the facilities, including 16 in Los Angeles County. The LA County labor contracts have expired — some last year and others as recently as February.

Representatives with Brius and Rockport could not be reached Thursday.

Carmen Roberts, the union’s executive director, said employees at the nursing homes should be caring for six to seven patients each but are sometimes saddled with 15 or more.

“With that kind of staffing … you can’t even wash their face,” she said.

Danielle Williams, a certified nursing assistant at the Inglewood facility, said she has experienced the staffing shortage firsthand.

“Certain patients are a fall risk, but they’ll try to get up,” the 36-year-old Los Angeles resident said. “If their assigned nurse is with someone else and they’re walking around, there might not be a nurse on the floor who can keep an eye on them.”

Williams said it also takes a toll on employees.

“It wears you out,” she said. “It puts a strain on your back and you’re not able to take the breaks you need.”

Employees say chronic understaffing has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in “alarming turnover rates among underpaid and under-protected care workers.”

That pattern has gone on for years, workers say, fueling a string of government sanctions and exposing Brius to a series of lawsuits, including several actions filed by the California attorney general.

An August 2021 civil lawsuit filed in Shasta County’s Superior Court of California alleges Brius owner Shlomo Rechnitz and several other individuals and entities were responsible for the pandemic-related deaths of some 24 elderly and dependent residents at Windsor Redding Care Center.

The complaint claims several employees at the facility were forced to report to work, despite having symptoms of COVID-19. A large outbreak followed, causing more than 60 patients to contact the virus with about 24 dying, the action said.

Another March 2020 lawsuit claims employee Lidice Diaz was wrongfully terminated as director of business development at Park Avenue Healthcare & Wellness Center in Pomona for refusing to participate in the alleged “patient dumping” of Medi-Cal residents.

The lawsuit claims the company benefited by transferring low-reimbursed Medi-Cal patients out of the facility and replacing them with Medicare beneficiaries who were commercially insured.

The workers are also seeking higher wages and improved benefits.

Certified nursing assistants at the nursing homes average $19 an hour, the union said, while non-nursing personnel earn minimum wage or slightly more.

They’re seeking a 5% cost-of-living raise over the life of their three-year contract, with additional pay increases based on seniority. They also want healthcare coverage that’s more affordable. Only 10% of the union members participate in the current plan because it’s so costly, union officials said.

Employees also say they’re only getting three sick days a year, which creates a risk for workers and their patients.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register