For the last few years I’ve admired Matt Mahan and San Jose for their (relatively) tough stance on homeless encampments. I say “relatively” because at least they tried to clear the camps, even if they haven’t been fully successful. Meanwhile, Oakland didn’t do squat regarding our camps, because our compassionate woke politicians feel sorry for the addicts and thieves.

The corrupt Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which has run Oakland for years, is getting the first challenge ever to its authoritarian hegemony, and it’s an existential one that could put it out of business. A rival union, Oakland Workers United, is undertaking a massive publicity drive to attract new members away from SEIU. And that drive appears to be working.

If you can read this, you probably aren’t a young Black person in Oakland, where, according to ABC News, only one-in-three Oakland students can read at grade level. Studies find that African-American students read at the lowest level, (20.9%) of proficient or advanced, while Whites are at the the highest level (68%).

School districts. Healthcare systems. City general funds. The Courts. They always seem to be broke, and then their unionized workers strike against them demanding greater salaries and benefits. The agencies say they can’t afford the union demands, and so the stalemate goes. We should be used to it by now.

Well, I’ve finally been persuaded to read “Young Man in a Hurry,” Gavin Newsom’s memoir. Every presidential wannabe publishes a book at some point before an election, and Newsom is no exception. Usually these books quickly disappear into $1 bins at the bookstore. But Newsom’s seems to be the exception: it’s at the top of the best-seller lists. I’ll have more to say when I finish reading it.