It's Thursday. Police salaries are soaring in San Jose. Plus, a Los Angeles County jury awarded Vanessa Bryant millions over Kobe Bryant crash photos. |
 | | A San Jose police officer last year.Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times |
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As a measure of how expensive the San Francisco Bay Area has become there is, of course, the million-dollar starter home — the one-story house with a small garden that would go for less than $400,000 in most other parts of the country. |
The current round of salary negotiations for the San Jose Police Department provides another metric: The average annual pay on the police force is about $189,000, not including benefits. For a junior officer, the average salary is about $165,000. |
"It's pretty good pay," Mayor Sam Liccardo said dryly when I called to ask about the negotiations. "If you compared us to anywhere else in the country, we'd be off the charts." |
Liccardo's salary is $198,000. |
As part of the negotiations, the union representing the officers, the San Jose Police Officers' Association, is demanding a 14 percent raise and a $5,000 bonus. |
At a time of soaring inflation, it's hard to begrudge anyone for asking for a big raise. But when police officers, on average, are making nearly as much as the mayor, I wondered whether there was a larger point here about the sustainability of Bay Area salaries and prices. |
"We're already priced out," Joe Nation, a Stanford University professor who has written deep and detailed studies of the state's pension liabilities, told me by email. "We've managed to pay these high salaries by cutting services, in large part to the neediest Californians. Until enough politicians are willing to take on this issue, California and its local governments will continue to bleed to death." |
A nearly 200-page study by Nation published before the coronavirus pandemic starkly laid out how pension costs were eating up municipal budgets. |
Contributions to pensions have increased at a much faster rate than the combined spending on things like public assistance, public works or public health. In the first two decades of the 2000s, the amounts that local governments paid in pension contributions increased an average of 400 percent, while operating expenditures grew 46 percent. |
Nation calculates that eight years from now, pensions will make up somewhere from 14 to 18 percent of municipal budgets. |
Liccardo says pensions are less of a concern in San Jose after a series of negotiations in the mid-2010s scaled them back. |
But he sees a much broader problem of simply getting things done: Hourly wages of electricians and plumbers in San Jose — well above $100 per hour, including pension contributions — have reached levels that make some construction projects unviable, especially given the current prices of building materials. |
"You see this throughout cities in the Bay Area, where, at a time of an acute housing crisis, we are not building very much housing because it does not pencil out," Liccardo said. |
By the same token, he said, employers like local governments, restaurants and nonprofit organizations are having trouble finding workers, partly because living in the Bay Area has become too expensive and people have moved out. |
This can't continue in the long run, the mayor said. |
"We are pricing essential workers out of the Bay Area, and it isn't sustainable and it doesn't work," Liccardo said. |
Thomas Fuller is the San Francisco bureau chief for The New York Times. |
 | | The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. At least 12 other states are already in line to adopt California's zero-emissions vehicle mandate.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
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If you read one story, make it this |
 | | Vanessa Bryant, center, leaving the courthouse in Los Angeles on Wednesday.Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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- Bryant case: A jury awarded Vanessa Bryant $16 million yesterday in her lawsuit against Los Angeles County over the inappropriate sharing of photos of human remains from the crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant.
- Propane cylinders: A bill headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk this week would ban the sale of disposable, one-pound propane cylinders in California by 2028, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- Renters: A bill making its way through the California Legislature would relieve renters in the state from large fees like background checks and costs for credit scores, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- Data privacy: The cosmetic retailer Sephora has settled a lawsuit claiming that the company sold customer information without proper notice in violation of the California's consumer privacy law, The Associated Press reports.
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- Criminal reform: Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco district attorney, released her new policy saying that prosecutors should not ask judges to set cash bail except in rare circumstances, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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 | | David Malosh for The New York Times. |
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 | | The Weaverville Joss House, a temple, is now a California state historic park.Photo by Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images |
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Today's travel tip comes from Cynthia Winton-Henry, who recommends a visit to far Northern California: |
"Growing up, all my summer vacations involved hiking in the Trinity Alps and spending sweet time in the town of Weaverville. Off Highway 299 on the road between Redding and Eureka, Weaverville is full of a vintage beauty. I never tire of the view down Main Street, or of visiting the Joss House, the old Chinese temple; the Trinity Arts Center; and the shops. The lakes, local river rafting, eateries and annual events always satisfy my soul." |
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. |
Parents, children and teachers: How are you feeling about the start of the school year? |
Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com with your hopes, fears and stories. Please include your name and the city that you live in. |
 | | A male southern white rhino calf stood with his mother after playing in a mud wallow at Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance via AP |
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And before you go, some good news |
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park recently welcomed the arrival of a male southern white rhino. |
The park celebrated the calf's birth by tweeting a video of the unnamed rhino following his mother, Livia, around at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, The Associated Press reports. |
"Wildlife care specialists report the calf is healthy, confident and full of energy, and that Livia is an excellent mother, very attentive and protective of her offspring," the park said in a statement. |
An estimated 18,000 southern white rhinos remain in native habitats worldwide. Both Livia and her calf will stay in a private habitat to bond before being introduced to the other rhinos at the center. |
Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow. |
Soumya Karlamangla, Isabella Grullón Paz and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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