Amidst a Historic Night, California Stands Up for Its Transportation Future

It’s been a long, mostly celebratory night. Here’s a quick rundown on how the votes that Streetsblog California covered are turning out heading into today’s counts. There’s also more election results in Today’s Headlines, a national roundup at Streetsblog USA and Streetsblog MASS, and a Bay Area celebration at Streetsblog SF.

Streetsblog’s Endorsements

As part of a federally recognized 501c(3) public charity, Streetsblog cannot endorse candidates but can endorse ballot measures. Streetsblog urged “no” votes on two statewide measures, and both are heading for defeat.

Proposition 43 would have made it harder for Californians to fund transit and transportation projects by giving just over 1/3 of voters the power to block locally backed tax measures. The measure trails by nearly 10% as counting continues today.

Proposition 45 would have made significant changes to the state’s landmark environmental review law, CEQA. While the law isn’t perfect, Prop. 45 would have gutted the best parts of it…the parts that made it harder to do massive highway expansion projects. That measure also trails by nearly 10%.

The Bay Area

Streetsblog San Francisco reported in the middle of the night that the two major transportation funding measures had passed and the effort to turn the Sunset Dunes Park back into a highway had failed. Head to Streetsblog SF for full coverage.

State Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) may be the most-written about politician at Streetsblog California not named Newsom or Trump in the past decade. Wiener was in a competitive race against San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan to replace the retiring Nancy Pelosi. There are still votes to be counted, but Wiener has a 10.8 percent lead as of the morning of November 4.

Fresno County

There was some bad news. Measure S in Fresno appears to be headed for defeat. The measure would have replaced a 30-year sales tax that will expire on July 1 with a new one that had a much more progressive spending plan. Supporters of the measure had to jump through so many hoops to get the measure on the ballot (forming a coalition, drafting a plan, collecting the signatures, fighting with the supervisors, getting state legislation passed and signed, fighting with the supervisors again, and winning a court cast), that the defeat is all the more heartbreaking.

This essentially means that if there’s a major or minor transportation project that the county wants to build, it will need to find the money to do it in their general fund. It also greatly hinders their ability to earn grants from the state or federal government lacking matching funds.

However, the City of Fresno had the foresight to see this possibility and had their own tax on the ballot which would only go into effect if Measure S failed. That tax, Measure D, is sailing to approval. Measure D raises the sales tax in the City of Fresno by the same amount, .5 cents per dollar, that the expiring county-wide tax currently charges. Funds raised go to the city’s general fund, but Mayor Jerry Dyer and a majority of the city council pledged to use those funds for transportation purposes, including funding citywide transit. Of course, that promise expires when the current political leadership leaves office.

While Streetsblog didn’t cover this election with original reporting, if you followed “Today’s Headlines” you are familiar with the story of Naindeep Singh. Singh was arrested for suspicion of DUI last week, while locked into a tight race with Rob Fuentes for a city council position. After the Fresno police admitted they “made an error,” Singh was cleared of all charges. Singh holds a six vote lead as counting continues.

Both Regional Measures We Urged a “No” Vote on Are Barely Passing As of the Morning of 11/4

While Streetsblog didn’t spill much ink in the effort, we did urge voters to reject a pair of transportation tax renewals in Riverside and San Bernardino County. Neither measure had a fast-approaching deadline requiring renewal at this moment in time, and both had spending plans that are out-of-step with the state’s climate goals and won’t create the kinds of transportation systems to make these areas better places to walk, bike, or take transit.

However, both Measure A in Riverside and Measure I in San Bernardino have over the ⅔ of the vote that they need heading into today’s count. Streetsblog will keep an eye on these numbers and update this story should either slip below the ⅔ threshold.