Latest news with #Wiener
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
California officials bracing for potential large-scale Trump funding attack on state
SACRAMENTO — California officials were bracing Friday for a potential major escalation in President Donald Trump 's efforts to starve the state of federal funding, including possibly the elimination of money for the University of California, sources said. CNN reported Friday morning that the Trump administration is preparing to terminate a wide array of federal grant funds to the state, an effort which could begin as soon as Friday. Sources told the Chronicle that the state has not received official notification of the cuts, and it was not immediately clear which grants might be targeted or how widespread they might be. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said he has been on alert about UC funding in particular. The Trump administration launched an investigation into the university system in March over allegations of antisemitism on the school's campuses. Wiener, who is Jewish and has been a vocal critic of antisemitism, derided any efforts to cut federal funding from UC. 'We don't know exactly what they're going to do and when they're going to do it, but we've been bracing ourselves for a while for Trump to go after UC,' he said. 'This has nothing to do with antisemitism and everything to do with Trump's desire to go after higher education. … Trump doesn't care about jews or antisemitism, he only cares about his own power. They are on a methodical quest to destroy higher education in this country.' California is heavily reliant on federal funding to run both the UC and California State University systems, its health care program for low-income people and its public k-12 schools. Trump has repeatedly threatened various federal funding sources over California's policies. On Wednesday, his administration moved to cut billions in high speed rail funding, and last week he threatened to cut federal education money over the California rules that allow transgender athletes to compete in girls sports. Any efforts by the Trump administration to cut federal funds will be challenged in court. So far, California is already involved in dozens of lawsuits against the federal government over efforts to pull back federal funds and challenge other policies targeting the state. Trump tried to cut federal funds from California during his first term, too, much of which the state successfully blocked in court. Wiener said he could not comment on exactly what conversations are happening in state government around the threatened cuts, but confirmed that state officials are bracing themselves and preparing to sue. 'I can't comment on exactly who we've talked to, but I can say we're very aware of Trump's threats against California, both against UC and California's k-12 education system,' he said. 'If he takes these actions, we are planning to fight.' U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, criticized the potential cuts in a post on X, linking to CNN's reporting. 'It's impossible to argue that Trump cares about Americans. Impossible,' she wrote. 'This will hurt millions of Americans, destroy the US's competitive advantage in science & medicine. And all for spite & ego.'
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
California bill allowing more housing near transit stops narrowly passes Senate
State Sen. Scott Wiener's bill to legalize mid-rise apartments around major transit stops squeezed through the state Senate Tuesday, five years after his previous attempt died in the same chamber. Senate Bill 79 would allow taller, denser projects — whether housing or commercial — to be built within a half-mile of some transit stops, with the most generous bonuses reserved for projects near major systems like BART, Caltrain and parts of the Los Angeles Metro. The maximum height and density would depend on how close a project is to a transit stop, and the type of transit it's near. Most projects would likely be buildings between four and six stories, said Michael Lane, state policy director with urban policy think tank SPUR, which backed the bill. The bill would also allow projects built on land owned by transit agencies to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act, a law that critics say often leads to yearslong development delays, if they include an improvement to the transit infrastructure. In a nail-biting session in which the bill at first didn't have enough support — that is, until some members showed up at the last minute to pass it — SB 79 received the exact number of votes it needed to pass the state Senate. It still needs to get through the Assembly to become law. But its passage in the first chamber reflects a potential shift in legislators' willingness to push through housing bills over the opposition of cities — and even some of its Democratic members. The shift illustrates how housing affordability has become an increasingly vital political issue — particularly in the Bay Area, where all but one of the senators representing the region supported the bill. California renters continue to be burdened at some of the highest rates in the nation, with the cost of building housing far above that of other states. Wiener's last attempt at a transit-oriented housing bill, which was more expansive and would have also allowed for denser housing near job centers, died in the Senate by three votes in 2020. The lawmaker said that this time, the legislation is 'nuanced and surgical,' focusing largely on major transit systems. Smaller transit systems, such as those without dedicated bus lanes or signal priority, wouldn't be covered by the bill. 'California urgently needs to build more homes to bring down costs, and building them near transit provides our public transportation systems with an urgently needed infusion of new riders,' Wiener said. 'This is an idea whose time has come.' A portion of the homes built through SB 79, would have to be set aside for lower-income households, as determined by either local law or state density requirements. Supporters of the bill, which include a number of California YIMBY groups, said SB 79 would simultaneously address housing, transit and the environment. It would allow for housing within walking distance of trains, light rails and buses, they argued, reducing residents' reliance on cars and giving a boost to the state's struggling transit systems. 'These are not skyscrapers that we are asking for,' Lane of SPUR said. 'It's just that kind of density that can help our transit systems work throughout the Bay, or even outside of the larger cities where we do have that robust transit.' But dozens of California cities, including Napa, Palo Alto, San Rafael and Walnut Creek, staunchly oppose the bill, saying it would effectively contradict their own housing plans by letting developers build at a scale they never intended for their neighborhoods. 'There is already accumulating data that purport to show that overriding local control like this, given that most local housing elements include state housing mandates, has not resulted in needed housing,' Alice Fredericks, legislative committee chair of the Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers, said in a statement. 'SB 79 further eviscerates local control without even pretending to be in service of filling the need for housing.' Wiener said he took such concerns into account. SB 79 would allow cities and counties to create an 'alternative plan' that trims the density around one transit stop in exchange for boosting density along another, as long as this doesn't lower the number of feasible units. And whatever homes were built would generally still have to follow other local development rules and go through environmental review, unless the developer used a separate streamlining law such as SB 423. Still, some of the bill's strongest critics were Wiener's fellow Democrats. Some said on Tuesday that California's transit systems, many of which are still struggling to regain ridership post-COVID, are not yet robust enough to justify building housing nearby. Others expressed concern that the bill doesn't do enough to prevent displacement or build subsidized housing. If members of the state Assembly take those concerns seriously, they could lead SB 79 to the same fate as Wiener's last transit-oriented housing bill.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump administration pulls $4 billion in federal funding for California high-speed rail
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to pull the plug on federal funding to California's high-speed rail project. Following a review of the $4 billion in federal funds allocated to California's bullet train project launched in February, the Transportation Department said it plans to terminate federal funding for the project, according to a report released Wednesday. 'We have $4 billion that has been authorized to go to California to build this project and we don't want to invest in boondoggles,' Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy told Fox News Wednesday. The state will have 30 days to make the case that it has complied with the grant's terms and any corrective action it plans to take before the federal government can terminate funding. The Transportation Department is not asking for the state to repay federal funding previously given for the project, but said it could do so in the future — although any attempts to do so would likely be unsuccessful. 'What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere. In essence, (the California High-Speed Rail Authority) has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time,' Drew Feeley, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said. The federal government 'cannot continue to commit taxpayer dollars to (the California High-Speed Rail Authority's) Sisyphean endeavor,' Feeley said. California's high-speed rail project is a 'story of broken promises and of waste of Federal taxpayer dollars.' The Trump administration has 'been laying the groundwork for this for month. They're completely hostile, not just to California high-speed rail, but rail in general and public transportation,' state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, told the Chronicle. 'This is a Neanderthal administration that probably thinks public transportation is a communist plot.' Wiener, a staunch proponent of the bullet train, acknowledged the project's challenges. 'We certainly have to do better in California in terms of project delivery, but … it's not a reason to start canceling major, transformative public infrastructure projects. We need to find a way to get these projects done more efficiently and more effectively,' Wiener said. The first Trump administration pursued terminating the project's funding in 2019, but the Biden administration negotiated a 2021 settlement with the state to continue supporting the segment from Bakersfield to Merced. The project's costs — initially estimated to be $33 billion and now expected to cost between $89 billion and $128 billion — have ballooned and its timelines have been repeatedly delayed. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats have not backed down on funding for high-speed rail in past budgets, despite opposition from Republicans. Newsom has acknowledged for months that Trump would try to claw back money for the project, just as Trump did during his first term. Newsom has promised to fight any efforts to revoke the money. The high-speed rail funding is just one bucket of federal money Trump has threatened to withhold from California, along with federal health care and education funding. 'There still is the rule of law, still the court system, there's still due process,' Newsom told reporters in January when he unveiled an initial version of his 2025-26 state budget proposal. 'You can threaten, as Trump has consistently done ... but ultimately those federal dollars will be recovered.' Since January, California's budget outlook has deteriorated significantly, and the Newsom administration now predicts California faces a $12 billion shortfall, which will make it harder for state officials to backfill any federal funding cuts. Newsom and lawmakers are negotiating over the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year and must reach a deal on how to balance the budget this month to meet constitutional deadlines. Even with the state's difficult financial situation this year, Wiener said he expected the project to move forward because 'it's not about one year, this is about the long-term health and economic strength of California.' Republicans have for years decried the project's skyrocketing costs and lack of progress. President Donald Trump told reporters Feb. 5 that he would personally investigate the high-speed rail project. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin (Placer County), introduced legislation on Jan. 6 to make the project ineligible for further federal funding, the same day Newsom drove a symbolic spike in the ground to celebrate the rail line's first 22-mile segment, from the border of Tulare and Kern counties to Poplar Avenue in Wasco (Kern County). Republicans in the Legislature sent a letter to Trump Feb. 13 expressing support for his probe and saying they have a duty to constituents to 'carefully examine the viability of this project.' 'I want to see high-speed rail in America,' Duffy said. 'Why it can't be built in America and why it can't be built within time frames that work for the people that invest in these projects makes no sense to me.' State leaders have focused largely on finishing the stretch of high-speed rail track from Merced to Bakersfield, with the idea of linking it to two other bullet train lines: the High Desert Corridor in Los Angeles, and the privately owned Brightline West route from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County). Ultimately, they also want to connect to Caltrain's commuter line on the Peninsula, patching together a network that somewhat resembles the original vision from the mid-1990s. The loss of this funding would 'certainly be a setback, but it is a relatively small percentage of the overall budget of the project,' Wiener said. 'It's not a death knell.'
Eyewitness News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Eyewitness News
REVIEW: `Book People' by Paige Nick gets thumbs up from Mandy Wiener
Everyone is talking about `Book People', says Wiener. It was recently released at book festivals at Franschhoek in the Western Cape and Kingsmead in Gauteng. Nick runs the Facebook group, 'The Good Book Appreciation Society', where people go to review books and share recommendations. Wiener says the book is based on the drama of that group. Although she says it must be fictionalised because the group is quite well-behaved. Paige says Wiener may have missed about 5% of posts. She says things can get heated and out of control on the page when there are topics like Trump and Musk or Israel and Palestine.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
New California budget could slash $1.5 billion from transit
California leaders are poised to cut $1.5 billion in funding for public transit from a state greenhouse gas emissions program, a move that could cripple agencies already devastated by COVID. The funds at issue come from California's Cap-and-Invest plan, which collects fees from oil and fossil fuel companies and distributes them among projects and agencies that reduce pollution. Some of that money goes toward transit infrastructure, and over the past two years lawmakers have also dedicated a portion toward basic service. But Gov. Gavin Newsom removed that economic life raft in the 2025-2026 budget proposal he rolled out last week, at a moment of economic austerity. Many programs could be scaled back as the state faces a $12 billion shortfall. Newsom's draft budget did not fulfill a request from state Sen. Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley, to set aside $2 billion for transit operations. With roughly a month left in the budget process, agencies and advocates are vying for the governor's ear, and scrambling to convey their importance. Legislators must pass a budget for Newsom to sign before the next fiscal year starts on July 1. 'Throughout their history, California transit agencies have been partners with the state in combatting climate change and addressing air quality issues by inciting mode shift, incubating and deploying near-zero and zero-emission vehicle technologies, and facilitating sustainable growth patterns throughout California,' wrote Michael Pimentel, executive director of the California Transit Association, in a letter to Newsom, State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, and State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire. The letter called for $1.6 billion in continuous appropriations for transit, along with $1.1 billion in one-time funding. State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat and longtime steward of public transportation, fervently objected to what he sees as the gutting of an emergency bailout. Wiener had pushed Newsom and his legislator colleagues to commit money in 2023 so that bus and rail agencies could keep running a reasonable amount of service. He's worried those funds will evaporate in the next budget. On Thursday, Wiener voiced objections on social media to the governor's 'proposed sweep of $1.5 billion from cap and trade funds.' He predicted drastic ripple effects, including a $290 million cut from BART, $200 million slashed from Muni and $250 million from Los Angeles Metro. Projects in San Diego, Orange County, Sacramento, the Central Valley and the Inland Empire could all be imperiled, among them high-speed rail and the BART extension to downtown San Jose.
