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The San Diego Monitor
MILLENNIALS, RAPPERS, AND REVOLUTION: INSIDE BERNIE SANDERS’S
The old, white senator from Vermont has become an unlikely hero to black and Hispanic millennials in Los Angeles. At a private lunch last month in Hollywood, Sanders explained his vision for winning minority voters—and snatching the nomination from Joe Biden.
PLAYBOOK FOR WINNING THE BLACK VOTE
wo weeks before he would appear at the Iowa State Fair, surrounded by a sea of whiteness, Bernie Sanders was at the Italian restaurant Chi Spacca, in Hollywood, trying to shore up another key constituency. The presidential candidate, who remains a serious contender for the Democratic nomination despite having slipped in the polls, was having lunch with 25 or so creatives—writers, musicians, artists and socialmedia mavens, most of whom were African American or Latino. The topics of conversation were typically Sanders: Medicare for All, student debt relief, and criminal justice reform. But for keen political observers, the Chi Spacca strategy session—described by one attendee as closed-door and “definitely off the record”—also had another goal: eating into Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s base of support with black voters—voters who are, by almost any estimation, the most reliable pillar of the Democratic base. It was a somewhat unusual scene for Sanders, who seems to dislike the glitterati, never mind people in general, and who has studiously avoided the sort of $2,800-a-plate parties that are a staple for other candidates jetting in and out of Hollywood. Like Elizabeth Warren, Sanders has mostly eschewed big-dollar donors in New York, L.A., and Silicon Valley in favor of a more national network of so-called ordinary people who give $20 or $30 a pop. (Biden and Harris have a little more than a quarter million individual donors. Sanders has nearly three times that.) Sanders prefers to wag his finger, to be earnest, to lecture—about inequality, structural imbalances, socking it to the billionaire class. He seems permanently furrowed, slovenly, cantankerous. He has no time to glad-hand. But there he was at Chi Spacca, where the tomahawk pork chop runs $90, and the beef Florentine is $195. Sanders ordered steak. The campaign picked up the tab. During his last presidential bid, Sanders was accused by Black Lives Matter activists of neglecting race relations and criminal justice reform. He appears to be trying, this time, not to let that happen again. Continued pg.7
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The San Diego Monitor
Dark-Side PUBLIC HOUSING This piece was originally published in CityLab and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership . It is well-established that the lower a family’s income, the more that family will pay for lighting and heating the house, running appliances, and keeping the wi-fi on. Such outcomes would suggest that this is a class problem or a function of rational markets. But according to a new study, all low-income households are not equally yoked: Residents of poorer, predominately white neighborhoods are less energy-cost burdened than people in predominately minority neighborhoods of similar economic status. Race matters. Residents of minority neighborhoods who make less than 50 percent of area median income (AMI) are 27 percent more energy-cost burdened than residents from the same wage bracket who live in white neighborhoods. This is one of the findings from the study, “Energy Cost Burdens for Low-Income and Minority Households,” recently published in the Journal of the American Planning Association and conducted by New York University urban planning researchers Constantine E. Kontokosta and Bartosz Bonczak, and University of Pennsylvania urban planning professor Vincent J. Reina. The research team analyzed energy consumption data from an estimated 13,000 apartment buildings across five cities— Boston, Cambridge, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, DC—taking advantage of energy disclosure ordinances in those cities, across census blocks and even at the individual building level.
At the census block level, they found energy cost burden disparities between white and minority neighborhoods not only for the lowest-income families, but also for households whose incomes fall within 51 to 80 percent of AMI and 81 to 120 percent of AMI. In these brackets, families in minority neighborhoods are more energy cost burdened by an average of 24 percent. In New York City and DC, researchers found that residents of minority neighborhoods were more cost-burdened even at middle-class incomes, or 121-to-150 percent of AMI. “Regardless of income, if that disparity exists, then if nothing else, it’s just a consistent statement of the fact that it’s race,” says Reina. “We care from an environmental perspective about all of our consumption levels, but from an energy justice perspective, we particularly care about the lowest-income households because those have the least agency in making decisions that can actually affect their consumption levels.” The findings confirm other studies that energy burden inequities are driven in part by racial segregation, such as work from the Urban Energy Justice Lab, which drew similar conclusions when looking at Kansas City and Detroit. They also confirm studies, such as those done by the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy, that show that the poorest families are paying a larger share of their income than wealthy families: Reina’s research shows that lower-income households are spending between 10 and 20 percent of their wages on energy bills in these cities compared to wealthy families who pay on average between 1.5 and 3 percent of their income on energy. Continued on pg.6
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The San Diego Monitor
What do They Want To KNOW? What Everyone Needs to Know About 2020 Census Questions
By law, the U.S. government is required to count the number of people living in the United States every 10 years. Getting an accurate count is important because census numbers impact daily life in the United States in many ways. For example, census data are often used to determine how much federal funding is allocated for important projects and services that benefit local communities. The census also plays a vital role in our nation’s system of government by determining how many representatives will be sent to Congress from each state.
Because getting an accurate count is so important, the process is designed to be fast, easy, and safe. On average, it takes no more than 10 minutes to answer the questions on the census. How Are Census Data Collected? During the first census in 1790, census takers visited nearly every U.S. home to gather data. In 2020, households will have the option of responding online, by mail, or by phone. The Census Bureau expects many households to complete the questionnaire online, using instructions received in the mail. These instructions will also include information about how to respond by phone. Some households will receive a printed questionnaire which they can mail, postage-free, back to the
Be Counted! SDMNEWS’S Motivation Information
Census Bureau. A small percentage of households, primarily located in remote areas of the country, will be visited by a census taker who will help collect the necessary information to complete the form. Who Receives the Census Questionnaire and How Is It Filled Out? Most housing units in the United States that receive mail at their physical location will receive a letter by mail with instructions on how to complete the census questionnaire. Housing units include houses, apartments, cabins, mobile homes—pretty much any place where people live in the United States. In areas where the majority of housing units do not have mail delivered to their physical location, census workers will leave questionnaire packages at every identified housing unit. The census process also includes special provisions to count people who are homeless and those in other types of living quarters, such as college dorms, military barracks, ships, prisons, nursing homes, and homeless shelters. The person in the housing unit who fills out the census questionnaire or talks to the census taker is known as Person 1. Typically, Person 1 is the owner/co-owner or renter/corenter of the housing unit. READ MORE sdmonitornews.com
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The San Diego Monitor
SDMNEWS Must Read 2020 CA Census Guide Table of Contents Section 1: General Information (PDF) •
Initiative and Referendum Qualification Requirements
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Candidate Qualifications and Information
Section 2: Nomination Requirements (PDF) •
Presidential Candidates
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United States Representative in Congress, and Member of the State Legislature Candidates
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Nomination Documents – Nomination Papers and Declaration of Candidacy
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Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee
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Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee and/or Nomination Papers
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Ballot Designations
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In General
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Campaign Filings and Responsibilities
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Candidate Intention Statement
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Campaign Contribution Account
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Exceptions
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Additional Filing Information
Section 3: Candidate Filing Information (PDF) •
Required Filing Fees, Nomination Signatures
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Write-In Candidates for the Office of President
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Write-In Candidates for Voter-Nominated Offices
In-Lieu
Signatures,
Section 4: Candidate Checklist (PDF) •
President of the United States
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United States Representative in Congress
For download please go to www.sdmonitornews.com
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The metric to understand here is energy use intensity, or EUI, which is the amount of energy a household uses per square foot. While white households consume more energy overall, black and Latino households have higher EUI, usually as a result of segregation where minority families dwell in neighborhoods with older housing stocks and smaller units.
Reina’s team found that households from both the lowest and highest income brackets had the highest EUIs in the cities they studied, but the reasons differed. For wealthier households, high EUI was a function of their own behavior— having more appliances and electronic devices with heavier
The San Diego Monitor Usage of each, or even just leaving lights and the heat on because they can afford to. Energy efficiency programs and technology could bring down their EUI, but these households could also just modify their behavior or their consumption habits for reductions, as well. On the other hand, poorer households could modify their habits all they want and would still have high EUI, because for these households, EUI is often a function of having larger families or more people living within a relatively small unit, like an apartment, with inefficient heating and lighting infrastructure. Although this demographic is often told to change their behavior, much about their EUI is out of their control. Reina’s study shows how using data from energy audits and energy disclosure laws can help city officials better craft energy efficiency policies that target the buildings and families who most need them. Yet higher EUIs among lower-income households are also an outcome of how government regulates their living situations. It’s housing policies that are the problem, particularly when it comes to subsidized and public housing. Read entire interview on www.sdmonitornews.com
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The San Diego Monitor The point of the meeting, said Ferrari Sheppard, an artist and musician who was there, was to hear from attendees about the struggles faced by the black and brown communities. On criminal justice reform, student loan forgiveness, and health care, there was general agreement, Sheppard, 36, said. “He has something that’s really attractive to young people, which is a grassroots demeanor,” said Sheppard, who, with Mos Def, makes up the hip-hop duo Dec 99th. “He’s eating his steak while he’s talking to you. He says, ‘Hold on while I chew this.’” When it came to the Middle East, things got awkward. Sheppard, speaking from his studio in L.A.’s Arts District, said rapper Vic Mensa “brought up the Palestine conflict, which kind of made the room tense, not because of us, but because of Bernie and his people, who got quiet, and Bernie deflected the question and moved back to domestic issues.” Sheppard said he didn’t care for Sanders “glossing over the United States’ continual glossing over [of] the Israeli occupation.… That just reminded me that you’re up against this huge machine.” Mensa, who had headlined a Sanders fund-raiser the night before at Hollywood’s Montalbán theater, said he remains a steadfast supporter.
What matters most, said Mensa, 26, is Sanders’s record fighting for civil rights, which stretches back to the 1960s. For many black millennials, including Mensa, the No. 1 issue is criminal justice reform—the easing of mandatory minimum sentences, narrowing sentencing disparities between crackand cocaine-related crimes, and the elimination of bail, among other provisions. But the 2020 election is a quandary for the nation’s 30 million eligible black voters, who have been told they must choose between a nominee who can win white, working-class voters in the Upper Midwest and one who will do something about the 500% increase in the prison population over the past four decades. The politics are complicated: A plurality of black voters currently support Biden, the front-runner in the race, who helped author a 1994 “tough on crime” law that has been accused of contributing to mass incarceration in the 1990s. (Sanders has said he regrets voting for the bill.). Mensa, speaking from his home in L.A.’s upscale Silver Lake neighborhood, focused his criticism on Harris. “Kamala Harris is a cop,” he said. “She’s a tough-on-crime prosecutor. That’s like the opposite of a revolutionary, and I could never vote for her.… I’m not impressed because she’s a woman of color, because I recognize what neocolonialism is. READ MRE www.sdmonitornews.com WWW.SDMONITORNEWS.COM