Nate is an East Bay community papers editor for the Bay Area News Group and East Bay Times. He edits the Hills weekly Alameda Journal, Berkeley Voice, El Cerrito Journal, Montclarion and Piedmonter newspapers; Central Costa County's weekly Concord Transcript and Walnut Creek Journal papers; and East Contra Costa's weekly East County News.
Once again, California voters demonstrated in this fall’s voting season that they are liberal – but not so far left as many of the politicians they usually elect.
Just like its two predecessors, the 2018 Prop. 10 and 2020’s Prop. 21, this fall’s Prop. 33 lost handily. Like the others, it sought to end the 1995 Costa/Hawkins Act, which exempts most rental units built after 1995 from local rent controls. Prop. 33 actually would have let all local governments set rent controls as strictly as they like, even to cover brand-new apartments and single-family homes.
Where voters previously approved a similar cut to the majority needed for passage of school construction bonds, they easily said no to this one.