California is facing a significant housing problem that its governor, Gavin Newsom, is very aware of. Newsom has also done many things to better the situation at hand. Therefore, it is understandable that he gets defensive when people try to use the housing crisis against him.
The governor sat in an interview with Seth Meyers on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and had much to say. First, the interviewer started the interview by asking Newsom how he responds to San Francisco’s “very real problems.”
He asked, “It does feel like Republicans, conservatives, they try to make that the avatar for what’s wrong with Democratic policies. Those are very real problems San Francisco has. How do you even start to address them?”
Newsom responded, “Look, they’ve been on a doom loop about San Francisco ever since Nancy Pelosi became Speaker.” He also argued that California’s economy is better than the Republicans would like us to think. He said California “outperformed the American economy,” much to their surprise.
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He also noted that 27% of all U.S. jobs in the past month came from his state. Therefore, these are not achievements of a failing state. Newsom also talked about the conservative critics who only bring up the city’s struggles.
He said, “They have to focus on our failures in order for them to be right. So we’re used to it out there, and we still maintain our resiliency.”
Again, most of the struggles, such as crime, drugs, and homelessness, are well documented to help the government tackle the problems. To him, San Francisco is a “special and unique place” despite all its flaws. He is also quite “proud of” the city and its accomplishments. He was also the city’s mayor from 2004 to 2011.
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Therefore, Newsom is understandably defensive when people try to downgrade his city. “Yeah, I’m defensive about it. So don’t believe all that negativity,” he said.
Meyers then gave a reason for the homelessness the city has been facing recently. From his point of view, California’s Democratic voters may be the primary cause of this.
This is because they do not want to live side by side with “homeless people” whom they believe are of a lower rank. He said, “Money only does so much. It does seem like, and I think you agree with this, that the issue is there aren’t enough homes.”
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He continued, “You can’t blame it on conservatives. This is often your own liberal support base that doesn’t want housing for the homeless in their neighborhoods.” Newsom nodded in agreement, admitting that this was true.
Furthermore, he mentioned his various efforts to curb this problem. He said he recently threatened San Francisco and other cities in the state with lawsuits if they did not move people without homes into housing.
In addition, he announced that the state would provide about $300 million to help clear out homeless camps and move those affected into proper houses. In conclusion, Meyers agreed but called him out on his lagging projects. He mentioned the billions of dollars the governor spent on a rail project that is still under construction even though it began 15 years ago.
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