Why 2023 Has Been A Crazy Year For The Bay Area

By Ian Firstenberg

It’s been less than seven months since the start of 2023 and with that in mind, it’s worthwhile to take a second to reflect on some of the strangest happenings in one of California’s strangest locales.  

Too. Much. Rain.

A storm to start the year always seems like a sign from God, wherever she may be, that things will be hectic if not fully chaotic that year. It’s a bad omen, too biblical to ignore. Calling it a “bomb cyclone” is very cool though and weather is the lingering draw to cable news, so any big weather event generally draws a lot of worthwhile coverage.  

This year’s bomb cyclone was brutal for Northern California. Nearly 20 people died from weather related accidents during the atmosphere shelling. 

While it helped out drought numbers a bit, the human cost alone wasn’t worth it. It also seems like, on a longer time frame, this is as noted… a bad omen. The effects of climate change include prolonged deviations from what would ordinarily be the standard weather of a particular region. While the Bay Area has been hit by severe storms in the past and likely will again, it seems a bit foolhardy to rely on the downpours to remedy the droughts.  

For the Liberal bastion that it is, the Bay Areas infrastructure is dog shit. Roads and highways, bridges and tunnels. All could use a revamping. We’re the fifth(?) fourth (?) third (?) economy in the world. We’re one of the top five economies in the world damnit, we should have better bridges and streets. While we’re at, make BART cheaper. Better yet, take it under state ownership, like the MTA. Cheaper rates would probably help with the “fare evasion problem”.  

Tech Layoffs:

Tech layoffs have really hit everyone hard. There are four or five posts a day about it now. Losing your job sucks especially if you’re already in a somewhat tenuous financial situation. Besides their venture capital money, the companies as a whole had largely gotten a bit too used to the cheap federal money (either through lower interest rates or those covidbucks). They viewed their ever expanding profits during the pandemic as a prediction for the future rather than an economic anomaly.  

When the cheap cash dried up, the Content Creators and UX Designers were the first to go. Then the Engineers and whoever else was not in the elite senior gold exclusive AMEX tier.  The companies won’t tank for too long, if at all, and will be back to business as usual in no time. Many of the tech giants have already grafted themselves to the American financial system. No one has the political will or financial capital to perform the much needed separation.  

With that being said, it’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe we get the next disruptor. The next Spotify, the next Limewire, maybe the next Napster?

San Jose Police Union Executive Director Accused of Drug Dealing:

This one was really just too much. It seemed like a prank at first.  

Occasionally, dear reader, there are those stories that seem too crazy to be true. Often they include some item being stuck somewhere it shouldn’t (inside a human perchance?) but sometimes it can just be the run of the mill police union drug ring.  

While it may not be as prevalent now, about two decades ago when I was going trick or treating, my mom warned me that people were putting razorblades, or worse yet, drugs in the candy.  

The razorblades seemed frightening but the drugs seemed, expensive. Even at that age I knew, drugs cost money, too much money to be doling out to every kid dressed as Zorro or Batman.  

Joanne Segovia, executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association (POA), got charged with drug trafficking and eventually fired (on what grounds? She showed initiative. A real self starter.) but most of the articles mention that she worked there for 20 years, though they note the fent distribution was only from 2015 onward. I wonder if she sold Thizz during the Hyphy Movement? 

There’s a lot of worthwhile points to be made about how people in power — especially members of the police — use their position to bend the law to their behest, but that’s an entirely different article.

The Murder of CashApp Founder, Bob Lee:

This one was weird from the start. The details about where and when he was found seemed odd and the immediate media response was most of the same right wing bullshit about SF as the most violent city on the West Coast. Right wing pundits use any story about SF to go on a diatribe about homelessness and crime and fent, which is…ahem…sometimes sold by Police Union directors.  

Bob Lee’s death was both untimely and tragic, but the media’s attempt to frame it as an example of San Francisco’s failings when the alleged killer was also a tech CEO, shows how quick rightwing media will churn out garbage to advance a narrative, and how other mainstream media will follow suit for cheap clicks.

San Francisco has plenty of problems, but the YouTube guys and Tucker, and the rest have no interest in solving them. Their thinly veiled right wing babble holds no influence over anyone capable of critically thinking.

The Public Execution of Banko Brown:   

Despite the ridiculousness of these stories, there is another bit of Bay Area news that is critical to mention. On April 27, 24-year-old Banko Brown was shot and killed by a Walgreens security guard on Market Street. Brooke Jenkins, the embattled DA, declined to press charges and California Attorney General Rob Bonta is now reviewing the case to assess her decision. It seems unlikely that the AG will come out with a condemnation of Jenkins here and this is likely, however cynical it may seem, a way to quell the public discussion and sweep this further under the rug.  

The video itself is harrowing to watch and the incident and the subsequent discourse around the killing is representative of the broader issues within the Bay Area. As the region becomes more brutal to those on the margins, like Banko Brown, incidents of violence like this one will continue to crop up. There are solutions for people marginalized by the unforgiving culture and pace of the Bay Area, but none involve more armed security.  

Unfortunately, that’s the only solution elected officials like Brooke Jenkins, or London Breed seek to implement because it’s cheap and easy. The Bay Area’s elected officials have chosen an easy route out for the gifted few. Those lucky enough to be deemed worthy of saving, get a chance to live. Otherwise, you have to fend for yourself. 

A Bunch of Other Crazy Shit:

We’re cherry picking the biggest events but there have been plenty of other breaking stories that haven’t made as much news nationally, like the ongoing Oakland teacher’s strike, Oakland’s Catholic diocese files for bankruptcy due to sex abuse claims, San Francisco’s former fire commissioner spraying homeless people with bear mace, Dianne Fienstein’s continued mental decline and more.    

Those with the power to fix the woes of inequity of poverty in the Bay have no willingness to do so and would rather take the cheap, and often bloody route out.  That leaves it to us, to make something a little better for ourselves and those that come after us. The ensuing six months will surely be less hectic and more uplifting than the previous, but we’ll check back in at the end of the year for another round up.

Until then, readers, log off for a little while and go outside.