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As of Wednesday, every state in the nation had at least started reopening parts of their economies that had been shut down in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
In California, that process — complex, though it’s been — has been accelerating, with at least 36 of the state’s 58 counties filing documents saying they’re ready to allow dine-in restaurants and a host of other kinds of businesses to reopen, with modifications.
And while some states are continuing to see cases rise, the data in California is promising. Still, officials here have cautioned repeatedly: Don’t assume we’re out of the woods yet.
Here’s what else to read today
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“Hi, my name is Jessica. I’m calling on behalf of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. I’m part of a contact-tracing team.” [The New York Times]
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More than a month after the program started, almost half of the 15,000 hotel and motel rooms California leased largely to house homeless people were empty. [The Los Angeles Times]
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Even as Tulare County reported a spike in new cases and four more deaths, leaders voted to defy the state’s orders and reopen many businesses. [Visalia Times Delta]
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A proposal to adjust the state’s landmark gig-labor law to address the concerns of freelance journalists, musicians and others, passed its first legislative hurdle. [The Sacramento Bee]
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In the wake of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, readers shared their experiences of running while black: “On the surface, Los Angeles is a mostly liberal town, but the white privilege runs deep.” [The New York Times]
And finally …
We’re taking a quick break from pandemic news to hear from our newest California correspondent, Shawn Hubler, who is based in Sacramento.
You may have seen her most recent articles, about how the fall semester will be different for college students returning to campuses across the country, including California’s big public universities.
But her career covering California has spanned decades, and regular news consumers may already recognize her name. (I certainly did.)
I emailed Shawn some questions about what she wants to dig into, and how she’s staying sane. Here’s our conversation, edited and condensed:
First, tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
Like many Californians, I’m not from California. I’m from Central Pennsylvania, from a very small rural community in which my father’s side of the family had lived for centuries. I grew up surrounded by two strip mine pits and 400 acres of trees.
I had a summer job at our county newspaper, The Clearfield Progress, and I used the money one year to drive cross-country to visit a boy. The boy didn’t work out, but I fell in love with California.
The pale blue of the sky, the giant smoothness of the freeway, the D.J.s on KROQ, the real, actual palm trees. After college and a newspaper job in Arizona, I found my way back, married a native Californian, spent 18 years at The Los Angeles Times and raised three terrific daughters in suburban Los Angeles, San Francisco and Laguna Beach.
My husband, Bob Magnuson, is a former journalist and news executive who spent many years at The Los Angeles Times.
We live in Sacramento now, where my last jobs were as an editor at the nonprofit policy news site CalMatters and, before that, as a member of the editorial board at The Sacramento Bee. I also worked part time for a few years while my children were younger. Want to really get to know a place? Raise some kids there.
What made you want to get back into reporting after spending time as an editor?
I enjoyed editing, but most of my career has been in reporting and writing about California. And it’s hard to turn your back for long on this place.
Unlike some parts of the world, California derives its identity from the people who live here, not vice versa, which means the story of this place is always a new story. Someone’s always striking the set and moving on to a new thing.
What issues facing California are you most interested in digging into, and why?
Not long ago, we ran a story about how green technology was poised to eclipse coal in this country. I showed it to a friend at the Capitol, an environmental policymaker, and he said: “I hope this doesn’t sound self-serving, but I’m very proud of that. It represents 30 years of my life’s work.”
This guy wasn’t boasting. There was a time when the phrase “green technology” was sneered at — everywhere but in California.
That excites me, California’s history of changing things. So I’m interested in the efforts here to make improvements at scale.
Obviously, this pandemic is a news event unlike anything most people have ever experienced. But how are you thinking about it in terms of California’s big seismic shifts? (Literal or otherwise.)
When big seismic shifts happen here, people always imagine they’re happening all over the state and everyone here will be changed forever.
But California is huge and real change takes a long time. When I drove home from Florence and Normandie after the L.A. riots to Whittier, where we lived then, the streets downtown were full of smoke and fire hoses but the jacaranda were blooming on our block. After the freeway fell down in L.A. in the Northridge earthquake, everyone was sure that public transit was finally going to have its moment. And it sort of did, until they fixed the freeway.
As a disaster, this pandemic plays to certain strengths in California. This entire state is built around single-occupancy vehicles and single family homes. Biotech is a major industry here. And being forced to stop and think about what we could do differently — that’s a dream come true for some people.
That said, I think it’s going to take a long time to recover from this trauma. The cost is going to be breathtaking. The grief is already immeasurable. And the wildfires haven’t even begun.
Lastly, you live in Sacramento. How have you been staying sane? Any good walks? Any takeout spots or produce purveyors to recommend? (I’m so jealous of the produce in Sacramento …)
The produce! Full Belly Farm, Soil Born Farms, Ray Yeung’s tomatoes, the olive oil made by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation in Capay Valley. The cherries our neighbor left on our front step the other day from some orchard in Rio Linda. Also really inspiring is the public spiritedness of the food people here.
We live near the American River. And almost every day, we go for a walk there.
A lot of times, there’s just the wind and the trees and maybe some quail or wild turkeys and the sound of water. The other day, there was a guy on a bench playing jazz on his trumpet. He was wonderful. I stood at a social distance and he played me some Louis Armstrong.
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
