It's a safe bet that not a single voter who cast a ballot for Measure C four years ago thought they were agreeing to tax themselves in order to pay for extended stay hotel rooms for homeless people.
But that's exactly what the City Council has done with some of the revenue derived from the 2017 local sales tax increase, which City Hall supporters shouted from the rooftops would be used exclusively for "infrastructure" -- specifically construction of a new police station and repairing city streets and roads.
As the council this week approved another $1.2 million in spending from the Measure C fund to pay for dozens of homeless folks to spend three more months at the Rose Garden Inn on upper State Street -- doubling the investment in this, um, "infrastructure" project, which is running down the neighborhood - the issue emerged as Topic A on this week's Mansplaining Edition of Newsmakers TV, as Nick Welsh and Josh Molina joined the genial host to, variously, support, attack and analyze the controversy.
Also on the docket: a look at the first substantive report on the "co-response teams" the county is using to try to defuse law enforcement calls to situations involving mentally ill people, a huge approval for repairing the iconic "1000 Steps" from the Mesa to the beach, a new monstrosity hotel project pitched for the Funk Zone, yet more evidence about the efficacy and necessity of the Covid vaccine and the strange tale of the christening of the SS Santa Barbara.
Plus: just 10 days before the election and two council seats, a look at the hottest rumors from the campaign trail, some of which might even be true.
All here, right now: if it's Friday, it's Newsmakers TV.
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