Tim Draper is back with yet another plan to break up California

Updates

  1. Originally published, April 13, 7:09 pm.
  2. April 13, 10:20 pm:
    • CNN’s coverage of Tim Draper’s ballot initiative actually includes a map (figure 2) and an explanation of which counties would belong to which state.[1] (California)

My car is in the shop for a brake job, and I had decided to take the bus up to Santa Rosa to visit my cat, who has been at the veterinarian for nearly a month now being treated for ringworm (which is a fungus, not a parasitic worm) while we deep clean the house to try to get rid of the spores (we should have final results Saturday and I think we’ll finally be bringing her home). I stopped at a Jamba Juice not far from Santa Rosa Junior College and saw this (figure 1):

At the Safeway parking lot on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa. Photograph by David Benfell, April 13, 2018.
Fig. 1. At the Safeway parking lot on Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa. Photograph by David Benfell, April 13, 2018.

The Jamba Juice is in a shopping center next to a Safeway so we can infer that college students, in a town that allegedly values its junior college, are not welcome to shop for groceries. I also noticed that mobile data in the area, at least with Verizon Wireless, was unreliable.

Folks, I have a Ph.D. I want people to be educated. But when I see shit like this, I know we are treating students as second-class citizens. It is not a constructive solution to the problems that a student population may pose. It’s just bullshit. And yes, I’m pissed.


California

Tim Draper's plan to break up California. Via CNN, fair use.
Fig. 2. Tim Draper’s plan to break up California. Via CNN, fair use.
Tim Draper, whose previous plan to break California into six states[2] that didn’t, at least to me, make any sense for the character of the regions in question, is back with another similarly flawed plan.[3]

I haven’t heard enough of Draper to know what sort of conservative he is. “Draper has said his plan would diminish the power of teachers’ unions and politicians in Sacramento, the state capital.”[4] That he targets ‘politicians’ means little. That he targets teachers’ unions—really?—suggests he is neoconservative or capitalist libertarian. And indeed, his previous plan would have carved Silicon Valley off into its own state,[5] which leads me to suspect he is a capitalist libertarian.

Neither of Draper’s plans are organic plans. California has had a number of organic secession movements that target specific regional feelings of disenfranchisement.[6] California is too big a state; conservative regions are indeed effectively disenfranchised and I do agree the state needs to break up. But it should break up according to regional affinities. Draper doesn’t understand this, or if he does, he seems determined to ignore it.

Andrea Diaz, “3 Californias? The initiative to break up the state may be on the ballot in November,” CNN, April 13, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/us/california-closer-to-split-into-three-states-trnd/index.html

Reuters, “Tech billionaire says his plan to break up California ready for voters,” April 12, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-partition/tech-billionaire-says-his-plan-to-break-up-california-ready-for-voters-idUSKBN1HJ36D


  1. [1]Andrea Diaz, “3 Californias? The initiative to break up the state may be on the ballot in November,” CNN, April 13, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/13/us/california-closer-to-split-into-three-states-trnd/index.html
  2. [2]Gregory Ferenstein, “Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State,” December 19, 2013, http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/19/tim-draper-six-californias-secede-silicon-valley-ballot-initiative/
  3. [3]Reuters, “Tech billionaire says his plan to break up California ready for voters,” April 12, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-partition/tech-billionaire-says-his-plan-to-break-up-california-ready-for-voters-idUSKBN1HJ36D
  4. [4]Reuters, “Tech billionaire says his plan to break up California ready for voters,” April 12, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-partition/tech-billionaire-says-his-plan-to-break-up-california-ready-for-voters-idUSKBN1HJ36D
  5. [5]Gregory Ferenstein, “Tim Draper Wants To Split California Into Pieces And Turn Silicon Valley Into Its Own State,” December 19, 2013, http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/19/tim-draper-six-californias-secede-silicon-valley-ballot-initiative/
  6. [6]CBS, “Official Calls For Riverside, 12 Other Counties To Secede From California,” July 1, 2011, http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/07/01/official-calls-for-riverside-12-other-counties-to-secede-from-california/; Sam Levin, “Resisting the resistance: anti-liberal rage brews in California’s right wing,” Guardian, February 7, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/07/new-california-movement-rightwing-resistance-liberal-trump; Jennifer Medina, “California Counties Talk of Cutting Ties to State,” New York Times, July 12, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/us/13secession.html; Ian Millhiser, “Northern California County Votes To Secede From California,” Center for American Progress, September 4, 2013, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/04/2570341/northern-california-county-votes-secede-california/

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