Half of California’s 10 Biggest Cities Are Choosing a New Mayor
Two-thirds of California’s 10 big cities are facing a tough decision.
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Two-thirds of California’s 10 biggest cities are facing a difficult choice.
The three largest cities in the state – Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego – have been running the show for about six years. And with one exception, they’re going to be in charge of their own municipal budgets until the U.S. Census Bureau counts the state as a majority white, non-Hispanic majority nation.
The exception is Oakland. In July, the City Council voted to adopt a new system for handling city finances.
In California, the only city in the top 10 that has not elected a new mayor will be a place with a population of more than 675,000: the small San Francisco city of Pleasanton.
At this point, the big three of the top 10 are almost unanimously white, non-Hispanic majority cities. And that’s what makes their decisions all the more perplexing — not to mention unusual.
“It’s a bit different than electing a mayor,” said Michael D. Hiltz, the political science professor at San Francisco State University. “We’re the nation’s capital of the new urbanism.”
Across the state today, about 6 million people are living in a city of at least 250,000 people, according to an analysis from the Oakland Institute. That’s compared to 2.4 million people in Los Angeles, 1.4 million in San Francisco, and 1 million in San Diego.
When compared to the state as a whole, the three largest cities in California are about 4.5 times more likely to be majority white and non-Hispanic majority cities.
“We’re now the capital of the nation because of what we did during the Civil Rights Movement,” said Mike Waters