Gavin Newsom spent more than $450 million on a regional emergency call system that flopped and was canceled—meantime, the old system risks “catastrophic failure.”
Great reporting of yet another colossal failure of leadership by Gov Gavin Newsom. There should be ppl running these projects who have project management experience. Who can quickly unearth not just how the tech should/will work once it’s in place but also all the tasks and obstacles across the region that must be addressed and overcome. This means more than just technology. This also means hard infrastructure, real estate issues associated with fiber or other physical aspects of the project. What community outreach and buy in will be needed. What do the permits allow when impasses occur or contractors dispute scope or budget? How to treat overruns? Pulling contractors when they overrun consistently or show signs of experience deficiencies on the project team doing the actual work. This is a massively complex job. It can’t be entered into with multiple contractors doing the same or even different parts without a strong project leadership representing the state and the taxpayers. Newsom has a history of letting activists run his cities. Homelessness and drug addiction is running rampant and getting worse. If he has left a project this important in the hands of the contractors, he will keep paying out cash that hasn’t been earned with no one in charge. Pay attention everybody: this is a small version of Newsom’s America if he runs for the Oval. He is utterly incompetent and actually not that bright. Sadly, those CA residents needing 911 responders will be the clear losers for a long time to come. It will take someone like Steve Hilton to fix it.
I live in southern CA. At the height of COVID (2021-2022), on my way home, on the off-ramp from the freeway there was a tree on fire, probably set by one of the homeless people living in the bushes nearby or under the underpass, which had become a homeless shelter (10-15 people with tents, belognings, etc). I called 911 and got nothing.
Why not turn the whole thing over to the cellular providers? Any system has the cellular piece as a major interaction interface. Verizon and others run customer service operations so can route calls to available personnel, call up customer info instantly and route calls to escalations as needed. Looks and sounds pretty similar to a 911 system.
An afterthought: the endless challenges to cellular equipment siting could be mitigated by an understanding that good cellular coverage - the emergency network backbone - is more important than locals who dislike the look of radio towers,
Doesn't hearing these types of stories ever get old to Californians? The ineptness across the state is truly incredible.
It isn’t just ineptness, it’s fraud. I bet some of that money is ending up in the pockets of politicians.
No doubt….
Great reporting of yet another colossal failure of leadership by Gov Gavin Newsom. There should be ppl running these projects who have project management experience. Who can quickly unearth not just how the tech should/will work once it’s in place but also all the tasks and obstacles across the region that must be addressed and overcome. This means more than just technology. This also means hard infrastructure, real estate issues associated with fiber or other physical aspects of the project. What community outreach and buy in will be needed. What do the permits allow when impasses occur or contractors dispute scope or budget? How to treat overruns? Pulling contractors when they overrun consistently or show signs of experience deficiencies on the project team doing the actual work. This is a massively complex job. It can’t be entered into with multiple contractors doing the same or even different parts without a strong project leadership representing the state and the taxpayers. Newsom has a history of letting activists run his cities. Homelessness and drug addiction is running rampant and getting worse. If he has left a project this important in the hands of the contractors, he will keep paying out cash that hasn’t been earned with no one in charge. Pay attention everybody: this is a small version of Newsom’s America if he runs for the Oval. He is utterly incompetent and actually not that bright. Sadly, those CA residents needing 911 responders will be the clear losers for a long time to come. It will take someone like Steve Hilton to fix it.
Tax and spend. This is what politicians do!
And spend irresponsibly is primarily a credo of the Democrats. don’t have a problem when it’s not their money being used.
I live in southern CA. At the height of COVID (2021-2022), on my way home, on the off-ramp from the freeway there was a tree on fire, probably set by one of the homeless people living in the bushes nearby or under the underpass, which had become a homeless shelter (10-15 people with tents, belognings, etc). I called 911 and got nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZDIitWz8Go
I have a relative that works for LAFD. They put out 40-50+ “bum fires” every day.
Why not turn the whole thing over to the cellular providers? Any system has the cellular piece as a major interaction interface. Verizon and others run customer service operations so can route calls to available personnel, call up customer info instantly and route calls to escalations as needed. Looks and sounds pretty similar to a 911 system.
An afterthought: the endless challenges to cellular equipment siting could be mitigated by an understanding that good cellular coverage - the emergency network backbone - is more important than locals who dislike the look of radio towers,
HOW IS NEWSOM THE TOP DEMOCRATIC CONTENDER FOR 2028???