Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2012
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Lee Romney

CALIFORNIA CITIES CURB POT INDUSTRY, OK HIGHER WAGES

Dispensaries Are Rejected in Several Races. Hetch Hetchy Measure Is Defeated.

While voters in Colorado and Washington opted to legalize 
recreational marijuana use, a host of California communities moved 
instead to curtail the booming cannabis industry.

In San Diego County on Tuesday, measures to permit and regulate 
medical marijuana dispensaries were rejected in Del Mar, Solana 
Beach, Lemon Grove and Imperial Beach. The closest of the measures 
was in Del Mar, supported by 44% of voters.

In the Bay Area, a proposal that would have allowed up to three 
dispensaries in Palo Alto went down to defeat as well. Members of the 
City Council had argued that the stores would increase criminal 
activity and send children the wrong message, and 62% of voters sided 
with them.

In Northern California, voters in the Siskiyou County town of 
Dunsmuir rejected an attempt to roll back broad restrictions that 
were placed on medical marijuana growers last year.

The measure, rejected by 53% of voters, would have permitted 
cultivation on property that is not the grower's primary residence - 
as well as outdoors, in public view, inside enclosed garages, in 
Dunsmuir's historic district and in close proximity to youth-oriented 
activities.

Opponents argued that the rail town-turned-outdoor recreational hub 
was emerging from an economic downturn and could not afford to be 
labeled a marijuana haven.

And the Humboldt County town of Arcata, 69% of voters sent their own 
message to growers, requiring those cultivating indoors and guzzling 
electricity to pay a premium utility tax.

The 45% tax will apply to residential electric bills that are six 
times above the baseline level set by the state. Nearly 7% of homes 
in Arcata, located in the heart of the Emerald Triangle, have bills 
that high, suggesting they are "grow houses."

Over the last year, federal prosecutors in California have cracked 
down on dispensaries near schools and parks, those operating for 
profit - in violation of state law - and those deemed "super stores" 
likely to be serving people who have no medical need.

In other contests Tuesday, labor unions were able to secure better 
conditions for workers.

A living-wage measure for Long Beach hotel workers, the third of its 
kind in California, was backed by 63% of the electorate there. It 
requires the city's 17 nonunionized hotels with more than 100 rooms 
to pay all workers at least $13 an hour.

And nearly 59% of voters in San Jose agreed to raise the hourly 
minimum wage to $10 - $2 above the mandated statewide rate. 
Proponents had argued that the measure was necessary for low-income 
people to survive in an increasingly pricey, tech-based city.

San Jose joins San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe and 
Albuquerque, N.M., as the only municipalities in the nation to set a 
minimum wage.

In Long Beach and San Jose, business interests opposed the measures, 
saying they would lead to layoffs and closures, as well as saddle 
consumers with higher costs.

In other California balloting, San Francisco voters rejected a 
proposition that would have required the city to craft an $8-million 
plan to demolish the dam that created the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in 
Yosemite and find alternative sources of hydro-power and water storage.

And in Berkeley, a controversial measure that would have banned 
sitting and lying on sidewalks in the city's commercial areas between 
7 a.m. and 10 p.m. appeared to suffer a narrow defeat after leading 
in early results.

Times staff writers Tony Perry in San Diego and Wesley Lowery in Los 
Angeles contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom