tonight on kqed newsroom. the results of the vote or in. well, some of them. we will hash out what we know about california's election results. we will also consider what all these recent large tech layoffs reveal about our economic outlook. we visit lovely lake merritt. that is in tonight's edition of something beautiful. coming due in san francisco this friday, november 11th, 2022. hello and welcome. this is kqed newsroom. there have been a lot of

shakeups this week between the economic news and newly elected political leadership. we will start this evening with the elections. nationally control of congress still hangs in the balance. in california we have clear winners and losers on ballot propositions. but many elected leadership positions remain undecided. i am joined by guy maserati. thank you for being here. >> great to be here. >> we have talked a lot about the competitive congressional races in california and how they can impact the balance of úpower in washington. what did we see this week? >> as we sit her on friday we still don't know how a lot of the seats in california are going to turn out. we think republicans are in good positions in a number of these swing seats in california. but there are just so many votes to be counted in the state. if you asked the question, when we know the balance of power nationally? it is because a california. many of them are still undecided. >> i want to zero in on, we saw

a lot of races across the country in which president trump had thrown his power and his weight behind certain candidates. but they did not do as well as expected here in california. david balla dale is looking to be reelected. he was one who voted to impeach president trump. do you think that helped him, hurt him? what happened? >> i think it a swing district it does help someone like him. he has this -- to buck president trump. nationally a lot of candidates who won with the support of president trump were not palatable to independent voters. i think that is a trend worth watching. val alejo, there is still a lot of votes to be counted. only 42% of votes in the district having counted. so that will be one to watch in the coming days.

>> anything else in california that you think you are keeping an eye on? >> so many of them are so close right now. katie porter running for reelection. that races incredibly close. major fundraiser. mike levin, very close race. ballots will continue to come in california. the secretary of state settlements 5 million ballots are left to be counted statewide. so election day turns into election week. >> we did have a lot more ballots going out by mail. for the first time california mandated that every registered voter got a ballot by mail. how is that playing into the slow list of vote counting? >> i think the changes that state leaders made in california to increase access to the ballot have made it a longer vote countingprocess. you take the fact you can register to vote on election day. you can come in to the polls,

there is an online registration deadline but you can show up, register, and vote conditionally. but when you vote your registration has to be checked out. they have to make sure you're not registered anywhere else. and make sure your vote is counted after that on a provisional ballot. there is also the fact that you can mailing your ballot and have it arrive up to a week after election day as long as it is postmarked on tuesday. and then there was also a process called ballot fixing. ballot curing. >> ballot fixing does not sound good. talk about what that is. >> you sign your ballot envelope. if there is a mismatch there is a process by which, even after election day, counting officials can get in touch and say, this doesn't match the signature. that is often the one you have on your drivers license. we will give you a chance to fix it to make sure it is actually you casting a ballot. put in place to make it easier to cast ballots, to get more people to the polls, the trade- off is, we do have a longer

process of processing the ballots here in california. >> we have had a pretty good turnout so far for midterm election. >> that's right. nationally i think democratic turnout was very strong in midterm. in which democrats control power of washington. i think you see democratic energy leading up to the general election this year. i also think it is a trend the trump era of politics. you have increased partisanship but also increase engagement. people care about politics really like never before in this country. you add that on top of all these changes made to make it easier to vote, the inease of vote by mail. i think what you really have is an increased floor for both parties in elections. you saw this in 2018. democrats were incredibly motivated. but after the hearings the republicans were energized. you are seeing it this year. all these things leading up to the election, the fundamentals

where the republicans were not favoring an unpopular president. it really limited the amount of gains republicans were allowed to gain. >> young people voting as well. let's talk a little bit about what is happening with the candidates here in the bay area. hee in the bay area we generally have this gap between moderates and progressives. not so much the conservative side. the deck role? did it shrink? >> were not talking about splits here. the moderate progressive business label is what we have seen election after election. largely if you look across the bay area there are a lot of labor backed, more progressive candidates who got a lot of money but did not succeed on election night. we are looking at races for the mayor of oakland, the mayor of san jose. >> just to dive into that for a

second, in oakland it is still not called. lauren taylor is at ahead but still no final count. >> both candidates are saying they want to wait as more balance come in. there the first place most that get counted and then the -- in the instant runoff. same thing with san jose. neither candidate has called it or conceded it. but we do see matt mahan getting tes every day. he looks to be an overly good position. in san francisco you saw a number of moderate supervisors fare pretty well. >> and seven cisco that was really an indication for mayor london n. breed, who has been saying we are going to be a little tougher on crime. it seems like she has been pushing that harder. >> she had a pretty good night on the ballot. her district attorney won her election. she had supervisors backing. she had the three school board members who she pointed. overall a good night.

>> tell us what is ppening in san jose. this has been a contentious race. met mayhem came out of nowhere and it seems he has done well. >> it was two years ago he won political office for the first time winning a seat on the city council. he has stayed so focused on this campaign and his message of change. it was clear both candidates felt both like -- want to change. chavez has been in local government for the better part of 25 years had a hard time making that argument. she tried to say may hand is to close to the current mayor. it seemed like the constant focus on shaking up city government may have resonated with voters. the challenge now is he will be still in city government. he will be the mayor. san jose has a week mayor system. how does he consistently get sifolks on the council were many incumbents do not support them in say, hey buddy, come on over.

>> yeah. let's head down south. not a direct impact on the bay area and also karen bass versus caruso. >> incredibly close race. russo has led but soma devotes to still be counted in l.a. karen bass actually put out a statement saying she think she is going to win this race when all the ballots are counted. she feels confident the ballots arriving on election day or after election day will swing in her favor. >> if she says that, what you think? >> i think generally the trend we expect to see is the arriving votes are more progressive. thballots that are dropped off on election day, or the ones that arrive in the mail. but so many, i think over 1 million votes left account in

os angeles. s left account in this could drag on for a while. >> the kids seem a little -- maybe even gerrymandering. how did that play out across the nation? >> if you look at wisconsin, the weight in which seats are gerrymandered, lines drawn to favor one political party did limit the gains democrats would make. but we don't have that in california. we draw up a fair map and fair lines. as a result we had so many competitive districts. i think it is one of the reasons why california is perhaps the top house battleground. we end up with somebody competitive seats and we are seeing that play out right now. i think the political report had 10 competitive house races in california. only one is been called. >> do we get to pat ourselves on the back? >> why not? i think in this case it was a process in which they listen to residents based on how communities interact with each

other. where voters are and how they are living in their daily lives rather than incumbent protection plans. >> is there a race you are really watching right now? >> there is. it's a state senate race in the south bay and east bay. district 10 running from about hayward through fremont down to the south bay. this is one that is incredibly close. it's a proxy war that we talked about earlier. in this case you had nearly $5 million spent on outside nterest just in the general election. business groups getting behind -- that race is like 300 votes right now. so that will just be one i am really excited to see how it shakes out. i do think you see different choices being made by the two candidates in sacramento given their backing and constituents in this race. >> let's turn to housing. we sought on ballots up another state. there were 52 ballot measures across california. 21 of them right here in the

bay area. we are joined now by housing >> reporter:, alan baldessari who wrote the definitive guide on having every single ballot measure fared on housing. welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> tell us about these main types of housing measures. and what they look like. >> as you said the verlot. what is really interesting is here in the bay area what was facingoters was also facing voters across the state. with one exception. that was the vacancy taxes. tere were measures in berkeley, san francisco, and santa cruz asking voters to penalize or add fees for property owners who keep their homes or apartments intentionally vacant for certain amounts of time. >> we saw a lot of that during the pandemic. people were moving out but the nobody was coming in because owners were not really allowing that to happen. >> yeah. i think there is certainly a

perception that this is a way property owners can use property to borrow against the equity. but when you really dig in to the numbers you see there are lots of reasons why people have homes vacant. whether they are waiting to rent it out, maybe they're doing rehab, maybe someone is in an assisted living facility. just a whole bunch of reasons. it ends up not being that many homes that end up getting taxed by these measures. i think it speaks to this frustration that people have. why should any homestead úvacan when we have somebody people who don't have homes or just really struggling to find an affordable place. >> how did those measures do? >> berkeley and san francisco look like they are passing. not so much and santa cruz. that is really interesting. i think people will be digging in to why that happened. but there are different dynamics at play. santa cruz is more of a vacation destination. maybe people have more second

homes there or rent them out for airbnb's. but certainly activists and politicians were interested in implementing measures like this in their communities are really going to be looking at what worked and what didn't with those campaigns. also whether these measures are effective in really getting property owners to put any vacant homes that they have onto the market and make sure they are rented out or sold. >> we also saw rental caps and density. >> tenant protections were big on the ballot across the state. in the bay area we had a measure in richmond that would further restrict how much landlords can raise the rent each year. in oakland there was a measure to expand protections to more tenants essentially. in those also did really well. across the state did really well. i think there is a growing perception that as it becomes harder to own a home in california, there is a growing recognition that we need to make rental properties more stable for folks.

limit the reasons people can be evicted. much the rent can increase how every year. and just giving renters and tenants the same stability that homeowners tend >> en you menti changing the way cities can approve new housing. we had different measures around that theme. there were measures in brentwood that would ask voters to approve changes to what can be built in those cities. so that applied to single- family neighborhoods, and then in other areas it was golf courses open spaces. different dynamics play in the two cities. the one in brentwood did pass. that is a city that has approved a lot of housing over the past number of years. we haven't seen as much job growth. the opposite situation in menlo park. but norma's job growth with meta-headquartered there. and we really haven't kept pace with housing.

so we saw voters reject that measure and say, no, we do not want to limit what can be built in single-family areas. >> if you look at housing overall, is there a big take away from what you are seeing with these midterm results? and what we should be thinking looking forward? >> we saw a lot of support up and down the state. one of the big takeaways for folks who are looking to the future in 2024 was really thinking about, how do we lower the constitutional threshold required to approve these types of funding measures? at least as it applies to affordable housing. so a coalition of groups is looking at putting the constitutional amendment on the ballot. and we will be seeing another, some other big measures related to housing in 2024. this is all a warm-up for two years from now. >> -- thank you for beg here today. >> thank you.

let's turn out of the topsy- turvy economic news. this week meta-laid-off 11th out of people. this comes on the heels of larger layoffs with salesforce, twitter, and others. our next guest is considering the changes about our economic outlook. >> thank you for having me. >> i feel we have been talking about being on the edge of assessment for months now. what are we seeing with these economic changes, with these layoffs? are we there? are we looking at a recession? >> some ceos think we are there. other ceos are preparing for recession. that is why these cuts are happening. mark zuckerberg, when he told meta-he was going to take off 30% of employees, he said he

over higher during the pandemic. he is trying to return things back to normal. different companies have different reasons for what they're doing. some ride-share's laid-off 50% of its workforce. they have been under pressure for a long time to become profitable. its stock has really declined a lot this year. >> different companies have different reasons for what they are doing. but the recession is in the back of all the minds of the ceos. >> you have been actually looking at this historically. how's these layoffs comparing to other times? >> aof the end of october there were about 26,000 layoffs

in the tech sector. just in the past couple of weeks, i estimate maybe 20 to 25,000 more. >> 50,000 overall? >> yes. that is a lot less than in 2020 during the pandemic when 85,000 tech jobs were lost. but we are starting to get to the great recession levels. that was 65,000 tech jobs lost in 2008. we are far away from the.com bust that was over 150,000. if you compare it to what happened before, we are not quite there, but everyone is trying to be cautious. they are doing what they can to keep costs down. >> the reasons for these tech layoffs, as mark zuckerberg was saying, his conditions were

rosier. how much of that was because of the activity that move digital when we all had to be in our homes because of covid-19? >> the pandemic had a lot to do with it. one a lot of us were stuck at home we were spending a lot of money on tech goods and services. even netflix, which has been a tech darling for a long time, its stock is down considerably this year. even though we haven't heard of a bunch of layouts at netflix i am seeing chatter there that it is cutting some divisions. >> there was so much competition. netflix is not the only one in the game. >> we have so many other streaming platforms. >> everybody has a lot of entertainment options. also because people have declared the pandemic over, but

since we are not staying home as much people are expanding on other things. >> what are you going to be watching for over the next few months? let me mention, a public servant announcement that covid- ú19 levels are rising right now we are seeing higher positive case returns that we had in the past. officials are warning of a winter surge. bear that in mind. but back to what you are seeing on the economic picker and what you are expecting going forward. >> i have been talking to vcs. just talking to people who observed the valley and of the valley. things could be slow for a little bit. recession's last a couple of years typically. if we are not in it but are about to approach it, the next couple years could be tough. i just want to point out that it is not just going to be tough for these tech workers are getting laid off.

the engineers, the program managers, the people who can work from home. it is going to be tough for the people who are low-wage workers who help make silicon valley run. who help make these tech companies run. the janitors, cafeteria in the tech shuttle workers. they are getting laid off. so if there are no people at the office, it is gointo be tough for everyone. and small businesses. small businesses that were relying on the business of these tech companies. it is going to be tough for them. >> we have major vacancy rates in seven cisco. let's cover prop 30. this one was a tax on wealthier californians, which was, that money was supposed to be used to fund our electric vehicle charging networks that needs to be built as california moves towards green vehicles.

that failed. >> yet did. it was very interesting because it was backed mostly by right helen companies. it was about making sure california isready for the green, for electric vehicles to become mainstream. governor newsom and a bunch of other californians didn't want the additial taxes on the wealthy. and so they portrayed -- as this corporation that was going to do a money grab. that was interesting. and lyft really did lose out. they spent $45 million out of the $40 million that was spent on the campaign. >> prop 26 and 27 also failed. these are the twins sports

betting measured.? right. prop 26 was backed by the native american tribes and prop 27 was the online betting companies. they both failed by a lot. % i think for prop 27 and 70% against prop 26. what it came down to was a lot of californians were turned off by the messaging. they both promise to help with homelessness, mental health, and gambling addiction. i don't think voters bought that. >> just too big a promise. those are big problems. right now we are still looking for solutions. thank you for being here. >> absolutely. thank you. 150 years ago lake merritt became the nation's very first wildlife refuge. it's home to large populations

of herons, egrets, geese, and ducks. take a moment to refresh your spirit with this week's something beautiful. lake merritt in oakland.

that was my running spot when i moved to san francisco in 2005. it's a great spot. you should go check it out. that is the end of our show tonight. it is veterans day and we want to say a special thank you for all who have served in our nations armed forces. you can find kqed on email or twitter. you can reach me on social media at priya d clements. thank you for joining us. we will see you back here next friday night. have a great weekend.

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” democrats keep control of the senate, while the house hangs in the balance. lisa desjardins breaks down the latest election results. then, the climate crisis takes center stage at a u.n. summit in egypt as world leaders turn their climate commitments into action. and, our weekend spotlight with media titan byron allen about how he forged a path for himself and broke barriers in the world of show business. byron: i own one of the largest privately held media companies in the world. 100%. why? because i'm black, and i could not find investors. that's a big problem for a lot of black entrepreneurs. geoff: all that and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend."