Anthony Portantino
Last week provided an opportunity for state Sen. Anthony Portantino to appear at last — albeit virtually — as .
“Full disclosure,” Portantino said in opening his presentation at the organization’s September get-together. “[City Club Vice President] Kelly Ryan has been trying to get me to do this for the last couple years. COVID has been pulling us apart, but in this case it brought us together.”
Portantino, who represents Senate District 25, spent the next 40 minutes taking viewers on a journey that was as varied as California and as specific as San Marino.
“The 25th District is a collection of 18 small towns and communities, San Marino being one of them,” Portantino explained of the area that stretches from Upland to Sunland and includes 1 million residents.
Portantino acknowledged that he has been busy dealing with a plethora of issues regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, including concerns over unemployment benefits.
He kicked off the meeting by restating what he feels is his calling to be “the voice of education.”
“There are 11 four-year colleges in my district,” Portantino said. “I really do look at it as an education-centric place. I try to govern through the lens of education and being a dad.”
He mentioned his support of issues regarding suicide prevention and mental health care as examples of his dedication to young people, whose situations were suddenly made more difficult with the onset of the pandemic.
“One of the biggest frustrations is we had big plans in January,” he said. “We were looking at a healthy state budget. That all changed.”
Portantino said analysts have estimated as much as a $50 billion hit to revenues. He said his initial response presented itself immediately.
“It was important that we don’t shock the education system, that we figure out a way to make them whole for this year,” he said. “We were able to convince the governor to stabilize education funding for this year. We don’t know what the receipts are going to be for next year.”
He referred to his notable legislation on the start of the school day — Senate Bill 328 — which was passed in September 2019 and prohibits public middle and high schools from beginning classes before 8:30 a.m.
“There is 35 years of actual science that says when you let your teenagers sleep a little later in the morning, their test scores go up, their graduation rate goes up and their attendance rate goes up,” Portantino exclaimed. “And lo and behold their depression and suicide goes down. We have a scientific way to increase test scores and lower suicide. Sign me up for that,” he said as he raised his right hand within his Zoom box. “I don’t know why it was controversial.”
The lawmaker mentioned that he lost an older brother to suicide.
“People didn’t talk about mental health until I joined the club,” he said. “It showed me that we need to get mental health out of the shadows. I am very passionate that our young people be treated well.”
Answering a question many in the city were probably poised to ask, Portantino dove right into a popular topic.
“Housing is a big issue in San Marino,” he said. “There are a lot of concerns about housing policy.” He said he has “worked very hard to walk that balance between the need for increased housing stock and how do we do it in a way that respects local control. As many of you know, it is a hard sweet spot to find.”
Answering a question that was posed online by San Marino Mayor Gretchen Shepherd Romey, Portantino acknowledged the complicated dance that often takes place between state and local government.
“We need more housing, but we also need more affordable housing,” he said. “The theory is that if you increase production of market-rate housing, that will trickle down and increase affordable housing.” He expressed doubt in the success of any “trickle-down” policy, but acknowledged that the problem is a stubborn one.
“We desperately need more housing production,” he reiterated. “But there hasn’t been a partnership in meeting the goals. That has always created an adversarial relationship between Sacramento and local government. What I have been hoping for is that rather than the state telling cities how to do it, we give you a target of what to meet and we let you meet it within your own resources. It’s hard to get Sacramento to trust that the cities will deliver. If the state comes into cities like San Marino and says, ‘You have to build X number of units,’ cities would plan for them and never build them.” He said a better plan would entail the state imposing consequences if the housing units are not built.
He said the system often leads to “a fight between homeownership and renters.”
“I am deathly afraid of creating a market where we are only creating renters,” he said, “because the single biggest way to help economic development is to create property ownership. So much of California [is] new people to our state, new families to our state. The best way to help them acquire wealth and prosperity is through homeownership and equity. The way we are legislating, we are encouraging renters where we should be creating affordable housing for purchase and more rental properties at the same time. It’s probably the biggest quagmire that the state has going forward. There has to be a little bit of pain on both sides.”
Portantino noted that his SB 1299 would allow the rezoning of idle retail locations, allowing for vacant land to be converted to what he calls “workforce housing.”
“We have to have better planning on the local level,” he said. “There is a housing shortage in the state of California and it is going to have to be addressed. I would rather see it addressed through incentives and partnerships, but that is going to require cities to be a willing participant in that conversation.”
Portantino then suggested another potential twist to the issue.
“The world is going to be a lot different post-COVID,” he said. “I think we are going to have to take a breath and evaluate. Is the traditional ‘get in your car at 7:15 a.m. and drive to work’ model of life going to come back, or are we going to have a lot more remote businesses? Is the 9-5 era of businesses going to change?
“The more mobile you get or the more you don’t have to be in the office, you can basically live anywhere. This social, digital world is going to be here post-COVID and I think it’s going to change a lot of the work and migratory and housing policies. Evaluating that over the next six months to a year would make better decisions.”
The legislator encouraged the virtual attendees to “buy as much takeout food as you can, shop local, be safe and wear your mask.”
“We are neighborly people,” he added. “If practicing social distance makes us good neighbors, we should practice social distancing and wear our masks.”
