Thanks for joining me for the tenth issue of the Golden Stats Warrior, a newsletter for data-based insights about the Bay Area. If this is your first time reading, welcome! If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do that here. I am so grateful for your support.

In March 2010, years before Ferguson, Missouri became known for sparking the Black Lives Matter movement, the city’s Finance Director contacted the Chief of Police with a solution to the city’s budget problems.

The Finance Director wanted the police to generate more revenues from fines—money paid for infractions like traffic violations and missing court appointments. He warned that the city would be in financial trouble “unless ticket writing ramps up significantly before the end of the year.”

The Finance Director’s request surfaced as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation of the Ferguson Police Department. The investigation was instigated by the civil unrest that followed the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old African American man named Michael Brown in August 2014. Its goal was to better understand why the citizens of Ferguson felt so at odds with the police department chartered to protect them.

The Justice Department concluded that the mistrust between the police and the community primarily resulted from excessive fining. “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs,” the report read. The use of fines to fund the government undermined “law enforcement legitimacy among African Americans in particular.” About 13% of the city’s revenues came from fines. Later research would show that municipalities with large black populations get a higher share of their revenue from fines. 70% of Ferguson’s residents are black.

Fortunately, nowhere in the Bay Area is quite like Ferguson in this respect. Still, some Bay Area cities are still probably fining their citizens at a level above what is appropriate, according to an analysis I did of US Census data.

Every five years, the US Census collects revenues and expenditures data from every state and local government. The most recent data comes from 2017, and was released at the end of 2019. The data allow researchers to see just how much money every municipality gets from sources like property taxes, tobacco sales taxes and lottery revenue. Among the revenue categories is "Fines and Forfeits," which is typically money the municipality received from penalties like speeding tickets and parking violations. (I checked the data reported to the Census with Oakland and San Francisco’s annual financial reports and they are very close but not exactly the same. This is likely because the Census has slightly different categories for reporting.)

Among California’s major cities, Oakland stands out for getting a large amount of revenue from fines. At $58 per resident and 1.6% city revenues, Oakland’s reliance on fines is far larger than Los Angeles, San Francisco and every other California city with over 250,000 people. This rate of fining puts Oakland in the top ten among major US cities.

If we zoom into the Bay Area, and look at cities with over 100,000 people, Berkeley and Daly City also appear to be unusually punitive. Daly City’s $40 per resident is particularly notable, as that money makes up almost 4% of the city’s revenues.

The good news is that Oakland, at least, is making progress. According to their financial reports, fine revenues are down from about $24.4 million in 2011 to $21.1 million in 2019.

The city should still do better though. Fines may act as a deterrent for some bad actors, but they also tend to hurt the poorest residents most. Parking tickets that may be negligible for those with high incomes can put low-income people in a bind. People often lose their driving license, and sometimes even land in jail, for non-payment or failing to appear in court. A 2016 report by a coalition of Bay Area legal groups found that low-income and black residents were far more likely to have a suspended license due to an unpaid fine. The image below, from their report, shows this relationship geographically.

The coalition has a few suggestions for reducing the burden of fines. Most importantly, they recommend an overall reduction in average fine amount. They also suggest requiring all citations to indicate that community service is an alternative to payment and that fines can be paid in installments (this is already true, but sometimes people don’t know). They also suggest that fine amounts be reduced by about 80% for the poorest citizens. In my opinion, these are all terrific ideas.

Bay Area media recommendation of the week

The future of California Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) is perhaps the most important current political issue for the future of California and the Bay Area. The bill would change the zoning rules around transit centers, such as BART stops, to allow for multistory apartments. It would also basically get rid of single-family zoned neighborhoods, forcing neighborhoods to allow for duplexes and in-law units. The bill goes up for a vote in the state senate this week. The bill could mean lower housing costs and less environmentally damaging urban sprawl, but there are also fears that it will further gentrification in California’s urban centers.

There are a ton of great articles to read on why SB 50 is so controversial and consequential. I recommend checking out Annie Lowery’s story in the The Atlantic, Chris Nichols in Politifact, Zoie Matthew in LA Magazine and Matt Levin in Cal Matters.

(If you read or listened to something great about the Bay Area this week, please send it to me!)

Dan’s favorite things

Outside of the BART, there are not that many places where all walks of life collide in the Bay Area anymore. One of the few examples is Oakland Museum’s Friday Nights. Every week, the museum stays open until 10 pm and food trucks line up outside the museum. There is a DJ or band, cocktails, dancing and lots of adorable kids. Going into the exhibits isn’t free, but you can roam around the grounds of the architecturally exciting building, and see great views of Lake Merritt. For single folks, it’s a great date spot.

Thanks for your time, and see you in a couple weeks.

If you think a friend might enjoy this newsletter, please forward it along. You can follow me on Twitter at @dkopf or email me at dan.kopf@gmail.com

The Golden Stats Warrior logo was made by the great Jared Joiner, the best friend a nervous newsletter writer could have. Follow him @jnjoiner. Also, thanks to my favorite Mesut Özil fan, Emmerich Davies, for copyediting this week.