Contacting Governor Newsom

Thank you for contacting Governor Newsom in regards to communication from our office.

The Governor values the ideas and concerns of constituents like you who take the initiative to actively participate in your government.

Feedback like yours helps ensure that we are addressing the most pressing concerns of Californians. With your help and partnership, we can build a California for All.

Sincerely,



Constituent Affairs
Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

Route 66 - Santa Monica, California

Well done, you're here at Santa Monica Pier and officially at the end of Route 66.

The pier is actually two piers, over a hundred years old, originally with separate owners. The narrower Municipal Pier had a less appealing function - carrying sewage beyond the breakers. The Pleasure Pier, built seven years later in 1916, originally housed a theatre and is now the site of the carousel. Built in 1922, the carousel was restored in 1990 and placed inside the former theatre building.

The first heyday of the pier was during the 1920s, but like much else during the Great Depression, spending on non-essentials suffered greatly. The pier was mainly used as a ferry port, with many amusements sold off. The 1940s brought country music star Spade Cooley's television show, broadcast from the pier ballroom, and during the 1950s, the ballroom served as a roller skating rink.

Storms, recessions, strange redevelopment ideas, and other peaks and troughs of the popularity of pier-style entertainment have all beset Santa Monica Pier since it was built, but still, it stands - a feature of television and film and the official end of Route 66; it's a long way back to Sears Tower!

Congratulations, you've done it!



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Route 66 - Los Angeles, California

Your last stop before your last stop - you've made it almost all the way across Route 66!

Los Angeles, California, is the second largest urban area in the U.S. It extends more than 40mi from the mountains to the sea.

The Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolá visited the site in 1769. On Sept. 4, 1781, the Mexican provincial governor, Filipe de Neve, founded "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles," meaning "The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels." The pueblo became the capital of the Mexican province, Alta California, and it was the last place to surrender to the United States at the time of the American occupation in 1847. By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded California to the United States, and Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850.

Los Angeles is a major hub of shipping, manufacturing, industry, and finance. It is world-renowned in the entertainment and communications fields.

In the Santa Monica mountains is perhaps the most famous American monument on this side of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty - the Hollywood Sign. Erected in 1923 as a real estate advertisement - then left behind - it eventually became synonymous with the blossoming film industry and a symbol of aspiration to budding hopefuls. It was also connected with tragedy - Peg Entwistle was a Welsh-born actress whose stage career in her adopted America drew considerable acclaim; she even drew a 17-year-old Bette Davis to tell her mother, "I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle". Nobody knows what caused Peg to jump to her death from the H of the sign - her career was going well, and her final jobs were a film with Myrna Loy and Irene Dunn and a play opposite Humphrey Bogart - but on 18 September 1932, her body was found in a ravine below the sign. She was only 24 years old.



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Route 66 - San Bernardino, California

Home of California State University, San Bernardino, is home to many cultural and artistic sites. And also to the McDonald's Museum.

One of the oldest cities in California, San Bernardino was settled in 1810 but didn't establish itself for another 40 years when it became an important trading hub. It continued to be a busy and thriving community, including the establishment of Norton Air Force Base in the Second World War. And also a restaurant called McDonald's.

You can't avoid mentioning McDonald's when discussing San Bernardino, as the two have become inextricably linked in each other's histories. Dick and Mac McDonald were brothers and fast food pioneers; their first stab at success had been a hot dog stand in Pasadena in 1937 (not a hamburger in sight). When the opportunity came to open a restaurant in San Bernardino in 1940, they closed the hot dog stand and jumped at the chance. It's no longer a McDonald's but now serves as the company museum.

McDonald's was a hit. So much so that within 13 years, they began franchising their restaurant - or at least the system; franchising the entire concept, including the famous golden arches, came later. The brothers were still thinking small in terms of global domination until they partnered with Ray Kroc, who turned their ideas into what became the McDonald's Corporation. Ray purchased the company from the brothers for $2.7 million in 1961.

In 1984, the 50 billionth McDonald's hamburger was served - to Dick McDonald, the first cook behind any McDonald's grill.



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Road to Hana - Kahului

One of the most isolated archipelagos in the world can be found in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. Consisting of approximately 137 islands, and between 400,000 and 28 million years of age – depending on location – are the Hawaiian Islands. The nearest landmass, quite surprisingly, is the southernmost point of Alaska at 1,573mi (2,531km) away from Hawaii’s northernmost point. It is usually mistaken to be California which is about 2,286mi (3,680km) away.

Hawaii is the 50th state of the USA having joined in 1959. It has eight main islands with Hawaii, Maui and Oahu being the top three in size. Maui is the second largest island and is one of four islands – two of which are uninhabited – that make up the County of Maui.

On the northeast coast of Maui is the winding Road to Hana that begins in the town of Kahului and ends in the small village of Hana. My journey will continue beyond Hana, exploring the east coast down to Kalepa Gulch and finishing at Alelele Falls Viewpoint.

My travels begin in Kahului, the most populated town on the island, with several commercial shopping malls and light industries that serve most of the island. Within one of these malls is the Tasaka Guri Guri shop, known for its specialty in frozen dessert and its well-guarded secret recipe. A cross between a sherbet and ice cream, the guri guri was invented by Jokichi Tasaka in the early 1900s in Japan. When his son, Gunji, migrated to the United States he set up shop in Maui and carried on the family business. Today it continues to be run by family members with pineapple and strawberries as their main flavours inside a bright pink painted shop that has been the family’s business address for nearly 40 years.

The northern beaches of Maui such as Kanaha Beach just to the east of Kahului are popular destinations for windsurfers and kitesurfers. Since the northern shores are open to the oceanic elements it is a much windier location, when compared to the southern beaches that are sheltered by the island, creating the right conditions for these sailing sports. Maui is the birthplace of kitesurfing following the inaugural 1998 Kitesurfing Championships. Described as a combination of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding, it is one of the more accessible extreme sailing sports both financially and in terms of learning it.

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My Dear Cousin - Contract

1^st June 2021

My Dear Cousin,

I guess this is getting a bit hard for both of us. I was reading through these letters yesterday, and I had to take a walk then I had to put them away for today. Family is a really sore topic for me and, well, I haven’t seen (Pickle) for a while.

I’ll tell you about that later, but this letter is still about him. It turns out that in addition to the bad experience we had with the remodeling he has had problems with contractors. 

I overheard (Pony Girl) saying that he had a window salesmen over to the house one day and signed a contract just because the man wouldn’t leave and he knew that would get rid of him.

(Pony Girl) had to get him and make him tear up the contract after telling him that (Pickle) wasn’t competent to sign it in the first place. Then there was that ridiculous coin collection of his. He had spent more than twenty thousand on it, from what I gather, then sold it all in a day, and I don’t know what he got back but not much.

Anyway, (Pony Girl) became his conservator after this last mess and he wasn’t supposed to spend more than two hundred dollars without her approval. I remember (Pickle) coming home from the court hearing and then him saying that the judge had told her she wanted too much power. That didn’t surprise me.

There was a time after this that he had asked me to take him to the store to buy a fan for his bedroom. I took him to the store and helped him pick the fan out. A week later he got in my face like he was ready to throw fists and yelled “next time buy your own fan!”

I looked at him like he had grown a second head and said “why would I buy a fan for your bedroom?” I mean, he had asked me to take him to get the fan, asked me to help him pick it out, and (Pony Girl) must have seen the bill and put the idea in his head that I had gotten him to buy the fan for me.

I did have three or four hundred dollars worth of fans around the house at the time. We have no insulation and this is California. Still, it comes to me that I should have told him to have his sister take him to the store to get that fan.

I brought this up with (Pony Girl) once and she said “I don’t remember what you’re talking about.” This is typical narcissistic behavior. The natural response to hearing that you nearly got your two brothers into a fistfight over a fan would be to ask what happened rather than dismiss it.

Where she not guilty and really didn’t remember it would have been more of a “what are you talking about” than an “I don’t care”. The always did laugh at my pain. I guess she’s still laughing.

Best,

 

Richard Leland Neal

 

Fire Reef

11^th November 2020

Dear Governor Newsom,

I’ve been a resident of the great state of California all my life and watching the wildfires burn is of growing concern. I sheltered in place but was almost trapped in my home by the smoke and ash. For now the economy is faltering and the tourists that make up much of the California economy are gone, but they will return, and we want them to find something better when they come around again.

Then I look at the burnt out buildings on the news and see the fire scorched husks of cars and ask myself if there isn’t something that can be done with the aftermath to lessen the likelihood or severity of the next fire. At very least some plan to help California pay for it all could be found in the wreckage of homes and businesses.

Then it came to me that not all of the state’s forests are susceptible to fire, they are all subject to climate change, but some grow where fire cannot reach. I write of our kelp forests which are of the fastest growing variety. Unlike a forest of trees, the kelp forests need something like stone or brick to anchor them in place. A burnt out chimney may not be of use to a new home, but it can provide habitat for sea creatures, and aid the kelp that will fight global warming. 

It would come to me that in the wake of the fires we have burnt out bricks that would go to the landfill. These could be used to expand our natural reef system and build the forests of kelp or at very least stop beach erosion. A large memorial reef could be planned with the burnt materials of lost homes and cars. This would benefit our environment, commercial fishing, and tourist trade. 

The fires have become a way of life here in California. We have come to accept that they will get worse every year. We need to prevent them as best we can, fight them as efficiently as possible, and heal stronger than before. After all, who would take a vacation in a state where the sun is blotted out with smoke?

Just a suggestion,

 

Richard Leland Neal

Love for Pools

2^nd June 2015

Dear Cassi,

I’ve always had a love for pools which is no wonder in the state of California because of the heat, but did I ever tell you about the pool I had as a kid? It was one of those above ground jobs with steel sides and an uneven bottom. I loved that pool. I would come home from school and jump in wearing nothing but my jockeys and for most of my young life the water went up to my chin making me prance around.

I did very little swimming, but I loved the water so that I would just do laps walking from one end of the pool to the other. There was a time that the pool was heated, but the heater broke, and then we took it apart. I remember it being full of dust and old plastic bracelets. The base had been made of loose red bricks which became toys once unearthed.   

I used to build temples and army bases of those old bricks. A few I crushed back into dust, but why I couldn’t tell you. I never knew how sick my mother was until I was nine, and she never had the time to be there for me. I remember my happiest moments as a child being alone with my thoughts. I was a world onto myself back then and in a way we all are now.

You can figure that’s part of my keeping to myself now days, but there is much more to it than that condition. In the darkness of our lives we should let our mind grow distinguished and wise but keep our hearts young and able.

Well, one day I came home to find the side of my pool burst open and the back lawn teaming with insects floating in the chlorinated water. That was the worst day of my life at that point, but I didn’t know it yet.

Know what you have, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

Out with the Ice Girl

21^st October 2012

Dear Cassi,

There was a time in my life where this month was one of the happiest of my year. That was when I was young. It was back in the time when I could play among the ghosts and ghouls of our imagination. As a young boy I would imagine the other children as zombies and the teachers vampires on Halloween and play out an adventurer in my head.

Today I did my best to capture this feeling by going to a Halloween attraction of which is common in California. This is something that in a loose sense I would call a date as I was accompanied by a woman who I would at very least call attractive. I fail to see the fuss but you know how cold a man I can be in this regard.

It was my decision to take this girl to Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary as I have never been and found that she lived not far from the event. I know very little about the old cruise ship, but I thought at very least this would be fun.

A damp spirit was placed on the evening early on as she would not let me collect her at her apartment but decided to meet me at the event. This I took to be a sign of distrust and led me to believe that she has had more than a few jerks in her life. To further this she is somewhat younger than I and so less sure in her wants and less clear in her movements. In other words she was cold as a pillar of ice.

I had the best tickets one could buy for this event and so they cost me, but we would spend no time in lines. This was thankful as she kept me waiting for twenty minutes past event open. Standing there I had to do some thinking about this whole thing and thinking is never good when it come to social events. What was I doing hanging out with this girl anyway? She lives a good distance from my home and long distance is something to handle.

As I said, when she finally arrived she was a pillar of ice. We went through the mazes in the dark and I tried to keep hold of her wrist so as not to lose track of her. To this she took little notice as we strolled along in the company of various remnants of the dead.

I’ll admit that other than for the small size the Dark Harbor was well done. We did no taking of the food as my ‘date’ was rather apprehensive I think of their price.  This was a night full of awkwardness and long pregnant pauses but in the overall it was fun.

We finished early as we had no desire for repose and my tickets had taken us through the events rather quickly. I have to say some unfinished feeling as we walked past the gates and to the parking structure. I learned then that she had been dropped off and that she expected me to drive her home.

On the way to her home she talked about her life and her city. Long Beach isn’t much in comparison with LA but there is more sea life and the associations. She told me she was a vegetarian but could eat fish. I dropped her off at her apartment and watched her step through the door feeling as if the night would have been better if it was a larger group. I think this letter is kind of boring but then so was my date.

Stay safe, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal