This article appears in Issue 36 of Alta Journal. Governor Gavin Newsom obviously has his eyes set on moving to the White House. Who do you think would be his best replacement for California\u2019s 41st governor?<\/p>\n \u2014GOODBYE, GAV<\/p>\n Gustavo: For the June primary, I\u2019m casting my vote for General Sherman<\/a>. It\u2019s the perfect leader for California: Everyone loves the giant sequoia; it\u2019ll never say anything stupid; it\u2019s multicolored and both male and female. At about 2,200 years old, the 275-foot baller knows that partisan politics is for the birds, wears its 102-foot waistline with pizzazz, and has no plans to raise your taxes or pine\u2014pun not intended, but man, did it land!\u2014for higher office.<\/p>\n Stacey: Ready or not, Newsom\u2019s time is up, so if he\u2019s taken anything of yours\u2014your job, your roads, your Dyson Supersonic\u2014you\u2019d better get it back now. You ask about a \u201cbest replacement,\u201d but that would be someone just like him\u2014a \u201c960 SAT guy\u201d with silly hair and a podcast. So until we enact a lottery system and the job goes to my neighbor Jos\u00e9, who always has a kind word and who brings in everyone\u2019s trash cans, I\u2019ll just have to do what I must in November: Close my eyes and think of Oakland.<\/p>\n Is anyone else\u2019s smartphone weather app a total liar? Mine will promise storms, thunder, and lightning, and all we ever seem to experience is a mild drizzle. What gives?<\/p>\n \u2014Unused Umbrella<\/p>\n Stacey: Total liar. The weather app, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll find out, is in league with the weakstream media, which is controlled, for sure, by Chicken Little, and together they think up ways to make every ordinary rainstorm into an atmospheric river.<\/p>\n Gustavo: I like to garden, so I\u2019m actually very good at predicting weather: I\u2019ll go outside in the morning and feel how the sun hits me, greet the clouds, and tell the wind, \u201cPlease blow Jax from Vanderpump Rules\/The Valley away from television already.\u201d I\u2019m better at predicting the weather than Steph Curry is at nailing threes!\u2022<\/p>\n Have a question about life in California? Email our columnists at advice@altaonline.com<\/a> and sign up for the Ask a Californian newsletter at altaonline.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gustavo Arellano is the author of Orange County: A Personal History<\/a> and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America<\/a>. In 2025, Arellano was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his work as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. He was formerly editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, and penned the award-winning \u00a1Ask a Mexican!<\/a>, a nationally syndicated column in which he answered any and all questions about America\u2019s spiciest and largest minority. Arellano is the recipient of awards ranging from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Best Columnist to the Los Angeles Press Club President\u2019s Award to an Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and he was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his \u201cexceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.\u201d Arellano is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.<\/p>\n Stacey Grenrock Woods is a regular contributor to Esquire and a former correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She writes and consults on various TV shows, and has a recurring role as Tricia Thoon on Fox\u2019s Arrested Development. Her first book is I, California<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s with all the people in my adopted city of Los Angeles claiming to be fourth- or sixth-generation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[149708,149710,149709,21650,48,52,51,47,149711,50,49,149706,149707,132595],"class_list":["post-369222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california-identity-culture","tag-california-stereotypes","tag-gavin-newsom-replacement","tag-gustavo-arellano","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-culture","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-transplants","tag-sixth-generation-angelenos","tag-stacey-grenrock-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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