CityLab Daily: Voters Oust Stockton Mayor Who Backed Basic Income
Also today: What cities need from the Biden administration in the first 100 days, and a pizza worker’s lie prompted one of the world’s strictest lockdowns.
Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs visits the SiriusXM Studios in July 2018 in New York City.
Operation Icarus: Michael Tubbs had been a rising political star, becoming the youngest and first Black mayor of Stockton, California, in 2016 at just 26 years old. In the last four years, he gained national attention for his progressive initiatives, most notably a universal basic income pilot program that gave 125 residents $500 each month. Other programs include a scholarship program to boost the city’s college attendance rate. But this November, Tubbs conceded the mayoral race to his Republican challenger Kevin Lincoln after trailing him by 12 percentage points.
What changed? Tubbs and his progressive policies had their fair share of criticism from residents, but his supporters point to another factor: a targeted misinformation campaign by a local blog called 209 Times, whose influence grew in the absence of a robust, fully staffed local newspaper. “I think when you spend four years unchecked with no real counter, just blatantly making things up every single day, there’s an impact,” Tubbs told Sarah Holder. Today on CityLab: Rising Star Mayor Who Championed Guaranteed Income Loses Hometown Race