S TAG H UNT REVOLUTION

CALIFORNIAS
A New Frontier in Government

EXCERPT

Stag Hunt Enterprises, Inc. was founded sometime during late modernity. The archives are spotty, but we have it on good authority that the Hunt began sometime between the birth of Winston Churchill in 1878 and the infamous Christmas party of 2011. It has enjoyed a consistently unbroken record of intermittent activity and sporadic growth. What has never changed, however, is our love of deep analysis into all matters political and economic. In a world where hyper-specialization reigns, we harken back to a day when bold thinkers tackled big questions unencumbered by a fear of the unknown. In a world where everyone always seems to be running to catching their next appointment or raving about the latest hullabaloo, we find theres more value than ever in letting ideas percolate over a quality cup of tea. We pioneer political economy insights by developing, catalyzing and hunting down ideas that move humanity forward. If youd like to join our quest, please get in touch with us at StagHuntEnterprises@gmail.com. Information for Sponsors. Each season the Stag Hunt puts on a new bold challenge demanding pioneering political economy insights. These incendiary essay contests are a great way to get your name in front of the next generation of bright analysts and support the development of pragmatic solutions. If youre interested in sponsoring, please drop us a line at StagHuntEnterprises@gmail.com. Information for Contributors. We welcome any and all submissions. The only rule is that poor pieces will be mocked in true Hunter S. Thompson style. Please drop us a line at StagHuntEnterprises@gmail.com. And yes we do enjoy getting email. The Seasonal Stag Hunt is published quarterly in the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Copyright 2013 by Stag Hunt Enterprises All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. First Edition

Table Of Contents
Letter of Revolution - 4 Whither California Reform? - 8 Fruits of The Argonauts Challenge - 22 Duty and Reform - 32 Fixing Californias Opportunity Deficit - 38 Revolt at the Factory - 42 The Future of Education is Here; Its Just Not Evenly Distributed - 46 The Need for an A.R.G.O. - 50 Grand Map of Summer - 55 Credits - 56 Citations - 57

Californias Revolution

La Crescenta: hometown in the 19th century.

Today: a reminder of the American Dream

Stag Hunt | Summer 2013

Californias Revolution

L etter of R E V O L U T I O N
Dear Reader, Thank you for taking the time to read our inaugural magazine. Wed like to start by sharing a few thoughts thatll help clarify your reading experience. The first is where the Seasonal Stag Hunt originated. The second is why we chose to tackle revolutionizing Californias Bureaucracy in our first issue. The third is what can now be done with the information supplied by this magazine.

Lets start with how the Seasonal Stag Hunt came to be.

Despite everything that was ignored or squandered in its making, I believe a kind of dignity was gained. More men than just my father have said to me that living in the suburbs gave them a life made whole and habits that did not make them feel ashamed. They knew what they found and lost.

- DJ Waldie

La Crescenta is geographically isolated from the rest of Los Angeles. It is nestled safely in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, abutted against the Verdugo Mountains to the northeast and San Rafael Hills on the west. Aptly named the Balcony of Los Angeles. From here you can see the bustling metropolis of Downtown Los Angeles punctuated by skyscrapers. Shrouded in a thick veil of smog that occludes a view of the Pacific Ocean. Here there is no Wal-Mart. The public schools boast blue ribbon accolades. The police force has little more to do than harass teenagers. It is a bastion of the old middle class American dream. 30 years ago a family could afford to mortgage a house with a white picket fence there. This family probably had only one breadwinner who did not hold a college degree. They raised children and felt safe sending them to public schools. It was where an average American construction worker or auto mechanic could afford a house in a nice neighborhood. Stag Hunt | Summer 2013 5

Californias Revolution In a familiar story, the community saw the steady growth of an opportunity deficit. Property values rose faster than wages and forced out inhabitants who lived near the salary margin. The good schools and quiet lifestyle trucked in professionals who desired a short commute Downtown or to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Property values rose more. The white picket fence became a carrot dangled in front of society. The careers our parents generation built to live in La Crescenta have slowly slipped away. Nor do new alternatives readily exist. La Crescenta is a picturesque reminder of the old American dream. La Crescenta is also our home. It is where we grew up and shed blood together. From elementary school to high school footballs Friday Night Lights. We got into all sorts of good natured mischief together. La Crescenta is where we started this project. Most of us were in our mid-twenties and ready to take on the world. We called it the Homebrew Civics Club after the Homebrew Computer Club that gave rise to the PC revolution. Meetings were called to order by Patrick Atwater. Armed with just a sheet of oversized graph paper and a Sharpie, brainstorms took physical form in red and black and blue ink. When all had left the house, the pioneering spirit stayed with us. Emails about thought provoking blog posts or Patricks zany ideas kept the conversation alive. A few of our ideas included: a public finance reform tool that grants citizens unparalleled access to public financial data (spoiler alert: its called a Google spreadsheet), a web application for Californians to share their own Huell Howser inspired adventures, an anthology about the dreams that define Los Angeles, and an overhaul of todays factory-like education model. All of the ideas shared a common thread: taking small but pragmatic steps towards filling that opportunity deficit. We needed an outlet to share all of it; a proclamation to the world, so to speak. Stag Hunt Magazine is that proclamation. The Stag Hunt began as a blog run by Patrick and a few friends from Claremont McKenna Stag football. The name stems from Jean Jacques Rousseaus game theoretic. The original stag hunt dilemma follows a group of hunters as they are tracking a large stag. They have uncovered a specific path that the animal follows. If all the hunters work together, they can kill the stag. The meat will be enough to feed all of them. If the hunters are discovered, or do not cooperate, the stag will flee. All will go hungry. The hunters hide and wait along a path. An hour goes by. No sign of the stag. Two, three, four hours pass, with no trace. A day passes. The stag may not pass every day, but the hunters are reasonably certain that it will come. However, a hare is seen by all hunters moving along the path. If a hunter leaps out and kills the hare, he will eat. By not cooperating the trap laid for the stag to be wasted, and the others will starve. There is no certainty that the stag will arrive. The dilemma is that if one hunter waits, he risks one of his fellows killing the hare for himself, sacrificing everyone else. Teamwork for the greater good forms the foundation of the Stag Hunt.

So, why California? s one went to Europe to see the living past, so one must visit Southern California to observe the future. - Alison Luri

California is our passion. We grew up here and love exploring as much of the state as possible. It is the future of the tech industry; it is the test market for the grocery industry; Hollywood tells the world what is cool; and J.P.L. harbors the most brilliant researchers on the planet.

Above: The original Daily Stag hunt Logo from 2011 Right: The current logo evolved to show the whole head.
6 Stag Hunt | Summer 2013

Californias Revolution California has defined the future since the Gold Rush. California is a state that sits on the frontier of possibility; this statehood is also what is holding us back. California government is in dire need of an extreme update. Our constitution is the 3rd longest in the world and is a bumbling mess that serves the public poorly. Arcane municipal structures stymie public involvement. Local government is a tangled mess of overlapping jurisdictions. These problems are not new. The costs of inaction have become all too clear. The recent (and in some ways ongoing) financial crisis exposed structural rot in the foundations of the American dream. No longer can we believe that the paths our parents took to carve out a life in La Crescenta are available to us. The sad part is California needs, more than ever, what La Crescenta stood for. Opportunity for the everyman. Lets be clear though. Were not here to complain. We just want to roll up our sleeves and build a new California dream. Our political leaders largely insist on ignoring these pressing problems, we believe that constitutes a revolution. For the past few decades, reformers have spun their wheels in grand conferences offering small technical tweaks to massive structural problems. Recent campaign finance decision, especially Citizens United, turn our democracy into an auction going to the highest bidder. Despite the work of many talented and dedicated teachers, our education system continues to fail far too many students. As young adults who lived through the reality of class size reduction bungalows plopped on our playgrounds we know all too well what happens when reformers choose to paper over real issues. The education system is trapped in factorylike standards that inhibit free thought. The Vietnam War has been described as a galvanizing moment in American history, a time when the people were able to change the course of government. Yet it is routinely skipped in high school history classes. Students are all too often sorted by their parental income and zip code. Endemic underemployment among recent college graduates shows that Americas basic bargain is in desperate need of an upgrade. In that landscape, why should we believe that term limit tweaks are the answer? Governor Brown has taken the lead by abolishing redevelopment, stabilizing the budget, and simplifying school finance. Yet much more can and needs to be done. Drastic changes are necessary. Education can be transformed. Communities can help to make learning a part of life, rather than a homogeneous inhibitor of imagination. We can radically scale the hard work of realigning our government with the realities of the world we live in. real way, this project itself is a Stag Hunt. We invite you, yes YOU reading this letter right now, to choose the Stag and help build something larger than yourself. Join the revolution and help build a government that reflects the world we live in. Read the ideas in our magazine. Share them with a friend. Write a scathing critique to be included in our next issue. And then take the next step and articulate a better solution. Whatever you do, find a way to chip in. Get involved at your local school. Volunteer your professional expertise or life expertise in the classroom. Lead a

But what to do with the info in Stag Hunt magazine?

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. -Abraham Lincoln
Lets seize the moment. These issues are not inevitabilities. That declinist mentality is what we aim to confront head on. It seems contradictory for a state that has led Martian exploration to have such a technologically backwards government. Yet for some reason we cant even formulate a way to make municipal financials easily accessible to the public. Instead this data is locked away in PDF lockboxes that frustrate all but the most determined citizens. We need to remember though that we live in a democracy and these public problems ultimately are our choice. It is so much easier to point out flaws and leave them as just that. We refuse to accept this notion. We have chosen to work towards a future California abundant in opportunity. We believe government matters and that good government reflects the world we live in. We intend to do our part to build it. We cant build it alone though. It will take innumerable Californians working together to make that dream a reality. In a Stag Hunt | Summer 2013 coalition to bring the community schools model to your neighborhood. Together we can build a revolution around pragmatic problem solving. We challenge our fellow Californians to take ownership over making the American dream accessible to those who are willing to work for it. That task is not new. In many ways, it is the defining goal of the American experiment. Every generation must earn the privileges of freedom. Its our turn to honor Californias storied heritage, and we intend to do our part. Cheers,

R E VO L UTION
David Thomas, Patrick Atwater and the Stag Staff 7

Find the full magazine on Amazon.com, StagHuntEnterprises.com, and makeshift newstands throughout California.

If a deer was to be taken, every one saw that, in order to succeed, he must abide faithfully by his post: but if a hare happened to come within the reach of any one of them, it is not to be doubted that he pursued it without scruple, and having seized his prey, cared very little, if by so doing he caused his companions to miss theirs. Jean Jacques Rousseau