Television moves fast. News moves faster. But if you look back at the November 9 2012 KQED This Week episode, it feels like a time capsule of a California that was just beginning to grapple with the monsters it would eventually have to face full-on. It was a Friday. People were still buzzing from the election that had happened just days prior.
The atmosphere in the studio was thick with that post-election exhaustion that journalists get. Host Belva Davis, a legend who basically paved the way for every Black woman in broadcast news in the West, was steering the ship. This wasn't just another Friday night wrap-up. This was the moment the Bay Area realized that the political landscape had shifted under its feet, and nobody was quite sure where the new fault lines were.
The Post-Election Hangover and the Prop 30 Shockwave
Honestly, the biggest thing on everyone's mind during that November 9 broadcast was money. Specifically, the state's lack of it. Governor Jerry Brown had just pulled off what many thought was impossible: passing Proposition 30.
If you weren't following California budget theatrics back then, you might not remember how high the stakes were. We were looking at "trigger cuts." That’s a fancy way of saying "the schools are going to lose billions if this doesn't pass." During the November 9 2012 KQED This Week discussion, the panel delved into how Brown managed to convince a cynical public to tax themselves. It was a temporary sales tax increase and a hike on high earners.
It worked.
But as the analysts on the show pointed out, the victory was bittersweet. It wasn't a "we're rich now" moment; it was a "we're not drowning today" moment. They talked about the "wall of debt" that Brown kept referencing. It’s funny looking back at those transcripts and seeing how worried everyone was about a deficit that looks like pocket change compared to modern post-pandemic swings.
Local Battles: The San Francisco Supervisor Race
While the state was looking at the macro, the micro was happening in the Richmond District and the Sunset. The 2012 election wasn't just about Obama or the state propositions. It was about who was going to control the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
On that November 9th episode, the conversation turned to the shift in power. You had names like Eric Mar and Norman Yee popping up. The balance of power between the "moderates" and the "progressives" is a tale as old as time in San Francisco, but 2012 was a pivot point. The tech boom—what we now call the "Twitter tax break" era—was beginning to make people very, very angry about housing.
You’ve probably seen the Google Bus protests in documentaries, right? Those started boiling over right around this time. The November 9 2012 KQED This Week panel didn't call it a "housing crisis" with the same apocalyptic tone we use now, but they were starting to see the cracks. They discussed the tensions of a city that was becoming too expensive for the people who actually made it run.
Why Belva Davis Matters (And Why This Episode Was Special)
You can't talk about this specific date in KQED history without talking about Belva Davis. By November 2012, she was nearing the end of her tenure on This Week.
She wasn't just reading a teleprompter. She was an institution.
Her style was different from the shouty, high-octane cable news anchors we see today. She asked questions that felt like she was actually listening to the answer. In the November 9 episode, she pushed her guests—often a mix of veteran reporters like the San Francisco Chronicle's Carla Marinucci or KQED’s own Scott Shafer—to explain the "why" behind the numbers.
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There was a segment about the Republican party's soul-searching in California. Remember, this was 2012. The GOP had just been crushed in the state. The panel discussed whether the party could ever be relevant in California again. Looking at the supermajority the Democrats hold today, that November 9th analysis was almost prophetic. They weren't just guessing; they were looking at the demographic shifts that were making the "old guard" obsolete.
The Ghost of the 2012 Tech Boom
If you watch the archival footage or read the reports from that week, the tech influence is everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Airbnb was barely four years old. Uber was still "UberCab" to a lot of people.
The November 9 2012 KQED This Week episode touched on the economy, and the vibe was one of cautious optimism. The recession was technically over, but the "recovery" felt uneven. The panel discussed how San Francisco was becoming an island of wealth. This wasn't the polished, corporate tech world of 2026. It was scrappier, weirder, and arguably more disruptive to the local social fabric.
They also spent time on the "pensions." God, remember when everyone talked about pensions? The rising cost of public employee benefits was the boogeyman of every 2012 political talk show. San Francisco had passed its own pension reform (Prop C) the year prior, and the November 9th discussion looked at whether other cities would follow suit. It was a gritty, policy-heavy conversation that KQED viewers loved.
A Note on the "Lost" Media of the 2010s
It's actually kind of hard to find full, high-definition clips of these old episodes sometimes. Public media archival is a labor of love. When people search for November 9 2012 KQED This Week, they're often looking for a specific guest or a specific quote about the 2012 election results.
The episode served as a bridge. It bridged the gap between the old-school labor politics of the 20th century and the data-driven, tech-heavy politics of the 21st.
Actionable Steps for the Political Junkie
If you’re trying to understand how California got to its current state—economically and socially—looking at this specific week in 2012 is a masterclass.
- Audit the Prop 30 Legacy: Look at how the "temporary" taxes of 2012 became the "permanent" landscape of California today. It changed the way the state funds schools forever.
- Study the Belva Davis Archive: If you're a student of journalism, watch her interviews. She didn't interrupt. She waited for the silence to make the guest uncomfortable enough to tell the truth.
- Compare the Board of Supervisors: Look at the names mentioned in that November 9 broadcast. Many of them moved on to the State Assembly or Senate. The "local" news of 2012 is the "state" leadership of today.
- Research the 2012 San Francisco Pension Reform: It’s a dry topic, but it’s the reason the city didn’t go bankrupt while others struggled. It’s a blueprint for fiscal management that actually worked without blowing up the city.
The November 9 2012 KQED This Week broadcast wasn't just a news show. It was a snapshot of a city and a state at a crossroads, chaired by a woman who had seen it all before. We are living in the world that those analysts were trying to predict twelve years ago. Sometimes they were right, and sometimes they were spectacularly wrong, but they were the only ones asking the right questions.