California

Homeless People and Expensive Housing Cause an Identity Crisis in Berkeley
The city of Berkeley is suffering the consequences of the urban revival—soaring housing costs and humanitarian crises don't reconcile with the city's famously progressive politics.

BART's Six-Month Transit Incentive Experiment Reports Mixed Success
The BART Perks pilot program was the first transit incentive program in the country.

Oroville Dam Repair Costs Still a Confusing Secret
The Mercury News issues a pointed critique of the public relations efforts at the California Department of Water Resources in the shadow of this winter’s Oroville Dam crisis.

San Francisco's Plans for Market and Van Ness Reach a Crossroads
San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King reveals more than one layer of planning significance from a project proposed near one of the city's most prominent, but underutilized, intersections.

A Proposed Legislative Solution to California's Out-Migration Epidemic
The Sacramento Bee follows-up a revealing report on lower income workers leaving California due largely to exorbitant housing costs with an editorial endorsing legislation by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco to address the source of the problem.

Lessons for YIMBYs From Boyle Heights
In the wake of a very pro-development March election, Los Angeles seems ready to embrace change. But not everywhere. In low-income Boyle Heights, residents have been more militant than most against encroaching gentrification.

Making It Easier to Build Won't Help
Here are some observations that may shed light on the mystery of why—despite creating every incentive that planners can conceive—we are failing to produce affordable housing at the level we need.

Los Angeles' Iconic Angels Flight Railway To Utilize P3 Model
After appearing in the film La La Land, the world-renowned, iconic, 116-year-old Angels Flight will reopen to the public after a three-year modernization process.

Artists Find Alternate Uses for Billboards in Los Angeles
With a surplus of unsold billboard spaces dotting Los Angeles, artists are using the empty spaces as canvasses for new forms of public art.

Electric Vehicle Fees: Where's the Controversy?
Some may find it silly to get worked up over an annual fee of about $100 to pay for road maintenance when electric vehicle purchasers receive a $7,500 federal tax credit, on top of generous state perks, but electric vehicle supporters object to them.

California Pushing Out Low Income Residents
California has lost a quarter million low income residents over the last decade, in large part because of the high cost of housing.

L.A. Planning Referendum, Measure S, Soundly Defeated
Measure S and an oddly timed election brought planning and development to the center of the public consciousness in Los Angeles for a few months. The voters resoundingly supported one side of the issue.

'Muni Forward' Brings Big Changes to San Francisco's Transit System
The perpetual project to improve transit service in San Francisco has a new chapter.

Legal Loophole Will Allow Rollback of Fuel Efficiency Standards
On Tuesday, the Trump administration anticipates unraveling two signature Obama environmental regulations: fuel efficiency standards for model year 2022-2025 light-duty vehicles and beginning the undoing of the Clean Power Plan.

Los Angeles Planning Reforms Respond to Measure S
Councilmember José Huizar weighs the city's new rules against those proposed by the upcoming ballot measure.

Trumps Infrastructure Promises Might Not Include California
Electrifying Caltrain is low-hanging fruit for Infrastructure spending. Unfortunately, the fruit may spoil on the vine because the California GOP and Donald Trump have put the project on hold.

In Building Homes Near Highways, L.A. Ignores a Public Health Issue
Los Angeles seems primed for a development boom, but when developments are built near highways there can be serious health consequences.

Why Elon Musk Is Wrong about His Boring Solution to L.A.'s Traffic Congestion
Herbie Huff of the UCLA's Lewis Center and Institute of Transportation Studies pens a well-reasoned opinion for the Los Angeles Times as to why a market-based strategy to manage demand is the best approach to traffic congestion in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County Looking for Ways to Fund Stormwater Management
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl made the announcement at the recent VerdeXchange Conference.

California Investing In 'Transformative Climate Communities'
The California Strategic Growth Council has $140 million in cap-and-trade revenue for the new Transformative Climate Community program. The aim of the program is to catalyze environmental and economic investment in disadvantaged communities.
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