In his January budget proposal to the state Legislature, Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a clear message: California needs to move people off the streets. “I don’t want to see any more people die in the streets and call that compassion,” Newsom said Monday, detailing his $286.4 billion blueprint. “There is nothing compassionate about someone dying in…
Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled right over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California. What does 2022 hold? Layered on top of pandemic uncertainty is the question of what policymakers might do for — and to — businesses. “2022 is going to be a very…
Photo by Mike from Pexels Gov. Gavin Newsom has made the California housing crisis a priority, but has not accomplished his goals. He returned to the issue in his first major bill signings after winning the recall election. Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed some of the biggest housing bills in years, including a measure that allows more than one house…
On a few of the vast, verdant lawns in East Sacramento, one of the capital city’s most popular and expensive neighborhoods, yellow-and-black yard signs urge passersby to “save neighborhoods” and keep Sacramento “livable and diverse.” The message symbolizes a big battle taking place at the state Capitol only a few miles away — whether to…
California renters, who are still struggling to pay the rent even as the pandemic wanes, will be shielded from eviction through September 30th, under a last-minute deal announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. In statements, Newsom and legislative leaders who negotiated the new protections said they would keep families from falling through the…
Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly made housing affordability a top priority of his administration. But getting a good read on his thinking can be difficult. During a panel discussion hosted by Capitol Weekly, Jason Elliott, Newsom’s top advisor on housing and homelessness, provided a glimpse. The big takeaway: California is millions of housing units short,…
Tenants and landlords are hurting, homelessness is skyrocketing and the housing market is out of control. The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the only reason for that, but it’s making California’s longstanding housing crisis even worse. In 2021, nine out of ten Californians consider housing affordability a problem, and nearly one in three Californians are considering leaving…
California housing is crowded, expensive and difficult to find, but if a package of bills proposed by prominent Senate Democrats becomes law, some cities could look very different a decade from now. Duplexes and small apartment buildings would spring up from single-family lots. Public housing projects, effectively stifled since the 1950s, would dot the landscape…
Delays and backlogs in criminal and civil cases are spreading throughout California’s court system. Half as many cases were resolved — 1.4 million fewer — from March through August last year than during the same period in 2019, according to a report the state judicial branch’s administration put together. No one knows how many thousands of cases…