All California Local Articles


Image caption: Construction of multifamily housing developments is set to skyrocket in the next half decade.
Here Comes the California Housing Boom

The state has pledged to build 2.5 million housing units by 2030, and one agency is charged with that task. Meet the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Image caption: 207 units of market rate housing in Santa Cruz almost ready for occupancy in May 2024
How California Manages Housing as a Public Resource

Like the 33 million acres of forest in California, the nearly 15 million units of housing in the state are tended and managed with future generations in mind. Meet the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Image caption: New six-story apartment buildings in downtown Santa Cruz loom large over a funky one and two-story plaza one block away which is home to Redwood Records, The Bagelry (est 1977) and the world renowned Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
The Coming California Housing Boom

Suddenly, a lot of housing is being built across the state.

Image caption: Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in support of Prop. 1 during a press conference at the United Domestic Workers of America building in San Diego on Feb. 29, 2024. Voters narrowly passed the measure.
Newsom Releases Billions for Mental Health Housing

California voters narrowly passed Proposition 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s measure to fund mental health housing. He’s prodding counties to use the money quickly.

Image caption: People are nearby to throw you a line if you feel you are sinking.
May is Mental Health Month

Your mental health is the most important thing in the world.

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Aurora Borealis in the Santa Cruz Mountains

The Northern Lights appeared in Northern and Central California Saturday night.

Image caption: The California mental health crisis is tied to both homelessness and rising crime.
UPDATE: California’s Mental Health Crisis: How We Got Here

How the California mental health crisis emerged out of the state’s history of deinstitutionalization and laws designed to protect the mentally ill, as well as the communities around them.

Image caption: California Forever's proposed city (in blue) is located roughly halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.
The California Exodus and California Forever, Redux

The state's never-ending housing crisis has inspired hundreds of thousands of Californians to flee, and inspired an audacious plan for a brand-new city. Here's where the two related stories stand this week.

Image caption: A view of the Helen Madere Memorial Bridge crossing the Sacramento River at Rio Vista in Solano County, California.
California Forever: Building a New Community From the Ground Up

We take a closer look at ambitious plans to build a new community of up to 400,000 residents in Solano County.

Image caption: California Forever CEO Jan Sramek announces that he has gathered enough signatures to get his plan on the November ballot in Solano County.
California Forever CEO on Democracy and City Planning

Jan Sramek disavows techno-libertarian 'Network State,' explains why master-planned cities are All-American, and talks of his love for walkable communities.

Image caption: As residents continue to exit California, the state’s political power at the national level is at risk.
Updated: California Exodus, Housing and the State's Political Future

The California housing crisis is not only weakening the state politically at the national level, it could shift the political balance in Washington, D.C., as Republican-led states add population while California’s exodus continues.

Image caption: A screenshot from “Modern Times” (1936), Charlie Chaplin’s meditation on the vicissitudes of labor.
For May Day: A Temp Worker’s Oddest Jobs

They were odd jobs, but somebody had to do them. On International Workers’ Day, one peripatetic laborer shares his career lowlights.

Image caption: San Jose is finally working to fix its housing shortage, as are many California cities. This could help quell the hoards heading out of state.
Is the ‘California Exodus’ Over?

Despite predictions that the party on the West Coast is winding down, California’s population increased last year for the first time since 2020.

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On Photography and Politics

A celebration of the work of an artist who devoted a career to preserving the wildlands he loved. Plus: News you can use, and a tasty recipe!

Image caption: This image, titled 'Montara Mountain,' was used on the cover of 'The Unseen Peninsula.'
The Making of ‘The Unseen Peninsula’

A celebrated photographer reflects on the life that led to his first book, which captures a secret paradise in the heart of the San Francisco Peninsula.

Image caption: Field Flowers (2010) by Robert Buelteman
Robert Buelteman Captures the Secret Beauty of Plants

Before he started making images without a camera, Robert Buelteman was a celebrated nature photographer who worked primarily in black-and-white film.

Image caption: Mario Ramirez Garcia does homework on April 23, 2021.
Will Less Homework Make California Students Happier?

A bill from a member of the Legislature’s happiness committee would require schools to come up with homework policies that consider the mental and physical strain on students.

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Earth Day: Resilience vs. Disaster

Ee celebrate the efforts our fellow humans have made and are making to help heal our planet and connect us, while we simultaneously consider what we must do to protect our communities as the climate crisis worsens.

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Stewart Brand’s ‘Whole Earth’ and its Place in the Universe

Meet the hippie intellectual who changed the world with the first published photograph of our entire planet.

Image caption: West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California, following a storm in January 2023. Throughout the state, communities are being forced to budget for disaster.
Budgeting for Resilience

California communities are focusing resources in response to the effects of climate change and other challenges.

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