May 30, 2025 | Housing, Safety
By Ariana Bindman
May 30, 2025
Growing a third of America’s crops and generating billions of dollars each year, California’s Central Valley is both an economic stalwart and an increasingly popular home to millions of people. But according to new research from scientists at several state universities, climate change, urban development and agricultural activities could be making an environmental problem in the region even worse, increasing health risks for the residents who live there.
May 29, 2025 | Housing, Transportation
By CALMATTERS | CALmatters.org
May 29, 2025
The northern tip of the Vermont Square neighborhood in South Los Angeles gentrified in many of the usual ways over the last decade.
Median incomes shot up. The neighborhood’s share of Black residents declined. On the list of fastest growing home prices across the region, Vermont Square cracked the top ten. Along Western Avenue, new apartment buildings popped up as visible markers of change.
But there is a less obvious, if no less profound, marker: Fewer people began riding the bus.
May 29, 2025 | Current Bills, Housing, Legislation
By DAN WALTERS
May 29, 2025
Last week, the California Senate appeared to double down on making housing development more difficult and costly, shunting a bill aimed at making it easier to build housing for lower-income families by exempting some projects from the California Environmental Quality Act.
May 27, 2025 | Housing, Legislation
By Danielle McLean
May 27, 2025
Six cities outside Denver sued the state of Colorado to block a pair of laws forcing communities to reform local land-use restrictions to allow for more housing construction, claiming the legislation violates their home rule rights.
The lawsuit follows a May 16 executive order signed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis that ties distribution of more than $100 million in state funding for cities and towns to whether they complied with laws passed during the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions to address the statewide housing shortage.
May 19, 2025 | Housing
By JONATHAN LANSNER
May 19, 2025
Build it – and they will fall.
We’re often told that California housing costs will dip if more residences are constructed. My trusty spreadsheet’s peek into real estate and demographic patterns, however, questions the wisdom behind construction as a significant housing-cost containment measure.
The recent construction pace should have helped house hunters and apartment seekers. Yet, cost relief was almost nonexistent despite fewer Californians competing for residences.
May 17, 2025 | Housing
BY J.K. DINEEN
May 17, 2025
The site of a Mission District fire that killed a resident and displaced dozens of low-income tenants and small businesses a decade ago is set to become a 181-unit apartment building despite community
efforts to derail the project. In a 4-3 vote, the San Francisco Planning Commission approved the 10-story apartment complex at 2588 Mission St., a project opponents called “La Muerte de la Misíon,” referring to the 2015 fire that
killed the tenant, injured six others and displaced 60 tenants and 26
businesses.
