Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News Business Leaders Push Newsom To Reopen Schools

Business leaders across California urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to reopen public schools immediately.

The California Business Roundtable – a nonpartisan organization made up of business executives throughout the state – held a briefing with members from various business organizations on Wednesday calling for schools to reopen.

Their message was clear: School closures are hurting the workforce, and parents should have the choice to send their children back to school safely, regardless of their socio-economic status.

“We cannot reopen the economy without safely reopening our schools first,” said Lucy Dunn, President and CEO of the Orange County Business Council.

“Parents should not have to choose between educating their children or reentering the workforce. This is leading already countless working parents having to quit their jobs, not go back to work. Especially working moms who have already had to choose, disproportionately so and affected by this pandemic recession, choosing work over their children is not a good choice.”

Dunn noted a Stanford study that estimates the COVID-19 learning loss will cost the US economy $14 trillion to $28 trillion.

Read More [[link removed]] California Business Groups Demand Schools Reopen Immediately

California business leaders joined the schools conversation Wednesday by calling for the “immediate and safe” reopening of campuses and warning of the potential long-term economic costs of prolonged closures.

What happened: At a news conference hosted by the California Business Roundtable, members of local chambers of commerce and representatives of industries including the California Building Industry Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, called on state leaders and teachers unions to open schools.

Frustrated business leaders said that nearly a year of school closures are hurting working families as parents — especially mothers — have been forced to choose distance learning supervision over their jobs, and that the future workforce will suffer from the current learning loss brought on by the pandemic.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation 6-Month Delay In Census Redistricting Data Could Throw Elections Into Chaos

The 2020 census data needed for the redrawing of voting districts around the country are extremely delayed and now expected by Sept. 30.

A senior Democratic aide who was briefed by the Census Bureau on Friday, but not authorized to speak ahead of the bureau's planned public announcement, first confirmed the schedule change to NPR earlier on Friday.

Then, in a statement, the bureau said the timing shift allows it to "deliver complete and accurate redistricting data in a more timely fashion overall for the states," which are expected to receive the information at the same time rather than on a rolling basis as after past head counts.

Dogged by the coronavirus pandemic and the Trump administration's interference with the census schedule, the latest expected release date — six months past the March 31 legal deadline — could throw upcoming elections into chaos in states facing tight redistricting deadlines for Congress, as well as state and local offices.

Read More [[link removed]] CDC Presses K-12 Schools To Reopen

Federal health and education officials urged the nation’s elementary and secondary schools on Friday to reopen safely as soon as possible, saying they can operate by strictly adhering to safety precautions to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in classrooms and in their communities.

In new guidelines for schools, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said students, teachers and staff should be required to wear masks at all times and should maintain distances of at least 6 feet from one another as much as possible, with students divided into small groups that don’t mix with one another.

Also essential, the agency said, are proper hand-washing practices, cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, and working with health departments to use contact tracing, isolation and quarantine to reduce the risk of transmission once someone has been infected.

Read More [[link removed]] Limit On U.S. Debt, Untouched In Democrats’ Covid Aid Bill, Looms Later In The Year

Democrats chose not to include an increase in the federal debt ceiling in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, leaving the often-contentious issue to be addressed later this year.

The decision means Democrats will either have to include a debt-limit increase in a second tax-and-spending package that is likely to pass along party lines or negotiate with Republicans to have it added to another bill.

If Congress doesn’t act by late summer or early fall, the U.S. will run out of legal borrowing capacity, according to an estimate from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Such a full breach, which has never occurred, could have significant but unpredictable effects on financial markets.

In 2011, when Republicans demanded policy changes in exchange for a higher debt limit, stock prices fell amid the uncertainty and a downgrade of the U.S. debt rating by Standard & Poor’s.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Debt on Track To Hit A Record 107% Of GDP By 2031, CBO Says

Federal deficits are projected to soar over the next decade, but not as much as officials forecast last summer, thanks to an improving economic outlook that is expected to bolster federal revenues, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

Federal debt, which reached 100% of gross domestic product in the last fiscal year, is expected to rise to a record 107% of economic output by 2031.

The agency expects cumulative deficits over the next 10 years will total $12.6 trillion, 3% less than projected in September, the last time the agency released its estimates. The decline stems from stronger-than-expected economic activity, higher inflation and higher interest rates, which will boost federal tax revenue more than spending, the nonpartisan agency said.

Republicans in Congress who object to President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package have pointed to growing budget deficits and debt as a reason to keep spending in check. They also argue the economy is already poised for stronger growth this year. Democrats, who control the House and Senate with narrow majorities, are on track to approve the bill.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Consumer Sentiment Falls In Early February

Consumers’ view of the economy slipped in early February as Americans were more downbeat about future business conditions, according to a University of Michigan survey released Friday.

The preliminary estimate of the index of consumer sentiment came in at 76.2 in February, down from 79.0 in January. The decline in sentiment was concentrated in the measure of future expectations and among households with incomes below $75,000, said Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist.

“Households with incomes in the bottom third reported significant setbacks in their current finances, with fewer of these households mentioning recent income gains than anytime since 2014,” Mr. Curtin said. A new round of stimulus payments would presumably reduce financial hardships among those with the lowest incomes, he said.

The sentiment measure was the lowest since August, and down from the 101.0 in February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S.

Read More [[link removed]] Pelosi Expects Covid Relief Will Be Signed Into Law Before Unemployment Programs Expire

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expects Democrats will pass their next coronavirus relief package before programs buoying jobless Americans lapse next month, she said Thursday.

The House hopes to approve its $1.9 trillion aid plan “by the end of February so we can send it to the president’s desk before unemployment benefits expire” on March 14, the California Democrat told reporters.

The pandemic-era policies set to run out add a $300-per-week federal unemployment supplement, expand benefits eligibility to self-employed and gig workers, and extend the number of weeks Americans can receive benefits.

Nine House committees this week started to write and advance their portions of the relief bill, which Democrats are expected to pass through budget reconciliation without Republican votes. Pelosi said she expects the panels crafting the legislation will finish their work this week.

Read More [[link removed]] Forecasters Lift Expectations For 2021 Economic Growth

Forecasters are increasingly optimistic about economic growth this year, though less so about the labor market’s prospects, as it recovers from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, a new Wall Street Journal survey shows.

Economists on average expected gross domestic product to expand nearly 4.9% this year, measured from the fourth quarter of the prior year, according to the business and academic economists surveyed in February, an improvement from their 4.3% forecast in January. They cited the distribution of Covid-19 vaccinations and the prospect of additional fiscal relief from Washington for the brightening outlook.

However, they were more cautious about the recovery in jobs. Economists this month on average expected employers to add 4.8 million jobs this year, down from the 5.0 million they projected in January and equal to just half of the 9.6 million jobs lost since February 2020. The forecasters saw a mean unemployment rate of 5.3% by year’s end, about the same level they projected in last month’s survey. The Labor Department said Friday the national jobless rate was 6.3% in January.

Read More [[link removed]] Republicans Demand Investigation Into California's Unemployment Scandal

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee demanded Thursday, that Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. call a hearing to investigate California’s colossal fraud that occurred with state's unemployment benefit program.

California officials reported last month that at least $11.4 billion in unemployment benefits have been mistakenly paid out under fraudulent cases since March 2020 – though some estimates say scammers could have received as much as $31 billion in fraudulent payments.

"The evidence of unprecedented fraud, waste, mismanagement and incompetence is too voluminous to briefly reference," Ranking Member James Comer, R-Ky., said in a letter Thursday.

"By any objective measure, we believe this Committee is obligated to schedule a public hearing to comprehensively examine what went wrong in California, the steps being taken to recover the improper payments, and the steps being taken to prevent it from happening again," the letter continued.

Read More [[link removed]] California Unemployment Claims Mount Higher Amid Ongoing Layoffs

California’s frail job market, battered by nearly one year of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns, has suffered a fresh setback with a sharp increase in initial filings for unemployment benefits, a new government report shows.

Workers in California filed 132,800 initial claims for unemployment last week, a jump of 23,600 from the prior week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

In another grim trend: The pace of jobless claims in California has intensified even as unemployment claims in the United States have dropped.

Nationwide, initial unemployment claims totaled 793,000 during the week that ended on Feb. 6, down 19,000 from the week ending Jan. 30, according to the federal report.

California also is accounting for far more than its share of unemployment claims.

Read More [[link removed]] California Left Clinics Off Vaccine List, So Low-Income Patients Are Underserved

Last fall, St. John’s Well Child and Family Center began purchasing sub-zero freezers to store the COVID-19 vaccine. By Nov. 20, St. John’s had eight freezers, with three more on the way.

The clinic’s CEO, Jim Mangia, reached out to Los Angeles County health officials to let them know they were ready to distribute the vaccine. “St. John’s stands ready as a resource to immunize thousands of people a week,” he wrote.

But California’s community health clinics had not been invited by the state to enroll as vaccine providers yet, even though the first doses were expected to arrive in Los Angeles in less than a month.

Mangia was incredulous. As a nonprofit health network with 19 clinics in South Los Angeles, Compton and Lynwood, St. John’s serves more than 100,000 patients each year, many of whom live in poverty or are undocumented immigrants.

Read More [[link removed]] Economy Czar Dee Dee Myers On Vaccines, Reopening And California's 'Overblown' Exodus

Mass confusion about vaccines. Enough small business owners scrambling for state cash to crash a website. Contentious battles over COVID-19 reopening rules and getting kids back into classrooms.

All in a day’s work for Dee Dee Myers.

As 2020 came to a chaotic close, the former Warner Bros. communications executive and the country’s first female White House press secretary took over California’s faltering economic response to the pandemic. Myers joined as a senior adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development after predecessor Lenny Mendonca resigned, a high-profile recovery task force dissolved and Newsom tried to regain credibility after attending a lobbyist’s birthday party at the French Laundry.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Myers spoke with CalMatters this week about navigating reopening conflicts, the state’s evolving COVID-19 recovery plan and why she doesn’t fear Elon Musk’s move to Texas.

Read More [[link removed]] Disneyland To Remain Closed More Than A Year, Disney Official Says

Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are expected to remain closed for more than a year and not reopen before late March or early April while California theme parks remain shuttered under state guidelines, according to Disney officials.

“Our current expectation is that Disneyland and Disneyland Paris will be closed for the entirety of the second quarter,” Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said.

McCarthy commented on the continued closure of Disney’s Anaheim theme parks during a conference call with analysts on Thursday, Feb. 11. Disney’s second quarter typically ends between March 28 and April 2.

Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and other California theme parks closed in mid-March and are not expected to return to full operation until spring or summer under COVID-19 health and safety reopening guidelines issued by the state.

Read More [[link removed]] The Bay Area Tech Crowd Is Flooding Sacramento. What It Means For Real Estate, Our Economy

For years in the shadow of bigger coastal metropolises, California’s capital region has emerged as one of the hottest relocation spots in the West for young professionals who’ve moved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A LinkedIn analysis found that the Sacramento region was the third most popular destination in the country for professional workers who left the Bay Area in 2020. Sacramento ranked behind tech meccas Seattle and Austin, Texas, and ahead of Portland, Ore. and Denver.

For every LinkedIn Sacramento member who moved to the Bay Area last year, 1.45 members did the opposite, a substantial increase over the year before. Sacramento also attracted an increasing number of Los Angeles-area residents. LinkedIn is an online employment networking site.

The study of LinkedIn members provides concrete evidence of a trend that many leaders in Sacramento have noticed anecdotally in the past year. And the data could help the region’s policymakers figure out what impact migrants are having — for better and worse — on Sacramento’s economy, real estate values, growth patterns, infrastructure needs and overall livability.

Read More [[link removed]] The Other California

California’s coastal urban centers, once the ultimate land of opportunity, suffer notorious traffic congestion, unaffordable housing, and a social chasm defined by a shrinking middle class, a small wealthy sector, and a sizable population seemingly locked in poverty. If there is a future for the region’s middle and upwardly mobile working class, it’s more likely to be found in the state’s large, generally more affordable, interior, known as the Inland Empire, or “the IE.” But for that to happen, the area’s promise needs to be better recognized—and supported—by policymakers.

Starting in the second half of the nineteenth century as a rural area with a few small cities built around affordable land and imported water—San Bernardino, Riverside, Ontario—the Inland Empire evolved as a place where, as the city of Chino’s motto puts it, “Everything Grows.” Over the years, the IE’s burgeoning farm economy attracted Mormons, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Basques, and Russians, and the area was also home to a large Latino workforce. By the end of the twentieth century, the IE was California’s growth hub. More than 300,000 people moved in from the state’s coast between 2007 and 2011, representing America’s largest county-to-county population shift. The IE is now one of the nation’s fastest-growing economies, and Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, with 4.5 million residents, is America’s 13th-largest metropolitan statistical area, ahead of Seattle, San Diego, and Denver.

Read More [[link removed]] Audit: California Should Track Homeless Spending, Set Policy

California has spent $13 billion in the last three years to tackle a massive homelessness problem likely to worsen with the pandemic, yet its approach is so fragmented and incomplete as to hinder efforts at getting people into stable housing, the state auditor said in a report released Thursday.

The office of state auditor Elaine Howle said that the state continues to have the largest homeless population in the nation “likely in part because its approach to addressing homelessness has been disjointed."

The office recommended that California copy other states in charging a single entity to oversee efforts or be responsible for developing a statewide strategic plan.

Sprawling tent encampments on city streets and along highways and river banks remain a common sight in California despite efforts to move unhoused residents to hotel rooms during the pandemic. About 150,000 people experiencing homelessness live in the state, including about half the country’s estimated 211,000 residents living unsheltered on the streets or in vehicles.

Read More [[link removed]] San Diego Leaders Propose Vacancy Tax, Community Land Trusts For Housing Crisis

San Diego’s new Democrat-dominated City Council is proposing several bold ideas to tackle the city’s affordable housing crisis, including creating community land trusts, a rent registry, vacancy taxes and forcing landlords to rent to people with pets.

City officials have routinely listed the housing crisis as a top priority, but most of the legislation has focused on streamlining existing regulations and creating incentives for housing developers.

The exceptions are two efforts spearheaded by former City Council President Georgette Gómez to preserve existing low-income units and strengthen the city’s inclusionary law so developers must build more low-income units.

Now the City Council, with an 8-1 Democratic majority and five new members, is proposing that San Diego begin exploring more aggressive ideas.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Yellen Is Creating A New Senior Treasury Post For Climate Czar

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to wield the department’s broad powers to tackle potential risks to the financial system posed by climate change while pushing tax incentives to reduce carbon emissions.

Ms. Yellen is looking to a veteran of the Obama administration, Sarah Bloom Raskin, as the leading candidate for a new senior position that would head a new Treasury climate “hub,” according to people familiar with the matter. A former deputy Treasury secretary who once worked alongside Ms. Yellen on the Federal Reserve Board, Ms. Raskin has warned in interviews and speeches that U.S. regulators must do more to strengthen the financial system’s resilience to climate risks.

The move is part of the Biden administration’s effort across many government departments to address climate change and its impact on various industries. In two early moves, the administration rejoined the Paris climate accord and suspended new oil and gas leases on federal land.

Read More [[link removed]] Wind Turbines Could Be Coming To California Coast

California has been a world leader in renewable energy for decades. It has more solar power and electric cars than any other state. And it built the first large wind farms in the nation more than 30 years ago.

But there’s one area where the Golden State has fallen far behind: offshore wind. From Scotland to Norway, China to Rhode Island, thousands of giant turbines generate clean energy in oceans around the world. But none is off California’s coast.

On Thursday, a coalition of labor, industry and environmental groups came together to change that, endorsing a new bill that would require California to set a target of constructing 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes, and 10,000 megawatts by 2040. Put in perspective, the larger target is nearly equal to the electrical generating capacity of all the large solar farms in California today and nearly double all the wind farms now operating on land in California.

“Our state has access to one of the world’s greatest sources of untapped energy — offshore wind,” said Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco. “The wind off California’s coast has enormous potential to meet clean energy goals, combat climate change and provide good paying jobs.”

Read More [[link removed]] California Pledged To Achieve 1005 Clean Energy. That Was The Easy Part

In the seven years I’ve been reporting on energy and climate change, California has come a long way.

When I started, state law mandated 33% renewable energy by 2020; utility companies hit that goal two years early and have since been tasked with reaching 60% renewables by 2030 and 100% carbon-free by midcentury. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently ordered an end to the sale of gasoline-fueled cars by 2035. Dozens of cities are trying to phase out gas heating and cooking in new buildings.

Like them or hate them, those are major steps to slash emissions. But just as important are all the steps California has yet to take.

I wrote about some of those this week, in a story that explores the tricky path to 100% clean energy. The focus is a proposed undersea transmission line that would bring offshore wind power to Los Angeles, and why state officials haven’t shown much interest — even though the undersea cable could help shut down gas-fired power plants and reduce the risk of blackouts.

Read More [[link removed]] Shell, In A Turning Point, Says Its Oil Production Has Peaked

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday made the boldest statement among its peers about the waning of the oil age, saying its production reached a high in 2019 and is now likely to gradually decline.

Shell’s “total oil production peaked in 2019” and will now drop 1 or 2 percent annually, the company said in a statement.

The announcement, part of the small print of a presentation about future clean-energy goals, is a turning point for one of the world’s leading oil firms, one dating back to the 19th century. And it underscores a talking point that the company’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, has expressed for years: To stay in business, Shell must be seen as part of the solution, and not the cause, of climate change.

Read More [[link removed]] California Is Still Oil Country. This County Wants To Keep It That Way.

Juan Flores remembers vividly the first time he learned what fracking smelled like. He was breaking ground on a community garden near a school as part of his job as a community organizer in the small town of Shafter, California, when an acrid smell filled the air. Within 30 minutes, he had a headache. The community members at the event warned him they were accustomed to not going outside when this smell filled the air. They knew instinctively what it meant — an oil or gas well was being fracked.

Shafter is located in Kern County, the heart of California’s oil and gas industry. Kern County, in the south Central Valley, produces 80 percent of California’s onshore oil and gas; it’s currently home to 78,000 operating oil and gas wells. Now, an ordinance set to be reviewed by the Kern County Planning Commission could nearly double that number over the next 20 years by fast-tracking the permitting process for 67,000 new wells.

This is not the ordinance’s first life — it was drafted in 2015 by oil industry consultants and implemented the same year. The ordinance functioned as a blanket assessment of environmental impacts for any oil and gas permit, allowing oil and gas wells to bypass individual environmental review.

Read More [[link removed]] How Bay Area Farms Could Give Biden A Blueprint For Fighting Climate Change

In one of his first acts in office, President Biden said he wants farmers and ranchers to tell him how to fight climate change.

If he wants to hear from agricultural businesses already on the front lines of combating global warming, the Bay Area might be a good place to start.

On Albert Straus’ organic dairy farm in Marin County, an electric truck powered by cow manure feeds his 280 cows. Since 2004, he’s been using a methane digester, which captures methane from manure and converts it into enough electricity to power the whole farm. Judith Redmond of Full Belly Farms in Capay Valley, which sells at farmers markets all over the Bay Area, works with universities to implement sustainable practices like reduced tillage.

Agriculture accounts for a tenth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, well behind transportation (28%) and electricity production (27%). But the sector is uniquely positioned in the climate crisis: Farms can do more than just reduce emissions. They can pull the excess carbon that causes global warming out of the atmosphere and put it back into the ground, a process known as sequestration.

Read More [[link removed]] CPUC Moves Forward With Plan To Prevent 2021 Blackouts Despite Criticism From Environmental Groups

The decision is part of California regulators' broader efforts to ensure the rolling blackouts that affected the grid last August don't occur again. A root cause analysis issued by the state's energy agencies following the blackouts identified the need for expedited procurement processes to ensure adequate resources are online by the summer of 2021, and in November the CPUC launched a rulemaking to address the issue.

The decision approved by the commission this week identified four resource types that the utilities could consider: energy storage capacity, firm forward imported energy, contracting generation at risk of retirement, and additional capacity from existing power plants, via revised power purchase agreements or efficiency upgrades.

But the last category has drawn criticism from multiple groups, including the Sierra Club, the California Environmental Justice Alliance and the Union of Concerned Scientists, who worry that the decision will result in contracts for gas capacity and run counter to the state's climate goals and air quality requirements. The groups also pointed to the environmental and health risks associated with gas plants, and in particular their impact on disadvantaged communities.

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development Low Kindergarten Attendance Creates First Grade Problem

Thousands of California families chose to keep their children out of kindergarten this past year, opting instead for other in person programs or no school at all.

That means thousands — or potentially tens of thousands — more children than usual will be hitting first grade next school year without having been through kindergarten, putting even more stress on an already strained system.

California is one of 32 states where kindergarten is optional. It’s an option that experts have increasingly come to disagree with. Children that skip kindergarten, they argue, arrive in first grade behind their peers in key areas like reading.

“Learning through play is so important for brain development and social emotional development,” said Gennie Gorback, president-elect of the California Kindergarten Association.

Read More [[link removed]] In His Own Words: 'Educators In Front Of Students Should Be Vaccinated,' Says CTA President E. Toby Boyd

E.Toby Boyd was just elected to a second two-year term to head up the California Teachers Association, representing over 300,000 teachers in California. He was formerly a kindergarten teacher for 23 years in Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento. In an interview with John Fensterwald and Louis Freedberg on EdSource’s podcast “This Week in California Education,” he talked about under what conditions the organization believes teachers should return to school for in-person instruction, including whether they should be vaccinated before doing so. Because of CTA’s key role in the school re-opening debate, we are reprinting Boyd’s lightly edited remarks below.

EdSource: Gov. Newsom has made explicit his policy on vaccinations and said that it’s not necessary to vaccinate all teachers before reopening schools for at least elementary schools? What’s your position on vaccines?

Boyd: The educators who are in front of students right now should be vaccinated, and there should be testing taking place to make sure that the virus itself is not entering the school site. If districts are going to plan on opening, they need to make sure that the educators who are going to be in front of the classes when they reopen have the vaccine. All this is done on the presumption that the educator involved will want to have the vaccine, because it’s their personal choice.

Read More [[link removed]] Reopening California State University Hingers On Vaccines, New Chancellor Says

Amid an unprecedented pandemic, it’s clear what stands as California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro’s main priority — safely reopening the state’s 23 campuses for in-person classes this fall.

A little over a month into his tenure as leader of the nation’s largest public university system, Castro spoke with EdSource about his priorities for his first 100 days. Castro also wants to focus on closing income and racial equity gaps in graduation rates, restore state budget cuts from last year, improve faculty diversity and research better ways to integrate technology in teaching and learning.

“We are still committed to returning to a majority of in-person courses in Fall 2021,” Castro said. “Of course, that is contingent upon the conditions enabling us to do so. And if the course of the virus, or data, or vaccine availability, or if our medical experts indicate that approach is no longer feasible, then we will make that adjustment.”

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing The Californians Are Coming. So Is Their Housing Crisis.

Statistically speaking, Idaho is one of America’s greatest economic success stories. The state has low unemployment and high income growth. It has expanded education spending while managing to shore up budget reserves. Brad Little, the state’s Republican governor, has attributed this run of prosperity to the mix of low taxes and minimal regulation that conservatives call “the business climate.”

But there is another factor at play: Californians, fleeing high home prices, are moving to Idaho in droves. For the past several years, Idaho has been one of the fastest-growing states, with the largest share of new residents coming from California. This fact can be illustrated with census data, moving vans — or resentment.

Home prices rose 20 percent in 2020, according to Zillow, and in Boise, “Go Back to California” graffiti has been sprayed along the highways. The last election cycle was a referendum on growth and housing, and included a fringe mayoral candidate who campaigned on a promise to keep Californians out. The dichotomy between growth and its discontents has fused the city’s politics and collective consciousness with a question that city leaders around the country were asking even before the pandemic and remote work trends accelerated relocation: Is it possible to import California’s growth without also importing its housing problems?

Read More [[link removed]] CA State Treasurer Fiona Ma Announces 'Impressive' Increase In Affordable Housing

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma released data indicating “impressive” increases in affordable housing production around the state in 2020.

Ma’s office worked with other state agencies to draft a statement that pointed to a mix of temporary and long-term housing initiatives aimed to provide affordable housing across the state. Ma added that new housing unit construction in California increased by 144% compared to 2019. In 2020, there were 19,035 new housing units constructed in addition to the rehabilitation of 4,736 affordable housing units – numbers Ma called “astounding” given that they were achieved during a global pandemic.

“Our four agencies are working collaboratively for the first time in many, many decades,” Ma said. “We are all focused on trying to alleviate the housing crisis, making sure families have safe places to stay in, even while unemployment is unstable in this moment.”

Several Berkeley city council members noted, however, that the state’s programs are aimed towards counties, making it difficult for cities to access them.

Read More [[link removed]] Pandemic’s Toll On Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up

As the pandemic enters its second year, millions of renters are struggling with a loss of income and with the insecurity of not knowing how long they will have a home.

Their savings depleted, they are running up credit card debt to make the rent or accruing months of overdue payments. Families are moving in together, offsetting the cost of housing by finding others to share it.

The nation has a plague of housing instability that was festering long before Covid-19, and the pandemic’s economic toll has only made it worse. Now the financial scars are deepening and the disruptions to family life growing more severe, leaving a legacy that will remain long after mass vaccinations.

Read More [[link removed]] Your Home's Value May Have Soared Nearly 10% During The Pandemic

Here are the top news flashes from last year’s world of housing. In 2020, single-family prices spiked 9.4%—their best performance in over a decade. Homes are selling at the fastest pace in years, and the biggest winners are the pricey picks. A flood of affluent millennials, seeking home offices and backyards, is the main force spurring the market. The irresistible force of the buying boom is meeting the immovable object, years of super-depressed construction, pushing inventories to historic lows. Something’s gotta give, and it’s prices that rampaged last year and will keep roaring in 2021.

The low-tax, job-rich Sunbelt regions where building is a lot less constrained than in the coastal metros will nevertheless see the best price performance this year, along with suburbs of gateway cities such as New York and L.A. The near-miracle is that a steep drop in mortgage rates has more than offset the jump in prices, meaning you can buy a bigger, costlier colonial, ranch, Cape Cod, or mid-century modern this year than you could last year, and still pay the same monthly nut.

Read More [[link removed]] Sacramento Has An Affordable Housing Crisis. This Is City Hall's Plan To Finally Solve It

Sacramento has failed for a decade to build affordable housing for low-income workers. In that time, rents in the capital region have soared, pushing some people to move out of state and forcing others to the streets. Now, the economic carnage of COVID-19 is placing others at risk of eviction.

Can the city turn that unhealthy scenario around this year? City leaders say they have a plan.

Following a promise made when voters passed the 2018 Measure U sales tax hike, the Sacramento City Council last week agreed to take the unusual step of putting up $31.5 million as a carrot to private developers to get them to build an estimated 200 to 300 apartments reserved for people who have very low incomes or who are subsisting on fixed incomes.

Rents in many cases would be less than half the city rent average and in some cases possibly lower than $500 a month.

Read More [[link removed]] A New Plan Forward For California High Speed Rail

The Revised Draft 2020 Business Plan—slated for final approval last year but repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic—affirms the development of the electrified Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield high-speed rail interim service line, while advancing environmental reviews and current investments in local and regional infrastructure projects, according to CHSRA.

The plan also lays out the challenges of the pandemic, and how CHSRA is overcoming them and working to mitigate ongoing impacts.

Due to those impacts, CHSRA needs more time to complete the work, CEO Brian P. Kelly wrote in the plan. He reported that construction on the first 22-mile segment through Kern County (between one mile north of the Tulare/Kern County line and Poplar Avenue to the south) is expected to reach “substantial completion” in about 15 months. Construction on a 32-mile stretch between Avenue 19 in Madera County and East American Avenue in Fresno County, and on approximately 60 miles from East American Avenue to one mile north of the Tulare-Kern County line, will take CHSRA into 2023. In addition, construction costs are up by about $330 million over the current budget, Kelly wrote, and “because of the risk and uncertainty that lays ahead, we propose to increase our contingency budget considerably.”

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion California Needs A 10-Year Roadmap To Housing Affordability And To End Homelessness

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his budget plan, which included big investments in affordable housing and homelessness. As leaders in California’s affordable housing movement, we appreciate that these short-term investments will incrementally and meaningfully help to reduce homelessness, increase the supply of affordable housing, protect renters from eviction and discrimination, and address racial inequities that have plagued our state.

And we also need a strategic long-term plan with continuous and sustainable government investments to truly solve these challenges decades in the making. The Legislative Analyst’s Office highlighted this problem in its assessment of the governor’s budget, saying the state needs “a clear, long-term strategy” which would ensure the state’s investments have “a meaningful ongoing impact on its housing and homelessness challenges.”

Like teams that compete in the Super Bowl, the state needs a clear game plan, one that charts a path to long-term victory, not just to scoring a first-quarter touchdown.

Read More [[link removed]] Why California Is Making Progressive Democrats Squirm

You may have heard that San Francisco’s Board of Education voted 6-1 to rename 44 schools, not only stripping ancient racists of their laurels, but also Abraham Lincoln and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The history upon which these decisions were made was dodgy, and the results occasionally bizarre. Paul Revere, for instance, was canceled for participating in a raid on Indigenous Americans that was actually a raid on a British fort.

In normal times, bemusement would be the right response to a story like this. Cities should have idiosyncratic, out-there politics. You need to earn your “Keep X weird” bumper stickers.

But San Francisco’s public schools remain closed, no matter the name on the front. “What I cannot understand is why the School Board is advancing a plan to have all these schools renamed by April, when there isn’t a plan to have our kids back in the classroom by then,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. And that’s where this goes from wacky local news story to a reflection of a deeper problem.

San Francisco is about 48% white, but that falls to 15% for children enrolled in its public schools. For all the city’s vaunted progressivism, it has some of the highest private school enrollment numbers in the country — and many of those private schools have remained open. This is why the school renamings were so galling to so many in San Francisco, including the mayor. It felt like an attack on symbols was being prioritized over the policies needed to narrow racial inequality.

Read More [[link removed]] Creating Pathways To Postsecondary Education Will Help Ensure Success

As we look toward rebuilding California’s economy from a pandemic-induced recession, we also need to have an eye toward building up our future success.

One critical element is equipping our youth with the skills and credentials they need to be competitive in the future workforce. It’s estimated that by 2025, 60% of American adults will need a credential beyond high school to match the growing skills demand in the workforce. In California, 51% of all adults have a credential beyond high school, placing us behind 23 other states and the District of Columbia. This means we still have a lot of work to do to put our youth on a path to succeed in the future economy.

The California office of the national nonprofit ReadyNation, of which I am a member, just released a report that makes the case for why investing in evidence-based programs, specifically dual enrollment, is necessary to meet California’s future workforce needs. It’s widely known that a postsecondary degree impacts social mobility and long-term earnings.

Read More [[link removed]] Update Green Building Codes TO Make EV Charging Available For Everyone

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles will help people save money, dramatically improve California’s economy, reduce emissions that fuel climate change and bring more equity to our vulnerable communities.

However, Californians who live in multifamily housing such as apartments face an extra hurdle to EV ownership: finding a reliable place to charge at home.

California officials have a rare opportunity to update state green building codes and make EV charging available for everyone.

Electric vehicles can save California families more than $1,000 per year by avoiding gasoline costs, oil changes and other repair costs, at a time when economic struggles caused by the pandemic are all too real. EVs are cleaner and quieter than gas vehicles, and they’re fun to drive.

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