Cherry bust, car wars and class divide

From poverty rates that rival our housing prices to climate-fried cherries, California continues its industrial-grade balancing act. This week’s Bear Essentials runs the gamut: stratified wealth, a rare affordable housing win in the desert, and a lifeline for gas-powered cars straight from the United States Senate. We’ve got rogue wolves, a Prop 1 windfall for Lancaster, and a podcast that drinks its way through the Lost Coast. Plus, a map of California agricultural crops that proves you weren’t hallucinating that endless field of radicchio.

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It’s all here. Oh, and Happy Memorial Day weekend!

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POVERTUNITY KNOCKS

Another day, another story that reads like a clarion call for the New California Coalition. This week, CalMatters’ Dan Walters is sounding the alarm about the state’s intensely stratified economy, which he presciently wrote about nearly four decades ago. “One theme of the series…” Walters writes, “was the transformation of California from a state with high economic and social mobility to one of relatively rigid classes defined by ethnicity, education, incomes and wealth. Dispiritingly, his analysis turned out to be true. Today, California boasts the highest poverty rate in the nation (18.9%), with more than 7 million residents affected. Nearly a third of the state lives in or near poverty, disproportionately Latino (over 50%) and Black (13.6%). As PPIC researchers note, many sense the struggle but “relatively little research has explored” it. The dream persists, but for millions, California is a promise broken by design.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🏗️ 🌴 💪 - AFFORDABLE DESERT OASIS — A decade ago, the Coachella Valley eked out a miniscule 38 affordable housing units a year. But times change, even in the desert. Currently, construction is underway in all nine cities — yes, even the bougie ones. Credit goes largely to Lift to Rise, a local nonprofit that ditched the wishful thinking and got strategic. With 9,300 units in the pipeline, a $44M revolving loan fund, and an organized army of advocates to steamroll intransigent NIMBYs, they’ve turned a housing crisis into a coordinated comeback — with data to back it up. — LA Times

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🍒 🌡️ 🎰 - FRUITLESS IN THE VALLEY — Last year’s blistering heatwave didn’t just wilt spirits — it torched California’s valuable cherry crop. Some Central Valley orchards, like Joe Del Bosque’s, yielded nothing but disappointment and an empty bin for his insurance claim. Others, like Daniel Jackson’s, are scraping by with a fraction of their usual haul. Experts blame record-breaking temps for bud abortion — trees choosing survival over reproduction. With climate change cooking consistency, cherry farming is now less ag science, more roulette wheel. “Cherries can be a very finicky crop,” said cherry farmer Brandon Hooker. “It’s like going to Las Vegas, when the crop is good, it’s like hitting the jackpot.” — Fresno Bee

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⛽ 🚘 🔌  - EMISSION IMPOSSIBLE — When Senate Republicans voted to overturn California’s ban on new gas-powered cars by 2035 (plus two other clean-air rules) last Wednesday, most news services ran it as a climate story. Few saw it for what it is: a new front opening up in the age-old tension between the federal government and the states. “What we have at stake is a state’s ability, it’s right to make its own laws and to protect its own citizens, without having this body overturn that right,” said Senator Adam Schiff. With California typically leading the way on a host of national standards, this fight isn’t purely political — it’s a referendum on who gets to steer policy. — AP News

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🎧 🔊 🎧 - ON THE POD: LOST COAST PODCAST

“If you’re looking for a Lost Coast resource, this is gonna give you everything you need and then some, it’s just going to take you quite a bit of time to find it… we’ve been doing a little bit of drinking.” So begins the Lost Coast Podcast, an appropriately meandering three-part series that explores the dramatic coastal region of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Hosted by a trio of intrepid drinkers hikers, the podcast provides a granular examination of what it takes to traverse one of the world’s most wild and beautiful shorelines. — Lost Coast Podcast

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🥛 🫒 🍇 - WHAT’S GROWING WHERE?

Every Golden Stater knows that California is an agricultural powerhouse, but have you ever been curious about what’s getting produced in each region? Speeding up 101 with crops reduced to a green blur on either side of our car, most of us have wondered, “Hey, is that broccoli?” Well, if you’re in Santa Barbara (or Monterey) County, it very well may be! Learn About Ag has a handy map that shows the top three crops for all 58 counties in California. It’s made for kids, but so are Pixar movies. Learn About Ag

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🐔 🥚 💸  THE CHICKEN, THE EGG & THE PRICE INCREASE

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 🌪️ NOAA cuts mean no more 24/7 weather warnings for much of CA. SF Chronicle
2. 🐺 Wolf attack emergency in Shasta County. KRCR
3. 🛠️ Altadena rebuilding begins on Palm Street. Pasadena Now
4. 😳 Exclusive air taxi provider chosen for the LA Olympics. Archer Aviation‍
5. 💰 Lancaster awarded $83M Prop 1 grant for mental health initiative. City of Lancaster