DON’T F WITH FRESNO…OR SQUIRRELS

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California is a land of extremes — droughts and floods, billion-dollar surpluses and billion-dollar shortfalls, the Dodgers and the Angels... While one Bay Area city cuts the ribbon on a desal plant like it’s a sci-fi outpost, another is coping with a crazed squirrel and its rampage of terror. And hey, housing permits are tanking, but at least the fall foliage is thriving! Progress here doesn’t arrive in a straight line — it ricochets. And if you’re not whiplashed yet, just wait until you tune into the podcast chronicling the California water wars.

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Saddle up!

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HOUSING HALT HITS HARD

California permitted just 102,000 new homes in 2024 — 10,000 fewer than the year before — even as lawmakers passed sweeping reforms to grease the skids for construction. That pencils out to 258 units per 100,000 residents, well below the national average of 435 and nowhere near Texas, which managed 722 per 100,000 residents. Most of California’s decline came from multi-unit buildings, though single-family permits barely budged upward. The inland counties are carrying much of the load, as coastal metros stall. A slowdown is precisely the opposite of what we need, but a jittery economy, high interest rates, and lingering fallout from tariffs and labor shortages have developers holding back. As one expert put it: “The economic conditions kind of override everything.” But those conditions won’t last forever, and fewer permits now mean fewer homes later. It’s a future we simply can’t afford.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🧂 🌊 🚰  - BRINE & DANDY  — After more than a decade of planning, Antioch has turned on the tap to California’s water future. The city’s $116 million brackish water desalination plant — the first in the Delta and only the second in the Bay Area — will supply up to 40% of local drinking water, producing 6 million gallons daily. Funded through state loans, grants, and city investment, the project is part of California’s push for water security as droughts intensify. Antioch Mayor Ron Bernal called it “a transformational investment that not only provides a critical water supply to meet Antioch’s health and safety needs during severe drought, but improves drought supplies for our neighboring members of (Contra Costa Water District) and protects Antioch’s water rights and Delta diversions for decades to come.” — Stocktonia

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🧑‍⚖️ 👊 💰  - FRESNO PACKS A PUNCH  — Fresno just landed a booming courtroom blow against the Trump administration’s bid to weaponize federal grants. A federal judge blocked agencies from forcing cities to ditch DEI programs or lose millions, protecting more than $200 million in Fresno’s housing, roads, and airport funds. City Attorney Andrew Janz called the lawsuit a “last resort,” but the city swung hard anyway — remarkable for the capital city of a county Trump actually carried in 2024. As Councilmember Nick Richardson put it, the message is unmistakable: “Don’t fuck with Fresno.” Sage advice worth heeding! — Fresnoland

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⛺ 📉 💸  - SHELTER SKELTER — California’s homelessness numbers are finally heading south — but so is the money that made that possible. More than half of reporting counties saw real progress this year, thanks to Governor Newsom’s billion-dollar budgetary boost. But budget cuts and a Trumpian rewrite of federal funding rules now threaten to unravel the state’s fragile gains. Organizations are already closing, grants are being yanked, and “woke” cities risk getting blacklisted entirely. “We are significantly concerned about the cuts that are coming,” one county official said. Turns out, the biggest threat to fixing homelessness isn’t logistics — it’s politics. — CalMatters

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: AMERICAN HISTORY TELLERS: CALIFORNIA WATER WARS

Thirsty for power (and actual water), LA bled a rural valley dry to fuel its urban dreams. In this five-part series from American History Tellers, host Lindsay Graham (not the Senator) unpacks how one city’s thirst reshaped California—and drowned the Owens Valley in the process. Spoiler: it wasn’t exactly a group project. — California Water Wars

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📸 🏞️ 🤩  - PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF: FALL IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA IS AMAZING

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Leaves are popping, salmon are flopping, and Northern California is putting on its annual Instagram filter. Autumn has finally arrived in the Golden State, and local photographer Glenn Lee Robinson is out there catching it all with a lens sharp enough to make Ansel Adams spit out his pumpkin spice. This selection of photos curated by Active NorCal will make New Englanders hang their heads in defeat. (Or at least they should.) — Active NorCal

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 👶 Feds shifting $2.4B in CA high-speed rail funds to “family friendly” projects. POLITICO
2. 🧑‍🏫 Judge orders Trump to restore $500M in federal grant funding to UCLA. AP
3. 📍 The most expensive — and cheapest — CA zip codes, mapped. SF Chronicle
4. 🐿️ Aggressive squirrel terrorizes San Rafael residents. Associated Press

🔍 Where are LA fire donations going? New tracker sheds light. LAist