March 20, 2026
Bear Essentials March 20th: The California Dream, Unevenly Distributed
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Matt graduated from Humboldt State University in 1999 and shortly thereafter worked with the former Pacific Lumber Company through 2005. He then moved to Davenport, California where he was employed with Big Creek Lumber Company for over seven years. In 2012 Matt was appointed as the Licensing Officer with the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. In 2015, he was appointed the Executive Officer for the California State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection - a position he held until his appointment as the President and CEO of Calforests in July 2021. Matt is Registered Professional Forester #2773.
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We want results, and we are mobilizing to achieve them. The New California Coalition is organizing everyday voters, business leaders, and community organizations from across the state into a movement to demand change and action.
We want a massive amount of housing built to make homes accessible to buyers, renters, and the unhoused alike, not more excuses, red tape, and NIMBYism.
We want safe streets and communities instead of finger pointing, victim blaming, or hiding inaction behind empty and dangerous slogans.
We want clean and healthy public spaces that we can pass down to the next generation rather than complaining about or denying the damage being done. We want to build financial security through good paying jobs rather than blocking the industries that can transform our society and balloon the middle class.
We are Californians from all different backgrounds – from business to workers, from disenchanted political organizers to unaffiliated and disaffected voters. We are ready to solve the most pressing challenges facing our state, but our first step is to create a political voice for this army of Common Sense Californians.
Since 1980, housing construction has stalled in California but our population has exploded. Home buying is out of reach and rents are going up every year. We must ramp up home building to meet the needs of residents and bring down the cost of living.
California accounts for 28% of the country’s entire homeless population and more than 50% of the unsheltered homeless individuals. The homeless population in the Bay Area has grown four times faster than the overall regional population since 2010.
The homicide rate rate for some of California’s largest cities – Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco – increased by about 17% in 2021; and none of these even approach the overall per capita crime rates of places like Stockton, San Bernardino, Compton, and Richmond. Californians across the state report feeling unsafe as one of their biggest concerns and reasons why the Golden State is becoming increasingly unlivable.
Every year we see fires spread larger and watering restrictions become more severe, but the response to address climate change and resource consumption remains single minded and half hearted: consume less gas and use less water. California cannot survive without better water management and climate mitigation. From desalination to clean energy sources like solar, wind, green hydrogen, biomass, or geothermal – there are common sense solutions that already exist if our leaders invested in building rather than political jockeying and finger pointing.
From the valleys to the coasts, we're all trying to do our best and build stable lives for our families. What issues do you think must be fixed in your communities? Share your story.
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