If at first you don’t succeed in your plan to build a new city from scratch, try again with a pair of the state Capitol’s best known dealmakers of this century.
That’s essentially the new tactic a group of tech billionaires is using in its decade-long effort to turn an underdeveloped stretch of Solano County into a city the size of Cleveland, write CalMatters’ Kate Wolffe and Yue Stella Yu.
California Forever, the development group, is leaning on former Senate President Darrell Steinberg and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg — both Democrats with records steeped in environmental law — to make their case as they seek expedited reviews of their plans in the Legislature.
The current plan centers on building a manufacturing hub on the outskirts of Suisun City and allowing that community to annex the land California Forever already acquired. That would take advantage of Suisun City’s existing industrial plans and potentially speed up development.
Proponents say billions of dollars of investments and tens of thousands of jobs are on the line.
- Steinberg, on why it’s important to bypass lengthy environmental reviews: “The state and county need the ability to say yes now to these numerous opportunities.”
But environmental advocates are on to the game, and working their own alliances to protect an outer Bay Area greenbelt.
- Princess Washington, Suisun City councilmember: “It’s unheard of for a project to be done as quickly as they want it to be done.”
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Other Stories You Should Know
Can the Postal Service hold back CA ballots?
U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner told U.S. senators Wednesday that the Postal Service will limit the delivery of mail-in ballots in states that don’t disclose lists of their eligible voters, reports Politico.
That’s another milestone in President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict mail-in voting in blue states ahead of this fall’s midterms. The Republican administration has already demanded California’s voter rolls, and lost in court when the state pushed back.
Trump has often denounced, without evidence, mail-in voting as fraudulent and cites it as part of the reason he lost the presidential election in 2020.
Democratic lawmakers cast doubt whether Steiner’s agency has the constitutional authority to implement the rule, given that the power to oversee elections rests with the states.
Meanwhile, a federal judge handed the Trump administration a loss Wednesday, issuing a ruling that permanently blocks key provisions of Trump’s 2025 executive order requiring voter ID. The order would have also mandated states to ignore mail ballots received after Election Day, and would withhold federal funding to states that didn’t comply.
- The ruling: “There is no evidence in this record of widespread ‘illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of malfeasance and error’ within American elections, which the Executive Order purports to safeguard against.”
In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the ruling, “reaffirmed that the power to regulate elections is reserved to the States and Congress.” Bonta co-led a coalition of 18 other attorneys general to sue the administration over the order.
Turning mobile home parks into ‘Disneyland’
California’s best effort in years to renovate aging mobile home parks — an important but often overlooked component of the state’s affordable housing — is running out of money and unlikely to get much more, writes CalMatters’ Ben Christopher.
The Legislature in 2023 launched the Manufactured Housing Opportunity and Revitalization program to help repair dilapidated mobile home parks and their infrastructure.
It was a huge relief to communities like Shady Lane Estates Mobile Home Park in Thermal: Along with money from the city and county, the park was able to get a new electrical system, pave its roads, connect to local water and sewer utilities and purchase new, more robust units.
- Joel Beltran, a Shady Lane resident: “It used to be a rough, tough place. Today, it’s like Disneyland.”
Shady Lane is one of 28 parks that collectively were awarded $140 million for renovations. Housing advocates say the program’s spending was not enough to cover the need in a state with more than 4,600 mobile home parks. Currently, the fund has $27 million, and no new funding is expected from this coming year’s budget.
And lastly: New plans for homelessness
Though homelessness improved slightly last year, California is still home to roughly 182,000 unhoused people. The issue is top of mind for many state lawmakers, who are pushing various bills that would fund sober housing, dispose of RVs and create a plan for homelessness prevention. Read more from CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: As California’s public college systems battle one another over money and academic turf, the state needs to overhaul its higher education master plan to revisit each of the systems’ missions and expand options for students.
CalMatters contributor Jim Newton: Los Angeles mayors have been either able to marshal the city’s diverse voting blocs or be punished by them, and this latest race will have both incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman looking to reassemble the various coalitions that make up the city.
Other things worth your time:
Suspected bedbug infestation shutters HQ of CA Department of Education // Abridged
Trump says he asked US attorney for CA election probe: ‘Do me a favor’ // Politico
LAUSD bans screen time before second grade under new policy // EdSource
Construction workers kill construction minimum wage // CalMatters
A charter school spent $500K on AI-powered humanoid robots. Was it worth it? // Voice of San Diego
Before Brown v. Board, another CA segregation case changed public schools. That fight isn’t over. // The 19th
Bay Area immigrants fought ICE courthouse arrests. Their win covers every court in America // San Francisco Chronicle
Immigration attorney stopped and searched at SFO, told by DHS he was on ‘watch list’ // San Francisco Chronicle
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