As Walt Kelly’s cartoon possum Pogo said on posters for the first Earth Day in 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Comstock’s president and publisher considers how the motto applies to California. 

Newsom announced his intent in March to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money  — roughly $1 billion — to housing homeless individuals with severe mental illness or drug addiction. 

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to identify excess state-owned property that could be converted into affordable housing. Few local examples exist, leaving architects and developers to wonder if they are financially feasible and what, if any, kinds of funding are available.

According to one watchdog agency, California is “falling short” in its ambitious organic waste recycling efforts and may need to hit the pause button until state agencies and local governments can sort themselves out.

A California housing law grants generous benefits to builders who agree to only hire union workers. Trouble is, few if any builders found a way to do it.

Separating food waste from trash used to be the stuff of hippies. But, unlike cork sandals, it’s not a matter of taste — it’s state law.