The best laid plans…

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You know it’s bad when California’s most rabid housing reformers are bemoaning the efficacy of housing reforms. Meanwhile, San Franciscans are flirting with optimism, train robbers are jacking Jordans, and the Army Corps of Engineers is flushing billions of gallons of water for reasons that baffle even them. Oh, and you can buy Greg Maddux’s beach house — but not his changeup. All this and coffee science in this week’s Bear Essentials.

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Let’s get to it…

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REFORM ≠ RESULTS

California’s ambitious housing laws promised to turn dead strip malls and church parking lots into much-needed new housing. Instead, they’ve mostly generated… paperwork. A new report by YIMBY Law ruefully indicates that these policies have had “limited to no impact,” strangled by union labor rules, affordability mandates, and local governments hell-bent on maintaining a failed status quo. The lone bright spot: accessory dwelling units, which don’t come with nearly as many strings attached as other forms of dense development permitted by various California laws. ADUs were the only reform that didn’t get sliced to death in the legislative horsetrading process. Seems like maybe there’s a lesson here?

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<GO DEEPER>

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🌧️ ⛅ ☀️   -  SO LONG, DOOM LOOP — Don’t look now, but San Francisco voters are feeling something that’s been in short supply for the past half decade: hope. A new poll shows optimism soaring to a five-year high, with 43% believing the city is on the right track, nearly double last year’s numbers. On top of that, the survey clocked a 28% YOY increase in the number of residents who rate their overall quality of life positively. Crime, homelessness, and street cleanliness? Still major concerns, but they’ve plummeted from 2022 levels. Want to see some eyepopping numbers? 89% agree that downtown is important to the regional economy and 83% think downtown investment should be a priority. We’re not telling SF public officials how to do their jobs, but that seems like a pretty good issue to get behind! SF Standard

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🚂 🤠 👟 - BOXCAR BANDITS HAVE YOUR JORDANS — The Mojave Desert is hosting a vintage crime revival: train heists. Latter-day railway bandits have hit at least 10 BNSF freight trains in California and Arizona since last March, making off with the most valuable booty of all: Nike sneakers. These iron horse outlaws board the trains at low speed before cutting the air brakes and unloading millions of dollars worth of goods. The freight rustlers nabbed more than $440,000 worth of unreleased Nike shoes in a single hit on January 13, devastating hundreds of anxious sneakerheads who had hoped to nab the coveted Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s. Authorities have arrested 11 suspects, but the thefts roll on, costing the freight industry more than $100 million annually. Just like Jordans, lawlessness apparently never goes out of style. Associated Press

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💦  🪖 🤷🏼 WATER WE THINKING? — The Army Corps of Engineers' decision to release two billion gallons of water from Kaweah and Success lakes in the San Joaquin Valley last month sent regional water managers and elected officials into a tailspin. Why were we releasing reserves — ostensibly to fight far away fires that had already been contained — when the snowpack is below average and there’s no irrigation demand? “I don’t believe I have an answer to that,” explained Lt. General William H. Graham of the ACOE, when questioned during an oversight hearing in Washington DC. It got more awkward from there. The full exchange is worth watching. YouTube

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🎧 🔊 🎧 ON THE POD: IMPERFECT PARADISE

The same factors that make Los Angeles an appealing place to live, like large urban scale development intertwined with nature, are also the reason we need a fundamentally different approach to fire. Host Antonia Cereijido and science reporter and host of LAist podcast The Big Burn Jacob Margolis dive into what makes Southern California’s ecology unique and what that means for fire management. Imperfect Paradise

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⚾ 🌴 🏠  - AQUIRE AN ACE’S ABODE

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You can’t throw a nasty changeup like him. You’re not going to win 18 Gold Gloves. You’re definitely never going to throw a complete game in fewer than 100 pitches like he did. But… You can buy Greg Maddux’s Sunset Cliffs house in San Diego and pretend you can do all of those things. The Professor’s home can be yours for just under $4 million. Mansion Global

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☕ 🧑🏼‍🔬 🔬 — BREWING UP SOME SCIENCE

UC Davis has brewed up the nation's first academic Coffee Center, led by chemical engineer William Ristenpart. Since its May 2024 opening, the center has percolated through the media, aiming to demystify coffee's complexities. Their popular "Design of Coffee" course introduces over 2,000 students annually to the science behind the bean. Current research includes developing a universal coffee roast color curve to standardize what "medium roast" really means. Only in California! Atlas Obscura

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