County Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell is lead sponsor of the anti-poverty initiative. [photo credit: LA County]

The pledge sets concrete targets: enrolling 10,000 more families in CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids), the state’s main cash-assistance program; increasing the money families receive through the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit by 10 percent; and keeping residents enrolled in the food-assistance program CalFresh and in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid coverage.

Cities that sign on will receive outreach resources, an implementation guide and access to the County’s newly launched State of Poverty Dashboard to track results. Some may also qualify for microgrants to fund outreach with community health workers and grassroots organizations.

The initiative comes as federal and state benefit rules tighten. Since June 1, 2026, about 260,000 Los Angeles County CalFresh recipients have been subject to new work requirements. In October 2026, federal contributions toward emergency care for undocumented residents will fall from 90 percent to 50 percent. And on Jan. 1, 2027, new Medi-Cal work requirements take effect for adults ages 19 to 64, affecting an estimated 1.4 million county residents — many of whom are expected to lose coverage.

“Poverty is not inevitable. Solving it requires every jurisdiction working together and building on solutions that make a difference,” said Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, who is urging her colleagues across all 88 cities to sign.

Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn framed the effort as a response to federal cuts. “We can’t undo those cuts, but we can work to make sure families receive every benefit, tax credit and resource that are still available to them,” she said.

Kristina Meza, executive director of the County’s Poverty Alleviation Initiative, said the County “stands ready to work across jurisdictions to ensure families get the support they need.”

Cities can review the pledge at ceo.lacounty.gov/poverty-pledge. Residents can apply for CalFresh, Medi-Cal and CalWORKs at benefitscal.com, with a full timeline of eligibility changes at lacounty.gov/impacts.

Scene from the 2022 LGBTQ+ Altadena Pride Walkabout. [Courtesy altadenapride.org]

The free, daylong festival on June 13 moves to the Altadena Community Center and winds past fire-recovery landmarks

Four Junes ago, Nic Arnzen started walking through his neighborhood with a handful of pride flags. On June 13, hundreds will walk with him again — past empty lots, past rebuilding homes, past a fire-recovery hub where displaced residents are still learning how to come back.

Altadena Pride, the free annual festival Arnzen founded in 2021, returns for its fifth year with a daylong series of events that begins and ends at the Altadena Community Center, 730 East Altadena Drive. It is the first time the festival has been based at the community center, a shift from its previous home at the Altadena Library. The move places the celebration squarely in the civic heart of the unincorporated foothill community — and within blocks of neighborhoods still scarred by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 19 people.

Arnzen, now chair of the Altadena Town Council and a commissioner on the LA County LGBTQ+ Commission, lost his own home in that fire. He has continued organizing the festival each year since, according to the event’s organizers, who describe this year’s theme as a celebration of “resilience, resistance and joy” despite what they call “a challenging year of rebuilding and healing.”

The day begins at 10:00 a.m. with an opening ceremony outside the community center. At 10:45 a.m., a neighborhood walk heads toward the Grocery Outlet at 2270 Lake Avenue for the festival’s traditional group photo at the Grocery Outlet Welcome to Altadena mural. At 11:00 a.m., participants gather at the CORE hub — the Altadena outpost of Community Organized Relief Effort, the disaster-recovery organization that opened a resource center in the community in October 2025 — for a spiritual gathering described as welcoming to all faiths.

By 12:00 p.m., the route reaches Triangle Park, 800 East Altadena Drive, for a dance performance, free lunch, and art activities along Fontanet Way, which the festival calls Art Alley. The afternoon’s main event opens at 2:00 p.m. back at the community center, with entertainment, resource tables, refreshments, and art through 5:30 p.m. Throughout the day there will be appearances and speeches by surprise guests, the organizers said.

Side Street Projects, the Altadena-based nonprofit arts organization that has partnered with the festival since its founding, will host a Youth Sanctuary art workshop during the afternoon portion. The workshop, led by a queer teen, is designed as a safe space for queer youth to hang out, do art, and enjoy Pride, according to the organizers’ announcement.

Every event on the schedule operates as a standalone, the organizers said, so attendees can join for the full march or drop in at any single stop. All activities, food, and admission are free. The organizers are accepting donations through a GoFundMe campaign to cover refreshments, artist compensation, and a pride flag giveaway.

“The fact that we’re not just making ourselves visible, but we have allies like these elected officials can make all the difference to somebody,” Arnzen said in a 2023 interview about the walkabout’s purpose. “It’s also about the fact that transgender and LGBTQ+ youth have the highest rate of suicide in the nation. And that’s a consistent factor for decades. And the fact that we have people showing up for us, not just our parents and friends, that means a lot.”

The festival, which its website describes as a celebration that places the queer and transgender community at its center while recognizing “all the amazing diversity that fills our beautiful town,” has grown steadily since its first walkabout in June 2022. Last year’s fourth annual event proceeded despite the fire’s devastation, with Arnzen telling Pasadena Now at the time that “diversity is under attack nationally, but Diversity Equity and Inclusion will always be an Altadena priority.”

Altadena Pride schedule for June 13: 10:00 a.m. — Opening ceremony, Altadena Community Center, 730 East Altadena Drive 10:45 a.m. — Neighborhood walk to Grocery Outlet for group photo 11:00 a.m. — Spiritual gathering at CORE hub 12:00 p.m. — Dance performance, free lunch, Art Alley, Triangle Park, 800 East Altadena Drive 2:00 p.m. — Main festival, Altadena Community Center 5:30 p.m. — Wrap-up

For volunteer and sponsorship information: info@altadenapride.org. Details at altadenapride.org. Follow on Instagram @altadenapride or Facebook at facebook.com/AltadenaPride.

The walk begins at a community center. It ends there, too. What happens in between is the point — a town, still rebuilding, choosing to march.

The showcase gives homeowners direct access to manufacturers and suppliers as construction work nears

Homeowners rebuilding after the Eaton Fire are being invited Monday evening to a materials showcase that puts them, for two hours, in the same room as the manufacturers and suppliers whose products are vying to go into their next houses.

The event, scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 409 East Woodbury Road, is co-hosted by Alta Design Works, a community-design group that opened the Woodbury Road hub last September, and LA Fire Justice, the post-fire legal coalition led by the former Pasadena mayor Chris Holden.

It was announced Friday by the Altadena Coalition, the grassroots network founded by Freddy Sayegh that has organized rebuild-resource programming since shortly after the January fire.

Organizers said the showcase is meant as a rebuilding resource rather than a sales presentation, and that attendees would be able to compare materials side by side and ask manufacturers about cost, durability and maintenance before committing to a specification.

They said multiple homeowner projects are expected to move into construction in the next 30 to 90 days.

The lineup includes Andersen Windows & Doors, Kohler, Sherwin-Williams, Ganahl Lumber, Home Depot and MSI, along with smaller specialists in light-gauge steel framing, lighting, water filtration and concrete and masonry work — a roster organizers said is intended to span the system-level choices a rebuild requires.

The setting matters because, in Altadena, the rebuild remains in its early innings.

Los Angeles County, which administers permits for Altadena because the community is unincorporated, had issued 2,667 rebuild permits and received 3,576 applications as of mid-2026, against roughly 6,000 residential structures destroyed in the Eaton Fire — part of a broader toll of more than 9,400 total structures lost — according to the California state government’s fire recovery tracking dashboard.

The median time from application to permit having grown to 155 days.

An updated UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute analysis released in April 2026 found that roughly 44 percent of fire-affected homeowners had fully approved permits to rebuild, but only about 30 percent had begun construction. Despite the surge in permitting activity, the Los Angeles Times found that to date just 33 new homes had been completed and more than 1,000 were under construction — a pace that lagged well behind the rebuilding rates seen after comparable Northern California wildfires.

That widening lag between paper and shovel is the gap Monday’s event is pitched into.

The session is the latest in a recurring series at the Woodbury Road hub: Alta Design Works and the Altadena Coalition staged the daylong Altadena Rebuild Expo at the same address in January, and LA Fire Justice has run rebuild workshops since the summer.

California’s updated Wildland-Urban Interface Code, in effect since Jan. 1, raises the bar on what materials a rebuild has to meet — which is, organizers say, why a face-to-face conversation about specifications is worth two hours on a Monday night.

The Materials Discussion & Showcase, part of the Eaton Fire Rebuild Workshop Series, takes place Monday, June 8, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Alta Design Works, 409 E. Woodbury Road, Altadena, 91001. Admission is free. Parking details were not provided in the announcement. For more information, email info@thealtadena.org or visit altadesignworks.com.

Bob Lucas Memorial Library [photo credit: Altadena Library District]

The Bob Lucas Memorial Library — reopened last August after a 16-month renovation — hosts the District’s Summer Challenge Kickoff Party

The Bob Lucas Memorial Library reopened in August after a 16-month renovation that added 1,000 square feet of new space, including a children’s area, a literacy center, an outdoor reading garden and full accessibility upgrades. On Saturday afternoon, the West Altadena branch puts that expanded space to work for one of its busiest events of the year: the Altadena Library District’s Summer Challenge Kickoff Party.

The kickoff begins at 1 p.m. and gathers families to sign up for the District’s annual Summer Challenge — a reading-and-activity program that runs through the summer months. Activities at the party include friendship-bracelet making, button-making, food, crafts and seed planting. Children can also read aloud to a tiny horse, which will visit from 1 to 3 p.m. as part of the program.

The Bob Lucas Memorial branch is named for Robert “Bob” Lucas, an Altadena resident who advocated to reopen library service on the west side of the community after a previous branch had closed. Lucas, who moved to Altadena in 1971, fought to make sure the facility was opened because, as his granddaughter Autumn Mora put it at last August’s reopening, he believed “literacy was a pathway to equity.”

The branch’s August reopening included new books, study rooms, a new roof, upgraded electrical and mechanical systems and a literacy classroom — all of it offered free to Altadena residents and visitors. The Summer Challenge Kickoff doubles as a community welcome back to the renovated building.

The Altadena Library Summer Challenge Kickoff Party will take place Saturday, June 6 at 1 p.m. at the Bob Lucas Memorial Library, 2659 Lincoln Ave., in Altadena. Admission is free. For more information, call (626) 798-0833 or visit altadenalibrary.org.

A daylong celebration of painters, photographers, sculptors and ceramicists who have spent the past year rebuilding alongside their neighborhood

The ALTA Arts Collective opened its first Altadena Arts Fair at the Fraternal Order of Eagles #719 last October, just nine months after the Eaton Fire tore through the community where most of its artists live and work. The collective described that first gathering as “a meaningful moment of reconnection.” On Saturday, ALTA returns to the same hall on Woodbury Road for the second edition of the fair, expanded and refined for a community that is still finding its footing.

The Altadena Arts Fair 2026 will gather painters, photographers, sculptors, ceramicists and other artisans for a juried daylong showcase. Live music, food vendors and interactive art activities round out the program, organizers said in a press release. Admission is free, and the event is open to all ages. The Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall has operated on Woodbury Road since the 1950s and has hosted multiple post-fire community gatherings.

ALTA Arts Collective was founded in 2023 by SukiMoonPie, a self-taught mixed media and assemblage artist with a background in community organizing, with co-founder Nina Ehlig handling artist and community relations. The collective has organized a string of open-studio tours across Altadena and Pasadena — a 17-location tour with 41 artists in October 2023, a 48-artist open studios event in June 2024, and an eight-studio tour featuring 31 artists in November 2024. After the Eaton Fire, ALTA expanded its mission to include what it calls opportunities for “healing, expression and togetherness” through art.

The fair runs through the afternoon and concludes at 5 p.m.

The ALTA Arts Collective Altadena Arts Fair 2026 will take place Saturday, June 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Fraternal Order of Eagles #719, 455 E. Woodbury Road, in Altadena. Admission is free. For more information, call (626) 604-6248 or visit altaartscollective.com.

The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs invites neighbors to learn about programs, services and continued recovery resources

The Altadena Community Center has had a difficult first 18 months under the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. The county agency assumed management of the facility on January 1, 2025; six days later, the Eaton Fire damaged the center along with much of the surrounding neighborhood. On Saturday afternoon, with repairs continuing and a long-term reimagining underway, the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs is hosting an open house at the center to connect residents with county and partner-agency resources.

The open house runs from noon to 4 p.m. and is designed to bring residents, families and community partners together for a day of connection and support. Attendees will be able to learn about local programs, services and continued recovery resources available to the community. Department staff and representatives from partner agencies are expected to be on hand to answer questions and accept input from residents on the center’s future programming.

Department of Consumer and Business Affairs Director Rafael Carbajal has framed the agency’s post-fire work at the center as both immediate response and longer-term reimagining. The county has been collecting public input through a community survey — available in English and Spanish at dcba.lacounty.gov/altadena-center — that asks residents to share fire-related experiences, current support needs and preferences for future programs.

Admission is free. The Altadena Community Center sits on Altadena Drive in the heart of the unincorporated community.

The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs Altadena Community Center open house will take place Saturday, June 6 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, in Altadena. Admission is free. For more information, visit dcba.lacounty.gov/altadena-center.

[Courtesy of PUSD]

Five ceremonies across two days at the Civic Auditorium sent off seniors from every district high school

The seniors who walked across the stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium this week were juniors when the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena and took five of their district’s campuses with it.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Pasadena Unified School District held five commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2026, graduating seniors from the Center for Independent Study, Rose City High School, Blair High School, John Muir High School, Thurgood Marshall Secondary School, and Pasadena High School. The ceremonies came less than 18 months after the January 7, 2025, fire destroyed five PUSD campuses in Altadena, closed schools for weeks, and displaced thousands of students across the district.

The two-day schedule began Wednesday, June 3, with a combined ceremony for the Center for Independent Study and Rose City High School at 2:00 p.m., followed by Blair High School at 6:00 p.m. Three more followed on Thursday, June 4: John Muir at 11:00 a.m., Marshall at 2:00 p.m., and Pasadena High at 6:00 p.m. Thursday was also the last day of school for PUSD students.

All five ceremonies took place on the same stage inside the Civic Auditorium at 300 East Green Street.

Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco, in an email to the school community on June 1, called the graduates “leaders ready for the world.”

“Your journey through our schools has been shaped by academic achievement, resilience, leadership, and the lifelong friendships you built along the way,” Blanco wrote.

She cited the district’s academic programs — dual language, visual and performing arts, STEAM, college and career academies, and athletics — as pathways that shaped the graduating class.

“You have thrived in classrooms, laboratories, studios, theaters, athletic fields, and community spaces, guided by educators who prepared you for the world,” she wrote.

The formal ceremonies were preceded by cultural celebrations in recent weeks, according to the district. A Latino Grad Celebration, presented by the parent advocacy organization PADRES, recognized the achievements and cultural pride of Latino graduates and their families.

The annual Rites of Passage Ceremony honored African American seniors; each graduate received a Kente stole to wear at commencement.

A separate graduation for the Twilight Adult Education program is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Monday, June 22, at Wilson Auditorium, 300 Madre Street. For more information, contact PUSD at (626) 396-3600 or visit www.pusd.us.

“Carry forward the lessons you learned here,” Blanco wrote to the Class of 2026. “Stay curious, lead with empathy, and never underestimate the power of what you have learned.”

[Courtesy of L.A. County Department of Public Social Services]

A state budget cut eliminates routine dental benefits for adults without satisfactory immigration status; emergency care will remain

Starting July 1, California will eliminate full-scope dental coverage for Medi-Cal members aged 19 and older who do not meet federal immigration requirements, according to the California Department of Health Care Services.

The cut, enacted as part of the state’s 2025–26 budget, will leave affected adults with coverage only for emergency dental procedures — treatment for severe pain, infections, and extractions. Routine preventive and restorative care will no longer be covered.

The Pasadena Public Health Department and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services have posted notices on social media alerting residents to the change and urging those affected to use their remaining benefits before the deadline.

The change applies to adults classified as having “unsatisfactory immigration status,” a category that includes undocumented individuals, green card holders with fewer than five years of residency, DACA recipients, holders of Temporary Protected Status, asylum applicants with work authorization, and others who do not qualify for federally funded full-scope Medi-Cal, according to the DHCS and AltaMed, the health care organization that now operates Pasadena’s ChapCare clinics.

Several groups are exempt. Children under 19 retain full dental coverage regardless of immigration status, as do adults who are pregnant or within one year postpartum and former foster youth under age 26 who were in foster care on their 18th birthday, according to the DHCS.

Members who applied for Medi-Cal before January 1, 2026, can use their full dental benefits through June 30, according to the DHCS. On July 1, their coverage status will shift to what the state calls “full-scope Medi-Cal with no dental.” Those enrolled in a Dental Managed Care Plan will be disenrolled.

The dental benefit elimination is estimated to save the state approximately $308 million in the 2026–27 fiscal year and $336 million annually after that, according to the state budget summary. The state signed the budget in June 2025 to address a deficit estimated between $12 billion and $15 billion, according to California Health Advocates.

“Starting July 1, 2026, some Medi-Cal members will stop getting full-scope dental services as part of their coverage due to changes in state law,” the DHCS said in a written statement to the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, as reported by KVPR.

The DHCS began mailing notices to affected members in April 2026, available in 20 languages including Spanish, Armenian, Korean, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, according to the agency’s website.

For Pasadena and Altadena residents who need to schedule dental appointments before the deadline, the City of Pasadena Public Health Department maintains a directory of local dental providers that accept Medi-Cal. Those include ChapCare by AltaMed, a federally qualified health center with a dental clinic at 1855 North Fair Oaks Avenue, Suite 100, and the Altadena Dental Center at 2036 Lincoln Avenue, according to the department’s published provider list.

L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in Los Angeles County, has also published guidance on the changes for its members. The plan serves approximately 2.3 million Medi-Cal patients countywide, according to its CEO, Martha Santana-Chin, as reported by Spectrum News 1.

After July 1, affected members who experience a dental emergency — including severe tooth pain, infections, or a broken tooth — can go to any Medi-Cal dental provider for care, according to the DHCS.

Members can find a provider by calling Medi-Cal Dental at 1-800-322-6384.

The state has not disclosed how many Medi-Cal members in Pasadena or Los Angeles County will lose dental coverage. Health centers do not ask patients about their immigration status and cannot determine from existing records which patients are affected, according to AltaMed’s published FAQ.

If a member’s immigration status changes, they should contact the LA County DPSS at (866) 613-3777 or visit BenefitsCal.com to update their eligibility, according to the county agency’s website. The Pasadena Public Health Department’s Local Oral Health Program can be reached at (626) 744-6097.

The dental coverage cut is one of several changes to Medi-Cal that took effect or will take effect in 2026 and 2027 under combined state and federal actions. Starting October 1, 2026, the federal government will change how it classifies some immigration statuses, and beginning July 1, 2027, some members will be required to pay a $30 monthly premium to keep their full-scope Medi-Cal, according to the DHCS.

[From a photo by Eddie Rivera / Pasadena Now]

Altadena residents with Wells Fargo mortgages can request the extension by contacting their servicer

Wells Fargo will extend mortgage forbearance to a total of 27 months for customers directly impacted by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced June 3 — offering Altadena homeowners up to 12 months of additional relief beyond what California law currently requires.

The extension means qualifying Wells Fargo customers who are still paying mortgages on fire-destroyed properties can pause those payments for a total of 27 months from the date of their original request. Homeowners must contact their Wells Fargo servicer to request the additional time. No forms are required, according to the EPA announcement.

Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, welcomed the move in a statement issued the same day. “The extension of mortgage forbearance for wildfire survivors is welcome news for families who continue to navigate the long and difficult road to recovery following the Eaton Fire,” Barger said in a press statement distributed through her office. “I commend Wells Fargo for stepping up to provide this added flexibility and thank federal officials, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for helping facilitate this important outcome.”

The announcement comes more than 16 months after the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena. Throughout that period, many homeowners have faced a financial double burden: paying a mortgage on land that is now rubble while also paying rent for temporary housing as they wait to rebuild. “Altadena residents want to remain and rebuild in this community, but the financial press is real and growing for many,” Barger said in a separate statement issued when the state’s CalAssist Mortgage Fund launched in June 2025. The EPA press release specifically identified this dual cost as the core financial strain driving the relief effort.

California’s AB 238, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 22, 2025, established a legal floor requiring lenders to provide up to 12 months of mortgage forbearance for borrowers experiencing wildfire-related hardship. Wells Fargo’s voluntary extension adds 12 additional months on top of AB 238’s mandate, bringing the total to 27 months from the date of the original request.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin framed the Wells Fargo action as part of a coordinated public-private recovery effort. “EPA’s cleanup cleared the path to rebuild, and private partners like Wells Fargo stepping up to ease the financial burden on survivors is exactly the public-private effort this recovery needs,” Zeldin said in the EPA press release. The EPA’s LA wildfire cleanup became the agency’s largest wildfire cleanup ever, with teams clearing 13,612 residential and 305 commercial properties in 28 days, according to the same release.

Serhat Oztop, Wells Fargo’s head of Home Lending, said in the EPA press release that the bank’s commitment extends beyond forbearance. “Beyond the forbearance extension, Wells Fargo has donated more than $5 million across nine nonprofits focused on small business capital and housing and offers free financial coaching to individuals and business owners through HOPE Inside centers in select branches,” Oztop said. “Together, the measures give impacted homeowners additional breathing room as reconstruction gets underway.”

In her statement, Barger credited federal pressure as a factor in the outcome. She said that when she met with President Trump earlier this year, “one of the central topics of discussion was ensuring that wildfire survivors receive meaningful relief and support as they rebuild their lives.” Her office has pressed for expanded forbearance at every level of government: in April, the LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved her motion supporting AB 1847, pending state legislation that would extend the forbearance period to 36 months and push the request deadline to January 7, 2029.

Altadena homeowners with Wells Fargo mortgages who have been impacted by the Eaton Fire and wish to request the extended forbearance should contact Wells Fargo’s mortgage servicing line directly.

“For many homeowners, this mortgage forbearance extension will offer greater stability and financial breathing room during an extraordinarily challenging period,” Barger said in her statement. “I remain committed to advocating for every available resource and recovery tool that will help our wildfire survivors move forward and rebuild.”

Traffic moves along the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles on Nov. 22, 2022. Photo by Jae C. Hong, AP Photo

California’s population exploded during and immediately after World War II, from 6.9 million in 1940 to 19.9 million in 1970, thanks to waves of migrants from other states drawn to California’s surging economy and the famous postwar baby boom.

California absorbed its 13 million new residents by expanding its public infrastructure of schools, colleges, highways, parks and water systems and by welcoming immense private investment in new housing, new retail complexes, new factories and new office buildings.

Population growth slowed in the 1970s in the aftermath of the baby boom and as an economic evolution, from manufacturing to technology and services, changed the job market. The leading politician of the decade, Gov. Jerry Brown, declared that California had entered “an era of limits” and major infrastructure expansion was no longer needed.

However, the 1980s saw a new population surge, driven by immigration from other countries and a new baby boom. California’s population jumped by 6 million — 5-plus million of them babies — during the decade, a more than 25% gain.

The increase was so large, relative to the nation as a whole, that California was awarded seven new congressional seats after the 1990 census.

Unlike California’s expansive reaction to its postwar population increase, the 1980s boomlet sparked an adverse reaction in the 1990s, including new laws aimed at denying public services to undocumented immigrants and a power struggle within the Sierra Club over immigration’s impact on the environment.

Meanwhile, population growth slowed again, and in this decade virtually halted as immigration and birth rates declined and substantial numbers of people left California, thanks largely to the state’s sky-high living costs.

A recent study by researchers Hans Johnson, Julien LaFortune and Eric McGhee at the Public Policy Institute of California found that the total fertility rate has dropped from 2.21 children per woman in 2007 to 1.48 in 2023, far below what demographers call the “replacement level of 2.1 necessary to keep a population from declining.”

The state lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census and is likely to lose several more after the 2030 census. However, the impacts of California’s population plateau extend far beyond politics.

“A smaller population can offer benefits; it reduces pressure on housing and infrastructure needs,” the researchers wrote, “easing congestion and reducing the need for expansive public works projects.” They also cited potential improvements in the environment and increasing per pupil spending on education as enrollment declines.

“At the same time,” they added, “fewer births — and a smaller population — may bring challenges: they could accelerate K–12 enrollment declines and strain the state’s economic and safety net systems as fewer workers support a larger share of older Californians. Labor shortages could also hinder California’s economic development.”

Those are all valid points and many more potential impacts could be mentioned. But the underlying issue is whether political policies will reflect the new demographic reality.

The post-World War II population explosion manifested itself in a bipartisan effort to do what was needed to make the transition relatively painless. We haven’t seen such political adjustment to changing demographic trends since.

Meanwhile, the state’s population is twice what it was in 1970 and we still depend on what politicians wrought in the post-war era — such things as the State Water Plan and our extensive freeway network.

A stagnant population eases pressure for new infrastructure but we still need to maintain what we have and expand it to meet current needs. However, water projects have languished and we no longer build new highways.

Jerry Brown, who proclaimed the “era of limits” in the 1970s, returned to the governorship in 2011 and declared, “I want to get shit done.”

There’s still much that should be done.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.