“When I started development at Berkeley 35 years ago, I would go to public meetings and be compared to Hitler, Attila the Hun — I’m not exaggerating,” says Patrick Kennedy, a longtime local developer. “The local paper called [an eight-story building I built] a Stalinist monstrosity and monument to civic corruption.” 

California city officials say the surprise immigration sweeps that started earlier this year have eroded public trust, strained local economies, and revived old fears. And although there are limited ways to respond, they are determined to take care of their residents.

“The painful truth is that it’s less of a contradiction than just the system functioning the way it’s been designed. That sounds bleak, but in fact, it points to the possibility of different choices: If systems are designed, they can be redesigned.”

According to State Librarian Greg Lucas, no other government-paid-for entity is as nimble or flexible as libraries. That makes them pillars of their community and well-positioned to tackle some of our biggest challenges — if they have the funding.  

Even with the nation’s most effective gun laws, Californians experienced a mass shooting every six days in 2023. “It is a sad state of affairs for our country and our community that we’ve had so many mass shootings that a set of best practices have emerged,” said one expert.

At 27, Rigel Robinson’s political future was bright. His election to the Berkeley city council had broken barriers and his campaign for mayor won the endorsement of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. But earlier this year, he resigned, citing burnout and a long-running harassment campaign.

In March 2021, cities across the nation breathed a sigh of relief as an economic package that included $65 billion for municipalities finally made its way through Congress and was signed into law. The American Rescue Plan Act provided badly needed direct and flexible funds to cash-strapped cities on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.

In 2015, Fremont’s city council committed to a bold goal: Reduce traffic-related fatalities to zero. Even though the city was already a national leader in traffic safety, this new mindset forced officials to rethink their approach to traffic safety. Known as Vision Zero, Fremont’s traffic safety plan focuses on integrating human error into transportation systems, instead of reducing it.

After years of stalled negotiations, a historic, bipartisan infrastructure agreement advanced out of the U.S. Senate. Last Thursday, five government leaders from across the country joined President Joe Biden for a conversation about the potential impact of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment…