Where are California’s hottest spots?

For years even before the pandemic, California residents have been moving out of the state’s coastal regions and settling in other states or more inland. Populations in these inland areas have been steadily growing, as Californians look for more affordable and spacious housing.

But as climate change renders heat waves more intense and common, living in these regions comes at a cost: As CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and data journalism intern Arfa Momin explain, some regions in California that are experiencing major population spikes are also places climate scientists expect to experience record-high heat waves.

This dangerous combination has the potential to put more people — particularly those from low-income, Latino communities — at risk of heat-related illness. High heat, for example, can trigger fatal heat strokes and heart attacks, and worsen other medical conditions such as asthma and kidney failure. Scorching temperatures can also raise energy costs and negatively impact local economies. 

• Daniel Swain, UCLA climate scientist: “There’s an extreme contrast between the people who live within 5 to 10 miles of the beach and people who live as little as 20 miles inland. It’s these inland areas where we see people who … are killed by this extreme heat or whose lives are at least made miserable.” 

A CalMatters analysis identified the neighborhoods most at risk — where the population has grown by more than 500 people in recent years, and are predicted to have the most intensifying heat under climate change projections. These places include Lancaster and Palmdale in Los Angeles County, Apple Valley in San Bernardino County and cities in the Central Valley. 

When Apple Valley Mayor Scott Nassif first moved to the area in 1959, he says only a few thousand people lived in the town. Now, it’s home to more than 75,000 people, including 3,000 who moved in between 2018 and 2022. 

Nassif credits the town’s good schools, semi-rural lifestyle and affordable housing for its appeal. But he also says Apple Valley used to have snowstorms in the winter, but now there are week-long heat waves.

• Nassif: “It’s noticeable. I don’t think there was a day under 100 in July.” 

Local governments, meanwhile, remain unprepared to respond. Under state law, municipalities are required to update their safety plans to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as installing cooling roofs and pavement. But as of last year, only about half of the state’s 540 cities and counties are in compliance.

Learn more about California’s extreme hot spots in Alejandra and Arfa’s story. And find out how many predicted high heat days your neighborhood will experience using our lookup tool.

From CalMatters housing reporter Ben Christopher:

Housing regulators have made an example of Elk Grove.

That, at least, was the message of a press conference Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta heralding the resolution of a lengthy legal tussle over a homeless housing project.

In spring 2023, the state sued the Sacramento suburb for denying a subsidized 67-unit project intended for families at risk of homelessness, arguing that violated a state law that requires the automatic approval of certain multifamily housing projects. The development has since been approved for a separate location outside the city’s historic Old Town neighborhood.

But in the legal settlement the city agreed to permit another affordable housing project in a “highest resource” part of town and to pay the state’s legal bills. The city was also given homework: For the next five years, Elk Grove will have to submit monthly reports to state housing regulators on any affordable housing proposals.

Bonta presented the agreement as a cautionary tale for other cities who have (or might consider) flouting state housing law.

• Bonta: “Whether you are Huntington Beach or Elk Grove or Woodside or Pasadena, whatever city you are … you will comply one way or the other.” 

Both Bonta and Newsom have prioritized punishing and making examples of “NIMBY” cities. The governor’s administration recently waded into a local battle over a mixed-income apartment project in Beverly Hills.

At the press conference, Newsom also disclosed that he would sign a bill to force cities that fail to plan for enough new housing to pay at least $10,000 per month. 

In other Capitol news:

• Labor priority: Though lawmakers have not been as eager to pass labor bills since 2023’s “hot labor summer,” the Legislature still advanced several that now await Newsom’s decision, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang. That includes a bill that bans employers from forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings. The National Labor Relations Board has allowed these “captive audience” meetings for decades, but the board’s general counsel under President Joe Biden has argued they are often used to intimidate employees. Business groups are pushing back against the proposal, saying it violates employers’ free speech rights. Read more about the bill in Jeanne’s story.

• New Republicans: The California GOP, which has been adding new voters while Democrats are losing some, picked up a former legislator Wednesday: Gloria Romero, who rose to Democratic majority leader in the state Senate. She announced her move at the Capitol with GOP legislative and party leaders and echoed her concerns, going back to 2021, that the Democratic Party is no longer looking out for working people. Romero is the second significant switch: Last month, Marie Alvarado-Gil of Modesto became a Republican, reducing the Democratic supermajority in the state Senate and causing a ruckus.

If you’re a woman in California, some of the best places to live include Bay Area counties such as Marin, San Mateo and Alameda. Up north, however, in Del Norte, Trinity and Lassen counties, women are faring much worse than the rest of the state. 

That’s according to a new report released Wednesday by the California Budget & Policy Center, a nonprofit research group, and the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, a nonpartisan state agency. The groups examined five categories (health, safety, employment, economic security and political empowerment), each assessed through six of their own indicators, to update their index on well-being for California women, last issued in 2020.

In addition to regional differences, the data reveals racial disparities across the state. A higher percentage of Native American women are living in poverty (20.5%), for example, compared to their white counterparts (9.8%). And the gender pay gap is the widest among Latino women, who earn 44 cents to every dollar earned by white men. Black, Native American and Pacific Islander women are also less likely to receive adequate prenatal care.

Speaking of stats: California has received a “D” on how well it presents student performance data (think of it as a grade on grading). As CalMatters K-12 education reporter Carolyn Jones. explains, researchers with the Center for Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University looked at how states crunch data on test scores, absenteeism, graduation rates and English learner progress and make it available to the public. 

The verdict: California’s main data portal is hard to navigate and confusing. Unveiled during the 2016-17 school year, the dashboard measures academic achievement alongside other indicators such as absenteeism, suspension rates and college readiness. 

Schools are assigned colors based on their performance as well, but this color coding can be misleading. The state also has other portals for student data, which can be frustrating for parents who want to find details about their child’s school.

• Crystal Trull, a parent from the San Diego Unified School District and a PTA official: “It feels like a smokescreen. Parents can’t tell if their kids’ school is good or bad, because it’s so challenging to drill into the data.”

A spokesperson for the California Department of Education said it did not receive enough information from the researchers about their methodology to act on the findings, but that the department is “always open to feedback.”

Read more about the school data transparency report in Carolyn’s story.

California is the birthplace of semiconductors, a technology that is the driving force behind some of today’s most advanced technologies. But to attract a more diverse workforce, the industry is using an old method. Find out what from CalMatters freelance writer Alisha Green.