In 2020, with home prices at record levels, the Petaluma Plan reached its logical end point. For the first time in the history of the state, California—which, as late as the 1960s, was growing twice as fast as the rest of the country—shrank. The state is dominated by Democrats, but many of the people Democrats claim to care about most can’t afford to live there. In the same progressive zip codes where homeowners press signs into the soil of their front lawns bearing the message Kindness Is Everything, affordable housing can’t be found—and homelessness is endemic.
