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Central planners in Sacramento can retool the state’s housing laws.
But they can’t rewrite the American dream.
To many Californians, that dream entails some version of a house with a white picket fence, an SUV and a growing family.
That’s why state residents have flocked to a handful of rural and suburban cities, including Chico, Clovis, Dublin Irvine, Manteca, Menifee and Roseville, a recent news report found.
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Each of these cities grew its population by at least 25% over the past 15 years: an intriguing counter-narrative at a time when the state is losing residents –– and California’s large urban centers have seen an exodus.
The areas gaining residents offer affordable single-family homes, strong schools and family-friendly amenities such as ballfields, water parks and balloon rides.
They also offer sane governance.
Not a single one of the boomtowns is known for a progressive or socialist city council. Rather, they tend to lean moderate, center-left or center-right.
The state’s urban centers, by contrast, tend to be costly, crowded and, in many cases, governed by extreme-left lunatics such as those in Los Angeles.
The radical LA City Council enables crime, traffic, rampant homelessness and stratospheric spending and taxes. Is that the best place to raise a family?
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(LA lost a staggering 54,000 or so residents between July 2024 and July 2025, The California Post reported.)
Californians want pragmatic leaders who deliver safe, livable, affordable communities.
Often, they also want space to spread out, enjoy a dog and a yard –– and raise children who don’t have to pass homeless encampments on the way to school.
It’s the great American dream, and it dies hard.
Even so, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrat legislators in the Capitol have long sought to prod more Californians out of their cars and into ever-denser urban centers.
They adopted SB 79, which took effect July 1, to force cities to accept multi-family housing near many bus and train stops.
It’s part of Democrats’ green fever-dream: Pass climate-based mandates that do near-zero to alter global temperatures, and then preen about it.
A more practical idea: Keep building outward, as GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has suggested.
Give the market what it wants: attractively priced single-family homes in well-run communities at a time when remote work makes living far from city centers increasingly viable.
And watch more towns boom.
