Latest News
The Almost Daily Briefing, November 19, 2025
The Almost Daily Briefing
Published news articles from local, regional, and national media on topics of interest to the #LoveLafayette Community
LOCAL NEWS
Lafayette candy shop burglarized in latest string of Contra Costa thefts (NBC)
Another Bay Area city is banning gas-powered leaf blowers. But not everyone is ready for the switch to electric - Walnut Creek delayed enforcement until April – avoiding the wettest winter months when soggy leaves make landscapers’ jobs more difficult. (East Bay Times)
EBMUD leases former Cal Shakes amphitheater property to new nonprofit – Under the agreement, the venue will be known as the Siesta Valley Bowl and will host 40 to 50 events annually, according to EBMUD. The campus will also include an EBMUD native plant and bird garden and a community center. (Local News Matters)
Have thoughts on region’s future? Public comment opens for Plan Bay Area 2050+ - The project is meant to highlight priorities to increase the standard of living in the Bay Area and how to achieve such outcomes over the next 25 years. Goals are outlined for transportation, housing, the environment, and the economy alongside a breakdown of estimated costs for said projects totaling $1.2 trillion. (Local News Matters)
E-bike trainings educate students — and maybe help quell controversy - Biking to school isn’t new, but the growing e-bike trend has drawn more attention recently, as they can reach speeds between 20-28 mph, depending on the class. According to data from the Foster City Police Department, there have been about seven collisions involving e-bikes in the city so far this year. But broaching the topic of e-bike training has become a touchy subject in Foster City recently. (San Mateo Daily Journal)
They rely on landlines for emergencies. AT&T’s political moves in California could take those away - As California’s largest “carrier of last resort,” AT&T is required by law to provide basic phone service, typically copper landlines, to any Californian who asks for it, with lower-income customers qualifying for a discount. It provides 75% of the state’s last-resort phone service, accounting for about 500,000 Californians and 5% of all its California customers. (CalMatters)
What It Takes to Defeat the Leaf Blowers - To end the use of gas-powered blowers, advocates in one New Jersey town focused on public health and made their case directly to local elected leaders. (Bloomberg CityLab)
6 Dead As Lingering Atmospheric River Drenches Much Of California - A powerful atmospheric river had mostly moved through California after causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state, but lingering thunderstorms brought the risk of mudslides in areas of Los Angeles County that were recently ravaged by wildfire. (Patch) Related: ‘A flood on steroids’: What to know as storm, debris flows threaten LA (CalMatters)
California lawmakers take stock of damage caused by the Big Beautiful Bill - HR 1 adds new requirements that childless adults engage in at least 80 hours per month of work, education or community service to qualify for Medi-Cal. The state is facing a $1.7-3.7 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program annually over the next 10 years (Sacramento Bee)
EPA moves to limit scope of clean water law to reduce amount of wetlands it covers - The proposal is among dozens of environmental regulations being rolled back by the Trump administration as part of what EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says is a concerted effort to accelerate economic prosperity while putting "a dagger through the heart of climate change religion.” (Associated Press)
More people are leaving California than any other state. Where are they moving? A study from Retirement Living, “Where Each Generation Is Moving Across the U.S.,” breaks down where Americans of different age groups are heading next. California has the highest outmigration across all generations of any state. (Sacramento Bee on MSN)
LOCAL HAPPENINGS
Business Safety Briefing – online, Thursday at 1pm
Objective Design Standards Community Workshop & Design Review Commission Meeting – Thursday starting at 6pm
Lafayette Planning Applications Received
Major Development Projects Map
Lafayette Community Information & Emergency Radio AM 1670
Shop, Dine & Gather in Lafayette
HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION AND CITY PLANNING
Own An Affordable Home In Walnut Creek With Habitat For Humanity - Esperanza Place, a Habitat Humanity affordable housing development in Walnut Creek, is accepting applications. (Patch)
After nearly three years, these Bay Area cities still lack a state-approved housing plan – Nearly three years after the state’s deadline, a Bay Area county and three cities across the region still haven’t finalized their state-mandated housing plans, leaving them vulnerable to fines, loss of grant funding and the dreaded “builder’s remedy,” which can cost them control over land use decisions. San Mateo County and the cities of Half Moon Bay, Belvedere and Clayton have yet to secure state approval for their plans… (Mercury News) Related: Belvedere poised to submit latest housing element revisions (Marin Independent Journal)
San Jose housing policy change delayed after pushback - The change proposed by city staff would increase target income brackets for beneficiaries of San Jose’s inclusionary housing policy, which requires market-rate housing developers to direct a portion of their investments toward affordable housing. (San Jose Spotlight)
One California city’s idea to tackle the housing crisis: Take the stairs – In late September, Culver City became the first municipality in California to legalize the construction of mid-rise apartment buildings with a single staircase […] That’s a break from the standard minimum of two staircases — connected by a corridor — required of buildings taller than three stories in nearly every other city in the country. (Cal Matters)
Unfortunately, the housing market has been unresponsive. While there’s no way to know how many units would’ve been built without these reforms, multifamily development in California has been sluggish at best.
As Berkeley weighs a big rezoning, small businesses worry they’ll pay the price - Some small business owners in Berkeley worry that allowing more height could lead to real estate speculators razing existing low-rise buildings and displacing tenants. Higher rents in new buildings, shopkeepers fear, could prohibit them from returning. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Pleasanton council to review initial housing redevelopment plans for BART station – (Pleasanton Weekly)
A City Is Broke. Can Billionaires’ Urbanist Dream Offer It a Last Chance? - Suisun City has tried to revive its fortunes for years. The latest idea: Annex land owned by California Forever, a tech-billionaire-funded plan for a new city north of San Francisco. (New York Times)
Massachusetts Offered a Solution to Housing Shortages. Is It Working? The Affordable Housing Act designated Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, the Berkshires and other resort towns as “seasonal communities,” making it easier to build homes there for workers. (New York Times)
CCTA Seeks Public Input On Major Upgrade To Walnut Creek BART Station - The Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) is moving forward with plans to transform the Walnut Creek BART Station into a modern shared mobility hub (Claycord)
This city has the Bay Area’s worst streets. It’s not S.F. or Oakland - Drivers in the charming Marin County town of Larkspur enjoy the Bay Area’s smoothest streets, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Meanwhile, motorists making their way through Vallejo experience the region’s bumpiest, most worn-out roads. The annual report ranks each Bay Area city by its Pavement Condition Index, a measure of each road’s wear and tear. The scores range from 0 to 100 — 100 being a brand new or newly repaved road, and 0 being a street in complete disrepair. (San Francisco Chronicle)
As e-bikes surge in popularity, a new California council wants to study safety risks - At least 20,000 people are injured and 3,000 hospitalized each year because of e-bikes — numbers the American College of Surgeons said are likely underreported. To address this and other e-bike issues, a new statewide coalition — the California Independent Electric Mobility Council — launched last month with a grant from Honda to study what makes e-bikes dangerous and how to make them safer without discouraging people from using them. (CapRadio)
MIXTAPE
Olympic Boulevard Reopens After Large Tree Fell On Roadway
Here's How Much Rain Fell Across The Bay Area In Recent Storm
Giving Local Businesses A Bump: 'Shop Concord' E-Cards Are Back
Concord Police Receive $270,000 Traffic Safety Grant To Boost Enforcement And Education
Clayton Police Explore New Drone Program Through Homeland Security Grant Request
Housing project site in Hayward suffers loan default after never breaking ground
Surveillance Cameras Installed To Stop Illegal Dumping In San Rafael
Zoox launches a free robotaxi service in San Francisco.
October Saw Highest Average Weekday Ridership Since The Pandemic
Nearly 82 Million Americans Projected To Travel Over Thanksgiving
MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER LAFAYETTE
Last week, Lafayette celebrated the opening of ‘Local,’ a collaboration between Lafayette, Downtown Lafayette Business Owners Association, MatchBOX studios and others. Local is a pop-up that rents two white-boxed storefronts for 30 days at a time. The goal is to allow product-based entrepreneurs space to try out new ideas, run tests and build a customer base.
AND FINALLY…
Lace-Up Walnut Creek: Ice Skating Season Is Near
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The Almost Daily Briefing (ADB) is an aggregation of links to news articles from local and regional newspapers, magazines, websites, and other news sources. Its purpose is to alert readers to current issues and affairs that may impact Lafayette. The ADB does not promote, favor, disfavor, support, reject, or endorse any position, candidate, campaign, or proposition, and nothing about the ADB, including the selection, presentation, arrangement, or content of the links presented should be construed as an advocacy position.
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