By Richard Davis, Associate Editor, April 25, 2026
Northern publishes What We’re Reading, a curated selection of planning-related new stories from across our region, usually twice a week on our LinkedIn. It’s a quick way to stay informed about the housing fights, transit dramas, economic shifts, and more shaping Northern California cities and counties, all pulled into digestible summaries.
We’re always eager to hear from our readers – What We’re Reading is an invitation to share what matters to you. If you have come across a story from your community, especially if you’re personally connected to the story, tag it with APA California — Northern on LinkedIn and we’ll try to include it in the next post.
Here are six of my favorite stories from the past quarter:
Environment — A long-awaited California water policy promises balance. Opponents call it an ‘extinction plan’ (by Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2026). The Bay-Delta plan is one of the most consequential environmental decisions in the state right now, with implications that ripple from Sierra headwaters to Bay shoreline and from Fresno to the Oregon border.
Land back and conservation — Tribe buys 10,000 acres north of Lake Tahoe from city of Santa Clara in historic land deal (by Paul Rogers, Mercury News, February 11, 2026). A historic transaction — the Washoe tribe reclaimed a vast parcel from the City of Santa Clara purchased nearly 50 years ago for geothermal development. Serrell Smokey, chairman of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, said, “Getting our people back onto the lands is a culmination of healing from the historical trauma of being removed from them. Having land we can call our own will help us reclaim the things we used to do: ceremonies, conservation, restoration.”
Transportation — ‘A big part of my life’: BART riders face higher costs, worse commutes if stations close (by Garrett Leahy, SF Standard, March 10, 2026). The BART fiscal crisis has been told mostly from the agency perspective. The Standard spoke with riders at the five busiest stations slated for potential closure about how their lives might change if the ‘doomsday scenario’ happened.
Urban development — San Jose bet its future on a Google megacampus downtown. Now the land sits mostly empty (by Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, March 12, 2026). A cautionary tale about big-tenant downtown strategies featuring former Mayor Sam Liccardo quoted as its defender.
Housing — El Cerrito Bets on Car-Free Living (by Juan Pablo Pérez-Burgos, Kneedeep Times, March 19, 2026). This story celebrates El Cerrito’s efforts to build Transit Oriented Development at its two BART stations. The city has an ambition to transform parking lots around El Cerrito Plaza into a downtown where people can live by the end of the decade.
Parks, open space, and coast — The Final Master Plan for the Great Redwood Trail Is Out. What Does It Mean for Humboldt? (by Isabella Vanderheiden, Lost Coast Outpost, April 3, 2026). Once complete, the Great Redwood Trail is projected to be the longest rail-to-trail project in the nation. It’s a highly complex project involving environmental remediation and partnerships with North Coast tribes in design and implementation.
Do you have a story we should be reading? Let us know!