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California Today

California Today: Why Does It Cost So Much to Live in California?

Murals along Clarion Alley in San Francisco address the rising housing costs.Credit...Preston Gannaway for The New York Times

Good morning.

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Let’s turn it over to Conor Dougherty, a reporter based in the Bay Area, for today’s introduction.

California is crazy expensive. But should it be?

The Upshot recently took a look at how much housing costs in various cities in the United States in relation to how much economists think it should cost. Not surprisingly, coastal California tops the list of the country’s most overpriced places.

As the chart shows, the worst discrepancy is the San Francisco metropolitan area, where a standard house should cost about $300,000 — but in reality is more like $800,000 (based on 2013 figures). Next comes cities and counties in coastal Southern California — basically a band of overpriced housing that stretches downward from Ventura to the San Diego border.

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Inland cities like Sacramento, Fresno and Riverside are all much cheaper, which is why many Californians have moved eastward.

The research behind the story comes from a pair of economists who tried to figure out how much of a home’s cost comes from land-use regulation. The paper argues that most of the difference is caused by regulatory hurdles like design and environmental reviews that can add years to a project’s timeline and suppress the overall housing supply. The result is overpayment on a grand scale for the few homes that do get built. Their figures are theoretical, and people are sure to disagree with them.

The broader point — which isn’t remotely controversial — is that California cities have some of the most restrictive building laws in the nation, and this is a big reason why the state’s per capita home supply is 49th out of 50 states, and why it costs so much to live here.

Now, to remind you, these are metro area figures. So even if San Francisco, Los Angeles and their surrounding cities started a surge in building, that doesn’t mean that homes in the most sought-after places like the Mission District or Santa Monica will ever be close to affordable.

The research suggests the bigger problem with coastal California isn’t that not enough people can afford to live exactly where they want – it’s that not enough people can afford to live there at all.

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

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Crews on Monday inspected the erosion just below the emergency spillway of the Oroville Dam in California.Credit...Reuters..

• Lake Oroville crisis: A mandatory evacuation order was lifted even as officials raced to drain the reservoir ahead of new storms. [The New York Times]

• Oroville is not alone. The state’s aging dams are in dire need of repair. [The New York Times]

• The crisis shows we need a climate-smart upgrade of water infrastructure. [Opinion | The New York Times]

• Colorado’s governor offered lessons on legalizing marijuana. One suggestion: Set D.U.I. standards right away. [The Associated Press]

San Diego is joining the legal fight against President Trump’s travel ban. [San Diego Union-Tribune]

• A friend of one of the San Bernardino attackers will plead guilty to supplying guns. [The New York Times]

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Dominique Crenn, center, with her staff at Atelier Crenn, one of her San Francisco restaurants.Credit...Matt Edge for The New York Times

Dominique Crenn, a San Francisco chef, has suddenly vaulted to fame. Why? [The New York Times]

Intel has moved away from traditional science fairs. It’s prompting an identity crisis. [The New York Times]

• Watch out, Netflix. Apple is moving into original video content. [The New York Times]

Google paid its autonomous car project employees so much that they quit. [Bloomberg]

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Michael De Luca and his Oscar producing partner, Jennifer Todd, at the Academy Awards production offices.Credit...Emily Berl for The New York Times

• Producing the Oscars is an unenviable job. Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd are up to the task. [The New York Times]

• Piloting a private plane, Harrison Ford had a close call with a commercial airliner, a report said. [The New York Times]

• In two new books, Silicon Valley is treated as a magical plot of earth — a place where gods live. [The New York Times]

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Credit...Jett Inong

Lowriding, rooted in Latino culture, emerged in Southern California in the 1940s and ’50s as car customization became popular.

Today, cars are commonly tricked out with flashy paint jobs, plush upholstery and hydraulics that make them wiggle and bounce.

Jett Inong shared a picture he captured during the Fourth of July weekend a couple of years ago.

While out grabbing coffee in Los Angeles’s Crenshaw neighborhood, Mr. Inong, 30, noticed a gathering of people and cars and went with his camera to get a closer look.

When he approached, the man seen in the photo with the dollar sign tattoo asked him if he was a cop.

“And I’m like, ‘No, no,’” Mr. Inong said. “And he told me, ‘O.K. We’re not supposed to be doing this, so don’t attract too much attention.’”

The man turned his head, and Mr. Inong snapped his photo.

Want to submit a photo for possible publication? You can do it here.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.

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