"To address housing affordability in our community, we need all types of affordable housing options, including affordable ownership opportunities that allow individuals and families an opportunity to build equity alongside housing stability," said Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong.
For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.
Southern California, especially Los Angeles, has many breathtaking botanical gardens and wildflower-lined hiking trails. But it's also exciting to visit private home gardens that are rarely open to the public and find inspiration even if you don't have space for a garden at home.
The city of Orlando happens to have the most green space per resident than any other major city, according to a new analysis from travel platform BookRetreats. The city, known as The City Beautiful, offers roughly 2,777 square feet of greenery per person. That translates to more than 148 parks, gardens, and recreation areas, according to the study, with plenty of lakes, trails, and botanical gardens to explore.
The Eaton Fire was merciless when it came to Altadena's celebrated green spaces, destroying or damaging most of the leafy trees that lined the streets in many neighborhoods. Local advocates are scrambling to restore what was lost and save what's still standing.
Relics of L.A.'s agricultural past, when the city was more renowned as a producer of lima beans than of movie stars, these outposts provide direct links to the days when the region was knit together by a network of dusty bridle paths that have long since been paved to make way for our latest beast of burden, the car.
A strip of a former rail line through Southwest Berkeley will be transformed this year into the city's newest park, boasting community gardens, children's play areas and a dog park across four long-neglected blocks. An extensive environmental clean-up for the quarter-mile stretch of the old Santa Fe rail corridor between Blake and Ward streets is set to get underway this spring, Parks Director Scott Ferris told Berkeleyside.
Cathy, I understand your pain. Driving 80 miles can feel like an odyssey, especially in SoCal. Thankfully, there are loads of fun places where your family can meet in the middle (or close to it). I've rounded up some solid options. By the way, the driving times mentioned here are a rough estimate for a weekend day without traffic, but as you probably know, your actual time may vary.
The city is at a crossroads. Some areas of the town are 30, 35 years old and may need more attention than the newer areas. We have a dichotomy of needs in that we have to provide services to both the old and the new sides of town.
Ganesha Hills is a neighborhood of some 500 homes described by one resident as 'the San Gabriel Valley's best-kept secret.' Named for the elephant-headed Hindu god of good fortune, Ganesha Hills is situated in the rolling hills north of the San Bernardino Freeway (10), just east of the Orange (57) Freeway. The community of single-family homes in a variety of architectural styles set amid chaparral and oaks is in the northwestern section of Pomona bordering La Verne and San Dimas.
A year ago, the back lot of Normont Early Education Center was little more than a bare, heat-radiating expanse of asphalt. Outside, the Harbor City preschool reflected its industrial neighborhood: scant grass, little shade, amid a block of warehouses full of grinding machinery. To get to campus, parents must shepherd their children through a concrete labyrinth, past auto body shops and steel manufacturers. At times, the noise of grinding gears can obscure the soprano whoops and wails of the preschoolers.
A man fell asleep underneath an oak tree in Placerita Canyon, in what's now the Newhall area of Santa Clarita. As he slept, he dreamed of finding gold. When Francisco López awoke, he pulled up wild onions growing nearby and discovered gold clinging to their roots. The legend is real - or at least parts of it. We'll never know if López really dreamed of gold, but we know he found it and that it was the first recorded discovery of gold in the state.
Though they're individually tiny, parking spots quietly play a dominant role in shaping urban landscapes. Most US cities dedicate at least 25% of their developable land to them. Some, even more. That land usage doesn't only determine the way a city looks. It also means covering large swathes of urban areas in heat-absorbing asphalt, which contributes to making summers hotter and heightens the risk of flooding since it prevents drainage during storms and heavy rainfall.
Ruby Hill Railyard in Denver is now open to snowboarders and skiers and features 11 rails and boxes of varying configurations and skill levels. This terrain park can be found off South Platte River Drive and West Florida Avenue in the Mile High City and is free to use. "Rubyhill railyard is now OPEN!! Crazy to think we can open with the snow drought this year! The volunteers killed it! Snowmaking went incredible! Thank you."
City staff estimate it would cost approximately $1.2 billion to meet its goal of adding 87 more acres of parkland. That figure is based on Mountain View's current population, and does not account for future growth. "Significant funding would be needed to develop new parks or to update our parks," Assistant Community Services Director Kristine Crosby said at the Jan. 27 council meeting.
Formal groundbreaking for the Ahmanson Ranch project, a town-style development on 2,800 acres in the Simi Hills in southeastern Ventura County, will not take place until 2001. However, the project has already achieved historic status for the size of the private-to-public land transfer it produced and for reviving a design concept that marks a major departure from the car-dependent suburban enclave typical of the postwar era.
Every day I ask myself, how did I go from a successful divorce lawyer to knowing 80 varieties of palm trees? If you had told me four years ago that I would be quitting a 12-year career as a lawyer to install and design gardens, I would have laughed.
"I have never seen this much damage, you know. There's other kinds of damage, like graffiti around or like pulling wires and things like that, but I have never seen anything like this. It's so disrespectful," Deshpande said.
Cities around the world share a common goal: to become healthier and greener, supported by civic infrastructure that restores ecosystems and strengthens public life. The question is how to reach this. Global climate targets, local building codes, and municipal standards increasingly guide designers and planners toward better choices. Still, many cities struggle to translate these frameworks into everyday, street-level comfort and long-term ecological protection.
Step inside Don't Tell Dad and you're immediately greeted by a warm, low-lit vintage atmosphere. When we arrived, a funky soundtrack was drifting over dark wood floors, while super-comfy olive-green velvet banquettes, booths, and bar stools offered a front-row view of the kitchen in action. Wood panels with coloured glass windows, marble-topped tables set with linen napkins, and vintage cutlery and candle holders hint at 1930s Art Deco elegance, while oval mirrors and playful statement lighting reinforce the space's French bistro vibes.
We're obviously not reinventing the wheel in our master plan for EastLake. We've learned what to do and what not to from our experience at Irvine and from looking at features in other master-planned communities, and we hope it will show at EastLake.