California May Never Have Spectacular Growth Again

In this episode, I sit down with someone I’ve long-admired. Bill Fulton is an urban planner, professor, former Ventura mayor, and author of one of my favorite books (The Reluctant Metropolis). We have a wide-ranging conversation on how California stopped growing and what it will take for the state to build again. We explore how the state’s postwar growth machine broke down, how laws like Prop 13 and CEQA warped local incentives, and why so many cities now chase warehouses and retail instead of housing.

This is also a conversation about California’s evolving identity from the death of the suburban dream to the rise of a more urban, infill-driven future. We talk about generational divides in housing politics, lessons from Houston’s deregulated model, and why building more homes isn’t just about entitlement reform—it’s about labor, capacity, and culture. 

If you care about how California can remain a place where regular people can live and thrive, this episode is for you!

Available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and Youtube.

Chapters:

• 00:00 — Intro

• 02:55 — Why Did Growth Stop?

• 08:08 — Sales Tax Dynamics and Local Government Funding

• 12:56 — Accepting SoCal's Urban Identity

• 16:03 — Intergenerational Perspectives on Growth and Development

• 17:47 — State vs. Local Control

• 22:49 — The Role of Unions

• 26:25 — CEQA

• 30:03 — Land-Use Lessons from Houston

• 33:28 — SoCal After Sprawl

• 37:23 — Demographics and the Changing Landscape of California

• 42:09 — Hope for California’s Housing Crisis