Californians are relatively thrifty when it comes to electricity consumption, using less on a per-capita basis than residents of any other state. The average Californian consumed 7,032 kilowatt-hours of power in 2005, according to the California Energy Commission. That's not much more than half the U.S. average of 12,347 kilowatt-hours.

WASHINGTON _ Home builders are praising and environmentalists criticizing the Supreme Court's decision allowing states to administer water pollution permitting programs without complying with a key provision in the federal Endangered Species Act.

This is a story of two downtowns — one that has become a model core for a large suburb, and one where the walls that stalled progress have finally come down. This is also the story of the long-term consequences, sometimes unintended, of land use decisions.

Wouldn't you know it? Right when the real estate market slows down, the land use initiative business is picking up. And, as is often the case, the initiatives – rather than clarifying things – are making things more confusing. Although localized in nature, the confusion will continue all the way through the emerging real estate bust and on to the beginning of the next boom.

Brewpub regionalism?

That's the phrase that came to mind Saturday night as I listened to John Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver, talk about how he operates.

Nerdy geologist turned cool brewpub owner turned positive-thinking mayor, Hickenlooper is rapidly becoming a political legend. I heard him speak, along with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, at a dinner in Santa Monica sponsored by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors conference.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that an airport land use compatibility plan qualifies for a "common sense" exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act.

Perhaps more importantly, the court opened the door for the first time to the idea that displacement of development — often an arguable consequence of a plan that favors one type of development over another — might be an issue that should be analyzed under CEQA.

Little appears to have happened since local government organizations and their supporters rolled out an eminent domain reform package that they said would protect homeowners and small businesses from government abuse. The May 21 announcement from the California Redevelopment Association and the League of California Cities got extensive press coverage, and the proposed legislation won plaudits from several newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. A number of business and environmental groups said they would support the measures.

The toads of Davis have never figured out how to use the tunnel built a dozen years ago just for them.

Or they can't find it. Or they've died out. Or they just don't want to.

Monterey County voters must be wondering what the point is. They keep voting on land use ballot measures, but the votes resolve nothing.

A unanimous California Supreme Court has upheld a local zoning ordinance that regulates who may sell furniture. The decision appears to bolster local zoning decisions that have come under attack from developers and retailers, especially those promoting big-box stores.

I was walking down Broadway in Oakland the other day. And I was terribly disappointed.

I hadn't been on Broadway, downtown Oakland's most important boulevard, in six years. Since then, I had heard a great deal about dreams and schemes to "bring Oakland back," including Jerry Brown's ballyhooed proposal for 10,000 new housing units.

But the Broadway I found was not much different from the Broadway of six years ago, or 16 years ago, or even 26 years ago. Vacant storefronts. Garbage. Plentiful surface parking. Old buildings begging for investment.

Why did nobody tell me that market-rate housing had become a NIMBY issue? Did I sleep this momentous event, just as I sawed a log through the Northridge earthquake? Here I am, bumbling through life as if nothing special is happening, while unbeknownst to me The Walt Disney Company is having one of its most creative moments since it released Dumbo.

The California Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state's "quick take" eminent domain process in which a public agency may take ownership of a property before a trial on final compensation for the property owner.

An appellate court has thrown out a property owners' lawsuit claiming that the Town of Tiburon's special assessment to pay for undergrounding utilities violated Proposition 218. The court ruled that the lawsuit was actually a "reverse validation action," and that the property owners failed to meet procedural deadlines.