It is difficult to build anything — especially homes and apartments — in California. Even simple projects like constructing a playground come with frustrating hurdles. 

Tracey and Mark Berkner opened Taste Restaurant in 2006 and the nearby Rest, a 16-room boutique hotel, in 2016.

The biggest problem facing business owners is a lack of customers. No one knows what to do first: Build the customer base and create a demand for business, or rebuild the businesses and see if the customers follow?

Energy microgrids, which can power businesses, neighborhoods or even cities, are having a moment. They’re touted as alternative ways to keep the lights on when California’s big utility companies shut power to avert wildfires. 

Comstock’s publisher Winnie Comstock-Carlson on downtown Sacramento’s attempts to reinvent itself and how retail shopping was — and still is — one key element in its rejuvenation. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lambasting of PG&E as California reels from wildfires and mass blackouts reflects his roots in San Francisco — and a public perception that’s built up over the last half century. 

“Are they better than the utilities in the north? Yeah, probably. But does that mean that they are the gold standard? Absolutely not.”

Part of the reason California rents are so astronomical — the state now has five of the top 10 priciest rental markets in the country, according to real estate data firm Zumper — is because it’s really expensive to build new apartments here. 

A latex unicorn mask hangs on the back wall near the window of Katherine Bardis-Miry and Rachel Bardis’ shared office. 

“We’re kind of weird,” Katherine laughs.