“None of us thought this would have been possible a couple of months ago. But I think the winds of change are with us. Our constituents are demanding it.”

— Assembly member Buffy Wicks, an East Bay Democrat whose bill to shield new “infill” urban apartment development of less than 20 acres and surrounded on three sides by other urban uses from costly and time-consuming review under the California Environmental Quality Act was approved and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week.