In January 2017, state lawmakers returned to the Capitol determined to make a difference on the state housing crisis. Dozens of bills were touted – including Senate Bill 35, by state Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, which ended up as the most far-reaching law to reduce obstacles to housing construction in modern California history.

But even as momentum built for SB35 and other housing measures, the head of the respected, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office warned in a 12-page report issued in March 2017 that state lawmakers would never be able to reduce the housing shortage without much more support from the public.

“Unless Californians are convinced of the benefits of significantly more home building – targeted at meeting housing demand at every income level – no state intervention is likely to make significant progress on addressing the state’s housing challenges,” wrote Mac Taylor.

Now a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey offers the most definitive support yet for the legislative analyst’s conclusion that when it comes to building new housing, Californians aren’t very enthusiastic.

Few see lack of construction as big problem

The survey asked 1,180 Californians why they thought housing was so expensive in the Golden State. They were given a list of eight possible primary reasons.

The most popular reasons were lack of rent control (28 percent) and lack of affordable housing programs (24 percent).

In the middle tier of explanations were environmental regulations (17 percent), foreign home buyers (16 percent) and the influence of the tech industry (15 percent).

Bringing up the rear were a lack of homebuilding (13 percent), Wall Street buyers (10 percent) and restrictive zoning rules (9 percent).

The Times’ analysis of the poll noted how at odds the public’s view of housing is with the view of economists, policy analysts and housing experts.

There is “general agreement that a lack of supply is at the root the problem. Reports from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office and a host of academics contend that California has a chronic shortage of home building that has failed to keep pace with the state’s population growth – especially during the recent economic expansion – which has forced prices up.”

But this wasn’t the only way Californians parted with conventional wisdom. The survey also included other questions that showed two-thirds of those surveyed backed local control over housing even if local governments weren’t meeting state-set goals for adding housing stock.

It is this local power over the approval process that empowers motivated NIMBYs in city after city. Taylor’s March 2017 study identified it as the single biggest reason behind the emergence of the housing crisis.

“For decades, many California communities – particularly coastal communities – have used this control to limit home building,” the legislative analyst wrote. “As a result, too little housing has been built to accommodate all those who wish to live here. This lack of home building has driven a rapid rise in housing costs.”

Tech industry certain to keep pushing for housing 

While the USC-Times poll could influence candidates in close elections to side with NIMBY views, it is unlikely to blunt new efforts by the Legislature to use legislation to bring down housing costs. The deep-pockets, influential Silicon Valley Leadership Group is one of many business organizations that sees the housing crisis as a threat to the state’s future prosperity because of its potential to hurt recruitment and retention of workers.

Another of the state’s most politically potent forces – the California Teachers Association – also sees the housing issue as bad news for its members. But the CTA’s main policy prescription for now is Proposition 10 – the Nov. 6 ballot measure that would overturn a 1995 state law and let cities impose rent control. It has generally trailed in state polls, although with high numbers of undecided voters.

Of course. But here in California, where the incompetence of the media can scarcely be exaggerated, almost nobody is aware that the Golden State is no. 1 in economic misery.

This malpractice is nothing new. On the debate over whether California should encourage hydraulic fracturing of its massive oil reserves, the state media never note that the Obama administration considers fracking safe. On the debate over education policy, the state media never note that Gov. Brown’s prescription for education reform — local control — is the same flawed, status-quo-reinforcing policy choice that led to the two big education reform moments of the past 30 years. On AB 32, the state’s landmark 2006 climate-change law, the Los Angeles Times waited until March 2012 to note that it was a risk to California’s economic competitiveness to force its energy costs to be higher than rival states and nations. On this front, the L.A. Times trailed the New York Times by years.

So on the economy, why would the fact that California has the highest effective poverty rate in the nation be mentioned? If key details are routinely ignored on other big stories, why change the template on poverty and human misery?

The governor thinks he’s the bomb. Why won’t media push back?

Which brings me to my Sunday U-T San Diego editorial.

“… what one would never guess from his press clippings is that Brown presides over the state with by far the nation’s highest poverty rate. According to a 2012 Census report, once the cost of living is factored in, nearly one in four state residents — 23.5 percent — live below the poverty line. And according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measure that includes those who have given up looking for work, California has the second worst unemployment rate in the nation. More than one in six Californians who want to work full-time — 18.3 percent — can’t find such jobs.

“How anyone can look at this picture and conclude the Golden State has solved its economic miseries is baffling. Silicon Valley and the Bay Area are doing well. San Diego and Orange counties are much improved. But the Great Recession never ended in the Central Valley, Imperial County or the Inland Empire. Nor did it end for millions of Latino and African-American families in the minority neighborhoods that don’t reflect the tidy picture offered by the national media.

“Brown, alas, won’t acknowledge the depth of our economic woes. Such is his hubris that he’d rather enjoy the fawning than push back at the narrative of a booming, healthy California. Last month, he even gave a boastful interview to The Los Angeles Times that carried this headline: ‘Gov. Brown sees his ambitious agenda as a template for nation.'”

A normal newspaper would see a politician being this boastful and choose to point out the counter-narratives that undercut his claims. But not the L.A. Times’ reporting staff. Or its editorial page. Or its Sacramento columnist George Skelton.

What’s news vs. what’s not news: Aaauuugghh!

I have seen pack journalism my entire professional life. But I have never seen anything like the last few years out of Sacramento. I don’t think that the following four questions are only ones that would occur to a partisan individual. I think they’d occur to anyone who is reasonably well-informed.

Why isn’t it relevant that the Obama administration considers fracking safe?

Why aren’t Jerry Brown’s education policies placed in historical context?

Why did it take more than five years for a small part of the media to admit AB 32 was risky?

And on poverty, why isn’t the fact that California is worse off than Mississippi and West Virginia front-page news? Or back-page news? Or news at all?

I await sincere answers. But what do I expect, at least from Sacramento journalists? Snark.