Can California’s new online platform help rebuild democracy?

In the months that followed last year’s Altadena and Pacific Palisades fires, something quieter but no less consequential has happened in those same neighborhoods. More than 900 people affected by the blaze logged onto a California state digital platform, shared more than 1,300 comments about what they needed most from recovery, weighed 19 policy options against one another and delivered a consensus action plan back to their state and local governments. That plan is now visibly shaping decisions — from undergrounding utilities to establishing fire-resistant rebuilding standards and streamlining permitting. The program that created this plan is called Engaged California. And this month it enters its next chapter: a statewide deliberation on what the people want their government to do about the economic consequences of artificial intelligence. The AI conversation will matter. But the bigger story is the civic infrastructure that makes it possible and what that infrastructure could mean for a country in which trust in government sits near historic lows. Engaged California is a tool of w