SAN JOSE, Calif — Hotel development nosedived in California and the Bay Area in 2024, fresh evidence the statewide lodging market still suffers from an array of post-coronavirus economic maladies, a new report shows.

A year-end survey released this week from lodging consultancy Atlas Hospitality counted just four new hotels across the nine-county Bay Area opening in 2024, down from 12 new hotels in 2023. Statewide, California in 2024 had the fewest new hotels and rooms deliver to market since 2014, and about 34% fewer new hotels than in 2023.

Development pipeline dries up as 75% fewer properties opened last year in region, with outlook it will get worse.

Someone stole 200 bronze vases off graves in a San Francisco Bay Area cemetery, California sheriff’s officials reported. Workers at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette noticed the vases were missing last month, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said in a Jan. 15 news release.

Authorities in the East Bay have launched a grand theft investigation after hundreds of bronze vases were recently stolen from a cemetery.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office is investigating after hundreds of bronze vases attached to gravesites went missing at the Oakmont Memorial Park cemetery.