If you still doubt that the next bubble will be green, check out the latest from California. Green and clean technology gigs surged 36% from 1995 to 2008, beating the state's overall 13% job-growth rate for the same period, according to Silicon Valley-based research firm Collaborative Economics. Since California's on the leading edge of this sector, many see it as a sign of things to come for the rest of the country.

As of January 2008, there were only 159,000 green jobs in California, less than 1% of the state's total, following year-over-year growth of 5%. But, during that same period, total jobs in the state dropped 1%, suggesting that jobs in sustainability just might be more sustainable. Though these may seem like small numbers, keep in mind that the green sector job market is twice the size of the state's biotech presence and two-thirds the size of the software industry.

Existing homes are starting to move again. Last month, home resales hit their highest level in more than two years, thrashing expectations. The 9.4% increase in home resales -- which entails a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.57 million -- is attributed largely to the deadline for the first-time home buyer tax credit.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the annualized, seasonally adjusted rate is up from the 5.1 million in August and far ahead of the 5.35 million expected for September (based on economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters).

Yesterday, the San Diego city council voted to ban certain kinds of large retail stores from the city limits. The council did not explicitly mention Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), but the definition of the stores to be prohibited makes it pretty clear that they had the giant retailer in mind.

Specifically, the nation's eight largest city voted to ban stores that are larger than 90,000 square feet and that use at least 10 percent of their floor space to sell groceries, which are not taxed in California. Apparently, only Wal-Mart Supercenters meet this criteria. Wal-Mart Supercenters are on average 185,000 square feet and offer groceries along with the usual Wal-Mart products.

Jerry Sanders, the mayor of San Diego, has threatened to veto the measure. He claims that city council is engaging in "social engineering." Supporters of the measure made the usual points: Wal-Mart drives local shops out of business, provides low wages, and creates traffic problems and pollution around its giant stores.

The struggle between Wal-mart and its critics has been going on for years now. Chicago city council recently voted for a living wage measure that was aimed largely at Wal-Mart and would have forced the company to pay higher wages to its workers in the city. However, the mayor of Chicago overrode city council's vote. Will the same thing happen in San Diego? Are these mayors simply corporate stooges, willing to do whatever it takes to allow Wal-Mart to make lots of money in their cities? Or are they looking out for their citizens' best interests, trying to attract retail jobs and fight high unemployment, no matter what the wages? Maybe it's a little bit of both.