Kerry Jackson
Blog
Truly free market would turn empty offices in new housing
Truly free market would turn empty offices in new housing By Kerry Jackson | August 10, 2023 What if the housing market were truly a free market, liberated of zoning laws, rent control, “tenant-protection” carve-outs, energy mandates, tax policy, unnecessary permitting and will-never-be-approved environmental reviews? One economist reckons that “skyscrapers ...
Business & Economics
Read the latest on unionization in CA
Latest Example of California’s Dysfunction Is Pro-Union Constitutional Amendment 7
Public works projects in California aren’t dead but with multiple co-morbidities, they’re in poor health. The most conspicuous example is the high-speed rail, maybe the biggest construction burnout in history. And, if critics of a proposed constitutional amendment are right, it will set a sorry tone for decades to come. ...
Agriculture
Read about a rare good bill from Sacramento
Here’s One Good Idea from Sacramento: Cut Red Tape for Farmers Markets
The popularity of farmers markets has swelled over the last three decades, from only 1,755 in 1994 across the country to 8,771 in 2019. The expansion has slowed somewhat in recent years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the demand has peaked. The stagnation could simply mean that local government restrictions ...
Blog
Los Angeles Moves Forward with Public Bank Proposal
There are nearly 400 bank branches in the city of Los Angeles, according to one source. Another says there are about 325 branches and 63 banks. Whatever the true number is, it doesn’t seem the city is underserved, especially in an era in which banks don’t even have to have ...
Blog
The Dark Side Of California’s Solar System
The city of Los Angeles has a Department of Water and Power, the largest of its kind in the U.S. From this we are to understand that there is a synergistic connection between the two commodities. Yet one is crowding out the other in California’s race to an all-renewables electrical ...
Blog
Learn what California needs to do on renewable energy
California Energy Lessons Waiting To Be Learned
California’s headlong rush toward an all-EV, zero-carbon-power-grid Camelot shows no signs of abating. It’s as if there are no possible alternatives. Of course, there are, but the signs can be hard to read while traveling at full speed. As so many of the planet’s 8 billion people know, because California ...
Blog
New poll: More want to flee California
California, You Could Always Check Out, Now You Can Leave
Are policymakers, whose actions over decades are responsible for the “let’s get out of here” mood, going to let this happen? Or are they going to keep making things worse? The California Community Poll, conducted by Strategies 360 for a group of nonprofits and the Los Angeles Times, offered respondents ...
Blog
Read about Canada's recent wildfires
Bad Policy Could Make Canada’s Recent Fires Regular Occurrence in California
When California is on fire, the rest of the country looks on with the same morbid curiosity it has when yet any of the many Old Testament plagues that shake, rattle, parch, blister and sometimes flood the Golden State. But tables do sometimes turn. Canada’s recent wildfires meant that for ...
Blog
Read about new study on minimum wage and homelessness
At The Intersection Of Homelessness And Minimum-Wage Hikes
It’s widely though not universally acknowledged that minimum-wage increases are job killers. When statutes require employers to pay wages above market value, they will take avoidance measures. In the 2020s, automation becomes an appealing alternative for many. But not all businesses can replace their workers with robots. They are left ...
Blog
Learn About "15-Minute" Cities
Trendy ‘15-minute cities’ get their 15 minutes of fame
But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily as charming and practical as their devotees portray them to be. “A 15-minute city,” explains the National League of Cities, “enables residents to access most daily amenities within a 15- to 20-minute walk, bike or other mode of transportation from any point in a ...
Truly free market would turn empty offices in new housing
Truly free market would turn empty offices in new housing By Kerry Jackson | August 10, 2023 What if the housing market were truly a free market, liberated of zoning laws, rent control, “tenant-protection” carve-outs, energy mandates, tax policy, unnecessary permitting and will-never-be-approved environmental reviews? One economist reckons that “skyscrapers ...
Read the latest on unionization in CA
Latest Example of California’s Dysfunction Is Pro-Union Constitutional Amendment 7
Public works projects in California aren’t dead but with multiple co-morbidities, they’re in poor health. The most conspicuous example is the high-speed rail, maybe the biggest construction burnout in history. And, if critics of a proposed constitutional amendment are right, it will set a sorry tone for decades to come. ...
Read about a rare good bill from Sacramento
Here’s One Good Idea from Sacramento: Cut Red Tape for Farmers Markets
The popularity of farmers markets has swelled over the last three decades, from only 1,755 in 1994 across the country to 8,771 in 2019. The expansion has slowed somewhat in recent years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the demand has peaked. The stagnation could simply mean that local government restrictions ...
Los Angeles Moves Forward with Public Bank Proposal
There are nearly 400 bank branches in the city of Los Angeles, according to one source. Another says there are about 325 branches and 63 banks. Whatever the true number is, it doesn’t seem the city is underserved, especially in an era in which banks don’t even have to have ...
The Dark Side Of California’s Solar System
The city of Los Angeles has a Department of Water and Power, the largest of its kind in the U.S. From this we are to understand that there is a synergistic connection between the two commodities. Yet one is crowding out the other in California’s race to an all-renewables electrical ...
Learn what California needs to do on renewable energy
California Energy Lessons Waiting To Be Learned
California’s headlong rush toward an all-EV, zero-carbon-power-grid Camelot shows no signs of abating. It’s as if there are no possible alternatives. Of course, there are, but the signs can be hard to read while traveling at full speed. As so many of the planet’s 8 billion people know, because California ...
New poll: More want to flee California
California, You Could Always Check Out, Now You Can Leave
Are policymakers, whose actions over decades are responsible for the “let’s get out of here” mood, going to let this happen? Or are they going to keep making things worse? The California Community Poll, conducted by Strategies 360 for a group of nonprofits and the Los Angeles Times, offered respondents ...
Read about Canada's recent wildfires
Bad Policy Could Make Canada’s Recent Fires Regular Occurrence in California
When California is on fire, the rest of the country looks on with the same morbid curiosity it has when yet any of the many Old Testament plagues that shake, rattle, parch, blister and sometimes flood the Golden State. But tables do sometimes turn. Canada’s recent wildfires meant that for ...
Read about new study on minimum wage and homelessness
At The Intersection Of Homelessness And Minimum-Wage Hikes
It’s widely though not universally acknowledged that minimum-wage increases are job killers. When statutes require employers to pay wages above market value, they will take avoidance measures. In the 2020s, automation becomes an appealing alternative for many. But not all businesses can replace their workers with robots. They are left ...
Learn About "15-Minute" Cities
Trendy ‘15-minute cities’ get their 15 minutes of fame
But that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily as charming and practical as their devotees portray them to be. “A 15-minute city,” explains the National League of Cities, “enables residents to access most daily amenities within a 15- to 20-minute walk, bike or other mode of transportation from any point in a ...
