Housing
California
New Solar Mandate Latest Chapter in ‘California Craziness’ Story
Making housing more affordable in California has been at the top of the agenda in Sacramento for more than a year. Unfortunately, lawmakers have mishandled the opportunity to pass meaningful reforms and now a new solar energy mandate will soon force homes prices even higher. The Energy Commission, whose five ...
Blog
What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel
What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel While America was obsessed this week with whether we heard Yanny or Laurel (and I hear Yanny for the record), I was busy watching other things online. If you’re interested – or don’t know what the heck I’m talking about – watch ...
Business & Economics
Read Wayne Winegarden in SD Union-Tribune & LA Times on Growing San Diego Wealth Gap
Wealth gap grows in San Diego, report says By Phillip Molnar Also published in Los Angeles Times If you feel left behind in San Diego’s economy, you’re not alone. The gap between the have and have-not’s in San Diego was the ninth-highest out of 100 cities between 2011 to 2016, said ...
Blog
Not Much to Celebrate as California’s Economy Grows on Paper
California’s economy has now surpassed that of United Kingdom, making it the fifth-largest in the world if it were its own country. Despite this growth, and in contrast to the perception that all is well in California because the economy looks so robust, the Golden State’s economy is not quite ...
California
What’s next for housing relief after defeat of SB 827?
A Senate bill that would have helped relieve California’s bleak housing situation has died in the Legislature. It was killed by anti-development groups and local governments that wish to continue dictating the rules of home construction. So what comes next? Senate Bill 827 should have been noncontroversial legislation that sailed ...
Blog
Rent Control Measure Would Make California’s Housing Woes Worse
One of the factors driving California’s housing crisis is the upward pressure rent-controls laws place on home prices. Everyone except those enjoying the dividends of rent-controlled housing would be better off without the laws. Yet a measure that will allow them to spread will be on the ballot this fall. ...
Blog
Will Housing People in Our Backyards Help Reduce LA’s Homeless Population?
A drive through the homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles reveals a swamp of squalor unworthy of a first-world nation. Yet there it is, grim and uncivilized. Los Angeles’ homeless problem is a growing concern. The region has the second-largest homeless population in the country, with more than 55,000 living ...
Blog
Today is California Tax Freedom Day
“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot. It’s especially cruel for Californians because today, April 23, is the day when California taxpayers have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state, and local tax bill for the year, according to the Tax Foundation. After working for nearly four ...
Featured
Sally Pipes Receives Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Public Policy
Pacific Research Institute President and CEO Sally C. Pipes delivered this year’s commencement address to the graduates of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. At the event, she received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree – the university’s highest honor. The prepared text of Pipes’ remarks are below: ...
Blog
Slow Times at Vallco Mall
Watch the 1980s classic film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and you’ll see Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and the gang hanging out at “Ridgemont Mall,” which was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The “go to” mall for me growing up was Vallco Mall in Cupertino. ...
New Solar Mandate Latest Chapter in ‘California Craziness’ Story
Making housing more affordable in California has been at the top of the agenda in Sacramento for more than a year. Unfortunately, lawmakers have mishandled the opportunity to pass meaningful reforms and now a new solar energy mandate will soon force homes prices even higher. The Energy Commission, whose five ...
What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel
What We’re Watching – Not Yanny or Laurel While America was obsessed this week with whether we heard Yanny or Laurel (and I hear Yanny for the record), I was busy watching other things online. If you’re interested – or don’t know what the heck I’m talking about – watch ...
Read Wayne Winegarden in SD Union-Tribune & LA Times on Growing San Diego Wealth Gap
Wealth gap grows in San Diego, report says By Phillip Molnar Also published in Los Angeles Times If you feel left behind in San Diego’s economy, you’re not alone. The gap between the have and have-not’s in San Diego was the ninth-highest out of 100 cities between 2011 to 2016, said ...
Not Much to Celebrate as California’s Economy Grows on Paper
California’s economy has now surpassed that of United Kingdom, making it the fifth-largest in the world if it were its own country. Despite this growth, and in contrast to the perception that all is well in California because the economy looks so robust, the Golden State’s economy is not quite ...
What’s next for housing relief after defeat of SB 827?
A Senate bill that would have helped relieve California’s bleak housing situation has died in the Legislature. It was killed by anti-development groups and local governments that wish to continue dictating the rules of home construction. So what comes next? Senate Bill 827 should have been noncontroversial legislation that sailed ...
Rent Control Measure Would Make California’s Housing Woes Worse
One of the factors driving California’s housing crisis is the upward pressure rent-controls laws place on home prices. Everyone except those enjoying the dividends of rent-controlled housing would be better off without the laws. Yet a measure that will allow them to spread will be on the ballot this fall. ...
Will Housing People in Our Backyards Help Reduce LA’s Homeless Population?
A drive through the homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles reveals a swamp of squalor unworthy of a first-world nation. Yet there it is, grim and uncivilized. Los Angeles’ homeless problem is a growing concern. The region has the second-largest homeless population in the country, with more than 55,000 living ...
Today is California Tax Freedom Day
“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T.S. Eliot. It’s especially cruel for Californians because today, April 23, is the day when California taxpayers have collectively earned enough money to pay their federal, state, and local tax bill for the year, according to the Tax Foundation. After working for nearly four ...
Sally Pipes Receives Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Public Policy
Pacific Research Institute President and CEO Sally C. Pipes delivered this year’s commencement address to the graduates of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. At the event, she received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree – the university’s highest honor. The prepared text of Pipes’ remarks are below: ...
Slow Times at Vallco Mall
Watch the 1980s classic film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” and you’ll see Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and the gang hanging out at “Ridgemont Mall,” which was actually the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The “go to” mall for me growing up was Vallco Mall in Cupertino. ...
