Blog
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
July 21, 2023
Blog
What California can learn from African buses
What California can learn from African buses While the Golden State splurges on infrastructure, African cities show the greater efficiency of decentralized private transit. By Scott Beyer | July 20, 2023 California, faced with its long-infamous traffic problems, wants taxpayers to embrace transit. It has spent decades funding high-speed rail, ...
Scott Beyer
July 20, 2023
Blog
Read latest on state's housing crisis
‘Inclusionary zoning’ will only exacerbate the housing crisis
San Francisco’s inclusionary zoning laws require that when proposing residential developments of 10 or more units, developers must take at least one from a handful of actions to create housing for lower-income families, including setting aside a percentage of units to be sold or rented at below market rate (either ...
Matthew Fleming
July 19, 2023
Blog
The Starbucks Index Shows California’s Growing Urban Crime Problem
For anyone who’s visited or lived in the American South, the much-loved Waffle House is everywhere. Open 24 hours, the Waffle House is known for its good service and consistent if not perhaps gourmet offerings. Of course, breakfast is served all day (and night). There are 1,981 Waffle Houses in ...
Steve Smith
July 18, 2023
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
July 17, 2023
Blog
Southwest cities can continue freeing their housing markets through deregulation
This piece continues a two-part series review of the housing landscape in southwest cities. Part one linked here takes a look at the housing landscape in the states of Arizona and Colorado. Part two below looks to New Mexico and Utah, followed by the review’s conclusion. New Mexico In New ...
Sal Rodriguez
July 14, 2023
Blog
Getting back to work: strategies for permit and licensing reform
Getting back to work: strategies for permit and licensing reform By Anastasia Boden and Stephen Slivinski | July 13, 2023 Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the Better Cities Project’s ‘Getting Back to Work’ – a blueprint for helping cities thrive following the COVID-19 disruptions. Although the ...
Anastasia Boden and Stephen Slivinski
July 13, 2023
Blog
Read the concerning numbers in the 2022 Crime in California report
California’s 2022 Annual Crime Statistics Released – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
On June 30th, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released his 2022 Crime in California report as well as several other mandated statistical reports covering hate crimes, juvenile justice, and firearms. What the statistics tell us, like they have for the past three years, is that crime continues to rise. Violent ...
Steve Smith
July 12, 2023
Agriculture
Learn about the new bill that proposes voluntary abandonment of farmland
No compensation for voluntary change of farmland status to save water
A U.S. Senator from California is proposing voluntary abandonment of farmland to help conserve water. Senator Alex Padilla, chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife introduced the Voluntary Agricultural Land Repurposing Act. The bill would address water conservation by offering federal money to tribes ...
Pam Lewison
July 11, 2023
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 ...
Kerry Jackson
July 10, 2023
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 ...
What California can learn from African buses
What California can learn from African buses While the Golden State splurges on infrastructure, African cities show the greater efficiency of decentralized private transit. By Scott Beyer | July 20, 2023 California, faced with its long-infamous traffic problems, wants taxpayers to embrace transit. It has spent decades funding high-speed rail, ...
Read latest on state's housing crisis
‘Inclusionary zoning’ will only exacerbate the housing crisis
San Francisco’s inclusionary zoning laws require that when proposing residential developments of 10 or more units, developers must take at least one from a handful of actions to create housing for lower-income families, including setting aside a percentage of units to be sold or rented at below market rate (either ...
The Starbucks Index Shows California’s Growing Urban Crime Problem
For anyone who’s visited or lived in the American South, the much-loved Waffle House is everywhere. Open 24 hours, the Waffle House is known for its good service and consistent if not perhaps gourmet offerings. Of course, breakfast is served all day (and night). There are 1,981 Waffle Houses in ...
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 ...
Southwest cities can continue freeing their housing markets through deregulation
This piece continues a two-part series review of the housing landscape in southwest cities. Part one linked here takes a look at the housing landscape in the states of Arizona and Colorado. Part two below looks to New Mexico and Utah, followed by the review’s conclusion. New Mexico In New ...
Getting back to work: strategies for permit and licensing reform
Getting back to work: strategies for permit and licensing reform By Anastasia Boden and Stephen Slivinski | July 13, 2023 Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the Better Cities Project’s ‘Getting Back to Work’ – a blueprint for helping cities thrive following the COVID-19 disruptions. Although the ...
Read the concerning numbers in the 2022 Crime in California report
California’s 2022 Annual Crime Statistics Released – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
On June 30th, California Attorney General Rob Bonta released his 2022 Crime in California report as well as several other mandated statistical reports covering hate crimes, juvenile justice, and firearms. What the statistics tell us, like they have for the past three years, is that crime continues to rise. Violent ...
Learn about the new bill that proposes voluntary abandonment of farmland
No compensation for voluntary change of farmland status to save water
A U.S. Senator from California is proposing voluntary abandonment of farmland to help conserve water. Senator Alex Padilla, chair of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife introduced the Voluntary Agricultural Land Repurposing Act. The bill would address water conservation by offering federal money to tribes ...
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 ...