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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

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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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

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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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

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

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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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

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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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