The “WWHD Conference — What Would Howard Ahmanson, Sr., Do?” — was held August 1, 2018, the year marking the 50th anniversary of my father’s death. I decided I wanted to sponsor it, mostly to honor him. In the tumultuous year […]
California
Two Dilemmas Urbanists and Housing Advocates have to Face
First, we often have two inconsistent objectives. The first is good housing for all and ownership for many. The second is that home ownership should be a ‘wealth builder’ for those who achieve it. You can’t have it both ways. […]
Tim Draper’s Latest ‘Three Californias’ Plan is not Acceptable
Tim Draper, the Silicon Valley tycoon who gave us the ‘Six Californias’ plan a couple of years ago, has come up now with a ‘Three Californias’ plan. It is not acceptable in its current form. The main point of dividing […]
Several Suggestions for the Democratic Party of California
The Democratic Party of California has reason for complacency. It is the only state level political party of significance. It unites the majority communities of color with the creative class portion of the still powerful non-Hispanic white minority. The tensions in […]
California’s Trump-like Moment, 22 Years Before Trump: The Adventures of Pete Wilson
The United States on the whole has seen a rather sudden pivot, or so it seemed, of ‘conservatism’ from a coalition of religious or moral conservatives, economic conservatives [the latter were split into ever lower taxes fiscal ‘conservatives’, and deficit […]
Manhattan Beach Tries to Find Itself
In California Development Report I recently saw a story [unfortunately inaccessible to those without an account], about Manhattan Beach and the regulations it was putting in place to define itself. Manhattan Beach is at one and the same time a […]
The ‘Single Family or Bust’ People Will Probably Leave Southern California, No Matter What Land Use Policy We Now Follow
A lot of people, especially families with children, would prefer a single-family home. Of course they would, and I’m not going to find fault with that lifestyle as long as it’s not forced on everyone. Perhaps they should be required […]
Where in Southern California Could We Fit New Suburbs?
People like Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox have argued, to some extent rightly, that the majority of Americans prefer a suburban environment; and even the younger Millennial generation, willing to live in more urban places during their single and cohabiting years, […]
Declining Hubs: A Good Location for Experimenting with High Speed Rail
I stumbled recently on a page in Therichest.com listing seven airports in America that are declining in their status as hubs, and it is interesting that they seem to be concentrated in one region: the area between the Great Plains […]
June Gloom All Year Round
Joel Kotkin has got a post up, partially entitled, “Coastal Cities are Old News – It’s the Sunbelt that’s Booming.” In it, he declares, “people seem to, once again, be streaming toward the expanse of warm-weather states extending from the […]