We do not often think that Jesus Christ and the New Testament justifies capitalism. To the extent that capitalism means greed and self-indulgence, I should think not! Greed and self-indulgence are root human sins and will be manifested in any […]
Land Use
Why We Need Regionalism
In our time, politics and culture are increasingly oriented to the national scale on the one hand, and the immediate neighborhood on the other. A book, The Increasingly United States, by Daniel J. Hopkins, highlights this. However, in my view, besides […]
A Conference Held to Honor my Father, Howard F. Ahmanson Sr.: “WWHD — What Would Howard Do?”
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 […]
Keep Health Workers in Line
Here is an article about the misbehavior of employees at a residential-care facility. The elderly residents are not the problem. The sort of people who work there, however, seem to be not well-behaved. The residents should work with the company […]
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. […]
If It’s Within the Law, Why Should There Be Hearings?
David Zahnizer, at the Los Angeles Times, has given us an article on the problems with the City of Los Angeles’ community plans, one of the major ones being that they are not finished yet. This is helping to create […]
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 […]
The Unbreakable Contradiction in Our View of Housing
Daniel Kay Hertz, a young urbanist from Chicago, [his website is https://danielkayhertz.com] has written the most succinct expression yet of why the whole issue of housing is a dilemma for Americans. It got a fair bit of notice, and was reproduced […]
Now, Even Apartment Dwellers are Getting Choosy about their Neighbors
It has been known for a long time that homeowners have wanted to control who their neighbors are. In the past it was race; now it is for income and for how they might use their property, and often for […]