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 […]
Urbanism
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
If We Treated Food the Way We Treated Housing
Josh Barro, an economics columnist at the New York Times who used to be at Forbes, has written an interesting column on what the food marketplace would be like if we owned lifetime resaleable futures in our food instead of […]
The Residential College Experience and New Urbanism
Matthew Gerken, in Philanthropy Daily, has a nice essay entitled “Why We Love College.” For all the problems with the American university experience – they’re not preparing the kids for jobs! – they’re not preparing the kids for anything but […]
No, “New Urbanism” and “Smart Growth” are Not the Same
There are two political movements in urban development that have a lot of overlap but are not the same. ‘New Urbanism’ advocates the legalization and building of communities resembling the 19th century American town, with a fair number of single […]
What Kevin Starr Doesn’t Get About Small Towns
I have been enjoying Kevin Starr’s volume in his cultural history series, Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963. It is a period of which I have some living memory, and I have heard of, or met, in […]