California's Budget Surplus Has Vanished; Its Economy is Facing a Harsh Reality
The much-celebrated California boom is facing a harsh reality.Everything was looking good, based on enormous growth in capital gains in tech stocks and property, and some in Sacramento assumed the...
View ArticleBandon Is Urban After All
Last week, I complained that, under the Census Bureau’s new definition of “urban,” Bandon, Oregon is rural. It turns out that it squeaked into the list of urban areas by virtue of having 2,012 housing...
View ArticleThe Rise of the Single Woke Female
Unmarried women without children have been moving toward the Democratic Party for several years, but the 2022 midterms may have been their electoral coming out party as they proved the chief break on...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: American Aspiration is Metropolitan
Too many urbanists start their analysis of cities too late. They look at booming urban areas and see the amenities and jobs as the essential building blocks of urban dynamism. But before those...
View ArticleHow the California Dream Became a Nighmare
For Americans, California once looked like the future. It was a state defined by risk-taking and utopian dreaming. Yet for most Californians today, the upward mobility so central to the state’s ethos...
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California: Most Urban and Densest Urban State
The 2020 Census reveals California to have both the highest urban population density and the highest urbanization share of total population among the states. The urban areas of California have a...
View ArticleNo More Car Ownership?
When I heard that the World Economic Forum proposed to ban car ownership, I dismissed it as left-wing nonsense that would never get far with elected officials.But earlier this week the Scottish...
View ArticleWhere's the Electricity?
One of the best-known quotes was “where’s the beef?“ from Clara Peller who was a manicurist and American character actress who, at the age of 81, starred in the 1984 advertising campaign for the...
View ArticleVehicle Miles Traveled Gets a Killer Boost
It seems as if anything can be done – truly anything – if it is in the name of safety.From the pandemic to peanut butter, as long as a new rule, regulation, mandate, dictate is couched in the language...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: The Urban Future – The Great Dispersion
This chapter describes general urbanization trends in the United States and around the world, from 1950 to the present. Cities can be glamorous or exciting, but what matters most is how they facilitate...
View ArticleWhy Would Automakers Threaten AM Radio in Flyover Country?
We have a relationship with AM radio that folks in other parts of the country maybe can’t understand. So our antennae go up when the electric-vehicle revolution begins to eliminate the “amplitude...
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California 2022: 400,000 Leave, Yolo County Grows the Most
California continues to lose population, according to the latest State Department of Finance estimates for the year ended July 2022.The state dropped from 39.2 to 39.0 million population in 2022, for a...
View ArticleThe Great Train Robbery
We will soon be leaving the first quarter of the 21st century behind us. But in the minds of our transportation planners, the punditry, and some real estate interests, the way forward is actually to...
View ArticleUpward Mobility: Improving Conditions, Not Just Opportunities
I’m old enough now to have grandnieces and nephews, and almost all of them have lower living standards and worse working conditions than their parents. And their parents had it worse than their...
View ArticleMirror Mirrow on the Wall, Who’s at Fault for California’s High Energy Costs?
California Governor Newsom is emphatically finger pointing, scapegoating, and complaining that oil companies are making outlandish profits, but he may be out of touch with the elephant in the room, the...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: The Future of the Big American City Is Not Bright
As COVID-19 begins to wane and become endemic, the question for policymakers, theorists, and Americans at large is: What is in store for our nation's big cities? The nation has moved from a rural to...
View ArticleMoving the Family Graves
It’s important not to let last month’s tragic shootings completely overshadow the significance of Lunar New Year. For us, this holiday normally means a late morning trip to the hillside orchard in my...
View ArticleThe Philanthropy Threat
Throughout history, excess wealth has been used to salve society’s problems, funding hospitals, food banks, and building libraries to develop minds and cathedrals to lift the spirits. But increasingly,...
View ArticleBig in Japan
Well, it’s big in Japan.That is what proponents of California’s high speed rail project say when asked about the whys and wherefores of the system. In other words, if it works somewhere else it will...
View ArticleThe Vibe Shift
I just wanted to put up a short post to consolidate some recent thoughts I’ve shared under the combined heading of the “vibe shift.”I do think something changed in the environment in 2022. A lot of...
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