Migration Myths and Political Change
“California migration turned Colorado blue.” That sums up a common belief about how domestic (as well as international) migration plays out politically. It’s assumed that people moving out of big blue...
View ArticleBeyond Housing First
If there is one thing Californians agree on, it is that we have to do something about the inhumane drug addiction and mental health crisis proliferating across our cities and towns. The situation is...
View ArticleWhy Veterans in Labor Should Not Be Ignored
Even in the era of identity politics, one category of identity has largely been ignored: what UK journalist Joe Glenton calls “veteranhood.”19 million former soldiers — most of them working class —...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: Housing Unaffordability – How We Got There and What to...
From the end of World War II until 1970, owner-occupied housing was broadly affordable across the entire country. The standard measure for measuring affordability —the price-to-income ratio— was at...
View ArticleCoasts Create Banking Crisis, Flyover Country Pays the Price
The figurative tremblors of the last few weeks have confirmed why we call ourselves Flyover Country. It’s because the major shapers of the American economy keep — well, flying over us as they shake the...
View ArticleThe Dark Money Behind Gas Bans
Last Tuesday, Rewiring America announced that it has hired Georgia politician Stacey Abrams to help the group “launch and scale a national awareness campaign and a network of large and small...
View ArticleRace and State
The upcoming ruling by the US Supreme Court on racial preferences is certain to ignite yet another divisive debate about whether or not a person’s ethnic heritage should determine their treatment by...
View ArticleThe Housing Plot
Oregon’s new governor, Tina Kotek, has made housing her top priority and has proposed a number of unrealistic and idiotic remedies to high housing costs and homelessness. For one, she wants spend $54...
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Calgary City Council: Reimagining the CBD
In a previous post, I commented on the difficulties faced by the Calgary CBD (downtown), with its huge office vacancies resulting from the mid-decade oil bust, along with the rise of remote and hybrid...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: False Dawn – The Future of Work and Cities After the...
“The future ain’t what it used to be,” Yogi Berra famously observed. Nowhere is that truer than regarding the future of work, particularly in cities. The economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic,...
View ArticleCalifornia Screamin'
Last week, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District approved new regulations that will ban the use of residential and commercial natural gas-fired water heaters and furnaces in 2027. The...
View ArticleThe Depopulation Bomb
Today, the spectre haunting the global order is not communism, as Marx predicted, but seemingly relentless demographic decline. We can already see its consequences in everything from the fight over...
View ArticleChildish Beliefs Drive Lethal Energy and Agricultural Agendas
Many eco-activists (and too many legislators, regulators, judges and journalists) have trouble thinking beyond slogans. They apparently believe declaring ecological emergencies, repeating clever...
View ArticleRestaurant Revolution
Nokmaniphone Sayavong started her business, Nok’s Kitchen, during the worst of times—the Covid pandemic—and in a state that often treats small businesses with the delicacy of a cat torturing a mouse....
View ArticleElon’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Battery Math
In 2007, I interviewed Vaclav Smil by email. I asked the Canadian polymath and prolific author a simple question: why are so many people so easily duped when it comes to discussions about energy and...
View ArticleThe Future of Cities: A New Path for Black Urban Voters?
For decades, a large majority of black Americans have aligned with the Democratic Party, but the modern-day Democratics Party's leftward shift may cause a reevaluation of that relationship. The welfare...
View ArticleChina Wants to Vassalize the West – Trudeau and Biden Want to Let It
Throughout history, more powerful nations have preyed on smaller ones, as is now being demonstrated by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Yet for those outside Europe, China’s economic power makes it...
View ArticleJamie Dimon's Climate Corporatism
Deep Throat never said, “follow the money.”That phrase, which has become one of the most famous axioms in politics and journalism, was featured in the 1976 movie “All the President’s Men,” which...
View ArticleRescuing Ireland Won't Save Biden
President Biden may have received a rapturous welcome in Ireland, but Democratic strategists in Washington will have taken little notice. With next year’s election looming, they increasingly look like...
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California Growth and Domestic Migration: Changing Trends
For nearly all the 20th century, California was the national growth leader. In every census from 1930 to 2000, California added more residents than any other state. In 1900, California ranked 21st in...
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