California, Where Less Costs More
Is “Eureka” still the state motto? I suppose so. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll soon redesign the California official seal to express the real code we live by: Pay more and get less. That’s the bad new California deal that underpins so many daily transactions. The price of the fundamentals of life keeps […]
Marinucci’s Move
I was glad to see the great political reporter Carla Marinucci land a new gig at Politico. I was sad to see her leave the San Francisco Chronicle, still a great and important newspaper. But there are lessons in such a move that go beyond her case. In a recent Zocalo Public Square column, I […]
Yet Another Tobacco Tax Compromised by Ballot Box Budgeting
Here we go again. Powerful and wealthy interests – including billionaire Tom Steyer – want to pursue a very necessary tax increase on cigarettes and other tobacco products. This is a great idea—such taxes add to the cost of cigarettes and discourage their use. And California has far too low a tax, well below the […]
Has LA Downsized its Dreams?
In the last century, Southern Californians dreamed so big and global that the size of our aspirations came to define this place. We created a 20th century cosmopolitan metropolis, extending from the mountains to the sea, a cultural and commercial trendsetter. We shaped the city into the entertainment capital of the world, and sought to […]
A Nobel for Tunisia
Before last week, I didn’t know any Nobel laureates. Now, I feel like I know 11 million Nobel laureates. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded last week to, in effect, the entire country of Tunisia, population 11 million. Yes, it technically went to a “Quartet” of civil society groups – business, labor, human rights, and […]
All Taxes Are Temporary
Here’s yet another example that California politics is an entirely different universe that is decidedly not our own: the debate over “permanent” versus “temporary” tax increases. The context is the 2016 ballot and the various tax-hiking ballot initiatives that may or may not end up on it. Temporary taxes are thought to be more popular, […]
Why California Should Position Itself as a Mecca for the Poor
Fresno regularly ranks as one of the poorest metro areas in the United States. So why do people keep moving there? The short, if incomplete, answer: Fresno is in California. And there is something very different about our state’s poor cities. In other parts of America, people have abandoned cities labeled poor—because of high poverty […]
Voters Are Wising Up – Local Politics Is a Waste of Time
The L.A. Times a couple of weeks ago wrote a hand-wringing story about a new poll showing that fewer California voters see local politics as worthwhile. The poll noted that local politics used to have a bit of a halo—people famously hated what they saw in Washington or Sacramento, but liked their own local officials […]
Austin Beutner’s L.A. Times Was a Blast from the Past
The most important political campaign in California has died prematurely, and without a proper obituary. That sad fact speaks volumes about the challenges facing our state’s media. Because the deceased campaign wasn’t for a Senate candidate or for a ballot measure. It was a campaign on behalf of the Los Angeles Times. The campaign didn’t […]
Why So Little on Water?
California is begging for more action, and imaginative investment in water. Meanwhile the legislature took action at the end of its session on water, by passing… a call for Gov. Brown to call a special legislative session on the subject. It was profoundly weird to see the end of the legislative session so focused on […]