The perils of climate change were first introduced to the world in 1968. It was then that the renown Stanford Research Institute (SRI) published its report, called Sources, Abundance, and Fate of Gaseous Atmospheric Polluters, warning everyone that a steady increase in levels of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere were unnaturally warming the […]
It seems that California legislators can’t help themselves. After a year that saw every one of their rent-restricting efforts in the Legislature fail ignition – and after an election in which voters decisively rejected a statewide ballot measure to repeal a law protecting landlords – in Sacramento lawmakers are as determined as ever to put […]
The mayor and members of the San Jose City Council were recently seen in celebration mode: shaking hands and patting one another on the back after reaching agreement on a price for the sale of a downtown property that will pave the way for a massive Google expansion project. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo was […]
Assembly Bill 11 isn’t about housing, yet. It isn’t about building much in the way of infrastructure, either. What’s more, the long-promised revival of redevelopment in California, it isn’t. Instead, the pending legislation – which co-author Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) touts is “a more robust funding source to construct more affordable homes” – is really […]
During his campaign for Chief Executive of California, then-candidate and now Governor Newsom promised three and a half million new housing units would be built in the state by 2025. He promised a majority of those units would be affordable to lower-income households, as well. He also promised he would make it profoundly easier to […]
“The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” That’s what congressional newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is saying about the latest existential threat to the planet (and the well-being of its inhabitants) – best known as global warming. To back up her claims she recently presented a “Green New […]
California environmentalists can surely do better to defend the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) than they did in a recent edition of CALmatters. The piece, “Don’t blame environmental law for California’s housing crisis”, wasn’t convincing at all. First, we’ve already heard plenty from the state’s environmental activists how without CEQA environmental protection in California wouldn’t […]
A California legislator once asked me “What’s the big deal? It’s only $1,000 (additional per house).” I responded with a then-recently released study – which has since been updated – showing how adding new costs to the price of a home kept hundreds of thousands of households from becoming homeowners. Alas, I knew that my […]
In what could become a savings for the federal government in utility costs, several non-profits are engineering the installation of solar panels on the rooftops of public and other subsidized housing in certain parts of the country, including California. This effort could also be a boon for the struggling solar power industry which has seen […]
Recently, state Senator John Moorlach (R-Orange County) wrote in this space about California’s struggle to solve the problem of homelessness. In his piece “Grappling with California’s Housing Crisis” Moorlach, however, comes dangerously close to accepting the notion that if government throws enough money at a problem like homelessness we can solve it.
