Magical Thinking and the BART Strike
Magical thinking pervades our California state and local government. Policymakers often believe an event will occur because they want it to occur. So it has been on the BART strike. From the start of negotiations in the spring of 2013, local officials have claimed that the two sides could reach agreement, without paralyzing the region, […]
Skeptical of the Bullet Train, But CA Needs More Track
I’m not a big fan of trains, but my oldest son, Ben, 4, loves them. He’d been lobbying to go on a “big train trip,” and his school would be closed for a couple days at the end of September, when I had a meeting in Sacramento. Why not take the kid on a train […]
In L.A., the Grass Isn’t Always Greener
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Or at least that’s what your government is telling you. Citing perennial drought conditions in Los Angeles, this week the L.A. Department of Water and Power (DWP) is touting the success of a program called “Cash for Grass” – which frankly sounds like a place you should turn in […]
ACA Excludes More than a Million California Residents
The Affordable Care Act promises to bring insurance to millions of Californians who don’t have coverage today. The law will help the poorest of the poor, middle-income families and people who have been denied coverage because of pre-existing health conditions. But Congress explicitly excluded one very large group of US residents: undocumented immigrants. They are […]
California Higher Education Needs a New Strategy of Reinvesting in the Workforce
The Little Hoover Commission, the state’s independent oversight agency, spent more than 12 months and nearly 75 pages on a new report identifying the shortcomings in California’s higher education system and calling for a new strategy to develop the highly educated workforce needed to grow and sustain our economy. Few will argue with the commission’s […]