Poll: Jobs, Regulations, Taxes and Trains
Many business people have raised concerns over excessive regulations hampering business growth and job creation. However, at first glance, it appears that California voters don’t make the connection between regulations and job creation in a new Public Policy Institute of California survey. According to the poll, a plurality of likely voters and all adults picked […]
The Brown Act Is a Gag Rule
The Ralph M. Brown Act, first approved in 1953, is celebrated for its supposed guarantees that we citizens have a voice in the decisions of all our local governments. But today, it is little more than a gag rule. Over the past six decades, the Brown Act—famous for its guarantee of a 72-hour notice for […]
Rent Control’s Dirty Little Secrets
The debate over rent control has been predictable. On one side, lower-income activists (proponents) argue it’s the only counter to soaring, increasing, unaffordable rents. They insist on arbitrary caps on rents, regardless of the consequences. On the other side, housing providers (opponents) assert damage to their bottom line and their diminished ability to offer adequate […]
Legislature is Ignoring Lessons of the Housing Bubble – And It’s Going to Hurt Californians
Californians learned something profound about the perils of housing insecurity when the housing bubble burst almost ten years ago. Foreclosures and evictions devastated the finances of millions of families, of course, wiping out the savings of entire generations. But as researchers began to sift through the wreckage of the recession, they found the acute anxiety […]
A stronger Zero Emission Vehicle program will help us all breathe easier
As a doctor in Southern California specializing in pediatric asthma, I see the toll pollution from petroleum-based cars, trucks and buses takes on children’s health every day. Air pollution makes kids sick. They miss school, and their parents miss work, so air pollution can threaten a child’s health and educational development and a family’s financial […]