Unwilling to Wait for Voters, Los Angeles County Jumps Gun on Temporary Rent Control
Los Angeles County couldn’t wait for voters to decide this fall if local governments can enact rent-control laws. The Board of Supervisors recently enacted a “temporary” restriction on rent increases. If they think that will relieve the housing crisis, they are mistaken. The Los Angeles County ordinance sets rents at their current levels, and caps […]
Gubernatorial Candidates Clash Over Housing
California households know it too well. State lawmakers – at least when asked – say it is. Academicians and pundits write about it all the time. Now, both Republican John Cox and Democrat Gavin Newsom – finalists in the race for the state’s top job, which voters will decide in November – agreed in a […]
Blame California’s Trees
Dear California Trees, When are you going to stand up and take some responsibility for all the damage you do to this state? It’s not only the blue-purple blossoms that you jacarandas use to stain Californians’ cars, or the colonies of disease-carrying rats that you palms harbor, or even the roots you magnolias use to […]
Should a MacArthur “Genius” Lecture Us About the Poor?
(This is a longer version of an article that appeared recently in Forbes. It draws on the approaches of the Catholic Worker and Dorothy Day, pictured below.) What authenticity should we expect from persons who want to lecture us about compassion, welfare and poverty? Should we not expect them to help individual poor persons they […]