At the June meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee a consultant presented a review of Ultra High-Speed Rail studies that have been done for the I-5 corridor. As is often the case, most of the findings were couched in language crafted to avoid offending anyone and included many caveats about data availability and assumptions that need to be further refined. Despite that, the findings cast doubt on the feasibility of the proposal. Key findings include:  read more »

Not so long ago, the West was captivated by visions of the ‘end of history’. Francis Fukuyama, Thomas Friedman, Kenichi Ohmae and others envisaged the permanent triumph of a global neoliberal order.  read more »

So The Los Angeles Times ran a story today all about possible “congestion pricing” schemes coming soon to certain roads in the LA area soon.  read more »

The future of humanity is becoming ever less human. The astounding capabilities of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence have triggered fears about the coming age of machines leaving little place for human creativity or employment. Even the architects of this brave new world are sounding the alarm.  read more »

A flurry of Ukrainian flags appeared all over San Francisco a year ago when Russia’s incremental acquisition of Ukrainian territory ramped up in earnest and turned to a hot war.  read more »

Those “green” jobs you’ve been hearing about don’t come cheap.

Thanks to the staggering amounts of money that’s being doled out under the Inflation Reduction Act to incentivize the production of electric vehicles, America’s biggest automakers – General Motors and Ford Motor Company – are building battery factories.  read more »

With the announcement that inflation fell to 3% in June, the US President will no doubt be emboldened in his claim that Bidenomics — essentially a green-tinted government-led economy — is working.  read more »

Suburban urbanism is making another cameo appearance.

As most followers of cities know, the lack of housing affordability in large cities, combined with the impact of the rising work-from-home phenomenon since the start of the Covid pandemic, has provided a powerful one-two punch to cities  read more »

I just got back from a 2-hour lunch with one of the guys who serves on working groups and committees of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), and he shared his frustrations working with these agencies.  read more »

Over the years since the financial crisis, economic power and wealth has become ever more concentrated in fewer hands. This is something leaders have acknowledged, and policymakers have tried to do something about.  read more »