Policy

Confronting the Supply Chain Crisis

barrett-ward-cargo-backlog-at-port.jpg

For a generation, the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors in California handled more than 40 percent of all container cargo headed into the US and epitomized the power of a globalizing economy.  read more »

California's Students are Not Leading the Way on Free Speech

ucla_campus.jpg

Californians rightly pride themselves in leading the nation in numerous areas from stewardship of the environment, to embracing the many virtues of diversity and multiculturalism, to the media and technology magic being created in sectors sprawling from San Diego to and San Francisco.  read more »

Subjects:

Joe Biden's Class War

pres-joe-biden-wisconsin-jobs.jpg

Joe Biden may present himself as a ‘working-class hero’, a claim reiterated recently in the leftist American Prospect, but increasingly America’s workers are showing signs not of common cause but disquiet.  read more »

The New Face of Autocracy

global-reach-facebook.jpg

A former Facebook employee hailed by the media as a whistleblower testified this week on Capitol Hill about the social media giant's algorithm, and how it harms children and democracy.  read more »

Sustainable Suburbia

Autonomous-driving-Barcelona.jpg

Visionary images of resilient cities that save the US, or even the world, from climate change. Of downtowns transformed by technology into smart ecotopias. Of urban oases that sprout from scratch in the deserts of the Southwest or the Middle East or Mars.  read more »

The Great Office Refusal

work-from-anywhere_4x5.jpg

The pandemic has cut a swath through our sense of normalcy, but as has been the case throughout history, a disastrous plague also brings opportunities to reshape and even improve society. COVID-19 provides the threat of greater economic concentration, but also a unique chance to recast our geography, expand the realm of the middle class, boost social equity, and develop better ways to create sustainable communities.  read more »

Harm from War on Hydrocarbons Exceeds Harm from Climate Change

Blackout-candles-gears-tires.jpg

We are being told of the world’s forthcoming demise with continued use of fossil fuels, and the need to commit to a reduction in emissions to keeping temperature rise below 1.5C, but we have nothing to compare potential fatalities with or without fossil fuels.  read more »

The COVID Class War: The Obedient Online Educated vs. The IRL Resistance

anti-mask-protest.jpg

A new class conflict is emerging across the world. You can see its face in the mass protests over COVID-19 restrictions from Paris, Berlin and London to southern California and Melbourne.  read more »

Can the South Escape its Demons?

protest_with_confederate-flag-gainesville.jpg

Out on the dusty prairie west of Houston, the construction crews have been busy. Gone are the rice fields, cattle ranches and pine forests that once dominated this part of the South. In their place sit new homes and communities. But they are not an eyesore; the homes are affordable and close to attractive town centres, large parks and lakes. These are communities rooted in the individual, the family and a belief in self-governance.  read more »

This Might Be a Good Time for Creative Zoning

from-suburbia-to-city.jpg

No matter what else it may have already caused and/or will continue to cause in the coming future, one thing that we know for sure is that the COVID pandemic has done is alter how people will approach land use planning and development issues in the coming years, possibly even decades.  read more »