John Seiler

ELECTION 2024 California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness John Seiler | October 31, 2024 On Nov. 5, voters in California cities can make the housing and homeless crises better – or worse. Alas, most likely the latter. They likely will pass the vast majority of local sales tax increases, school ...

Converting offices to homes helps ease housing crunch By John Seiler | September 6, 2024 “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” —Jane Jacobs, author As cities in California and ...

The developers apparently ran into bad polling and a negative report from Solano County questioning funding sources for related infrastructure. Taking more time and getting the bureaucratic papers and all the infrastructure funding and governance details in order will address some of the arguments the NIMBYs (Not In My Back ...

District Attorney Thien Ho tested how much his office directly can affect homeless policy by suing the city for not doing its job to deal with its festering homelessness crisis. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill H. Talley ruled on May 6 that Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council ...

Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies by John Seiler | May 10, 2024 Why reject government subsidies? After all, everyone pays huge amounts in taxes. Might as well get some of it back. But that’s just what’s happening in California’s housing crisis. In part of a new ...

Insurance crisis moves from hinterlands to big cities By John Seiler | May 3, 2024 The home-insurance crisis hitting California and other states is now thwarting cities’ efforts to house the homeless. All mortgages require insurance up front. No insurance, no homes for the homeless, or anybody. That directly will ...

The most controversial, Measure E, passed 54% to 46%. It allowed the following: After a public hearing, the chief of police could install surveillance devices without the approval of the Police Commission; Police could use drones to pursue vehicles and for investigations, including facial recognition, without the approval of the ...

According to its calculation, if all pass the combined hit would be $350 million in direct tax increases and $3.6 billion in bonded indebtedness. The group notes the new debt includes “36 school bonds, 16 transactions and use taxes, 19 parcel taxes, two general obligation bonds, one business license tax, ...

I’ve come up with a unique way to measure how well California cities are doing. It shows those with well-run finances grow in population, while those badly run shrink. It’s a generality. There are exceptions. But look at the trend line on this chart. Notice the trend line, the dotted ...