Kerry Jackson

Blog

Things Just Keep Going The Wrong Way In California

Two days before Thanksgiving, financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation: “The brokerage giant heads for a state that doesn’t punish finance.” Fresh from its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, Schwab, located in San Francisco ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: The Old City Dumps Aren’t What They Used To Be

Nearly two decades ago, before “ban everything” fever was sweeping through California, San Francisco committed to eliminating a staple of human progress: the modern landfill. The idea, concocted in 2002, was to reach a “zero waste” existence by 2020, which “means that we send zero discards to the landfill or ...
Blog

Water World

A state overflowing with natural resources and more than 840 miles of direct access to the largest body of water on Earth seems to always be suffering through a dry spell. Even though seven years of drought ended earlier this year, and winter storms have lashed the state, thirsty Central ...
California

Thought San Francisco’s Quality of Life Couldn’t Get Worse? Think Again

San Francisco garnered national headlines with the election of its new district attorney, a progressive, which means there will be zero progress made in the homelessness crisis, and little if any made toward reducing crime in the city and county. Chesa Boudin, a one-time deputy public defender who has never ...
California

Gig Economy Firms Fight California Overreach with $110 Million Initiative

In a rational response to Assembly Bill 5, which in effect outlaws the gig economy, ride-share and delivery companies have proposed a November 2020 ballot measure aimed at protecting their businesses. But it wouldn’t repeal the law. Shouldn’t that have been the goal? AB 5 doesn’t leave businesses much time to adapt. It becomes law ...
Blog

California’s Assembly Bill 5 Is A Virus Moving Across the Country

The flood of lousy legislation that has poured out of Sacramento for the last two decades or so truly astonishes in its volume. As fourth-rate as the lawmaking has been, though, nothing has been worse than Assembly Bill 5, an existential threat to both jobs and businesses because it requires ...
California

San Francisco Mayor: Hardest Job in America?

London Breed breezed through her re-election at the beginning of the month, taking almost 70% of the vote in San Francisco’s mayoral race. But in winning, she might have also lost. No big-city mayor in the country has a tougher job ahead of them. San Francisco’s troubles start with a ...
Blog

At the Intersection of Art and Climate In California

When the California Air Resources Board opens its new headquarters in two years in Riverside, it will be basking in the radiance of the “world’s largest permanent collection of artworks addressing air quality and the effects of climate change.” The cost: $2.42 million, funded by a public art alliance. And ...
Blog

Banning Plastics in California — The Fun Never Ends

The newspaper comic strip They’ll Do It Every Time that was published for nearly 80 years through 2008 “illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life,” says Wikipedia, typically showing “deceptive, pretentious, unwitting or scheming human behavior.” It’s appropriate that it was started in San Francisco at ...
Blackouts

CAPITAL IDEAS – California’s Blackouts: How Did We Get Here and What Can We Do to Keep the Lights On?

Download the Brief Introduction Pacific Gas and Electric of San Francisco began in October 2019 a series of electricity blackouts called “public safety power shutoffs.” The objective was to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during hot, dry, and windy periods. The Great Blackouts of 2019 plunged nearly 3 million ...
Blog

Things Just Keep Going The Wrong Way In California

Two days before Thanksgiving, financial services firm Charles Schwab announced it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Texas. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation: “The brokerage giant heads for a state that doesn’t punish finance.” Fresh from its $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, Schwab, located in San Francisco ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: The Old City Dumps Aren’t What They Used To Be

Nearly two decades ago, before “ban everything” fever was sweeping through California, San Francisco committed to eliminating a staple of human progress: the modern landfill. The idea, concocted in 2002, was to reach a “zero waste” existence by 2020, which “means that we send zero discards to the landfill or ...
Blog

Water World

A state overflowing with natural resources and more than 840 miles of direct access to the largest body of water on Earth seems to always be suffering through a dry spell. Even though seven years of drought ended earlier this year, and winter storms have lashed the state, thirsty Central ...
California

Thought San Francisco’s Quality of Life Couldn’t Get Worse? Think Again

San Francisco garnered national headlines with the election of its new district attorney, a progressive, which means there will be zero progress made in the homelessness crisis, and little if any made toward reducing crime in the city and county. Chesa Boudin, a one-time deputy public defender who has never ...
California

Gig Economy Firms Fight California Overreach with $110 Million Initiative

In a rational response to Assembly Bill 5, which in effect outlaws the gig economy, ride-share and delivery companies have proposed a November 2020 ballot measure aimed at protecting their businesses. But it wouldn’t repeal the law. Shouldn’t that have been the goal? AB 5 doesn’t leave businesses much time to adapt. It becomes law ...
Blog

California’s Assembly Bill 5 Is A Virus Moving Across the Country

The flood of lousy legislation that has poured out of Sacramento for the last two decades or so truly astonishes in its volume. As fourth-rate as the lawmaking has been, though, nothing has been worse than Assembly Bill 5, an existential threat to both jobs and businesses because it requires ...
California

San Francisco Mayor: Hardest Job in America?

London Breed breezed through her re-election at the beginning of the month, taking almost 70% of the vote in San Francisco’s mayoral race. But in winning, she might have also lost. No big-city mayor in the country has a tougher job ahead of them. San Francisco’s troubles start with a ...
Blog

At the Intersection of Art and Climate In California

When the California Air Resources Board opens its new headquarters in two years in Riverside, it will be basking in the radiance of the “world’s largest permanent collection of artworks addressing air quality and the effects of climate change.” The cost: $2.42 million, funded by a public art alliance. And ...
Blog

Banning Plastics in California — The Fun Never Ends

The newspaper comic strip They’ll Do It Every Time that was published for nearly 80 years through 2008 “illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life,” says Wikipedia, typically showing “deceptive, pretentious, unwitting or scheming human behavior.” It’s appropriate that it was started in San Francisco at ...
Blackouts

CAPITAL IDEAS – California’s Blackouts: How Did We Get Here and What Can We Do to Keep the Lights On?

Download the Brief Introduction Pacific Gas and Electric of San Francisco began in October 2019 a series of electricity blackouts called “public safety power shutoffs.” The objective was to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during hot, dry, and windy periods. The Great Blackouts of 2019 plunged nearly 3 million ...
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