Kerry Jackson
Blog
CEQA Foils Yet Another Important Project for California’s Future
We’ve recently said that Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project could be the potential foundation of a hyperloop transportation system. But as is too often the case in California, a reasonable objective has been sidelined by outrage. Musk has abandoned the project that began near his SpaceX Hawthorne Municipal Airport headquarters because ...
Commentary
Do polystyrene bans actually accomplish anything?
The California rush to ban foam takeout food containers is starting to look like a frenetic race that would embarrass even the most aggressive Black Friday shoppers. Currently, 119 cities and counties in California prohibit businesses from providing customers with takeout food packaging made of polystyrene. San Diego is in ...
Blog
Proposition C Makes San Francisco A ‘Sanctuary City’ For The Homeless
When San Franciscans went to the polls on Nov. 6, they knew in advance what the consequences are likely to be if an initiative to tax corporations to fund services for the homeless was approved. Yet they passed it anyway. Nearly 61 percent voted for Proposition C, which imposes a ...
Blog
Latest Audit Should Be Nail in High-Speed Rail Coffin, But It Won’t Be
An audit of the California bullet train released the Friday before Thanksgiving should make reasonable people wonder why the project wasn’t killed long ago. For instance, the office of State Auditor Elaine Howle says the high-speed rail has enough funding to complete its initial segments, but not enough “to connect ...
California
Californians Aren’t Embracing Sound Rent Control Policy Quite Yet
California voters earlier this month firmly rejected a proposition that would have repealed the state’s restrictions on rent-control laws. Nearly 62 percent said no, local governments cannot regulate the price of housing. But don’t mistake the vote with a sudden embrace of free-market housing policies. After all, October polling by ...
California
California’s predictably blue midterm elections – and what it means for you
The midterm elections were a rather tiresome affair in California. The Democratic Party maintained its dominance in the state, holding majorities in the Legislature, securing the governor’s mansion yet again, and sending another mass of winning candidates to Washington. As news goes, there’s not much to see here. Conventional wisdom ...
Blog
Elon Musk Shows Private Sector Could Build Better, Cheaper Bullet Train
While high-speed rail, California’s monument to folly, mocks itself with unfinished concrete pillars rising toward the sky like empty hands and tracks leading to nowhere, a tunnel burrowed by entrepreneur Elon Musk beneath Los Angeles might be the forerunner to a transportation system that’s faster, cheaper, and safer than a ...
California
Statewide Polystyrene Ban Would Bring Unintended Consequences
Supposedly civic-minded prohibitions on consumer conveniences always have unintended consequences. California’s single-use plastic bag ban, for instance, has led to a surge in E. coli infections, created a swarm of thicker plastics bags that are a greater environmental hazard than the outlawed single-use plastic bags, boosted shoplifting, and been the ...
California
San Diego Ignores Alternatives in Rush to Ban Styrofoam
San Diego has just dreamed up a Styrofoam prohibition so harsh that it will require consumers to change their foam containers to alternative packaging when they visit city property. The City Council recently voted 5-3 to approve an ordinance banning “the distribution of egg cartons, food service ware, and food trays which ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Ranked Last Again – Do Lawmakers Even Care?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Keeping track of the many informative lists in which California ranks at or near the bottom is a wearying task. It is also discouraging. This state, once the envy of all others, is losing its luster because policymakers continue to take it down a dark road. While ...
CEQA Foils Yet Another Important Project for California’s Future
We’ve recently said that Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project could be the potential foundation of a hyperloop transportation system. But as is too often the case in California, a reasonable objective has been sidelined by outrage. Musk has abandoned the project that began near his SpaceX Hawthorne Municipal Airport headquarters because ...
Do polystyrene bans actually accomplish anything?
The California rush to ban foam takeout food containers is starting to look like a frenetic race that would embarrass even the most aggressive Black Friday shoppers. Currently, 119 cities and counties in California prohibit businesses from providing customers with takeout food packaging made of polystyrene. San Diego is in ...
Proposition C Makes San Francisco A ‘Sanctuary City’ For The Homeless
When San Franciscans went to the polls on Nov. 6, they knew in advance what the consequences are likely to be if an initiative to tax corporations to fund services for the homeless was approved. Yet they passed it anyway. Nearly 61 percent voted for Proposition C, which imposes a ...
Latest Audit Should Be Nail in High-Speed Rail Coffin, But It Won’t Be
An audit of the California bullet train released the Friday before Thanksgiving should make reasonable people wonder why the project wasn’t killed long ago. For instance, the office of State Auditor Elaine Howle says the high-speed rail has enough funding to complete its initial segments, but not enough “to connect ...
Californians Aren’t Embracing Sound Rent Control Policy Quite Yet
California voters earlier this month firmly rejected a proposition that would have repealed the state’s restrictions on rent-control laws. Nearly 62 percent said no, local governments cannot regulate the price of housing. But don’t mistake the vote with a sudden embrace of free-market housing policies. After all, October polling by ...
California’s predictably blue midterm elections – and what it means for you
The midterm elections were a rather tiresome affair in California. The Democratic Party maintained its dominance in the state, holding majorities in the Legislature, securing the governor’s mansion yet again, and sending another mass of winning candidates to Washington. As news goes, there’s not much to see here. Conventional wisdom ...
Elon Musk Shows Private Sector Could Build Better, Cheaper Bullet Train
While high-speed rail, California’s monument to folly, mocks itself with unfinished concrete pillars rising toward the sky like empty hands and tracks leading to nowhere, a tunnel burrowed by entrepreneur Elon Musk beneath Los Angeles might be the forerunner to a transportation system that’s faster, cheaper, and safer than a ...
Statewide Polystyrene Ban Would Bring Unintended Consequences
Supposedly civic-minded prohibitions on consumer conveniences always have unintended consequences. California’s single-use plastic bag ban, for instance, has led to a surge in E. coli infections, created a swarm of thicker plastics bags that are a greater environmental hazard than the outlawed single-use plastic bags, boosted shoplifting, and been the ...
San Diego Ignores Alternatives in Rush to Ban Styrofoam
San Diego has just dreamed up a Styrofoam prohibition so harsh that it will require consumers to change their foam containers to alternative packaging when they visit city property. The City Council recently voted 5-3 to approve an ordinance banning “the distribution of egg cartons, food service ware, and food trays which ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Ranked Last Again – Do Lawmakers Even Care?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Keeping track of the many informative lists in which California ranks at or near the bottom is a wearying task. It is also discouraging. This state, once the envy of all others, is losing its luster because policymakers continue to take it down a dark road. While ...
