Free Cities
Agriculture
The Judge – Justice and Compassion in the Salinas Valley
In 1775-1776 the de Anza Expedition traveled from Sinaloa to San Francisco establishing the inland route from Mission San Gabriel to San Francisco. On their way north they camped in Natividad – now Salinas – along what is today Old Stage Road on their way to the site of Mission ...
Blog
Los Angeles’ Campaign To End Homelessness Isn’t Working. What Now?
A recent audit by the Los Angeles Controller’s office made it clear: Proposition HHH, the city’s signature $1.2 billion initiative to end homelessness, isn’t working. Launched in 2019 with an ambitious goal of building 10,000 homes, the program has thus far yielded fewer than 1,200. And while an additional 6,000 ...
Blog
What’s Next for CEQA Reform After Berkeley Vote?
Responding to the public outrage, California lawmakers took unusually swift action in passing CEQA reform legislation this week. Senate Bill 118 responds to a CEQA lawsuit filed by a neighborhood group challenging a housing and classroom project under construction on the UC Berkeley campus. Earlier this month, the California Supreme ...
Blog
Will Newsom’s CARE Court plan help get “perilous trifecta” off the streets and into treatment?
In advance of last week’s State of the State address, Gov. Newsom visited a San Jose mental health treatment center last Thursday to unveil his proposal for a “CARE Court”. According to a fact sheet from the Governor’s Office, “Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court is a new framework ...
Blog
The Very Thin Blue Line – Police staffing is down, and homicides are up
In Oakland in 2021, 133 people were killed and another 537 were shot, making Oakland one of California’s most dangerous cities. To put the numbers in perspective, more Oakland residents were killed per capita than the entire fatal casualties experienced by the US Armed Forces in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. ...
Business & Economics
The Expanding Broadband Infrastructure Is A Private Sector Success Story
Recent data on prices provides important perspective regarding the $65 billion that Congress and President Biden will now spend on broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. According to the White House, the purpose of these expenditures is to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through ...
Blog
Measure HHH: LA’s Homelessness Reduction Bond
A Case Study of What’s Wrong with California Government In 2016, generous Angelenos approved Measure HHH, the $1.2 billion Homelessness Reduction and Prevention, Housing and Facilities Bond aimed at combatting Los Angeles’ homeless crisis. At the time, there were more than 30,000 people living on city streets or in shelters. ...
California
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
Blog
Mainstream Media Fuels False Narrative that SFPD Engages in Bad Conduct
Recently the San Francisco Chronicle again took aim at the SF Police Department accusing them of a litany of inaction, slow response times, and failure to investigate crimes concluding in a recent article: “What is the Police Department doing? Too often, the answer is not much”. Some answers to their ...
Blog
Californians Are Growing Increasingly Concerned About Crime. What’s Behind the Change in Attitude?
Anecdotes of rising incidents of crime across California are too numerous to mention these days. While California had a regimen of tough-on-crime public safety laws on the books as late as a decade ago, the past decade has ushered in a dramatic shift in criminal justice policy that led to ...
The Judge – Justice and Compassion in the Salinas Valley
In 1775-1776 the de Anza Expedition traveled from Sinaloa to San Francisco establishing the inland route from Mission San Gabriel to San Francisco. On their way north they camped in Natividad – now Salinas – along what is today Old Stage Road on their way to the site of Mission ...
Los Angeles’ Campaign To End Homelessness Isn’t Working. What Now?
A recent audit by the Los Angeles Controller’s office made it clear: Proposition HHH, the city’s signature $1.2 billion initiative to end homelessness, isn’t working. Launched in 2019 with an ambitious goal of building 10,000 homes, the program has thus far yielded fewer than 1,200. And while an additional 6,000 ...
What’s Next for CEQA Reform After Berkeley Vote?
Responding to the public outrage, California lawmakers took unusually swift action in passing CEQA reform legislation this week. Senate Bill 118 responds to a CEQA lawsuit filed by a neighborhood group challenging a housing and classroom project under construction on the UC Berkeley campus. Earlier this month, the California Supreme ...
Will Newsom’s CARE Court plan help get “perilous trifecta” off the streets and into treatment?
In advance of last week’s State of the State address, Gov. Newsom visited a San Jose mental health treatment center last Thursday to unveil his proposal for a “CARE Court”. According to a fact sheet from the Governor’s Office, “Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court is a new framework ...
The Very Thin Blue Line – Police staffing is down, and homicides are up
In Oakland in 2021, 133 people were killed and another 537 were shot, making Oakland one of California’s most dangerous cities. To put the numbers in perspective, more Oakland residents were killed per capita than the entire fatal casualties experienced by the US Armed Forces in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. ...
The Expanding Broadband Infrastructure Is A Private Sector Success Story
Recent data on prices provides important perspective regarding the $65 billion that Congress and President Biden will now spend on broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. According to the White House, the purpose of these expenditures is to help ensure that every American has access to reliable high-speed internet through ...
Measure HHH: LA’s Homelessness Reduction Bond
A Case Study of What’s Wrong with California Government In 2016, generous Angelenos approved Measure HHH, the $1.2 billion Homelessness Reduction and Prevention, Housing and Facilities Bond aimed at combatting Los Angeles’ homeless crisis. At the time, there were more than 30,000 people living on city streets or in shelters. ...
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
Mainstream Media Fuels False Narrative that SFPD Engages in Bad Conduct
Recently the San Francisco Chronicle again took aim at the SF Police Department accusing them of a litany of inaction, slow response times, and failure to investigate crimes concluding in a recent article: “What is the Police Department doing? Too often, the answer is not much”. Some answers to their ...
Californians Are Growing Increasingly Concerned About Crime. What’s Behind the Change in Attitude?
Anecdotes of rising incidents of crime across California are too numerous to mention these days. While California had a regimen of tough-on-crime public safety laws on the books as late as a decade ago, the past decade has ushered in a dramatic shift in criminal justice policy that led to ...
