Blog
Blog
Read about latest housing roadblocks
New Report Latest Evidence of How Red Tape Blocks SF Homebuilding
A report released in October by the California Department of Housing and Community Development makes one wonder why anyone would even try to build housing in San Francisco, which “has the longest timelines in the state for advancing a housing project from submittal to construction.” “It takes an average of ...
Blog
Time To Ask Why So Many San Francisco Homes Are Vacant
Time To Ask Why So ManySan Francisco Homes Are Vacant Steven Greenhut | November 3, 2023 Journalism 101 classes teach that every news story needs to include the five main Ws: Who, What, Where, When and Why. Yet most of the recent news reports about San Francisco’s newly implemented “Empty ...
Blog
Get latest state budget update
State Budget Update: Bigger State Budget Deficit on the Horizon?
That’s the fear, as the Sacramento Bee this week reported, in recent filings by state officials in anticipation of a November bond offering. Given that the IRS extended the deadline to file income taxes twice this year due to natural disasters (first to October 16, then again to Nov. 16), ...
Blog
Read how to revitalize urban downtowns
Revitalizing downtowns means focusing on the basics
It’s a scenario unfolding in downtowns across the U.S. after a pandemic that turned millions of Americans into remote workers, afflicting cities with vacant storefronts, crime concerns and fiscally strained transit systems,” reports Bloomberg. But it’s not just a matter of empty offices. People are spending less time in many downtowns. ...
Blog
Learn about California's rising crime problem
California’s Victim Compensation Board – Helping Victims, or Themselves?
The California crime victimization numbers are staggering. In 2022, the last full year of statistics, violent crime rose 6.1 percent and property crimes rose 6.2 percent. In all – 193,019 people were reported victims of violent crime and there were 902,977 reported property crimes for a total of 1,095,496 crimes. ...
Blog
Read about reversal of state green mandate
California Reverses Itself in its Latest ‘Turf War’
Nearly a decade (more than eight years) ago, the international media dedicated a lengthy ode to artificial turf. “The benefits of fake grass are hard to deny. Live grass guzzles some 2,200 liters per square meter annually, making the all-American lawn increasingly untenable in an era of skyrocketing water rates ...
Blog
Blame Bad Urban Planning for Youth Mental-Health Crisis
Blame bad urban planning for youth mental-health crisis By Kenneth Schrupp | October 27, 2023 The fundamental cause of the escalating mental-health crisis among young Americans is a topic of fierce debate. New state laws – such as Ohio’s Social Media Parental Notification Act – point the finger at social ...
Blog
Post-COVID travel has recovered – except for urban transit
Highways, airlines, and Amtrak all carried more travel in August 2023 than the same month before the pandemic, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Urban transit, however, is languishing at less than 72%, and it would be even lower except that August had one more ...
Blog
What a Web AG Bonta Weaves
With good reason, we are encouraged to understand history, but for some, perhaps, the temptation to repeat past mistakes is just too great. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described sophists, paid philosophers often involved in public works, as those who twisted words and truth to win arguments. According to the ...
Agriculture
Read about latest federal overreach
Are checkoffs really taking taxpayer dollars and giving them to agriculture?
The OFF Act suggests federal checkoff programs are simply a means for further consolidation of “industrial agriculture” and federal agricultural lobbying organizations. However, the structure of each checkoff belies that notion. Checkoff programs are federal marketing and research programs funded entirely by the producers of 22 commodities in the United ...
Read about latest housing roadblocks
New Report Latest Evidence of How Red Tape Blocks SF Homebuilding
A report released in October by the California Department of Housing and Community Development makes one wonder why anyone would even try to build housing in San Francisco, which “has the longest timelines in the state for advancing a housing project from submittal to construction.” “It takes an average of ...
Time To Ask Why So Many San Francisco Homes Are Vacant
Time To Ask Why So ManySan Francisco Homes Are Vacant Steven Greenhut | November 3, 2023 Journalism 101 classes teach that every news story needs to include the five main Ws: Who, What, Where, When and Why. Yet most of the recent news reports about San Francisco’s newly implemented “Empty ...
Get latest state budget update
State Budget Update: Bigger State Budget Deficit on the Horizon?
That’s the fear, as the Sacramento Bee this week reported, in recent filings by state officials in anticipation of a November bond offering. Given that the IRS extended the deadline to file income taxes twice this year due to natural disasters (first to October 16, then again to Nov. 16), ...
Read how to revitalize urban downtowns
Revitalizing downtowns means focusing on the basics
It’s a scenario unfolding in downtowns across the U.S. after a pandemic that turned millions of Americans into remote workers, afflicting cities with vacant storefronts, crime concerns and fiscally strained transit systems,” reports Bloomberg. But it’s not just a matter of empty offices. People are spending less time in many downtowns. ...
Learn about California's rising crime problem
California’s Victim Compensation Board – Helping Victims, or Themselves?
The California crime victimization numbers are staggering. In 2022, the last full year of statistics, violent crime rose 6.1 percent and property crimes rose 6.2 percent. In all – 193,019 people were reported victims of violent crime and there were 902,977 reported property crimes for a total of 1,095,496 crimes. ...
Read about reversal of state green mandate
California Reverses Itself in its Latest ‘Turf War’
Nearly a decade (more than eight years) ago, the international media dedicated a lengthy ode to artificial turf. “The benefits of fake grass are hard to deny. Live grass guzzles some 2,200 liters per square meter annually, making the all-American lawn increasingly untenable in an era of skyrocketing water rates ...
Blame Bad Urban Planning for Youth Mental-Health Crisis
Blame bad urban planning for youth mental-health crisis By Kenneth Schrupp | October 27, 2023 The fundamental cause of the escalating mental-health crisis among young Americans is a topic of fierce debate. New state laws – such as Ohio’s Social Media Parental Notification Act – point the finger at social ...
Post-COVID travel has recovered – except for urban transit
Highways, airlines, and Amtrak all carried more travel in August 2023 than the same month before the pandemic, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Urban transit, however, is languishing at less than 72%, and it would be even lower except that August had one more ...
What a Web AG Bonta Weaves
With good reason, we are encouraged to understand history, but for some, perhaps, the temptation to repeat past mistakes is just too great. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described sophists, paid philosophers often involved in public works, as those who twisted words and truth to win arguments. According to the ...
Read about latest federal overreach
Are checkoffs really taking taxpayer dollars and giving them to agriculture?
The OFF Act suggests federal checkoff programs are simply a means for further consolidation of “industrial agriculture” and federal agricultural lobbying organizations. However, the structure of each checkoff belies that notion. Checkoff programs are federal marketing and research programs funded entirely by the producers of 22 commodities in the United ...
