The act of going downtown to see a movie is another great example of America's nostalgic relationship with its urban past — kind of like shoeshine boys, hopping onto streetcars, and tossing nickels at newsboys shouting headlines. Nostalgia aside, the post-war suburbanization of culture led to a downtown exodus not only of housing, offices, and retail, but also of cinemas.

The U.S. Supreme Court has dropped its consideration of a case that many people hoped would resolve conflicts over processing of adult business permit applications. The court dismissed a case from Wisconsin because the adult business had withdrawn its application, so "the case no longer qualifies for judicial review," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for a unanimous court. The court had accepted the case because lower courts differ on the meaning of "prompt judicial review." The court in FW/PBS v. Da...

A San Diego County Superior Court jury has awarded a developer $94.5 million in damages in an inverse condemnation lawsuit. The developer of a struggling business park near the Mexican border filed the lawsuit after arguing with the city since the early 1990s. Roque de la Fuente II contended in court that the city breached a 1986 development agreement, dooming development of his 312-acre business park. De la Fuente contended the city made permits difficult to obtain by increasing fees and conditions...

A Hollywood property owners association that governs a business improvement district must abide by local government open meeting laws, the Second District Court of Appeal has ruled. The unanimous three-judge panel held that the City of Los Angeles "created" the Hollywood Entertainment District Property Owners Association (POA) to assume the city's legislative functions regarding the Hollywood Entertainment District II Business Improvement District. The court rejected the argument that the POA, which i...

A state appellate court has rejected the argument of a landowner who claimed that the City of Fort Bragg was liable for losses suffered when the city approved an adjacent building. In 1997, the city granted a building permit to David Codling for construction of a two-story building on a vacant lot next to the Barracks Mall, a two-story structure with businesses on the ground floor and apartments above. The Barracks Mall had been built to the lot line, and the city allowed Codling to do the same — putt...

xz Despite a thin mandate and a deadlocked Congress, incoming President George W. Bush is likely to make significant changes in shaping the federal government's role over California's land resources. In particular, his provocative selection of former Colorado Attorney General Gail Norton as Interior secretary is likely to create a major shift in the way the federal government approaches management of federal lands in California – and may also signal a shift in the way the Endangered Species Act is...

Two years ago, heavy equipment churned up dust and closed lanes on nearly every major street in Temecula. The city was in the midst of a $60 million road improvement project undertaken to help catch up with rapid growth that has characterized the southwestern Riverside County community for years. In retrospect, the massive road project could not have come at a better time for slow-growth advocates, who in November 1999 elected two of their own to the City Council. The council now has a 3-2 pro-growth ...

The first update of housing elements in a decade has resulted in something of a standoff between the Southern California Association of Governments and the state Department of Housing and Community Development. Stuck in the middle are Riverside and San Bernardino counties and several inland cities that do not know how many housing units to plan for. After negotiations with SCAG representatives throughout 1999, state officials ordered the regional agency to plan for 504,000 housing units during the 1998...

Taxpayer organizations recently lost two lawsuits against the City of Los Angeles alleging violations of Proposition 218. In its first interpretation of the initiative, the California Supreme Court held that the city's apartment inspection fee was not subject to the voter approval provisions of Proposition 218. In the other case, an appellate court ruled that the city's water service fees and the transfer of money from the water fund to other funds were not subject to Proposition 218. In the apartment...

A divided U.S. Supreme Court has limited the scope of the Clean Water Act by removing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction over isolated waters and seasonal wetlands, such as vernal pools and ephemeral washes. Farmers, developers and property rights advocates hailed the ruling as an important limitation on intrusive federal regulation. Environmentalists decried the ruling as a step backward, although many observers said the decision's impact would not be as great in California because of extensive...

The Swiss Army knife is the ideal present for boys, especially those from nine to eleven years old. That's the age when every boy believes that all he needs to be a consummate survivalist is his natural pluck and one of those elegant, red, compact tools bouncing jauntily on his belt. Far from a mere blade, even a fake version of the Swiss Army package contains a pair of scissors, a nail file with a screw-driver tip, tweezers and a toothpick. With a tool like this, you could fight off ...

A divided California Supreme Court has upheld a state law that allows religious institutions to exempt themselves from historic preservation ordinances. In a 4-3 ruling, the court found that the exemption — which applies only to noncommercial property owned by religious institutions — violated neither the First Amendment's free exercise clause, nor the state constitution's establishment clause. "These exemptions simply free the owners to use the property as they would have done had the property not be...

Politically popular but ecologically suspect, habitat conservation plans (HCPs) have become a powerful tool for resolving conflict between human economic activities and the survival of imperiled plants and animals. Before 1994, only 20 such plans had been adopted. But since the Clinton administration figured out the potential for such agreements to avoid divisive clashes over the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the federal government has embraced them in a big way. There are now more th...

A Los Angeles County judge has invalidated an Orange County ballot initiative intended to block an airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps base. Superior Court Judge James Otero ruled that Measure F, which voters approved 2-1 in March 2000, was "fundamentally flawed and in violation of the constitution and laws of this state." Measure F required two-thirds voter approval for construction or expansion of airports, hazardous waste facilities or jails. Otero held that such a requirement "greatly impair...