Blogs

Yesterday the Senate Budget Subcommittee 4 heard testimony from cities and other supporters of redevelopment in opposition to a bill that could limit the number of former redevelopment projects that receive funding under Assembly Bill 1X 26. 

Update: Yesterday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley ruled against a group of cities seeking a temporary restraining order that would have effectively set aside funds for former redevelopment obligations that are still under review by the Department of Finance. Though the loss is considered a blow to cities that are trying to cover bonds and pay for former redevelopment projects, it is expected to be only the first of many such lawsuits. 

Several weeks after I wrote what could be described as emotion-driven defenses of California's approach to smart growth (in response to separate commentaries by Wendell Cox and Joel Kotkin), I was heartened to read a different, but complementary, perspective from Christopher B. Leinberger in this weekend's New York Times. It would appear that, when you run the numbers, smart growth might make sense after all. 

VENICE, Italy — I felt a sense of dread the moment I stepped off the train: that imprisoning feeling of being in the wrong place, with nowhere else to go. Of the 17 million people who visit Venice every year, I needed only an instant to realize that I did not want to be one of them. 

The staff of the Strategic Growth Council has issued recommendations for the awarding of a total of $20.7 million for Urban Greening Grants to communities throughout the state. Funded by Proposition 84, the Urban Greening Grants complement the Sustainable Communities Planning Grants, which are also awarded by SGC. This is the second of three rounds of funding, to total $90 million. 

With funding for planning growing ever more scarce around the state, some localities received a windfall last week from the Strategic Growth Council. SGC announced recommendations for its second round of Sustainable Communities Planning Grants. If the recommendations are adopted, a total of $24 million would be disbursed for 43 projects around the state.  

California's relentless, ever widening budget deficit has claimed another victim: redevelopment's affordable housing funds. 

Ahoy there! Weary of California? Exhausted by redevelopment battles, EIR lawsuits, lack of transit, lack of money, the impossibility of getting anything done in Sacramento?

We have a solution for you: Live on the ocean!  No, we're not talking about a cruise ship, nor a well-appointed yacht, nor even a party boat stocked with poppers and wine coolers.  This idea is infinitely better: an entire city floating by itself in the middle of the ocean!   

The transit activists, it seems, are storming the gates in the Bay Area.  Their target for the 2012 election season is the open District 3 seat on the Bay Area Rapid Transit, and a victory could signal the maturation of an insurgent trend years in the making.  In an era dominated by Tea Party challenges to the political establishment, it is instead transit activists who are battling against BART's status quo.  Activists have become increasingly frustrated

I live too close to Century City and Beverly Hills to objectively report on the what is shaping up to be the most bitter land use battle in California: that of uber-wealthy Beverly Hills versus uber-ambitious Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Here's my best shot at an update. 

Today, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles civil unrest, my sense of frustration remains intact with all parties: the Los Angeles Police Department and former Chief Darryl Gates; the looters who torched and ransacked small businesses in my former neighborhood in West Adams; and all-white juries in suburban communities, with their curious reluctance to convict policemen accused of using excessive force. 

Joel Kotkin is just thinking about the children. Too much, if you ask me.

As you may recall, two weeks ago it was Wendell Cox who used the Wall Street Journal opinion pages to herald the "war" that California's urban areas are launching on the suburbs. 

Of California's roughly 37 million people, not a single one of them remembers a time when the state was not growing at a seemingly out-of-control pace. With the exception of the Depression and World War II years, our state has tripped over itself to build homes, roads, and entire cities nearly from scratch. We bulldozed one patch of desert, farmland, or chaparral only to find the surveyors marking up the next plot. It's been exhilarating, but also exhausting. 

And, according to analysis of the latest Census data, it may be coming to an end. 

State Controller John Chiang sent what many cities consider to be an ominous letter, advising them to hand over assets that they may have acquired from redevelopment agencies. The letter, dated April 20, instructs cities, counties, and other agencies to cast a wide net to identify assets that may have been improperly transfered following the January 1, 2011 effective date of AB 1X 26, the bill that calls for the dissolution of redevelopment agencies and liquidation of their assets.