Insight

For almost 60 years, urban redevelopment and eminent domain have been intertwined, both in public policy and in the public's mind. Since at least the passage of the Housing Act of 1949 - and in some states even before that - eminent domain has been used to assemble large blocks of urban land out of small, cut-up parcels. Maybe urban development specialists can't imagine life without it. >>read more

All California governors try to turn into Pat Brown sooner or later, so it's not surprising that Arnold Schwarzenegger has now done the same. What's surprising is not that Schwarzenegger is using Pat Brown's legacy, but that he's using nearly the same suburban model as Pat Brown did almost a half-century ago. >>read more

It has now been two years since Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California under perhaps the most peculiar circumstances in American history. His political stock has been dropping rapidly for almost a year, culminating in his across-the-board loss in the November special election on which he had laid all his political chips. >>read more

New Jersey is not California. New Jersey is an intense and partisan place filled with rough-and-tumble politics, gritty urban centers both decrepit and revived, political corruption, ethnic tension, and the suburban snobbery that goes with a desire to escape all of the above. >>read more

With all the talk these days about New Urbanism in California these days, it is sometimes easy to overlook the old urbanists. These were planners of the 1950s and 1960s who worked in the context of urban renewal and Modernist architecture, trying to fight a rear-guard action against the rapid suburbanization of the time. >>read more

By the time I actually met Ed Bacon in person, the legendary urban planner who died last week at the age of 95, he was already in his late 80s, cranky and quirky. He had just read my book The Reluctant Metropolis, which reminded him that I had written a magazine article many years before that he had liked (see "Visionaries, Deal Makers, Incrementalists: The Divided World of Urban Planning" below). He called me up out of the blue one day to discuss whether I should write his biography. >>read more

Forty years ago, the Watts riots shattered the postwar illusion of California as a middle-class paradise. Combined with other events, the Watts riots led to the political demise of Gov. Pat Brown, the rise of Ronald Reagan, and - sometimes overlooked - the end of California's investment in massive public works projects designed to benefit the middle class. >>read more

For more than twenty years, the quintessential formula for the Orange County business park has remained more or less the same: the high-rise office building that affords a good view and a sense of feudal superiority over the masses on the freeway below; the Beverly Hills pasta restaurant to put on the calories at lunchtime and the health club to burn them off after work; and the parking garage where the cars are stored 12 hours a day. >>read more

Four weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an expansive view of eminent domain by a 5-4 vote, President Bush went on national television to nominate D.C. Circuit Court Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace retiring justice Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor was in the minority on the eminent domain case, but she has been a key swing vote on many property rights cases. If Roberts is confirmed, will he move the court in a more conservative direction? Or will he maintain the moderate course of O'Connor? >>read more

A few weeks ago, property rights advocates lost three big court cases. It's not unusual for June to be an important month for legal opinions because the U.S. Supreme Court wraps up its work before going on summer hiatus. But it is usual for property owners to go oh-for-June. >>read more

Most government budget crises get bailed out by increasing tax revenue, and the current situation in California appears to be no exception. With tax receipts on the rise throughout California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was able to throw several billion dollars into the kitty as part of the "May revise" - the annual revision of the governor's budget proposal to the Legislature. >>read more

Six months after his re-election, President George W. Bush is seeking to place his distinct imprint on federal urban policy. >>read more

The news reports about Measure 37 come blasting out of Oregon almost every day now. Faced with 75 land use claims totaling more than $100 million, Clackamas County in suburban Portland decided to settle the easy ones first - permitting small landowners to subdivide their property into a few additional lots. The City of Eugene is considering an ordinance that would require some development to be torn down after a property changes hands. >>read more

It's no secret that Wal-Mart is running into resistance from communities all over California. But is Wal-Mart getting discouraged?