California wind turbines provide electricity carried through nearby power lines. (Photo: Mark Higgins, via Shutterstock)
OPINION: As finger-pointing continues over California’s rolling blackouts, some are trying to pin the blame to renewable energy. They are wrong. It’s clear that California’s ambitious renewable energy efforts were not at fault.
An aerial view of a traffic-clogged intersection in Los Angeles. (Photo: TierneyMJ, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California government agencies have focused on reducing traffic congestion when looking at the pollution impacts caused by new development and transportation projects. The result has been a lot of bad decisions that, taken together, have led to longer commutes, urban sprawl, and a failure to invest sufficiently in public transit, bike lanes, and pedestrian pathways.
A view of Los Angeles blurred by a hazy atmosphere. (Photo: evijaf, via Shutterstock) OPINION: For 11 years, Next 10 has been measuring economic and environmental indicators in the California Green Innovation Index. This year, the data is sobering. If the current pace of emissions decline continues, we will miss our 2030 climate targets by more than thirty years.
Children on bikes during a July 4 parade in Pacific Palisades. (Photo: Joseph Sohm) OPINION: In the past 20 years, a lot has happened in California to give young children a better start in life. Since voters made their voices heard and passed Proposition 10, the tobacco tax that created First 5 commissions in every county, great things have happened.
Densely packed housing in Long Beach, looking westward toward the harbor. (Photo: Sergey Novikov, via Shutterstock)OPINION: While there are many causes that have contributed to the state’s housing shortage, many people place at least part of the blame on a “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) philosophy. Everyone knows that more housing is needed, but they’d prefer that it was somewhere else.
A depressed man sits alone atop an office building. (Photo: Fure, via Shutterstock) OPINION: The effects of poor behavioral health can be seen all around us every day. We see it in the form of alcoholism or drug addiction, including the epidemic of opioid use. It can be seen in the daily struggles of those with depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric conditions. It can make headlines, as with the shocking suicides of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and designer Kate Spade.
A roadside sign for the city of Inglewood near Los Angeles. The picture was taken in April. (Photo: Albert Campbell)The California economy is booming at a record pace. The State’s unemployment rate is at a historic low of 4.2 percent, with investments in technology, health care, transportation and construction projects helping lead the way. But the Golden State’s success has been uneven.The economic wave of prosperity missed some of California’s most vulnerable populations, leaving some of the most diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged communities behind. The City of Inglewood is one of those communities.
Artist's conception of the bullet train crossing an overpass in Anaheim. (Illustration: California High Speed Rail Authority)It’s a tale of two stations. Bakersfield, California’s ninth-largest city in terms of population with more than 380,000 residents, is trying to decide where to put a bullet-train station. This battle has lasted for years.
A stem cell researcher at work. (Photo: 18percentgrey, via Shutterstock)The California stem cell agency has awarded $33 million for clinical trial research, but not before some governing board members questioned the appropriateness of backing an effort to treat osteoarthritis of the knee. The awards on Thursday bring to 43 the number of clinical trials funded by the stem cell agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
William Mulholland, pointing. Mulholland, who pushed water development in L.A., was the superintendent of the Los Angeles Water Department.
(Image source: Los Angeles Times, via California WaterBlog)In 1987, when Mark Reisner published his book Cadillac Desert, I had just begun professing on water management. The book went “viral,” before the word viral had its present-day internet-intoxicated meaning. The book offered a compelling revisionist history and understanding of water development in the American West, based on economic self-interest, ideology, and Floyd Dominy’s personal drives.