The Press-Enterprise

Joel Kotkin on Ontario's Growth in The Press-Enterprise

Communications — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:19:00 -0400

New America in the News:

In the increasingly popular move of making urban living part of the Inland landscape, Ontario is upping the stakes.

Construction has started on the city's bid for a slice of big-city life, called Piemonte at Ontario Center, where stores and restaurants are planned to go alongside -- and under -- condominiums. Panattoni Development also expects to put up several office buildings and a 256-room hotel, all of it centered around what no other Inland city has: An 11,000-seat arena.

Piemonte, as planned, would further cement Ontario's status as a regional hub, adding a walkable, insta-neighborhood to a suburban city working through a long list of ambitious projects. While other projects around the region also are installing shops with condos and offices, none is expected to have as many so close to where people shop and eat...

If an urban district will work anywhere in the Inland area, it's Ontario, said economist Joel Kotkin.

"Ontario, unlike most of the other areas in the Inland Empire, is not just dense, but it's an employment center..."

For the complete article, please visit The Press Enterprise website.

Declining to State

Articles — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Is it time to place the two major political parties on California's endangered species list? If current trends persist, the number of independent voters may outnumber Democrats and Republicans by 2025.

Distrust of elected leaders and faltering confidence in the political establishment have increasingly driven Californians to the no-party label. New voters appear to be moving to the independent status so fast that we need to rethink the red and blue political map in the 2006 California election.

The state's population growth has added 2.4 million citizens to the voter rolls since 1990. Meanwhile, the percentage of… more

Let Citizens Guide Electoral Reform

Articles — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 03:00:00 -0500

A year ago in January, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared 2005 "The Year of Reform," kicking off a contentious special election that ended with voters rejecting all of his proposed measures.

California's representative democracy is broken, and serious electoral reforms are needed. The best solution is reforming our electoral process to improve our chances of electing leaders who understand our problems and are committed to solving them.

We suggest convening a Citizens Assembly of randomly selected citizens who care about their government and have no connection to the existing political establishment.

We believe that thoughtful, average folks, given the facts about California's political… more

Ensuring Ballot Integrity

Articles — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Last month's report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker deserves serious attention. The commission makes recommendations that would greatly improve our elections. The commission's boldest call is for universal voter registration, a practice used by many democracies around the world in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote. Universal registration would add more than 50 million unregistered Americans--nearly three in 10 eligible voters, disproportionately young and low-income--to our voter rolls.

But the devil is in the details, and the commission fails… more

Supreme Limits

Articles — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 02:00:00 -0400

The U.S. Senate will soon begin confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. With partisan groups on both sides gearing up for a fight, the process promises to be as contentious as past confirmations.

One can't help but wonder if we couldn't avoid much of the partisan mud wrestling about Supreme Court nominees if there were term limits on the high court. Perhaps more than any single factor, the "until death do we part" constitutional requirement has been responsible for bruising confirmation battles.

At age 50, Roberts could serve for decades on the court if he's confirmed.

Other democracies employ judicial term… more

Instant Runoff Voting Aids "Majority Rule"

Articles — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

"Majority rule" is one of the cornerstones of our representative democracy. Unless a candidate wins a majority of the vote, we cannot be certain that the winner is the one preferred by the most voters.

Yet, too often, American elections fail this most basic test of democracy.

In three of our last four presidential elections, the winning candidate did not have a majority of the national popular vote.

In the Inland Empire, candidates with less than a popular majority have won important races. In recent years, such winners have included the mayors of Barstow, Fontana and Rialto, a member of the Board… more