Urban Policy

Picturing Paradise

Ron Tang — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:02:00 -0400

Sometimes I miss Los Angeles. I live and work smack in the middle of it. But sometimes I still miss it.

I figure I can place the origins of my nostalgia in the year I spent in Madrid, when I was 14. That was when I made Joni Mitchell's Vietnam War-era paean to my home state my personal anthem. Although I can't say I was homesick for family and friends, I sure identified with Mitchell's longing for warmth and refuge in L.A. Feeling lonely in Europe, she wrote:

Still a lot of lands to see

But I wouldn't want to stay here

It's too… more

Our Urban Future

Ron Tang — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:45:00 -0400

Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, a number that will climb to 75% by the middle of the century. This development marks a radical break in human history, for humanity has until recently been overwhelmingly rural, concerned first and foremost with brute survival.

In “The Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx referred to “the idiocy of rural life” -- or so the mistranslation goes -- as an enduring problem. In fact, Marx wasn’t talking about “idiocy” at all. Rather, he was referring to the isolation and stasis of rural life, and how it had long stymied creativity and the diffusion… more

It's a Critical Time of Our Sign

Ron Tang — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I don't know about you, but I'm proud of the fact that the most celebrated symbol of our city isn't a statue that was a gift from the French. I also think it's fitting that it isn't burdened with heavy ideology, profound symbolism or deep meaning. Nobody ever accused the Hollywood sign of inspiring high-minded musings about the essence of our city, let alone the exalted mission of our nation. If anything, it evokes a sordid lust for fame and fortune.

I imagine all those aspiring starlets from the Midwest coming to L.A. and sighing as they look up at that… more

Can't Stand the Heat

Articles — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:51:00 -0400

It’s all the suburbs’ fault. You know, everything -- traffic congestion, overweight kids, social alienation. Oh, and lest we forget, global warming and rising energy costs, too.

That latest knock against the burbs has caught on widely. With their multiplying McMansions and exploding Explorers, the burbs are the reason we’re paying so much for gas and heating oil and spewing all those emissions that are heating up the atmosphere --or so a host of urban proponents tells us. It’s time to ditch the burbs and go back to the city. New York, Boston, Chicago -- these densely packed metropolises are "models… more

Mark Paul

Operations — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:24:00 -0400

Senior Scholar

Mark Paul is an award-winning writer, editor, and policy expert with wide experience in journalism and California state government and politics. He covered California for 24 years, first as Editorial Page Editor and National Editor of the Oakland Tribune, then as Deputy Editorial Page Editor and columnist for the Sacramento Bee, where he wrote extensively about fiscal policy, health care, economics, urban development, and political reform. He won the 2000 Best in the West award for editorial writing about California policy. After leaving the Bee, he served as Deputy Treasurer and Policy Director in… more

Can the City Save the Farm?

Articles — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:32:00 -0400

Even if you’re only the slightest bit familiar with California’s $30 billion-plus farm economy, you may have heard the lament: urban development is steamrolling the state’s agricultural belt. Every day, bountiful fields surrender to big-box stores, fast-food restaurants, and residential sprawl. More than 100,000 acres were paved over in the Central Valley alone in the 1990s, and experts estimate that nearly 1 million more could vanish within a generation. Today’s Country Mouse is tomorrow’s City Mouse (or, more likely, a critter skittering across a cookiecutter suburban subdivision).

But while this threat is real and not to be taken lightly, it tends… more

Katie Couric Interviews Joel Kotkin on American Cities for 10 Questions

Communications — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:36:00 -0400

New America in the News:

At a time when American cities are changing so rapidly--both as centers of our society, as a launch pads for escape to suburbs and exurbs--I thought I'd consult with the man who may be the country's leading expert on urban life, Joel Kotkin, author and Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. He’s the subject of this week’s 10 Questions. We talked about the problem with trendiness in cities, what it takes to make a well-managed city, and why sustaining the middle class is so important.

1. Mr. Kotkin, your book, "The City: A Global History," distills the essence of why cities were created-and what they are meant to accomplish-in about 200 pages. So here's the most basic question: how do you define a city-and what is it there for?

Kotkin: A city is a place that is more than a village or town. It provides all the essential needs, and also tends to have a strong sense of identity and purpose. In our expanding urbanized world, more and more places -- even small towns and some suburbs -- are becoming more like cities, particularly with the internet.

2. You've long criticized the middle class leaving cities for suburbs and exurbs-and leaving only the super-rich and poor in their place. What does it take for the middle class to stay in a city-and why is it so vital that they be there?

Kotkin: The middle class is the ballast that holds cities together. It allows for the broadest spectrum of employment and services. Keeping it in some cities will be difficult due to high housing prices and bifurcated job markets; in other cities, it's still safety and lack of opportunity. Almost everywhere it's schools. Economy, schools, safety are the keys to retaining a strong middle class...

For the complete interview, please visit the CBS website.

Sun, Surf, Smog

Articles — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:31:00 -0400

Just in case you missed it, last week was National Air Quality Control Week. That explains why the American Lung Assn. released its new study announcing that Los Angeles is still the smog capitol of the United States.

Not exactly a man-bites-dog story, but some Angelenos may recall that we were actually stripped of that title a few years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency crowned Houston the new pollution king. For me, an asthmatic and no friend to smog, that moment was bittersweet. Because more than anything else, smog is L.A.’s classic signifier. Just as the cult of noir flourished… more

Pop-Up Cities

Articles — Tue, 01 May 2007 10:14:00 -0400

Three years ago, Alejandro Gutierrez got a strange and tantalizing message from Hong Kong. Some McKinsey consultants were putting together a business plan for a big client that wanted to build a small city on the outskirts of Shanghai. But the land, at the marshy eastern tip of a massive, mostly undeveloped island at the mouth of the Yangtze River, was a migratory stop for one of the rarest birds in the world -- the black-faced spoonbill, a gangly white creature with a long, flat beak.

McKinsey wanted to know if the developer, the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation,… more

A Fertile Field in the Central Valley

Articles — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Abdel Salem is hunched over a small aerial map in his office, divining the future.

"This is going to be new," he says, gesturing toward a blank spot that’s slated to be the site of 1,700 residences, a park and a school. His finger glides across the paper. "This is going to be new too," he adds, pointing to another vacant part of the map that’s poised for a burst of commercial construction. He stabs at the paper again. "And this is going to be new over here."

Salem is the city manager of Delano, which is easily among the strangest boomtowns… more