El Toro Auction Offers Something For Everyone
While it might be hard to convince some of my left-leaning brethren of the case, the forthcoming auction of El Toro will likely benefit the local community, the military and private business, in that...
View ArticleBuilders, Agencies Work To Co-exist On Rare Ground
The experiences of two developers — one a large-scale master plan developer and the other a smaller, apartment developer — are snapshots of the uneasy relationship between home building and...
View ArticleCities Pursue Elaborate Swap to Save LA Base
Remember the frightening things your mother used to tell you in the name of safety when you were a child? If you went running around with scissors in your hand, you could put out an eye. Or if you went...
View ArticleBeverly Hills Gets Future Project At 2004 Prices
In commodity futures markets, investors agree to pay a price today for the unknown cost of goods some time in the future. The City of Beverly Hills does not play the futures market, at least to my...
View ArticleDistant Tribes Gamble on Barstow's Location
I don’t agree with the saying that laws are made to be broken. That is the attitude of criminals. I believe, rather, that laws are elastic. Like the fan belts in cars, they are made be stretched until...
View ArticleMinor League Stadium Needs Big-Time Subsidy
The scene is a minor-league baseball stadium somewhere in the Inland Empire. The broadcasters are Ralph and Jim, a pair of middle-aged sportscasters, who are calling a Class-A game for local radio...
View ArticleDisney Spins Negative Fantasia About Housing
Why did nobody tell me that market-rate housing had become a NIMBY issue? Did I sleep this momentous event, just as I sawed a log through the Northridge earthquake? Here I am, bumbling through life as...
View ArticleNo, Seriously: Golf Course Saves Fresno
Why is Trump asking the city to get involved in his purchase of Running Horse?read more
View ArticleSouth Bay Stadium Deals: Which Is Worse?
When individuals barter, they generally have a firm sense of underlying value, i.e. “What’s this thing really worth to me?” A 10-year-old car might be worth $1,000, to judge from the Recycler or...
View ArticleThe Odd Saga Of Parkland For Billboards
Remember the cliché about “the deal you can’t refuse?” The park-for-a-billboard caper in the city of Los Angeles is just such a deal. I’ll tell you about it. (Just as soon, that is, as you put that...
View ArticleOntario's Hockey Lust: Too Much, Too Soon?
Was Ontario wise to build a hockey arena on its own nickel? Let's ask Miss California Planning ... read more
View ArticleApple Valley Trades General Plan For Stadium
The Town of Apple Valley wants to build a minor league baseball stadium. That’s not unusual in California, where stadium building seems only a slice less popular than tailgate parties with free-flowing...
View ArticleLow-Income Development Comes With An Embarrassment of Riches
By Morris NewmanDammit, it’s not fair! Residents of affordable housing get all the lucky breaks. Just look at all the money they’re getting from all directions: local government, the local power...
View ArticleThe New Silicon Valley Land Banking: Corporate Campuses Sell Out to...
Thanks to the recession and various iterations of the dot-com boom and bust, Silicon Valley has a large, stagnant pool of empty office and light industrial space. The same region is woefully underbuilt...
View ArticleFactory Seeks to Block Housing in Downtown San Diego (Updated)
Morris Newman San Diego politicians and land-use officials have become polarized over an unusual controversy pitting one of the city’s largest private employers against an apartment developer in the...
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