Blogs

While the newspapers today are full of stories about Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed "temporary" sales tax increase, the papers are not mentioning a proposed permanent shift of money away from local redevelopment agencies.

There's a national debate going on nowadays about how the issue of cities, metropolitan areas, and growth is lacking from our national debate. Recently, for example, UCLA planning professor Randall Crane argued that cities are the most important issue that the presidential candidates aren't talking about. But will the usual arguments about infrastructure and prosperity carry the day? Or do cities and metros need to play the climate change issue to be relevant in Washington again?

If Californians – and Americans -- are going to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they're going to have to drive less. But is wonking on policy really the best way to make this happen? Or do we have to create a compelling alternate vision for the next generation's lifestyle – a kind of Carbon-Free Futurama?

I get no pleasure out of writing that the most important corner in downtown Redding is soon going to have a vacancy. The corporate honchos in Seattle decided that the Starbucks at the corner of California and Placer streets in downtown Redding will close.

The Starbucks with a drive-through window at the edge of downtown? That one stays. So does the Starbucks at the other end of downtown inside of Safeway. But the coffee house at the most visible corner in downtown? The store that was supposed to anchor a cornerstone adaptive reuse project? It's closing.

The Calaveras County Community Development Agency is in the political cross-hairs after the county grand jury issued a scathing report that questions the agency's hiring practices, the director's management style and the use of consultants.

Sound familiar? Not the details, but the tone. Your local newspaper has probably struck similar notes recently. That's because it is the season for grand juries to release their annual reports on local government.

Joel Kotkin is at it again. In yesterday's Los Angeles Times Sunday opinion section, the enfant terrible of L.A. urbanism dissed the "suburbs as slums" thesis of Brookings' Christopher Leinberger. But in once again coming to the defense of "suburbs", he has revealed that he can't tell the difference between Glendale and Palmdale.

The city with the best vacation downtown is the Rodney Dangerfield of beach towns. It gets no respect, and it is often overshadowed by its more glamorous neighbor.

Still, Carpinteria has the best downtown for a vacation in California. We'll tell you why.

I've always known that there are limits to celebrity in the world of urban planning. You write a book or two, people get to know your name, they ask you to come and give a speech, you make ‘em laugh, and maybe – maybe – they'll give you a couple of bucks for showing up. In a small professional field where nobody's very rich, that's the best you can hope for.

In other words, people might know who you are, but you're not really a star.

When we listed the best small-city downtowns in the Central Valley, we didn't include Exeter, a Tulare County community eight miles east of Visalia. Exeter was in our discussion, but it didn't make the cut for reasons that I don't recall.

After spending part of one day last week in Exeter, I'm convinced we made a mistake. In fact, Exeter has one of the best downtowns for a city of its size (about 10,700 people) not only in the Central Valley, but in the entire state.