Posted on November 18th, 2008 — in Economy and Business :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
[Public Policy Institute of California]
A suite of reports from the Public Policy Institute of California looks at preparations for climate change at state and local levels. Some institutions, such as water agencies and electrical utilities, have already begun planning for change. But other areas have yet to prepare effectively for the challenges of a changing California.
Posted on November 17th, 2008 — in Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
After a 20-month planning process, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force has adopted its Delta Vision Strategic Plan. The plan seeks to ensure long-term sustainable management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, balancing the need for a reliable water supply for California, and protection for the Delta’s environmental resources.
Posted on November 17th, 2008 — in Economy and Business :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
A new report from UC Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics opens with an epigraph by Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” The report details costs associated with climate change and response options in seven areas: water; energy; transportation; tourism and recreation; real estate; agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; and public health.
Posted on November 12th, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Economy and Business :: Employment :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment :: Transportation
With the recent passage of Proposition 1A clearing the way for the construction of a high-speed rail line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles , a report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute explores quality-of-life benefits to Bay Area residents in four categories: business and job creation; mobility; urban development; and climate change.
Posted on July 21st, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Politics :: Resources and Environment
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California re-emphasizes the point (made in previous PPIC reports, as well as reports from the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force) that the systems that currently hold the Delta ecosystem together are “unstable and headed for major change.” The report makes several recommendations to improve the Delta, including building a peripheral canal, a proposal that is sure to be controversial, given the 63-37% defeat of a ballot measure in June 1982 that proposed a similar solution. (PPIC has an interactive map that displays county voting patterns on Proposition 9, showing the significant disparity between voting patterns in most of the counties of southern California, together with Kern County, and the rest of the state.)
Posted on May 30th, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Politics :: Polls and Surveys
Another new Field Poll shows that the chances look slim that Proposition 98, the more prominent of two ballot measures tackling eminent domain issues, will be passed in next week’s primary election. (In addition to reforming eminent domain, Proposition 98 would eradicate existing local rent control laws across the state.) Likely voters in the primary oppose Proposition 98 by a margin of 43-33% and support the competing initiative, Proposition 99, by a margin of 48-30%. The summary of the poll results points out that the last initiative to feature eminent domain reform, Proposition 90, was defeated by a 52-48% margin in November 2006.
Posted on March 27th, 2008 — in Demographics :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
According to new data released by the Census Bureau, five California metropolitan statistical areas were in the top 25 MSAs with the largest numerical population gains between July 2006 and July 2007. The five were Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario (86,700, or 2.2% gain), San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont (35,900, or 0.9% gain), Sacramento/Arden-Arcade/Roseville (28,400, or 1.4% gain), San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara (28,200, or 1.6% gain), and San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos (26,500, or 0.9% gain).
Posted on March 20th, 2008 — in Demographics :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
Despite some news last year that California has been losing residents, four California counties placed in the top 25 counties with the largest numerical population increases between July 2006 and July 2007, according to data released by the Census Bureau today. The four counties are Riverside (66,400, a 3.3% population increase), Santa Clara County (28,100, a 1.6% increase), San Diego County (26,500, a 0.9% increase), and San Bernardino County (20,300, a 1% increase). Riverside placed second in the top 25, behind only Maricopa County in Arizona.
Posted on March 14th, 2008 — in Economy and Business :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
Home sales in California last month made for the the slowest February in at least 20 years, according to information released by DataQuick, the real estate activity information service. (DataQuick’s records go back to 1988.) Sales were down 34% from February 2007. DataQuick indicates that the median price paid for a home last month was $373,000, down 2.6 percent from $383,000 for the month before, and down 21.0 percent from $472,000 for February 2007.
Posted on March 6th, 2008 — in Economy and Business :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
A recent fact sheet from the Public Policy Institute of California points out that housing prices in California have taken the steppest plunge in 25 years, which was about the time the country was in the midst of its last major recession (not counting the recessions of 1990-1991 and 2000-2001, which were shallower and briefer than this recession is expected by many observers to be). Between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the fourth quarter of 2007, housing prices fell by 6.6% in California, whereas two years ago, housing prices were still rising by 21%. Nationally during the same quarters, housing prices nationwide rose by 0.8%. In addition, foreclosures in California were at 1.9% in 2007, well above the national average of 1%. As often occurs in economic downturns, the interior regions of the state were hit harder than the coastal regions. In the San Francisco metropolitan region, home prices fell by only 0.9.%; in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Jose, home prices fell by less than 4%. However, in Merced, Modesto and Stockton, home prices fell by 15% — the largest one-year decline in any California metropolitan region in at least 30 years. Construction permits also took huge dives in some interior regions, with declines between 2004 and 2007 of 60% in Riverside-San Bernardino, 63% in Modesto, 73% in Stockton, and 76% in Merced.
Posted on February 15th, 2008 — in Ballot Measures :: Economy and Business :: Elections and Voting :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
The California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act, which has qualified as Proposition 98 on the June 3 ballot, defines rent control as a form of eminent domain and if enacted would provide that any rent control ordinance in effect prior to January 2007 become essentially invalid. Most of the cash thus far for the initiative has come from landlord and property owners’ groups and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Two groups that have signed on to oppose Proposition 98 are the AARP and the League of Women Voters.
There are currently 12 California cities with rent control ordinances, including several of the state’s largest urban centers: San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Jose, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Palm Springs, Los Gatos, Hayward, East Palo Alto, and Berkeley. (Thousand Oaks also had a rent control ordinance in effect but has gradually phased it out.)
Because California enacted vacancy decontrol measures in 1995, in communities with rent control, rental units have shown a huge discrepancy in price between vacated units, which landlords have been able to re-price beyond the standard allowable annual rent increase, and units with tenants who have remained put. Expect the number of vacated units (whether they are vacated voluntarily or involuntarily) in those communities to drastically rise if Proposition 98 becomes law.
Posted on January 28th, 2008 — in Economy and Business :: Growth, Development & Infrastructure
A recent report prepared for the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency points out that California is the only state in the nation without a formal international trade and investment development program. (The state used to have such a program, run from the Technology, Trade, and Commerce Agency, but that agency was disbanded by the legislature in 2003.)
The report mentions other states with significant international trade budgets, including Pennsylvania, which has a $20.7 million budget set aside for this purpose, and the report explores the implications of California, which has the eighth-largest economy in the world if it were an independent nation, failing to fund such a program, including loss of competitive advantage.