Jerry Brown likes to do the unexpected. So it should not have been surprising that Brown turned up unannounced at the Planning and Conservation League's annual symposium on Saturday, January 12, in Sacramento and vowed to sue cities and counties that do not account for climate ch

In 1909 the City of Los Angeles annexed San Pedro and a narrow corridor connecting the port to downtown. Now the city wishes it had included the industrial land on both sides of the corridor too. Large developable industrial parcels are an endangered species in portions of the Ci

Anybody interested in green development, the affect climate change is having on planning, and environmental advocacy should get their fill this Saturday, January 12. That's when the Planning & Conservation League will conduct its annual legislative symposium , an event that start

Along with the collapse of the housing market, here in California climate change was the biggest land use story of 2007 . But is there any doubt that the greening of the planning process will be the No. 1 story in 2008 – and maybe No. 2 and No. 3 as well? Environmental issues are

In planning and development these days, everything's green. For years, the issue was housing — specifically prices and the lack of affordable places to live. No more. Now, global climate change is taking over every discussion of land-use planning in California. And climate change

All too often, local politics in America is parochial, narrow-minded, and faction-ridden – if not crudely partisan. This is too bad, because the issues confronting local government in America are usually regional in scope and require far-reaching coalitions of unlikely allies. Th

The housing market flopped, and global warming became an issue of overarching concern. Without question, those were the two biggest land use stories of 2007 here in California. Those two stories alone made it a big year for California land use news. Of course, those of us who wri

We have heard, with sadness, that his Honor the Mayor of Los Angeles and his special friend of some months, Ms. Mirthala Salinas, former political reporter for Telemundo, have called it quitsville. The great hook-up of power with beauty, of City Hall and Spanish-language media, o

Larry Livingston, who died the other day at the age of 89, was one of California planning's true pioneers. And through a courageous public declaration of his own disillusionment, he became a symbol of the practicing planner's frustration.

Blackwater in Iraq means a swirl of controversy over private security forces guarding American diplomats – a job that in the past was done by uniformed U.S. military personnel.

The City of Sacramento took a giant leap on Tuesday when the City Council approved Thomas Enterprises' plan to redevelop the rail yards just north of downtown. But there is no guarantee the direction that Sacramento leaped is forward.

Driving through the Napa Valley last Saturday, the feeling crept over me once again. It's an uneasy, hemmed-in feeling that I often get while traversing the floor of this long, narrow, beautiful valley. Grapevines to the right. Grapevines to the left. Grapevines behind me. Grapev