Blogs

The proposal by Anschutz Entertainment Group to install the equivalent of a football field in signs and lighted billboards in front of the LA Live development near the Los Angeles Convention Center is a glaringly bad idea. AEG's proposal is over-reaching and garish.

The state budget stalemate may get handed to the new Legislature that is seated in December. In the meantime, lawmakers could pass a series of emergency resolutions authorizing the state to pay its bills.

Last week, people were whispering about this scenario. Now, they are speaking out loud about it. After the 21-13 defeat of the Republican budget proposal in the Senate on Monday, it's clear that lawmakers and the governor are no closer to a budget resolution today than they were in June.

John McCain had even less to say about cities and planning – absolutely nothing -- in his acceptance speech than Barack Obama did one week earlier. But, like Richard Nixon before him, he's got a vice presidential candidate who's long on local government experience but a short record as a governor. Why do local electeds rarely wind up in the presidential race? 

Sacramento city and county officials are congratulating themselves  – and getting congratulated by editorial writers and others – for cutting a deal to share sales tax revenues from auto dealers. But the deal's not the result of enlightened regional cooperation. It came about because both jurisdictions are threatened by auto malls elsewhere in the Sacramento region.

The state Assembly has voted 46-22 to approve SB 375, the bill that ties together land use planning, transportation funding, affordable housing planning and greenhouse gas reductions.

The largely party-line vote followed a 40-minute debate in which Republican bill opponents argued the measure would erode local land use control. The mostly Democratic supporters rejected that argument, noting that the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties endorsed SB 375.

The State of California is nearly two months into the 2008-09 fiscal year, and it faces at least a $15 billion gap between current spending levels and tax revenues. Yet there is no sense of urgency at the state Capitol.

Earlier this month, I predicted that lawmakers would pass a budget by August 25 because that's the day the Democratic National Convention starts and every Democrat wants to be in Denver. Looks like I'm wrong again.

What really matters in economic development today? How about highway access – and labor cost – and energy cost?

Huh? What ever happened to the New Economy? You know, all those creative types sitting around coffee shops drinking lattes and typing on their laptops? (Which, by the way, is what I am doing right now.)