Last week, the U.K. publication The Guardian used an interesting anecdote to describe the key finding of an Oxfam report on global inequality: The world’s 85...
If you watched any one of the recent Los Angeles mayoral debates, you likely concluded that the biggest issue in this election is who voters can...
(Editor’s Note: The following includes excerpts from remarks made on KPFK’s Uprising program, which focused on the Los Angeles mayoral debate held January 28 .) The...
Former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan has been in the news lately, arguing that city leaders need to take drastic steps to make Los Angeles more business...
Remember the spring and summer of 2011, when the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) was mysteriously tracked by MB Public Affairs? Beginning in...
It seems like a hopeless conundrum. We need our government – federal state and local – to stimulate the economy and help create jobs. But our...
On September 30, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed six different economic development bills designed to get California’s economy going again, including the groundbreaking Senate Bill 1156, known...
On August 29, 2012, one of the most important job creation and environmental bills in recent memory was adopted by the legislature and sent to the...
We just returned from a week of glorious — and nearly free – recreation in three of California’s state parks and want to reflect for a...
Much has been said in recent months about the labor movement’s “impending decline,” with the right wing’s unrelenting attacks against collective bargaining rights in states across...
What do I most remember about the uprising of ’92? That certain feeling of powerlessness. I have so many vivid memories: People swarming the supermarket on...
Every time I drive down Sunset Boulevard toward Chinatown, I get really mad. And it’s not only because Walmart wants to move into this neighborhood without...
This weekend I was visiting one of the many free museums in Washington, D.C. (a perk of living in this city) and found an incredible poster...
What do 19th century labor leader Samuel Gompers and the virulently anti-union think tank, the Cato Institute, have in common? More than you might imagine. They...
On and off for two years – between 1988 and 1993 – I worked at the law firm of Latham and Watkins, representing some of the...
(This post first appeared as a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.) Last week, one of the country’s oldest and largest public economic development programs came to...
Last week economist Manuel Pastor and I went to talk to the L.A. Times editorial board about the importance of “updating” its position on living wage...
On December 29, 2011 the State Supreme Court dealt California’s 400 redevelopment agencies an unanticipated death blow. This includes the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, where...
On February 1, 2012, I will be out of a job. That’s because at 12:01 a.m., more than 400 California redevelopment agencies will go out of...
In a recent blog post on the “value” of running government like a business, I had some fun pretending to agree with the mantra that government...