California is at a water crossroads. We can continue our costly, 100-year-old pattern of trying to find new water supplies, or we can choose instead to focus on smarter ways of using – and reusing – what we already have. With a population projected to top 50 million by mid-century,...
California Needs to Treat Homelessness Like the Disaster It Is. Let’s Provide Housing First
For the past 23 years, I have led a statewide homeless services and housing development agency. In Los Angeles, I have interacted with four mayors, three cycles of county supervisors, and dozens of city council members. During this period, the approach to the growing issue of homelessness has been predictable....
California Is a Wondrous Place. I’m Leaving.
To me, California has always been an amazing place with a wondrous geography far more diverse than the other two largest states. This helps explain why historically it has been such a beacon for so many Americans, including myself, seeking a golden future in the Golden State. But not just...
A Clinical Trial Saved My Life. So Why Aren’t More Cancer Patients Enrolling?
I was 37 years old, and the mother of two children ages 1 and 4, when I was diagnosed with Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer. It is a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer that attacks the lymphatic system around the breast. It is usually fatal, widespread by the time...
Californians Aren’t Getting the Mental Health Care They’re Legally Guaranteed. Why Not?
State Sen. Jim Beall is angry. Four times now, he has introduced legislation to better enforce state and federal “parity” laws, which require equal treatment of mental and physical health problems. Four times, that legislation has failed. As he enters his final year in the Legislature, the San Jose Democrat...
California Must Stop Relying on the Endangered Species Act to Manage the Environment
In California, state and federal endangered species acts play an important and often outsized role in regulating water and land management. These powerful laws are also often at the center of conflicts between environmental and economic uses of water. The state and federal acts have helped prevent the extinction of...
Risks, Rewards, and Robots: The Future of Work in California
Are robots coming for California’s jobs? In today’s increasingly automated economy, that’s certainly the fear. Technology has always generated economic churn, destroying some jobs and creating others. Already advances have generated a whole new sector of “gig” employment, and deeply disrupted other workplaces, from brick-and-mortar bookstores to newspapers to travel...
Med School Free Rides and Loan Repayments: California Tries to Boost Dwindling Doctor Supply
Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California. Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in underserved areas. These efforts are intended to...
California Legislators Must Stop the Attorney General From Rigging Ballot Initiative Descriptions
Imagine that in next year’s presidential race, election officials scrambled the letters in Donald Trump so it appeared on ballots as Daldon Prumt. Most people would agree this is not acceptable. Voters need their ballots to accurately convey who it is they are voting for or against. Yet for decades,...
A Better Way: Let’s Give PG&E's Customers the Reins
“I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game 'Monopoly.' ”— Steven Wright The light at the end of the utilities’ tunnel has been shut off for the hundreds of thousands of California residents who have recently lost their power, been evacuated from their homes, or worse. The...