California changes so fast you can’t count on anything here anymore. But you can count on the Modesto Girls. These five sisters — my first cousins, once removed—never had glamorous jobs. They didn’t get fancy educations. Little came easy to them. But they are always there when you need them....
What California County Is Big & Beautiful Yet Small & Ugly?
Why does a place as big and beautiful as Orange County behave in ways so small and ugly? In recent weeks, county supervisors first voted to oppose state sanctuary laws, thus aligning themselves with President Trump, who has targeted California in a campaign of lies and mass deportation, and against...
Will L.A.’s Water Delusions Kill the Delta Tunnels?
This time, “Chinatown” is fooling itself. Los Angeles has a long history of water deceptions, a point made famously by Roman Polanski’s 1974 film classic. But the self-sabotage of the city’s latest scheme is a real doozy. L.A. has convinced itself of the hokum that it has all the water...
Grownups Have Messed Up School Budgets. Turn It Over to the Kids.
California education finances are an unholy mess — with incomprehensible budget formulas, equity funding that doesn’t produce equity, and cuts to schools even during the current economic expansion. And our state’s so-called education leaders refuse to fix the system. We should let the kids fix it instead. This isn’t a...
Who Do You Love to Hate More, LA or SF? Resentments May Decide Governor's Race.
Which city — San Francisco or Los Angeles — do you love to hate more? This is shaping up to be California’s question for 2018. Each of the top contenders for governor is a former mayor of one of those cities, and each embodies certain grievances about his hometown. And...
High-Speed Rail Deniers Have It All Wrong
If California’s train deniers are right—that no one ever rides trains here, that Californians prefer to drive or fly, and that high-speed rail is a boondoggle that won’t attract riders — then how do you explain my wife’s public humiliation? Recently, our family was on Amtrak from San Diego to...
High-Speed Rail Deniers Have It All Wrong
If California’s train deniers are right—that no one ever rides trains here, that Californians prefer to drive or fly, and that high-speed rail is a boondoggle that won’t attract riders — then how do you explain my wife’s public humiliation? Recently, our family was on Amtrak from San Diego to...
A Fantastic Property Tax Proposal For Baby Boomers
To: California Association of Realtors Re: Death and Taxes Yes, all Californians eventually will die. But why can’t our property tax discounts live forever? That question was inspired by your glorious new ballot initiative to make our state’s Proposition 13 property tax savings even more generous. Your “People’s Initiative to...
Someone Has to Give. Will it be Rest of U.S. or California?
Opinion By Joe Mathews America is terribly polarized. And it’s all on account of California. The trouble is not merely that California itself is such a politically polarized place. Or that California contributes to the many causes of polarization: partisan media, cultural atomization, large-scale political fundraising, technological change, economic anxiety,...
Someone Has to Give. Will it be Rest of U.S. or California?
Opinion By Joe Mathews America is terribly polarized. And it’s all on account of California. The trouble is not merely that California itself is such a politically polarized place. Or that California contributes to the many causes of polarization: partisan media, cultural atomization, large-scale political fundraising, technological change, economic anxiety,...