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California muddle: state must change course before it's too late

By:

Opinion Staff

Date:

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

In:

LA Daily News

The urban scholar Joel Kotkin has written that the spending policies of "progressives" in power in California have led to a flight of the middle class.

But, as Kotkin says in an article in the quarterly journal The City...the state must shift its priorities toward the infrastructure that helps sustain the middle class, such as investing in transportation, freeways and movement of goods, since the ports provide 20 percent of the jobs in Southern California.

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California muddle: state must change course before it's too late

News Clips

The Economist: The Power of Tribes

EVER since the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the old, neat division between East and West, people have been inventing new ways of dividing up the world. In the 1990s it was fashionable to talk about America, Europe and Japan. Today pundits draw the line between emerged and the emerging markets.

Buscaino vs. Furutani

"What I find disturbing," says Joel Kotkin, an expert on the evolution of cities and a presidential fellow at Chapman University, "is the lack of discourse. Los Angeles did not always have a perfect democracy, but you had arguments.

Houston's well-positioned to create good jobs

But, according to a recent piece by the Wall St. Journal's Conor Dougherty, the entrepreneurial culture in Texas may have largely spared us the worst. Indeed, Houston appears well-positioned to create good middle-class jobs, offering a vivid example of "opportunity urbanism," as city expert Joel Kotkin has often described it.

Forbes calls America's ag heartland an economy to watch this year

Forbes contributor Joel Kotkin calls America’s “agricultural heartland” one of the top five regional economies to watch in 2012.

Kotkin says states don’t need “oil or gas to enjoy a strong economy,” and he points to Omaha and Des Moines as two examples.

Economists Place Their Bests for 2012

"If you move from New York to Houston, you just gave yourself a gigantic raise," said Joel Kotkin. "As the country has become more stressed, people have to move to those places where they can achieve a middle-class lifestyle at a lower cost."

Interview on Smartplanet.com

"Greenurbia is the suburbs of the future. The suburbs of the 1950s were bedroom communities for people who commuted into the city. Today, there’s much more employment in the suburbs, and the big change is the number of people working full-time or part-time at home. Having people commute from one computer screen to another doesn’t make sense."

Read the full interview...

Praise for The Next Hundred Million

Kotkin has a striking ability to envision how global forces will shape daily family life, and his conclusions can be thought-provoking as well as counterintuitive. It's amazing there isn't more public discussion about the enormous changes ahead, and reassuring to have this talented thinker on the case. — Jennifer Ludden, NPR national desk correspondent

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California muddle: state must change course before it's too late

Now Available in Paperback: The Next Hundred Million

Latest Reviews

Joel on Reason.tv

News Clips

The Economist: The Power of Tribes

Buscaino vs. Furutani

Houston's well-positioned to create good jobs

Forbes calls America's ag heartland an economy to watch this year

Economists Place Their Bests for 2012

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Also by Joel Kotkin: The City: A Global History

The Next Hundred Million

Interview on Smartplanet.com

Praise for The Next Hundred Million

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