1.2 Million Passengers. One Single Track.

California May Not Need That $68-Billion Bullet Train. But It Sure As Heck Needs More Rail Capacity.

I’m not a big fan of trains, but my oldest son, Ben, 4, loves them. He’d been lobbying to go on a “big train trip,” and his school would be closed for a couple days at the end of September, when I had a meeting in Sacramento. Why not take the kid on a train trip from L.A. to the state capital, by Amtrak?

It would be useful research, too. California governments are still close to broke, but we are preparing to spend big money on one thing: connecting L.A. to …

by Joe Mathews | October 24, 2013

How Modesto Revived My Acting Career

I Was 14 When Stage Fright During a New York Audition Foiled My Plans For the Future. A Thriving Arts Scene In California’s Central Valley Came To My Rescue.

by Dwight D. Mahabir | October 23, 2013

As a child, I was always singing. I’d walk up and down my street in New Rochelle, New York, singing the crooner songs I heard at home: Tom Jones, Engelbert …

The Noir of the San Joaquin

A New Generation of Writers Takes a Hard Look at Life in California’s Dark Rural Heart

by Gerald Haslam | October 16, 2013

In the 1960s, Leonard Gardner’s novel Fat City and Sherley Anne Williams’ poem “The Iconography of Childhood” revealed the dark recesses of life in California’s supposedly bucolic San Joaquin Valley. …

California’s Coast Doesn’t Have a Sustainability Monopoly

How A Brown, Dusty San Joaquin Valley Town Is Going Green

by Lisa Margonelli | September 30, 2013

Rey Leon works on sustainability in the city of Huron, California. Sustainability is a common enough word on the California coast, where hybrid cars, organic food, and solar power are …

I’d Like Pepperoni and Poetry on That

How a Community College Student Started a Poetry Slam at a Visalia Pizzeria

by Michael Jasso | August 23, 2013

If you want to hear poetry on a Friday night in the San Joaquin Valley, stop by Howie & Son’s Pizza Parlor in Visalia.

You’ll find us in the back room, …

Modesto’s Marvelous MoBand

For More Than 90 Years, A Band That Is Open to All Binds Together a California City

by Lisa Margonelli | August 14, 2013

Modesto has been one of the most evanescent of California cities. It has survived floods and busts, and some jarring booms. Ernest and Julio Gallo opened their winery here in …

If Californians Won’t Ride Trains, How Come Our Family’s Amtrak Trip Was Mobbed?

A Journey on the Pacific Surfliner Shows Why We Need More High-Speed Rail, Not Less

California’s High Speed Rail Should Look Like Germany’s

Stations Can Be Vital Public Spaces That Provide Space for People to Gather, Shop, and Be Entertained

How Taiwan’s High-Speed Trains Expose California’s Lack of Nerve

While the Golden State Made Excuses, the Poorer, Smaller Island Country Transformed Its National Transit System

Is San Jose Destined to Be a Train Wreck for California Transportation?

The Bay Area City Could Be the State’s Rail Capital. But Plans Are Veering Off Track

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