Is This the Most Dysfunctional City Council in California?

Santa Clara’s Conflicts Include Letterhead Battles, Midnight Meetings, and a Threatening Reading of a Picture Book

During a Santa Clara City Council meeting last year, Councilmember Kevin Park gestured to a local business owner in the audience and started reading aloud from the illustrated book All My Friends Are Dead, about a dinosaur who’s still around, even though the other dinosaurs are extinct.

But Park altered the text to read “All My Friends Are Termed Out.” The message was menacing. The business owner was deeply engaged with the city and once had many allies on the council. But Park was reminding this man …

by Joe Mathews | August 20, 2024

Go to Sleep, My City Council

Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Stars, Goodnight to the Government Meetings That Should Close Before the Bars

by Joe Mathews | November 21, 2023

I hereby propose a new rule to improve the quality of California’s local democracy. When the bars in your city close, so must your city council.

The idea occurred to me …

I Hereby Censure the Censure

When California Politicians Pass Resolutions Denouncing One Another, They Make a Mockery of Democracy

by Joe Mathews | September 26, 2023

It’s time that we Californians censure the whole idea of censure.

Because it’s consuming the precious time and money of our local governments.

Censure is the name often given to resolutions or …

Madrid Has 57 Councilmembers. Seoul Has 110. Why Does L.A. Have 15?

More Mayoral Authority Won’t Empower California Cities; Electing More of Your Neighbors to Local Posts Will

by Joe Mathews | September 1, 2020

If you want to make your California city government stronger, don’t make your mayor more powerful. Instead, make your city council bigger.

This summer, two of our state’s most thoughtful …

The National Partisan Nastiness Is Now Poisoning Local Politics

A Former Ventura Mayor Says Washington’s Ideological Warfare Is Making Municipal Governing Uglier, Harsher, and Harder

by William Fulton | July 24, 2018

Not long ago, a homeless man wandered into a restaurant on the ocean promenade in the city of Ventura, California, and stabbed to death a young man who was eating …

The Little Dry Cleaning Shop Around the Corner

When I Took Over My Family's Business on South Central Avenue in 1994 I Had Two Struggles: The Business and South L.A.

By Vivian Bowers-Cowan | July 7, 2016

When the property owners on historic South Central Avenue (from Washington Boulevard to Vernon Avenue) started one of the first Business Improvement Districts in South L.A., I was surprised to …

In California, Pro Football Is for Losers

As Big Cities Shed the NFL, Only Smaller, Poorer Cities Are Desperate Enough to Host Teams

Go to Sleep, My City Council

Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Stars, Goodnight to the Government Meetings That Should Close Before the Bars

I Hereby Censure the Censure

When California Politicians Pass Resolutions Denouncing One Another, They Make a Mockery of Democracy

Make Your City Council Meetings Feel Like a Starbucks

If You Want Folks to Show Up, Gather Some Comfy Chairs, Serve Coffee, Maybe Even Pour Drinks

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