Connecting California

A Little City Takes on the Big Job of Building Housing and Infrastructure

La Verne, Population 32,000, Is First to Try California’s Newest Redevelopment Tool

A Little City Takes on the Big Job of Building Housing and Infrastructure | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian


Officials in La Verne, a small city of 32,000 in east Los Angeles County, don’t like to be on the leading edge in establishing new policies. La Verne certainly doesn’t want to be a player in the big statewide debates over housing and transit. And the city didn’t set out to make itself a proving ground for the best new tool California communities have to transform themselves.

But La Verne is about to become a California leader anyway.

That’s because this city—for its own reasons—has formed one of California’s first EIFDs. …

by Joe Mathews |

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California Should Pick the Next President

America No Longer Wants Steady and Boring Chief Executives, So It’s Time to Let the Golden State Choose

by Joe Mathews |


Elizabeth Warren, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, gets on her knees to pick spinach while discussing single-payer health care with farmworkers in the Salinas Valley. Beto O’Rourke, in a wetsuit …

Berkeley Is Great. But UCLA Is Greater

The University in Westwood Has a Scale—and a Rapid and Relentless History—That Defines California

by Joe Mathews |

Berkeley. Schmerkeley. California’s most important educational institution is UCLA.

Now would be a good time for Californians to recognize this, and not only because the school in Westwood is celebrating its …

Why Does California Want My Kids Glued to Their Computers?

As the State Moves Testing and Homework Online, Parents Are Losing the Battle Against Screen Time

by Joe Mathews |

A great conflict is tearing this country apart, bitterly pitting generations against each other. It’s not immigration or “Medicare for all.” It’s the fight over how much time kids can …

Yosemite Is Not for Claustrophobes

As It Accommodates Millions of Visitors a Year, California’s Signature National Park Feels Less Like an Escape

Joe Mathews |

The Yosemite National Park shuttle bus to Mariposa Grove wasn’t running. And the road up to the grove is no longer open to private cars. Would my three sons, ages …


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