Connecting California

Take Me Out to the California League

The Golden State's Major League Baseball Is Slow-Paced and Pricey, but Our Minor League Beautifully Binds Us Together

Take me out to the ballgame this summer? Sure, as long as you’re taking me to San Jose or Visalia or Lake Elsinore.

Yep, I know those cities don’t have major league teams—that’s the point. In California these days, Major League Baseball is miserable. But the California League—our very own minor league—is a little-known jewel, binding together our most challenged cities and regions with wholesome and affordable entertainment.

This summer, I’ve made a point of attending California League games in search of an antidote to the awfulness of California’s five …

By Joe Mathews |

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In San Juan Bautista, It’s Apocalypse—Now

The Site of a Famous Mission, and a Hitchcock Masterpiece, Is a Good Place to Ponder Human Fall-ibility

By Joe Mathews |

If the apocalypse comes to California, I’ll be ready. After all, I’ve been to San Juan Bautista, which has centuries of experience with the ending of worlds.

I visited the San …

To Make California a True Democracy, Give Non-Citizens the Right to Vote

If You Root for the Dodgers, Pay Taxes, and Battle Traffic, Are You Any Less Californian Than Me?

By Joe Mathews |

President Trump claims that California allowed millions of non-citizens to cast ballots in the 2016 elections. This allegation, while totally bogus, has put California and its political leaders on the …

Will California’s Housing Shortage Epidemic Infect the Rest of the West?

A Visit to Utah Shows How the Crisis Has Spread, and Suggests Some Cures

By Joe Mathews |

Sorry, Utah.

And apologies to the rest of the West. California’s epidemic shortage of housing hasn’t just sickened our own state—by driving up prices, forcing residents into rentals and onto the …

Is California a Great Ideas Incubator, or an Insular Bubble?

To Be a Leader on National Issues, We Must Leave Our Smug, Protective Cocoon

By Joe Mathews |

California, do you want to be an incubator for great ideas—or a bubble that shuts out the world?

That’s the question Californians need to ask, as we simultaneously confront three …

L.A.’s Revelatory Light Rail for Nerds

The Gold Line Has Become a Brain Train, Linking Educational Institutions From Pasadena to East L.A.

By Joe Mathews |

My train line is smarter than your train line.

I’m a regular rider of “The Brain Train,” officially known as the Gold Line on the L.A. Metro system. The Gold …


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