Is Public Office the Best Place to Do Public Service?

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez Is the Latest to Join an Exodus of Talented California Leaders in Search of Real Impact

If you want to serve the people of California, is public office the best place for you?

The question came up again as one of our most accomplished state legislators, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, recently resigned her seat to take a leadership role at the California Labor Federation, a powerful alliance of unions representing millions of workers.

Gonzalez, best known for legislation regulating the gig economy and protecting warehouse workers, was reported to have many different reasons for leaving, from the redistricting of the part of San Diego County she’s …

by Joe Mathews | January 25, 2022

How Los Angeles Can Govern Street Vending With the Respect It Deserves

The City, State, and County Have to Innovate to Fairly Govern the Half-Billion Dollar Business

by Álvaro Huerta, Victor Narro, and Doug Smith | July 14, 2021

Street vending isn’t just ubiquitous in Los Angeles. It’s a half-billion-dollar industry, according to a 2015 report by nonprofit research organization Economic Roundtable.

Street vending can no longer be dismissed by …

Small Towns Can Create Big Change

From Banning Private Prisons to Universal Broadband and Pre-K, Necessity and Opportunity Allow California Communities to Punch Above Their Weight

by Sarah Rothbard | June 18, 2021

Before answering the question of the evening—“What Makes a Good Small Town?”—the panelists at a Zócalo/California Wellness Foundation event had to choose a definition. What, asked moderator and Los Angeles …

A Complex Homelessness Crisis Requires a Complex Response

L.A. Needs Coordination and Cooperation—Plus More Resources—to Solve Its Most Urgent Problem

by Jackie Mansky | June 16, 2021

Homelessness is the biggest crisis Los Angeles faces today—one that’s only expanded in urgency with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In search of solutions to the problem and its root causes, Zócalo, United …

The Internet Needs Its Own Government | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Internet Needs Its Own Democratic Government

The Digital World Should Be Ruled by an Independent Coalition Beyond the Reach of Big Tech and Nation-States

by Joe Mathews | May 11, 2021

Today’s methods for governing the internet do not constitute a coherent system, much less a democratic one.

Instead, internet governance is a contest for power between the most powerful tech companies, …

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 …

Governance