Long Dead Streetcars Still Shape L.A. Neighborhoods

Why Millions of Angelenos Live According to the Plan of an Extinct Transit System

In the early 1900s, streetcars were the dominant mode of transit in the Los Angeles area. They ran from Pomona to the ocean, and from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. The addition of a streetcar route to any area immediately made that land more accessible to downtown and therefore more valuable.

One of us used to live in a neighborhood near the intersection of Westwood and Santa Monica boulevards that exemplifies the sort of development spawned by the streetcar. The boulevards are lined with commercial structures and surrounded by …

by Leah Brooks and Byron Lutz | September 23, 2014

The Civil Rights Act Is Broken

A Law Written to Protect Blacks in the Deep South Has Become a Source of Discrimination in a Diversifying Nation

by John D. Skrentny | July 22, 2014

Californians, like other Americans, like to think that race should never be a qualification for a job, that everyone deserves an equal opportunity and a fair shake. This principle undergirds …

How On Earth Did Crystal Cathedral Go Catholic?

An Orange County Evangelical Church’s Flameout Shows Us How Quickly America’s Spiritual Landscape Can Change

by Jim Hinch | October 25, 2013

This summer, thousands of Catholics from Orange County and beyond, responding to invitations sent out in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, packed a sun-drenched plaza in Garden Grove. They were there …

I’m a Rare and Precious Baby. So Pay Me.

California Has a Child Shortage. And This Newborn Can’t Pick Up the Slack All By Himself.

by Sam Mathews | September 6, 2013

At the moment of my birth—a moment that occurred only last week—I was the most valuable child in the history of California.

That’s not merely the opinion of my proud father, …

What Will 11.2 Million Legalizations Do?

Assessing the Impact of the New Immigration Bill on Los Angeles and the Nation

by Sarah Rothbard | May 2, 2013

Exactly seven years ago, on May 1, 2006, millions of people in cities across America took to the streets to protest against harsh proposed changes in immigration policy. Today, a …

Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Veterans

Ask How We Can Get More of Them To California

by Joe Mathews | April 25, 2013

Should California recruit more military veterans to move here?

If that question seems ridiculous, it’s only because we have some mistaken ideas about both California and veterans.

The first common but incorrect …

demographics