California Officials Can’t Build By Their Own Rules

An Addition to the Capitol Is Over Budget and Behind Schedule—While Sacramento Keeps Exempting Itself From State Law

At the very center of state government, you’ll find a hole in the ground demonstrating that the people who make California laws can’t live by them. 

That hole is, for now, the Capitol Annex Project. The project is supposed to replace a 72-year-old office wing of the Capitol building—the “annex” where the governor and legislators kept their offices—with a 21st-century building. The new annex would connect to the 19th-century main Capitol building.

Like much of California, the previous annex needed renovation—plumbing, sprinklers for fires. Décor was drab. Rooms were cramped. Governors complained …

Who Will Defend Us From the Body Snatchers?

The Pod People Are Back. This Time, Our Overworked Local Officials Are Even Less Prepared to Protect Us

Maybe I’ve been watching too many old movies.

Or maybe the body snatchers are back.

We’ve seen them twice before in my home state of California. Both invasions—of pod aliens, who secretly …

Go to Sleep, My City Council

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

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 …

The Fight to Save Stockton

In the Once-Bankrupt City, a Stanford Scholar Finds That People Are Poor Because Their Governments Are Poor

If California wants to curb poverty, its local governments must become richer.

That may be the most important lesson of the recent history of Stockton, as recounted by Stanford Law School …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Public Access Democracy Director Leonora Camner

My Tattoo Is a Kleroterion

Leonora Camner is the director of Public Access Democracy and the executive director of Abundant Housing LA, and served on the Santa Monica Housing Commission from 2019 to 2022. Before …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Weingart Foundation CEO Miguel Santana

I Was the Skunk at the Picnic

Miguel Santana was the city administrative officer for the City of Los Angeles, where he designed the city’s first comprehensive homeless strategy. Santana was appointed President & CEO of the …