California is at a Crossroads

Joel Kotkin — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 18:53:23 -0400

The most recent elections in California resolved little about the future, but did suggest that there’s a growing electoral unease with progressive dogma. This was made most clear in the recall of San Francisco’s arch-radical district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and in the first-place finish of billionaire Rick Caruso, on an anti-crime and anti-homelessness ticket, in the primary race for LA mayor.

The drivers of electoral change are quality-of-life issues, like homelessness, petty crime and a general deterioration of civic order. Yet the biggest issues have hardly been discussed, notably economic trends and policies that underlie the state’s housing problems, entrenched poverty, massive inequality and loss of attractiveness to investors.

To be sure, candidates like Caruso and business interests funding the Boudin recall are aware of the economic issues. Yet they, and for that matter Gavin Newsom, who won a majority in the Democratic primary for California governor, have not focused on the economic crisis that could supplant all other issues in the coming year. The state media, which should be focusing on this, seem more interested in explaining away the economic problems that are clearly facing California.

Read the rest of this piece at Spiked.

Joel Kotkin is the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is the Roger Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and Executive Director for Urban Reform Institute. Learn more at joelkotkin.com and follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.

LAPD Getting it Right

Andy Sywak — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:46:13 -0500

Though California state government may be truly dysfunctional, one much-maligned institution has managed to reinvent itself and flourish this decade: the LAPD.

The town that once conjured up images of Bloods and Crips shooting it out as an indifferent and racist police force sat by has seen homicides drop 41%, rapes by 37% and aggravated assaults by a whopping 63% over the last six years. In 2008, Los Angeles had the fewest property crimes since 1959 and the lowest level of violent crime since 1969 - amazing given the plight of the economy. And the benefits are being felt in the city's toughest neighborhoods: Compton, with 65 gangs crammed into 10 square miles, saw its lowest number of homicides in 25 years last year. All this has happened despite a much lower number of cops per capita - and a much larger area to patrol - than New York.

Police Chief Bill Bratton deserves a huge amount of the credit for this amazing transformation, but the department has also remade itself in the image of the diverse city it serves. Over a decade ago, the LAPD was 80% white. Today that number is 38%, with 41% of the force composed of Latino officers, 12% black, 7% Asian. Almost 20% of officers are women.

The LAPD has put a lot of effort into fixing its poor image in the communities where it was most detested - admitting to its checkered past in minority communities. And its strategies are working.

public safety

California is at a Crossroads

LAPD Getting it Right