On Such a Full Sea follows Fan, a young woman from one of the labor communities, as she leaves her home in search of her love. In a corporatized future world – where the wealthy fly in helicopters, workers try to compete with robots, and the really poor live in favelas – what becomes of social mobility and the notions of resilience and hope and equality?
by Jeremy Loudenback The Los Angeles River presents an intoxicating vision of change for Los Angeles A much-anticipated plan for the river would do more than just remove the concrete channel that for a long time erased the waterway from public memory. The 2007 Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan imagines Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback In February, when Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard visited campus as part of Bedrosian Center’s Lunch with a Leader series, we had a chance to ask him a few questions about his long tenure at the helm of Pasadena. But change is coming for the city. Next Tuesday, Pasadena Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Aside from robust voter turnout in last week’s city election, the most positive result of protests in Ferguson over policing practices may be attention to inequities in other parts of its criminal-justice system. Accounts by the Washington Post and last month’s Department of Justice report about Ferguson have called Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback What is the role of universities in promoting a civic identity? For years, the academy has been held up as an important vessel of democratic ideas and practices, inspiring and instructing generations of young minds about the virtues of engagement and the participatory process. For students involved in Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback In the lightning-fast world of social media, being able to respond to a crisis quickly, decisively, and thoughtfully is an essential skill for public officials and leaders. The bumbling reactions of former Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting and the post-oil Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback In Los Angeles, a recent debate about street vending in the city has underscored important discussions about race, class, health, immigration, space, and the rule of law. As Los Angeles considers how to legalize street vendors, the Contesting the Streets II: Vending and Public Space in Global Cities Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback This week, thousands of music fans, critics, and assorted cool hunters will assemble in the parched desert expanses of Indio, California, for the annual Coachella Arts and Music Festival. Featuring acts like Flying Lotus, Lil B, and Tame Impala, Coachella’s lineup is considered a cheat sheet to some Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Last year, when the Army Corps of Engineers signed off on a $1.08 billion plan to revitalize an 11-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River, momentum for the project turned from a trickle into a swift current of expectations. Though a modest “back to basics” message has been Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Despite his soft-spoken public persona, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard casts a long shadow. Over the course of his 16-year tenure, most current Pasadena schoolchildren have grown up knowing only Bogaard as their mayor. During that span, Pasadena has undergone dramatic change, shifting from a sleepy town known for Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Best in Governance Government hasn’t always had a model relationship with technology, but the use of open data and other forward-thinking initiatives are helping to make governments more transparent than ever before. Across the country, cities are using new website interfaces to help constituents gain easier access to Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Next Tuesday, Los Angeles will take to the polls to confront one of its enduring stereotypes. Los Angeles, critics say, is a civic wasteland, a sprawling city still struggling to forge an identity for itself. Look no further than the last mayoral election, they might say. Only 20.8% Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback January 2015 Worst in Governance That the United States is increasingly riven by strong partisan divisions is not exactly news in 2015. But the recent controversy around House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress establishes sets a Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback January 2015 Best in Governance “Politics stops at the water’s edge” was the latter-day foreign-policy vision of Arthur Vandenberg, a one-time isolationist Republican senator from Michigan who fiercely opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. However, in the wake of World War II, Vandenberg’s work with President Harry Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback For William T. Fujioka, a distinguished 40-year career in public service began in humble circumstances. In 1972, Fujioka started working in the public sector as a custodian for Santa Cruz County. But after rising through the ranks in jobs for both the City of Los Angeles and Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback December 2014 Worst in Governance The end of the year is usually a prosperous and celebratory time for Hollywood. That’s when studios unveil eagerly awaited blockbusters and critically acclaimed movies. Millions flock to theaters during the holiday season. But this year, box-office receipts and award nominations took a Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback December 2014 Best in Governance Isolation is not working. In the 55 years since the Cuban Revolution, relations between the United States and Cuba have remained frozen in time, much like the 1950s-era vintage cars that still sputter around the streets of Havana. Despite the fact that the Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback At the Bedrosian Center’s Lunch with a Leader program last week, Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Doane Liu recalled with pride how he first got a taste for public service. As a San Pedro resident, he helped broker a deal in the mid-1990s that turned surplus land in San Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback In the 2008 presidential campaign, the much more prominent use of social media by Barack Obama’s campaign served to highlight his relevance and forward-looking perspective. But by 2012, the social-media gap had narrowed sharply, with Twitter and other social media becoming a contentious political battlefield for candidates from Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Best in Governance Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Board In October of last year, Maryland was poised to roll out its health insurance exchange as part of the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Hopes were high that the state would be able to serve the almost Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback It’s clear that even after a historic election victory in June, not everybody is ready for Robert Garcia, Long Beach’s first Latino, and openly gay mayor as well as the youngest person to ever hold the position. “I just had a breakfast meeting where someone thought I was Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback California is finding that the path toward creating more compact, transit-oriented developments is not always a smooth ride. Over the past couple of years, California has inaugurated new policies many hope will incentivize developers to build more in denser urban areas and lead to developments that prioritize transit, Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback Just in time for the weekend, here’s a governance-related wrap-up of the midterm elections held earlier this week: National As Tuesday night’s elation fades, the GOP has its work cut out for it: http://wapo.st/1Eck9UU Was it former pig castrator’s Joni Ernst’s spot or the “Say Yes to the Dress” spoofs? Best and worst Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback The book of disappointing mayors is a long one. The ledgers are full of entries on bumbling bribe-takers, sexually harassing hizzoners, influence peddlers, and kickback artists, with a special section devoted to the crack-smoking shenanigans of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Great leaders, unfortunately, are much harder to come Read more…
by Jeremy Loudenback This past June, Robert Garcia shattered three glass ceilings. Garcia made history by becoming the first Latino and the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach by triumphing in a runoff election on June 3. At 36, he is also the youngest person to serve as mayor in Read more…