blog post Video: Building California’s Future By Mary Severance May 4, 2022 PPIC’s Lande Ajose talks with an expert panel of state and local leaders about infrastructure’s critical role in promoting opportunity, equity, and sustainability for California’s diverse communities.
blog post Election Day and California’s Future By Mark Baldassare Nov 3, 2020 In a year of unprecedented crises, Californians express a high level of enthusiasm about voting, and the state appears on course to set a modern-day record for voter turnout.
blog post Timely Talk About California’s Future By Mark Baldassare Dec 2, 2014 With the new legislature sworn in and state leaders developing policy agendas for the months ahead, PPIC is hosting a wide-ranging conversation tomorrow about the choices we need to make today to create a future that benefits all Californians.
Report Making Room for the Future: Rebuilding California’s Infrastructure By David E. Dowall, Jan Whittington Mar 12, 2003 This report identifies the state’s most pressing infrastructure problems and shows how policymakers can address them more effectively. In particular, it analyzes the issues and opportunities confronting three of the state’s major infrastructure responsibilities-education, water, and transportation-and identifies a range of policy tools that can be used to improve infrastructure service delivery. After surveying the key institutions in each sector, the authors offer a list of recommendations for addressing the state’s infrastructure challenges. They also suggest a three-step approach to implementing these recommendations: immediate measures to relieve costly congestion and infrastructure impaction; near-term efforts to address infrastructure service shortfalls; and a long-term overhaul to remove structural and institutional impediments to infrastructure provision.
event California’s Future: Voter Turnout Jan 23, 2014 About the Program With voter turnout in California on the decline, the state has been in the forefront of efforts to expand the electorate. How have recent reform efforts fared? PPIC research fellow Eric McGhee will provide an overview, and a panel of leaders will discuss how to motivate more Californians to exercise their right to vote. This project is supported with funding from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.
event The James Irvine Foundation Briefing SeriesEducating California’s Future Workforce Mar 26, 2013
Report Factors and Future Projections for K–12 Declining Enrollment By Julien Lafortune, Emmanuel Prunty Dec 11, 2023 Over the past five years, enrollment has fallen in nearly three-quarters of California school districts, and the trend is expected to continue into the next decade. Faster declines could bring pressure to close schools, along with concerns about the students and neighborhoods bearing the costs of downsizing.
Report Building California’s Future: Current Conditions in Infrastructure Planning, Budgeting, and Financing By Michael Neuman, Jan Whittington Jun 1, 2000 California’s identified infrastructure needs now outstrip available funds. To address this problem, the governor has charged the Commission on Building for the 21st Century with investigating financial options for narrowing the gap between needs and resources. This important and timely charge seems to neglect another important policy consideration: the way infrastructure decisions are made in the first place. In Building California’s Future: Current Conditions in Infrastructure Planning, Budgeting, and Financing, Michael Neuman and Jan Whittington examine California’s decision-making process at the state level. Based on interviews with policymakers as well as a thorough review of laws, rules, and budgets, their study evaluates how state agencies, legislators, and the governor interact to plan, budget, finance, and prioritize infrastructure projects.
blog post The Future of Fog By Sarah Bardeen Apr 1, 2024 Fog is central to life in California, but climate change is going to disrupt this quintessentially Californian weather experience. We asked Todd Dawson, a scientist who has long studied the relationship between fog and redwoods, to divine the future of fog for us.
