When the Escalara family added a second story to their house they received a $22,000 home-improvement rebate. Welcome to Commerce, CA.
"These are bleak days for most California municipalities awaiting the fallout from the state's fiscal crisis, with residents worried about cuts in everything from library hours to youth programs. But a few cities, graced with special circumstances, remain flush... In Commerce, a working-class city of 13,000 in the heart of industrial Los Angeles, its card club revenue keeps residents cashing in their civic chips. Even if there's a drastic drop in state funding, the city's number-crunchers anticipate no service cutbacks or layoffs in the city's 400-strong work force. But the perks do come with a price."
Thanks to Laura Kranz
Read the full story: What Fiscal Crisis? Money Flows Freely in Commerce
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
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Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority