The California Community College system is considered one of the best in the world, but even they can use help in finding ways to improve vocational training. Image source: Wikimedia Commons In California, we have a unique relationship with our community college system. Considered perhaps the premiere system in the country, California Community Colleges (CCC)
San Diego is embracing a mixed-use City of Villages strategy, which is something that can help government real estate needs. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. There are two distinct, seemingly opposite, but intimately related trends in 21st-century American life, and both affect the fate of government real estate. The first is the growing desire to automate
Los Angeles is loaded with historic buildings like the Tower Theater. The city has passed ordinances encouraging the renovation and use of its old buildings. It is not hard to find old buildings that have been converted to serve new purposes. For example, take a look at this former hospital power plant in St. Louis
A closing big-box store can be a blight or an opportunity for a community. A problem has emerged in American cities and towns. Big-box retailers like Kmart and Borders have closed hundreds of stores. Aside from lost sales tax revenue and jobs, this leaves behind another problem: a large, concrete box that sits empty among
A revival in American main streets started 30 years ago, providing an opportunity for businesses. American main streets once seemed to have lost their way. Freeways led to spacious new malls in the ‘burbs that catered to a shopper’s every need. The old department stores with the toy train sets and dressed-up mannequins in the
It pays not to avoid the opposition. NIMBY campaigns can be intense and highly organized. Image source: Flickr CC user photohiro It is not uncommon these days for developers to face opposition. Word gets out that a new subdivision or a department store is planned and opponents come out of the woodwork. Rumors become whispers
Good freeway access is often at the top of a developer’s wish list. It’s no surprise that major developments often get built near exits. Image source: Flickr CC user Francisco Anzola Weary travelers needing gas or food on the freeways need only look for the inevitable roadside oasis at the next exit. The kind of
Churches may not have money machines on hand when times get tough, but some churches have found the next best thing. Image source: Flickr CC user Images of Money It would nice if America’s churches had money machines on hand to spit out cash when times get tough. For some churches, times have gotten especially
The public space is an area to relax and mix with the rest of the community. Image source: Wikimedia Commons Walking around any city center during lunch time on a nice summer day, you’ll see office workers liberated from cubicles and deadlines eating lunch in an open plaza of some kind. They’ll be spread out,
The one-room schoolhouse was solid and wonderful, but it was the opposite of the flexible grid style schools needed for the future. Image source: Wikimedia Commons user Bilertl Demographics often mimic a slow tide, coming in gradually and making incremental and predictable changes. Eventually, everything is different and where you were once sitting is now
A road improvement project on a main street may not be an infallible weathervane, but often does indicate that a downtown are could be experiencing an upswing.Image source: Flickr CC user OliBac It would be a neat trick if a business could find a window into the future or a weathervane to predict which way the economic winds were blowing. Unfortunately, there's no foolproof way to gauge whether a business will succeed on a city’s main street.
Sometimes, state, federal, and local tax incentives are the perfect finishing touch in motivating a company to start up a business or to choose to relocate to another area. Image source: Flickr CC user Horia Varian Some people believe that only nonprofit businesses can get tax breaks and that for-profit businesses are on their when
