Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Despite introducing what seemed like excellent legislation to help increase the number of affordable housing units in developer-backed housing projects, California governor Jerry Brown's proposal caused so much multi-faceted angst it became political poison, primarily because it gently... View full entry
In a major reversal, Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking state funds for a fledgling earthquake early warning system for California, which would allow for a limited rollout of alerts by 2018...Though the governor’s proposed funding is a big step for the system, it does not come with ongoing funds to operate it. An earthquake early warning system for California alone will cost about $23 million to build and $12 million annually to operate[.] — Los Angeles Times
More on Archinect:Checking in on Nepal, one year laterDeath toll climbs to 350 after powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake hits EcuadorIn Los Angeles, landlords and tenants will share seismic retrofit costsShigeru Ban builds earthquake-proof homes in Nepal: "I'm encouraging people to copy my ideas. No... View full entry
Gov. Jerry Brown [...] laid out a revised game plan for dealing with California’s persistent drought, making some conservation rules permanent while also moving to give communities more of a say in deciding how much water they must save.
Brown issued an executive order enshrining a conservation ethic in state regulations — banning permanently some wasteful water practices and ordering regulators to develop new water-efficiency standards designed to drive down long-term urban use.
— latimes.com
Previous Archinect stories covering the drought crisis in California and the Southwest U.S.:Have these heavy rains alleviated the California drought?Gov. Brown issues order to reduce California's greenhouse gas emissionsHow is water used in California?"Grassroots Cactivism," 1st place winner in... View full entry
Late in the day on Friday [Governor Jerry Brown] signed Assembly Bill 744, which allows affordable housing developers to build less parking than many local zoning regulations currently permit.
The bill is a victory for affordable housing advocates, who have been saying for a number of years that the burden of building more parking than tenants use has made affordable housing too expensive to build.
— cal.streetsblog.org
More on the politics of parking:Los Angeles has Created the Perfect Parking SignFlexible Parking Structures as Civic CatalystsTrading Parking Lots for Affordable HousingBuy Condo, Then Add Parking Spot for $1 Million"Graphing Parking" charts out of whack U.S. minimum parking regulations View full entry
Californians in May shot past Gov. Jerry Brown's water conservation targets in response to the drought emergency [...].
New numbers, released Wednesday, show that the state's ambitious conservation campaign is working, with statewide residential water use declining 28.9 percent in May from its baseline 2013 levels. The figures surpassed Brown's order in April to cut water use statewide by 25 percent.
— mercurynews.com
Click here to read the full report issued by the California State Water Resources Control Board.Drought-related news on Archinect:Enlisting the Internet of Things against California's historic droughtCalifornia Water Crisis? Now there's a board game for that!California Farmers Using Oil... View full entry
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued an executive order to establish a California greenhouse gas reduction target of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 - the most aggressive benchmark enacted by any government in North America to reduce dangerous carbon emissions over the next decade and a half. "With this order, California sets a very high bar for itself and other states and nations, but it's one that must be reached - for this generation and generations to come," said Governor Brown. — gov.ca.gov
Currently in the midst of four consecutive years of exceptional drought, California is experiencing first-hand the real-life implications of a warming climate. Before the order, the state was already on track to "meet or exceed" targets for reducing CO2 emissions to pre-1990 levels in the next... View full entry
In our Snapchat attention-span world, we forget that celebrities often had different careers before they became international superstars. Did you know that Brad Pitt once worked for Frank Gehry, or that Robert Irwin very nearly became an architect instead of an artist? Herewith, a look back at the... View full entry
