Blog Entries for Joel tagged 'Politics Government'

A New World Order Not as Previously Imagined

joel.ellinwood@lawyer-planner.com — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0100

I once believed that carbon reduction and peak oil would be the defining issues of my generation, and that to be involved in land use was the opportunity and challenge of a lifetime. Instead I am now inclined to believe that the overleveraging of the American consumer debt economy, and its resultant exposure of our economic model as the emperor's new clothes of the capitalist economy of the west may be almost as big an issue, and one that will overshadow our economy and prospects for de [...]

SB 375 - Good start on the politics, but where's the money?

joel.ellinwood@lawyer-planner.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0100

In the article recently published in the California Real Property Journal, Vol. 26 No. 4, (January 2009) I explain the problem of governance that combating global warming through more efficient land use and development practices poses for California. The California Constitution directly establishes the police power of cities and counties, and state statutes enshrines the principle of local control for all land use, planning and zoning issues. The California Global Warming Solution [...]

AB 32 Scoping Plan Comments of a Land Use & Environmental Attorney without Portfolio

joel.ellinwood@lawyer-planner.com — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 +0100

To: California Air Resources Board

Subject: Comments on Scoping Plan - Regional Transportation Target

Submitted online on December 2, 2008

As a land use and environmental attorney I have followed the development of the Scoping Plan and the regional transportation target closely. I am not commenting on behalf of a client and I am not representing any particular interest group or organization. I am stating my own personal views and professional opinion.

SB 375 req [...]

Governing from the center - Chicago style

joel.ellinwood@lawyer-planner.com — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0100

When I delivered the three absentee ballots from my household to my poling place on Tuesday morning, November 4, I told the election workers I was from Chicago and so I was following the adage, "vote early and often." At first they weren't sure whether to laugh or call the cops.

Barack Obama's choice for his chief of staff of fellow Chicagoan, Congressman Rahm Emmanuel, known for his tough, competitive, but smart style, reminds me that for good or ill, all the presidents in m [...]