• Blog
  • January 17, 2025

Blog: Trump’s Saber-Rattling is an Ominous Sign of Dangerous Demagoguery

Donald Trump has not yet been sworn into his second term of office, but there are disturbing signs of what may come in his upcoming administration. On January 7, President-Elect Trump told reporters that “ we need Greenland for national security...
  • Blog
  • January 14, 2025

Blog: Is India inclusive? A personal perspective

I recently returned from a month-long trip to India, my birth country. It was exciting, exhilarating, invigorating, and above all gave me an opportunity to re-experience the culture, the people and the connections. Of all the visits I have made since...
  • Blog
  • November 19, 2024

Blog: Getting Free From Corporate Political Domination

The Democrats’ historic loss of working class voters across race and gender lines has led to some debate and hopefully soul-searching about how the party can win back the support of working class voters, and what has prevented the party from an...
  • Blog
  • October 23, 2024

The Problem of California's Prop 36, Criminal Justice Reform, and the Social Justice Blind Spot

California voters are being asked to roll back a milestone criminal justice reform this election, in the form of Proposition 36. This initiative would elevate certain misdemeanors, like petty theft and non-violent drug crimes, into felonies. It would...
  • Blog
  • August 21, 2024

Against Pro-Housing Hauteur

In this multi-part series, we join an analysis of a novel database of municipal zoning reform efforts across the United States with a deconstructive treatment of the housing political infrastructure, and those movements that contest the desideratum...
  • Blog
  • May 15, 2024

The Destabilization of American Zoning

In this multi-part series, we join an analysis of a novel database of municipal zoning reform efforts across the United States with an argument for the necessity of a tenant-inflected zoning reform, as a method and approach to ground future zoning...
  • Blog
  • May 6, 2024

The Practice of Bridging

Creating structures for belonging or a belongingness policy agenda, while necessary, is also insufficient. As important as many of these structural interventions may be, in some respects they remain too shallow. Such structures are necessary ballast...
  • Blog
  • April 1, 2024

Los Angeles Land Banking

I. Introduction & Summary In June of 2022, Los Angeles County launched a land banking pilot program, allocating $50 million to begin implementation. The goal of the land bank pilot is to prevent displacement near new development spurred by the Los...
  • Blog
  • April 1, 2024

United to House LA

Background In November 2022, 58% of Angelenos voted to pass the United to House Los Angeles (ULA) ballot measure, commonly referred to as the “mansion tax,” to fund affordable housing. ULA is a Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) on high-dollar real...
  • Blog
  • March 21, 2024

A Menu of Possibilities

The first time I heard of the European Common Agrarian Policy ( CAP) I was around ten years old. That–you may think—is probably too tender an age to get into the weeds of one of the most technical policy areas in the European Union. And you would be...
  • Blog
  • February 8, 2024

Migration Policy

In late 2023, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell forecasted that 2024 would be the year of fear. Borrell expressed his concern that Europeans’ fears would lead them to elect the far right en masse. In that respect, he is probably...
  • Blog
  • February 7, 2024

The Children of the Minotaur

Opening Thoughts Facing the fierce winds of climate chaos, of growing geopolitical instabilities around the world, of declining trust in democratic institutions, and of pandemic futures replete with bacterial agents and viral thresholds, it is...
  • Blog
  • February 2, 2024

End gender-based violence by standing with Indigenous communities

The colonization of Indigenous lands and peoples in what is now called California included the state-funded genocide of 90 percent of Indigenous populations and the accumulation of land and wealth among white settlers. According to Dr. Cutcha Risling...
  • Blog
  • December 20, 2023

Daring to Dream

The year 2023 has been full of violence. The ongoing killing and injury of tens of thousands of non-combatants and especially of children in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, defies imagination. Russia's war on Ukraine continues unabated...
  • Blog
  • November 1, 2023

We Belong to Each Other: A Call To End the Violence

With the death toll in Gaza climbing past 8,500 people, including more than 3,500 children, and hundreds more being killed each day in Israel's relentless bombardment of homes and other civilian infrastructure, we at OBI join a growing global chorus...

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An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
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  • March 5, 2025, 9am - 10:30am PT / 12pm - 1:30pm ET / 6pm - 7:30pm CET

Arab Women & Feminist Visions for Equity and Belonging (Part 1/3)

RSVP Here We hope you'll join us for the 3-Part Arab Women & Feminist Visions for Equity and Belonging webinar series, the inaugural series of the Global South Women & Feminist Visions for Equity and Belonging project and new Global...
  • Video
  • January 21, 2025

Our Collective Moment: Spiritually-Based Activism in 2025 and Beyond

On January 21, 2025, john powell participated in a Zoom conversation with PICO California about how othering, belonging, and bridging (a practice of belonging) relate to their faith-based community organizing, empowering spiritually-centered people to create systemic change. The audience consisted of over 100 members of PICO's network who support a multiracial, class-solidarity society where all can thrive.