Blog Posts

In recent years, advocates’ push for development without displacement in California has been incorporated into state grant-making pilot programs like the Equitable Community Revitalization Grant. Investments in urgently needed low-income housing...

Note: This blog post describes the content and status of these bills as of July 11, 2023. You can follow new updates and amendments on the California legislative information website. California policymakers are showing new interest in using social...

There is usually a trigger event. George’s Floyd murder. Aylan Kurdi. The most vitriolic displays of racism on the football pitch. Open arms to Ukrainian refugees, closed doors to Syrians and Afghans. A speech by Orbán addressing “the mixing of races...

I recently gave a talk to a local California Association of Realtors group on the “Past, Present and Future of Fair Housing” to commemorate Fair Housing month (April), and to help the group think about their role in promoting fair housing. It is...

There is a clip of US Senator Bernie Sanders making the rounds from a recent episode of Bill Maher’s HBO program, in which the host asked Senator Sanders to distinguish “equality” from “equity.” Senator Sanders explained that “equality” refers to...

People have been asking me how I make sense of the fact that all five of the Memphis police officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death in that heinous attack were Black. Does that mean the attack was not racist? Does it negate race as a factor in the...

Today, we're thrilled to share an extraordinary new work from our Global Senior Fellow Bayo Akomolafe. In many ways, Bayo's piece defies any simple description or summary, but at its most basic, this two-part essay seeks to explore the limits of the...

Where I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, much of our drinking water comes from the Chattahoochee River. The river, whose name comes from the Creek/Muscogee words chato ("rock") and huchi ("painted"), marks the current Alabama-Georgia border and the...

On August 16, 2022, US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The IRA is the largest explicit investment for mitigating climate change in federal history, and a concerted effort to mitigate the pronounced economic pressures faced by Americans...

Most Americans probably encountered the insidious notion of "replacement theory" for the first time in the wake of the horrific mass murder of 10 African Americans in Buffalo, New York in May. The shooter targeted a Black neighborhood for reasons...

Note: This blog is being published on the occasion of California law AB 1466, which is related to this topic, going into effect. The last few years have brought much greater awareness of the degree to which racism is embedded in our society. Although...

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization an illegitimate, radical, rightwing court overturned half a century of settled law established by Roe v. Wade to advance a political agenda. But why do I refer to the current US Supreme Court as...

Where we live shouldn’t determine the length or the quality of our lives. We all belong in communities whose conditions allow us to live the healthiest lives possible. These conditions include stable housing, access to quality healthcare, jobs with...

What would it take to collectively own our data? How could we regulate the environmental impact of resource-intensive technologies? These are just some of the big questions about technology facing us on a global scale. In our 2021 landscape scan on...

An ordinance recently passed in Richmond, California, shows a new pathway to ensure that major economic development projects in low-income communities of color are designed for more equitable benefits by delivering local jobs, inclusive hiring, and...