Hindsight is 20|20

The graph that accompanied a Wall Street Journal article of January 13, 2012, highlights how off-the-mark Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was just before housing prices leveled out in 2006, and then began a rapid decline in 2007.

Will High-Speed Rail in California Reduce Urban Land Conversion?

Will high-speed rail drop Calif single family housing from 62% to 50% and reduce urban land conversion by 67%? Noted planner Peter Calthorpe says so in an San Francisco Chronicle op-ed piece published on January 5, 2012.

Milstein Hall at Cornell – Day and NIght

Here are two views of Milstein Hall at Cornell University, the expansion of the Architecture, Art and Planning College that was completed in 2011.  One view is from the east during the day time and the other view is from the west at night.

Happy New Year and Best Wishes for 2012!

Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona, where the first day of 2012 is slated to be sunny and 81degrees Farenheit (21 Celsius.)

Plaster and Roofing in Lakewood California (1950)

Plaster and Roofing, Lakewood, California (1950) is the title of this photograph and the photographer was William A. Garnett who made a gelatin silver print (19.5 x 24.3 cm.) It is on exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles as part of the Pacific Standard Time collaboration amongst 60 Southern California museums and cultural institutions. Approximately 17,500 single-family houses were built in Lakewood, California, in just a few years during the early 1950s housing boom that followed World War II.  The community is about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.  For some history, visit this page at the Los Angeles County Public Library website.

Pacific Standard Time Exhibits in Southern California

The graphic below is the poster for the Pacific Standard Time exhibit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, part of a collaboration amongst 60 Southern California museums and other cultural institutions through spring 2012, showcasing regional artistic production between 1945 and 1980.

The Gated Municipality of Hidden Hills, California

Hidden Hills, California, is a completely gated municipality with the main entry at the northwest quadrant of the interchange of the US 101 (Ventura) Freeway and Valley Circle Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley of the Los Angeles area.

There are just 626 housing units in this equestrian oriented neighborhood, all of which are on relatively large lots.  According to the United States Census, the population of the 1.68 square mile community in 2010 was1,856.

Development of Hidden Hills began in 1950 when  A. E. Hanson put up a sign on Ventura Boulevard at the intersection of Long Valley Road announcing  the availability of one-acre lots for $4,750.  A lot that had been cleared of a former residence reportedly sold for $1.6 million in 2011.

The community is home to many noted entertainment industry celebrities. Numerous business owners and executives also live within this exclusive enclave.  One of the more notorious residents is David Sambol who Paul Muolo and Matthew Padilla identified as one of the major players in the subprime mortgage crisis in their 2008 book Chain of Blame.

Decline in Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims in the USA

Bill McBride reports at his Calculated Risk blog that, after an upward tick in early 2011, weekly initial unemployment claims have resumed the decline from the peak that occurred in the first quarter of 2009.   As of December 15, 2011, this figure reached the lowest level reported since early 2008.

No Visible Evidence of Foreclosure on the Fringes of Los Angeles

On December 20, 2011, I stopped by a single family neighborhood in Adelanto, California in the Victor Valley of the high-desert on the fringes of the Los Angeles megalopolis.  I expected to see numerous for-sale and foreclosure signs and saw none.

Driving on K Street in Sacramento

In 1969, the City of Sacramento, California, closed K Street in downtown Sacramento to automobiles.  After 42 years, the city reopened the street to vehicles in November 2011.  Those interviewed in news articles share the view that reopening the street to traffic will make people feel safer in an area that has struggled to regain the vitality that it had in decades past.