If you really look, you will find some good things are happening in California.
You probably haven't spent much of every workday for the past 27 years paying attention to local culture and politics in some part of California. I have. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying, that is what I do, and it is a pretty satisfying endeavor. It surprises many people when I share my opinion that for the most part, this state is in much better shape than it was when I started working here.
In our new book, How California Works: Building Democracy in the Golden State, we have collected 47 Explainers that author Jonathan Vankin wrote for California Local over the past three years (updated for the book) that entertainingly detail the nuts-and-bolts story of how our state functions. Together, they tell a tale that might surprise you in a good way.
Our Brand New Book Tells Some Good, True Stories
After many months of preparation, our new book, by the award-winning journalist and author Jonathan Vankin, is finally available. Get your copy today and discover how, just as California leads the world in technology via Silicon Valley, and in popular culture via Hollywood, etc., the Golden State leads the world in public policy. Way less sexy for sure, but possibly way more important.
Buy it on Amazon today!
How California Works: an Editors' Note
True stories about how, at its best, California has resisted and pushed back against anti-democratic forces. The histories and policies, deeply human characters, and controversies that have led us to where we are today.
If You're Not in Awe, You're Not Paying Attention
In his first blog post for this project, Chris Neklason, our CEO and product dude, described how building California Local's underlying technology and database turned him into a local-politics optimimist. “The genius of democracy is that it's a political system well suited for people to collectively make things better. Yeah, it's messy, it's imperfect, it's clunky. But it works.”
This week, having spent a couple months paying close attention to news from around the state, Chris returns to the subject.
If you really look, you will find some good things are happening in California.
