The Next Californias
Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have adopted many of the policies contributing to the Golden State’s decline.
Not long ago, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon were widely hailed as states with bright futures. For decades, they attracted scores of out-of-state migrants, turning Denver, Seattle, and Portland into celebrated urban hubs.
But that changed as these states began adopting the very policies—above all on energy, housing, and regulation—that many newcomers had fled from in California. Once politically purple, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have turned solid blue, embracing the same agenda that even the New York Times concedes has turned “the California dream” into “a mirage.”
True, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have yet to reach California’s levels of dysfunction. Yet each shows signs suggestive of the Golden State’s experience, including lower job growth, sluggish housing-construction rates, a deteriorating business climate, and surging domestic out-migration.
Pursuit of Happiness
Revival: Americans Heading Back to the Hinterlands
Smaller communities throughout the country are poised to play an outsize role in forging our future.
Exodus: Affordability Crisis Sends Americans Packing From Big Cities
The first in a two-part series about the Great Dispersion of Americans across the country.
Stanford’s Graduate Student Union Tries to Stifle Dissent
The university may fire me because I won’t pay dues to a labor organization whose views I find repugnant.
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A Doctor In Full
The goal is not a doctor who has eliminated the contradictions of pain, caring, and death — that is impossible — but one who at least comprehends it.
Racing Earnhardt
This is what American greatness looks like, and in our strange, chaotic, anger-filled world, Altman’s documentary is like an oasis.
