News

January 8, 2026

Publisher’s Tribute: Bob Foster in His Own Words

A personal mentor, Bob Foster, across two decades of meetings and interviews with our newsletters, is remembered less as a politician reacting to events than as an authentic, one-of-a-kind, systems thinker insisting on preparedness, institutional clarity, and physical reality. Whether speaking as President of Southern California Edison, Chair of the California ISO, or Mayor of Long Beach, Foster returned to the same uncomfortable truth: modern society depends on infrastructure that must be planned years in advance, paid for honestly, and governed without illusion.

January 8, 2026

Letter From Malibu: Sam Hall Kaplan on Chaos, Civic Dysfunction, and Looming Corruption

In this republished essay from Common Edge, critic and longtime Malibu resident Sam Hall Kaplan examines the troubling intersection of post-fire rebuilding, municipal dysfunction, and political influence now unfolding at Malibu City Hall. He warns that the city’s experience offers a cautionary tale for other climate-vulnerable communities across Los Angeles County—where delayed recovery, opaque governance, and misaligned incentives risk eroding public trust at precisely the moment effective civic leadership is most needed.

January 8, 2026

Building the Next Phase of California’s Hydrogen Market: FPH2’s CEO Jason Caudle

FPH2’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jason Caudle explains how California’s hydrogen market is shifting from policy anticipation to market execution. As cities, transit agencies, and suppliers align around offtake, Caudle outlines how FPH2 is aggregating demand, supporting bankable supply, and keeping momentum in the hydrogen market moving forward.

January 8, 2026

Rick Cole on 2026: Governing Through a Polycrisis and the Urgency of Reform

In this conversation, Cole argues that 2026 will be a decisive year for Pasadena and Los Angeles alike, contending that the cities’ futures are deeply intertwined—and that the moment demands systemic reform rather than incremental fixes.

December 16, 2025

A Legacy in Motion: In Bilbao, Spain with Frank Gehry (1998)

When TPR, introduced by then LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, spoke with Frank Gehry in Bilbao, Spain (1998), the Guggenheim had been open less than a year—yet it had already reshaped a city and reframed the role of architecture in public life. Gehry spoke not of icons or legacy, but of movement, emotion, and discipline. Remembering Gehry’s legacy is to remember the disciplined design process he championed, one that restores belief. His work mattered not for its spectacle, but for its fundamental respect for art, for makers, and for the cities it inhabits.

December 16, 2025

Habitat Los Angeles’ Erin Rank on Disaster Recovery and Homeownership

In conversation, Erin Rank, President & CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, reflects on her 25+ years of leadership transforming Habitat LA from an all-volunteer, one-home-at-a-time nonprofit into one of the region’s most significant builders of affordable homeownership.

December 15, 2025

Beyond the Master Plan: River LA’s Harry Chandler on Delivering the 100-Acre Taylor Yard Project

In conversation, River LA’s Board Chair, Harry Chandler, discusses the long arc of the Los Angeles (LA) River’s revitalization efforts and the sobering gap between visionary plans and implementation. Chandler recounts how The L.A. River Revitalization Corporation (renamed as River LA), founded by the City in 2009, with Chandler as its first board chair, was established to advance public and private partnerships along the river corridor with its fragmented governance landscape. Today, River LA’s signature project is the future park-to-be Taylor Yard, a former 100-acre toxic rail site.

November 17, 2025

Attention Should Be Paid to LA’s Fashion District: Anthony Rodriguez Offers a Reality Check

Anthony Rodriguez, President & CEO of the LA Fashion District Business Improvement District (BID), lays out how pandemic losses, slow foot-traffic recovery, and the shock of recent federal enforcement have compounded pressures on the district’s predominantly immigrant-owned small businesses. He argues that rigid DTLA 2040 zoning—particularly in IX2/IX3—undermines reinvestment and adaptation in an area already defined by high vacancies and aging industrial stock.

November 17, 2025

A New City for a New Economy: Gabriel Metcalf on California Forever’s Vision

California Forever’s Head of Planning, Gabriel Metcalf, makes the case for reviving the long-dormant American tradition of building new towns as a meaningful response to California’s housing shortage, infrastructure paralysis, and declining economic competitiveness. He outlines a vision for a walkable, transit-connected grid city anchored by advanced manufacturing through the proposed Solano Foundry and shipyard.

November 17, 2025

Municipal Attorney Michael Colantuono on Local Finance and California’s Broken Fiscal Compact

Veteran municipal attorney Michael Colantuono reflects on California’s enduring state–local fiscal dysfunction and legislature usurpation of local control. From a recent “bullet dodged” by local government to the legacy of Prop 13, Colantuono traces decades of underfunding by the State of local government, legislative overreach, and judicial decisions that have hamstrung localities' ambitions.

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© 2026 The Planning Report | David Abel, Publisher, ABL, Inc.