Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

Many progressives see California as a model of enlightenment and the Golden State’s post-2010 recovery has won plaudits in the progressive press. Yet, Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, contends that if one looks at the effects of the state’s policies on key Democratic constituencies— millennials, minorities, and the poor—the picture is dismal especially when adjusted for housing costs, and that California leads all states—even historically poor Mississippi—in the percentage of its people living in poverty.