Joe Mathews

Our Crappy Old Stadiums: A California Triumph

This State Has To Be Leaner and Smarter—And That Includes Not Wasting Billions On Ballparks

“What a dump,” says Brad Pitt near the end of the 2011 film Moneyball, channeling his inner Bette Davis. Pitt is talking about the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, home stadium of baseball’s Oakland Athletics. (It’s now known as the O.co Coliseum as part of a rebranding by the online retailer known as Overstock.com)

Moneyball is set a decade ago, and, when you consider America’s passion for sports and for building new stadiums in which to watch them, you might think the dumpy Coliseum, by 2013, would be a goner. But this …

by Joe Mathews |

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Face It, People: Kamala Harris Is Hot

In California, Where We Dislike and Emasculate Politicians, Being Good-Looking Is Most of the Job

by Joe Mathews |

I don’t care what our elites say.

No one is going to stop me from speaking the truth to power. And here’s a truth about power that a lot of people …

Do We Need 150 More Years of Getting California Wrong?

If We Could Start Seeing This State as a Reality, Not Just a Symbol, We'd Solve a Lot More Problems

by Joe Mathews |

California is a famously volatile place—lurching from boom to bust and from sunshine to natural disaster—but it’s nowhere near as volatile as the perceptions of California.

Only last year, the state …

Announcing the Joe Mathews ‘Connecting California’ Column

Once a Week at Zócalo—and Around the State

Too many of California’s columnists and pundits live in the past. When they write about the state and its challenges, they inevitably compare California against its history, recycling old or …

You Can’t Fight Infotainment

Journalists Figure Out The Brave New World of Celebrity, Politics, and the Internet

by Sarah Rothbard |

Joe Mathews, Zócalo California editor and author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger And the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy, learned about the perils entertainment culture can hold for political journalists …

One Man, Two Votes—Why Not?

L.A. Asked Me To Vote In Its Mayoral Election. Sure, It’s Illegal, But It’s Also a Good Idea.

by Joe Mathews |

When a politically minded friend recently told me he was voting for Kevin James for mayor of Los Angeles, I told him I’d have to call the police.

I have nothing …


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