Reframing the Dream: Time for Building Industry to Move On

There was a very large conference held in San Francisco two weeks ago. Its attendees filled the hotels, swarmed The Moscone Center, lined up to eat in the restaurants, and frequented the downtown shopping district’s boutique retailers. San Francisco was packed with attendees of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, dubbed “The Center of the App Universe,” from around the world who gathered to exchange ideas on making up software for your iPhone and iPad.

There Is Little Moral Hazard in Real Estate

The currently fashionable term “moral hazard” is the idea that one is not held accountable for their mistakes. The term has lately been pinned on Wall Street brokers who are given large, end-of-the-year bonuses even as their companies (or their entire industry) are failing, or at least out of sync with the rest of the economy.

Moral hazard has also been used to describe the slippery slope of the federal government stepping in and “bailing out” companies that are TBTF (too big to fail). Here, moral hazard means that companies would naturally take large risks, because even if they risk and lose, the government will come to the rescue.

Solving Infrastructure Problems Takes Civic Vision

A recent report published by the Urban Land Institute, “Infrastructure 2010: Investment Imperative,” argues that the U.S. is fundamentally deficient in both the amount, and state of, infrastructure, including roads, rail, energy, water and sewer systems.

The London Group in the News

Companies make pitches to fill vacant retail space (San Diego Union Tribune)
Plan to change hotel review process OK’d (San Diego Union Tribune)
College making name for itself (San Diego Union Tribune)
County Third in Office Leasing in 2009 (San Diego Union Tribune)
Housing: Defaults, foreclosures plummet in January (North County Times)