In my previous post, I compared three years of taxable sales in the 9 Coachella Valley cities to glimpse the effects of COVID-19 on local business revenue. But I only reported sales for all business outlets and a subset of retail and food services. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration also provides sales [...]
Soon we will be in the midst of our annual snowbird season. How could we have imagined, even a few months ago, that COVID would affect a second tourist season in the valley? The rapid rise of the COVID delta variant has regrettably forestalled our anticipated recovery. With so much changing so quickly, it is [...]
We continue our exploration of land designation in the Coachella Valley with an overview of zoning. Typically, counties or municipalities establish codes that divide the land into “zones” to guide growth and development within their jurisdiction. Zones define compatible uses for land and establish regulations for how to develop those uses, e.g., manufacturing. Each city [...]
I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Alaska. One of the statistics about this superlative state that intrigued me was that 62% (223.8 million acres) of its area is comprised of federally owned land. That got me curious about how much of the lands in our area are federally owned. Well, it turns out [...]
I am sure many of us do not want to relive the 2020 Presidential campaign and election. But here we go. I have mapped precinct-level Presidential election results obtained from the New York Times. The map shows precincts where Biden or Trump won, and by what proportion of total votes. Biden prevailed in 105 precincts, [...]
The COVID pandemic upended the nation’s workforce. Some were fortunate to transition to working from home and kept their positions and wages throughout the pandemic lockdowns. Others were not so privileged. A Pew Research report found unsurprisingly that 90% of those who lost their jobs in February and March of 2020 were in positions that [...]
You can’t seem to open a newspaper or listen to the news lately without hearing a story about employers having a hard time finding new employees. Despite a resurging economy and countless job openings, many openings remain unfilled. In fact, the New York Times reports that there are more job openings this spring than before [...]
As a GIS professional, perceiving the world through geography is my dominant lens. One of the principal tenants of Geography is Tobler’s First Law of Geography: Everything is related to everything else. But near things are more related than distant things. More and more, we live in neighborhoods with others like ourselves, mimicking Tobler’s “law.” [...]
The 2020 Presidential election was one for the history books, in many, many ways. While we await final precinct-level results I thought it would be informative to see the results mapped by various political districts. I have mapped the results below by county supervisor, state senate, and state assembly districts, as well as by the [...]
What a difference a year makes! In April 2019, official unemployment rates for the nine Coachella Valley cities were at historic lows. Confidence in the economy was high and an ever more prosperous future seemed probable. Ignorance is bliss. How could we ever have imagined that unemployment rates would nearly triple, in just one year? [...]
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