Year-End Update: Revisiting Scenes and People From 1986 View Stories : Reason Foundation

View has revisited some of the people and places it reported on in 1986 to update their stories. Among them:

--A shelter for the homeless that was itself homeless.

--An author who had new ideas about how to market and promote his book.

--The campaign to save Nancy Reagan’s 1981 inaugural gown, which is stretching under the weight of its bugle beads.

Six months after they moved to the Los Angeles area from the relative peace and quiet of Santa Barbara, the folks at the Reason Foundation, a free market think tank and magazine publisher, are adjusting to life in the big city.

Most of them, that is.

That’s the word from Reason’s president Robert W. Poole Jr., who says he has spent much of the six months here hiring and training five new staffers to replace workers who refused to make the move. Now, with a full complement of 15 employees at its Santa Monica office, Poole said he expects 1987 to be a productive--and possibly controversial--year.

Within the next few months, the foundation--probably best known for its 30,000 circulation Reason magazine--will be releasing a series of reports on the “privatization” of a host of government functions, Poole said. The foundation already has released a study on the privatizing of the air traffic control system, currently operated by the Federal Aviation Administration. This will be followed by studies on turning over the U.S. Postal Service, federal prisons and, possibly, interstate highways to private ownership, Poole added.

When Reason’s move was reported by View in June, Poole said he hoped to raise the foundation’s profile by locating in a town with big business and big media connections. So far, that seems to be paying off, he said. The foundation has added three new corporate sponsors to its roster and foundation spokesmen have been asked to appear on several radio and television shows, Poole said. In addition, the organization’s monthly forums on issues such as cancer-causing substances and the war on drugs have begun attracting business and community leaders, he added.