Edward Ring

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Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs

Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
Blog

Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

The state’s housing shortages have consequences

Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Blog

Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city

To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Blog

Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land

Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land Edward Ring | October 20, 2023 When it comes to food, America’s cities enjoy precarious abundance. We take for granted the remarkable system that allows us close proximity to chilled and gleaming shelves, loaded with apricots from Spain, avocados from Mexico, ...
Blog

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two Edward Ring  |  September 29, 2023 Building a new city from scratch on 50,000 acres of cattle ranches is an audacious goal, even for the coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires who have been identified as behind the project. ...
Blog

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One Edward Ring  |  September 22, 2023 It’s not news that California has a housing shortage, nor are the reasons for this shortage a mystery. For decades, California has restricted exurban development, passed building codes that are the most ...
Blog

America’s future cities: A case for decentralization

America’s future cities: A case for decentralization As the virulence of the COVID pandemic subsided in 2020, a new phrase, “urban doom loop,” became a common way to describe the failure of America’s downtowns to recover economically. The concept is simple enough. As occupancy in downtown buildings declines, businesses that ...
Blog

Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities

Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities By Edward Ring | July 27, 2023 It never rains in California But girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours —by Albert Hammond, 1972  “It Never Rains in Southern California“ Anyone who has experienced traffic on the Santa Monica ...
Blog

Read about CA's war on suburbs

To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs

The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

New cities offer unpredictable but exciting urban future

Although it was thoroughly lost amid his travails as the most prosecuted ex-president in American history, on March 4, in a video released on his campaign website, Donald Trump proposed a national contest for urban developers to submit designs for new “Freedom Cities,” with 10 winning designs to be allocated federal land ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs

Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
Blog

Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

The state’s housing shortages have consequences

Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Blog

Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city

To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Blog

Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land

Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land Edward Ring | October 20, 2023 When it comes to food, America’s cities enjoy precarious abundance. We take for granted the remarkable system that allows us close proximity to chilled and gleaming shelves, loaded with apricots from Spain, avocados from Mexico, ...
Blog

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two Edward Ring  |  September 29, 2023 Building a new city from scratch on 50,000 acres of cattle ranches is an audacious goal, even for the coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires who have been identified as behind the project. ...
Blog

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One

How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One Edward Ring  |  September 22, 2023 It’s not news that California has a housing shortage, nor are the reasons for this shortage a mystery. For decades, California has restricted exurban development, passed building codes that are the most ...
Blog

America’s future cities: A case for decentralization

America’s future cities: A case for decentralization As the virulence of the COVID pandemic subsided in 2020, a new phrase, “urban doom loop,” became a common way to describe the failure of America’s downtowns to recover economically. The concept is simple enough. As occupancy in downtown buildings declines, businesses that ...
Blog

Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities

Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities By Edward Ring | July 27, 2023 It never rains in California But girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours —by Albert Hammond, 1972  “It Never Rains in Southern California“ Anyone who has experienced traffic on the Santa Monica ...
Blog

Read about CA's war on suburbs

To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs

The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

New cities offer unpredictable but exciting urban future

Although it was thoroughly lost amid his travails as the most prosecuted ex-president in American history, on March 4, in a video released on his campaign website, Donald Trump proposed a national contest for urban developers to submit designs for new “Freedom Cities,” with 10 winning designs to be allocated federal land ...
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