Steven Greenhut
Blog
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester Horrific wildfires in Los Angeles have focused attention on California’s ongoing insurance troubles, but because of the state’s inaction its insurance industry is facing an “existential crisis,” as a recent New York Post headline put it. The Wall Street Journal quotes a ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
SF’s Muni punishes its own riders for funding shortfalls
Muni’s latest data shows ridership on the city’s system of buses, cable cars, streetcars and light rail has rebounded dramatically from pandemic levels. It reports that ridership is at 74% of pre-pandemic levels and 92% of those levels on the weekends. The agency also trumpeted reductions in the number of ...
Blog
Despite naysayers, new cities provide boundless possibilities
SACRAMENTO – The average age of an owner-occupied house in California is 45 years, which is a reminder that your home was probably built relatively recently. I was an adult when my “historic” midcentury ranch was first sold (for around $50,000 including the lot). It was part of a futuristic neighborhood of ...
Book
New Free Cities Book
Building Cities From Scratch
SACRAMENTO – The plan by a group of San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists to build an entirely new city on ranch land in Solano County between the Bay Area and Sacramento has become one of the most controversial housing plans in Northern California in years. The East Solano Plan ...
Blog
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs Steven Greenhut | October 2, 2024 Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the Free Cities Center’s forthcoming booklet (“Building New Cities from Scratch: America’s Long History of Urban Experimentation”) about new cities, which was prompted by California Forever’s proposal to ...
Blog
Learn about the problems with rent control
Rent-control madness is coming to California’s November ballot
Indeed, the so-called Justice for Renters Act features this simple text: “The state may not limit the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” If voters approve the initiative, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Control Act. That 1995 law ...
Blog
Urbanist dreams foiled by lousy big-city governments
SACRAMENTO – One of the silliest things about the urbanism movement is its insistence that suburbanites abandon single-family homes, spacious yards and placid neighborhoods for the excitement of big-city living. In those cities, we can supposedly experience more “community,” reduce our carbon footprint and take a bike to buy overpriced groceries at ...
Blog
More Californians plan exit as home prices top $900K
More Californians plan exit as home prices top $900K By Steven Greenhut | August 22, 2024 When I received a job offer to move from Northwest Ohio to Orange County, Calif., in the 1990s, I thought that I had hit the lottery. The 3.1-million-population county has nearly perfect weather, idyllic beaches, ...
Blog
Court frees cities to deal with their homelessness crises
Court frees cities to deal with their homelessness crises By Steven Greenhut | August 16, 2024 SACRAMENTO – During a recent trip to Grants Pass, Ore., I took a photo of the city’s iconic downtown sign stating, “It’s the Climate” and then posted it on social media as I often do with ...
Blog
Don’t expect housing fixes from the federal government
The heat of a presidential election – especially one that’s seen highly unusual and disruptive events, from an attempted assassination attempt the late-stage replacement of a candidate – is rarely a good time to discuss nuanced policy. Less than 100 days from the vote, both candidates mainly toss out vague ...
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester
An insurance emergency after officials let crisis fester Horrific wildfires in Los Angeles have focused attention on California’s ongoing insurance troubles, but because of the state’s inaction its insurance industry is facing an “existential crisis,” as a recent New York Post headline put it. The Wall Street Journal quotes a ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
SF’s Muni punishes its own riders for funding shortfalls
Muni’s latest data shows ridership on the city’s system of buses, cable cars, streetcars and light rail has rebounded dramatically from pandemic levels. It reports that ridership is at 74% of pre-pandemic levels and 92% of those levels on the weekends. The agency also trumpeted reductions in the number of ...
Despite naysayers, new cities provide boundless possibilities
SACRAMENTO – The average age of an owner-occupied house in California is 45 years, which is a reminder that your home was probably built relatively recently. I was an adult when my “historic” midcentury ranch was first sold (for around $50,000 including the lot). It was part of a futuristic neighborhood of ...
New Free Cities Book
Building Cities From Scratch
SACRAMENTO – The plan by a group of San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists to build an entirely new city on ranch land in Solano County between the Bay Area and Sacramento has become one of the most controversial housing plans in Northern California in years. The East Solano Plan ...
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs Steven Greenhut | October 2, 2024 Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the Free Cities Center’s forthcoming booklet (“Building New Cities from Scratch: America’s Long History of Urban Experimentation”) about new cities, which was prompted by California Forever’s proposal to ...
Learn about the problems with rent control
Rent-control madness is coming to California’s November ballot
Indeed, the so-called Justice for Renters Act features this simple text: “The state may not limit the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” If voters approve the initiative, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Control Act. That 1995 law ...
Urbanist dreams foiled by lousy big-city governments
SACRAMENTO – One of the silliest things about the urbanism movement is its insistence that suburbanites abandon single-family homes, spacious yards and placid neighborhoods for the excitement of big-city living. In those cities, we can supposedly experience more “community,” reduce our carbon footprint and take a bike to buy overpriced groceries at ...
More Californians plan exit as home prices top $900K
More Californians plan exit as home prices top $900K By Steven Greenhut | August 22, 2024 When I received a job offer to move from Northwest Ohio to Orange County, Calif., in the 1990s, I thought that I had hit the lottery. The 3.1-million-population county has nearly perfect weather, idyllic beaches, ...
Court frees cities to deal with their homelessness crises
Court frees cities to deal with their homelessness crises By Steven Greenhut | August 16, 2024 SACRAMENTO – During a recent trip to Grants Pass, Ore., I took a photo of the city’s iconic downtown sign stating, “It’s the Climate” and then posted it on social media as I often do with ...
Don’t expect housing fixes from the federal government
The heat of a presidential election – especially one that’s seen highly unusual and disruptive events, from an attempted assassination attempt the late-stage replacement of a candidate – is rarely a good time to discuss nuanced policy. Less than 100 days from the vote, both candidates mainly toss out vague ...
