Free Cities
Blog
Read about new local tax & bond measures
Local voters face 77 tax increases on California’s March ballot
According to its calculation, if all pass the combined hit would be $350 million in direct tax increases and $3.6 billion in bonded indebtedness. The group notes the new debt includes “36 school bonds, 16 transactions and use taxes, 19 parcel taxes, two general obligation bonds, one business license tax, ...
Blog
Car-less cities campaign is the latest paternalistic fad
Car-less cities campaign is the latest paternalistic fad By Steven Greenhut | February 16, 2024 Many modern urbanists like to claim the great urban writer Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” as one of their own. It’s easy to understand, given that Jacobs was ...
Free Cities
WATCH: Are more public transit subsidies the key to improving urban living?
Watch as Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut sits down with Professor William Anderson to discuss whether more subsidies for public transit are the key to improving urban living.
Blog
Learn about push for congestion pricing
Urbanists to suburbanites: Stay out of our trendy ‘playgrounds’
In New York, the city has introduced a “congestion tax” – effectively, a cordon tax – for all cars entering lower Manhattan. In Cincinnati, the City Council voted for a ban on new surface parking lots downtown. In Indianapolis, the state Legislature is trying to prevent the city from halving ...
Blog
Despite big budgets, homeless agency is clueless in Seattle
Despite big budgets, homeless agency is clueless in Seattle By Jeremy Lott | February 8, 2024 An optimistic headline topped the joint news release from Washington state’s most-populous city and its most-populous county in December 2019 heralding the formation of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. This effort would create a “new unified regional ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Well-run California cities grow, while badly run ones shrink
I’ve come up with a unique way to measure how well California cities are doing. It shows those with well-run finances grow in population, while those badly run shrink. It’s a generality. There are exceptions. But look at the trend line on this chart. Notice the trend line, the dotted ...
Free Cities
Steve Greenhut and Wayne Winegarden – Giving Housing Supply a Boost
Our guests this week are Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in business and economics. The two have joined forces to produce PRI’s latest mini book from the Free Cities Center, “Giving Housing Supply a Boost: How to Improve Affordability and Reduce Homelessness.” ...
Blog
Lessons from Africa: Private utilities offer a way forward
Lessons from Africa: Private utilities offer a way forward By Scott Beyer | February 2, 2024 I was exploring a rural Kenyan village last spring when noticing an infrastructure dichotomy – one I later realized is characteristic of Africa. The government in Wamunyu, a farm town two hours from Nairobi, ...
Blog
Markets and subsidies: Exposing the delusions of urbanists
To understand the “rules” regarding the role of the internal combustion engine powered by fossil fuels, Calvinball comes to mind, created in the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbes.” Calvinball players make up the rules as they go along, and other players cannot make sense of what is happening. To hear ...
Book
New Free Cities Book
Reforms to Increase Affordability, Homebuilding Would Go Far to Alleviate State’s Housing, Homeless Crises
SACRAMENTO – Rolling back policies that have created unaffordable costs of living and made homebuilding prohibitively expensive can alleviate the state’s housing and homeless problems, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download ...
Read about new local tax & bond measures
Local voters face 77 tax increases on California’s March ballot
According to its calculation, if all pass the combined hit would be $350 million in direct tax increases and $3.6 billion in bonded indebtedness. The group notes the new debt includes “36 school bonds, 16 transactions and use taxes, 19 parcel taxes, two general obligation bonds, one business license tax, ...
Car-less cities campaign is the latest paternalistic fad
Car-less cities campaign is the latest paternalistic fad By Steven Greenhut | February 16, 2024 Many modern urbanists like to claim the great urban writer Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” as one of their own. It’s easy to understand, given that Jacobs was ...
WATCH: Are more public transit subsidies the key to improving urban living?
Watch as Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut sits down with Professor William Anderson to discuss whether more subsidies for public transit are the key to improving urban living.
Learn about push for congestion pricing
Urbanists to suburbanites: Stay out of our trendy ‘playgrounds’
In New York, the city has introduced a “congestion tax” – effectively, a cordon tax – for all cars entering lower Manhattan. In Cincinnati, the City Council voted for a ban on new surface parking lots downtown. In Indianapolis, the state Legislature is trying to prevent the city from halving ...
Despite big budgets, homeless agency is clueless in Seattle
Despite big budgets, homeless agency is clueless in Seattle By Jeremy Lott | February 8, 2024 An optimistic headline topped the joint news release from Washington state’s most-populous city and its most-populous county in December 2019 heralding the formation of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. This effort would create a “new unified regional ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Well-run California cities grow, while badly run ones shrink
I’ve come up with a unique way to measure how well California cities are doing. It shows those with well-run finances grow in population, while those badly run shrink. It’s a generality. There are exceptions. But look at the trend line on this chart. Notice the trend line, the dotted ...
Steve Greenhut and Wayne Winegarden – Giving Housing Supply a Boost
Our guests this week are Steve Greenhut, director of PRI’s Free Cities Center and Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in business and economics. The two have joined forces to produce PRI’s latest mini book from the Free Cities Center, “Giving Housing Supply a Boost: How to Improve Affordability and Reduce Homelessness.” ...
Lessons from Africa: Private utilities offer a way forward
Lessons from Africa: Private utilities offer a way forward By Scott Beyer | February 2, 2024 I was exploring a rural Kenyan village last spring when noticing an infrastructure dichotomy – one I later realized is characteristic of Africa. The government in Wamunyu, a farm town two hours from Nairobi, ...
Markets and subsidies: Exposing the delusions of urbanists
To understand the “rules” regarding the role of the internal combustion engine powered by fossil fuels, Calvinball comes to mind, created in the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbes.” Calvinball players make up the rules as they go along, and other players cannot make sense of what is happening. To hear ...
New Free Cities Book
Reforms to Increase Affordability, Homebuilding Would Go Far to Alleviate State’s Housing, Homeless Crises
SACRAMENTO – Rolling back policies that have created unaffordable costs of living and made homebuilding prohibitively expensive can alleviate the state’s housing and homeless problems, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download ...
