Free Cities
Blog
Focus homeless aid on transformation, then affordability
Focus homeless aid on transformation, then affordability By Kenneth Schrupp | June 16, 2023 Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is concentrating homeless assistance projects in high-rent areas where the homeless choose to congregate. This only perpetuates the homeless population’s reliance on government support. In spite of the hundreds of millions ...
Blog
Read latest about government overregulation
By managing growth, planners make cities less livable
While Euclidean zoning has been credited with segregating developments that have incompatible uses – a chemical plant next to a school or a landfill right up against a residential district, for a couple of examples – it has a record of going too far. In some cases, planners “decided that ...
Blog
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or ...
Blog
Read excerpt from new Free Cities Center book
Providing us with the transportation that planners want
One need only spend a little time on a transit-oriented social-media page or reading the thoughts of urban-focused writers to detect a certain disdain toward the automobile, suburbia and the construction of road and freeway lanes. Such attitudes are not outliers, as any quick search of New Urbanist and pro-transit ...
Blog
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills by Sal Rodriguez Colorado and Arizona had a shot at passing substantive reform of development-stifling land-use regulations this year. But both efforts went down in the last few months thanks in large part to fierce opposition from city governments, which ...
Blog
City services will get slammed as public pay goes up
Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went ...
California
Lee Ohanian – Why Californians Are Fleeing the State
Our guest this week is Hoover Institution senior fellow and UCLA professor Dr. Lee Ohanian.
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Coercion-free planning can lead to glorious results
Central planning, no matter if the target is an economy or a community, has generally had historically disastrous results. When the government plots and schemes the future, people are ultimately doomed to lower living standards at best, and misery, all too often. Yet central planning can work – but only ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
San Diego offers pragmatic model to restore downtown life
According to Neighborhood Scout, a data-driven organization that provides detailed insights into local crime rates at a far more granular level than national statistics, San Diego has 4 violent crimes and 19.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents. In contrast, Los Angeles has 8.4 violent crimes and 24.6 property crimes per ...
Book
New PRI Book Release
State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering
NEW PRI BOOK RELEASE PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST Re-Envisioning Our Approach to Transportation Planning Steven Greenhut State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering Focus Should Be Easing Gridlock, Not Prodding People Out of Cars State and local transportation officials are planning transportation projects around social engineering, ...
Focus homeless aid on transformation, then affordability
Focus homeless aid on transformation, then affordability By Kenneth Schrupp | June 16, 2023 Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is concentrating homeless assistance projects in high-rent areas where the homeless choose to congregate. This only perpetuates the homeless population’s reliance on government support. In spite of the hundreds of millions ...
Read latest about government overregulation
By managing growth, planners make cities less livable
While Euclidean zoning has been credited with segregating developments that have incompatible uses – a chemical plant next to a school or a landfill right up against a residential district, for a couple of examples – it has a record of going too far. In some cases, planners “decided that ...
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or ...
Read excerpt from new Free Cities Center book
Providing us with the transportation that planners want
One need only spend a little time on a transit-oriented social-media page or reading the thoughts of urban-focused writers to detect a certain disdain toward the automobile, suburbia and the construction of road and freeway lanes. Such attitudes are not outliers, as any quick search of New Urbanist and pro-transit ...
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills by Sal Rodriguez Colorado and Arizona had a shot at passing substantive reform of development-stifling land-use regulations this year. But both efforts went down in the last few months thanks in large part to fierce opposition from city governments, which ...
City services will get slammed as public pay goes up
Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went ...
Lee Ohanian – Why Californians Are Fleeing the State
Our guest this week is Hoover Institution senior fellow and UCLA professor Dr. Lee Ohanian.
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Coercion-free planning can lead to glorious results
Central planning, no matter if the target is an economy or a community, has generally had historically disastrous results. When the government plots and schemes the future, people are ultimately doomed to lower living standards at best, and misery, all too often. Yet central planning can work – but only ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
San Diego offers pragmatic model to restore downtown life
According to Neighborhood Scout, a data-driven organization that provides detailed insights into local crime rates at a far more granular level than national statistics, San Diego has 4 violent crimes and 19.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents. In contrast, Los Angeles has 8.4 violent crimes and 24.6 property crimes per ...
New PRI Book Release
State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering
NEW PRI BOOK RELEASE PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST Re-Envisioning Our Approach to Transportation Planning Steven Greenhut State Planners Focus Too Much on Social Engineering Rather Than Transportation Engineering Focus Should Be Easing Gridlock, Not Prodding People Out of Cars State and local transportation officials are planning transportation projects around social engineering, ...
