Free Cities

Back in 1990 I wrote several editorials in the Orange County Register criticizing Sen. Bob Dole’s Americans With Disabilities Act. I still think it was a bad idea that violated property rights and federalism. But now, dealing with arthritic knees at age 68, I’m using the amenities the ADA mandates ...

City planners ignore the importance of ‘human capital’ by Kerry Jackson  |  September 14, 2023 Depending on who’s talking and who’s listening, the United States has a number of cities that are failing, caught in a doom loop of self-destruction. San Francisco is today’s favorite target. A succession of stumbling ...

Private city east of Bay Area could be a game-changer By Steven Greenhut | September 9, 2023 In one of the most-fascinating real-estate stories in American history, a secretive group of buyers purchased 30,000 acres of mostly swampland in central Florida in the 1960s. Hemmed in by urbanization at his ...

The recent reform effort, led by Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, comes at a wild time at City Hall. Aitken’s predecessor, Harry Sidhu, recently agreed to plead guilty to federal corruption charges. The findings of an explosive independent investigation were recently published and support much of what the federal authorities alleged last ...

Our guest this week is PRI senior fellow Wayne Winegarden who discusses his new study “The Free Cities Index.”  Many of America’s cities have been on the decline for years, while other cities have thrived and attracted more and more Americans.  Wayne examined a multitude of variables – taxes, crime, ...

SACRAMENTO – Cities that promote pro-growth policies, encourage entrepreneurship, and efficiently provide core public services ranked at the top of a new “Free Cities Index” of the nation’s most 50 populous cities released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click ...

Mandates jamming big-city hospitals beyond capacity by John Seiler  |  September 2, 2023 IN FEBRUARY 2010 SHARP PAINS STRUCK MY GUT around 8 a.m. I drove from my apartment in Huntington Beach to Newport Beach and Hoag Hospital, one of the country’s best, parked and struggled into the emergency room. ...

It’s always a breath of fresh air when elected officials have a grasp on basic economics. On August 1, the Seattle City Council voted 6-to-2 to reject a rent control proposal from termed-out Socialist Alternative Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Sawant proposed a rent control trigger law that would impose a strict, ...

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 ...