Free Cities
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 ...
Blog
Ranked Choice Voting does nothing to improve local elections
Ranked Choice Voting does nothing to improve local elections By Matthew Fleming | November 5, 2024 A recent social media post by a San Francisco mayoral candidate announcing his political strategy for the city’s ranked-choice voting inadvertently highlights why ranked-choice voting is silly. Approved by San Francisco voters in 2002, RCV ...
Blog
ELECTION 2024 – California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness
ELECTION 2024 California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness John Seiler | October 31, 2024 On Nov. 5, voters in California cities can make the housing and homeless crises better – or worse. Alas, most likely the latter. They likely will pass the vast majority of local sales tax increases, school ...
Blog
Would sales tax increase make Denver more "affordable"?
Legalizing housing will do more for Denver than a tax hike
Like many cities across the country, Denver has experienced soaring housing prices. While wages in the Denver area have increased 55% over the last decade, the median home sale price has surged 180%. A majority of renters are burdened by high rents eating up 30% or more of their incomes, ...
Blog
Western cities double down on taxes for failing transit
Western cities double down on taxes for failing transit By D. Dowd Muska | October 24, 2024 Well before COVID-19, transit was in big trouble. A 2018 analysis found that “factors such as lower fuel costs, increased teleworking, higher car ownership and the rise of alternatives such as Uber and Lyft” ...
Blog
Read the latest about overregulation holding up new housing construction
White House rightly calls out onerous local permit hurdles
The post, published by the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, correctly points out that discretionary permitting processes by their nature throw barriers before housing developments. This can slow or outright deter housing from being built. “With discretionary permitting, the proposal is subject to the approval of a public body, ...
Blog
Shocker from Argentina: Free Markets Work in Housing, too
Shocker from Argentina: free markets work in housing, too William L. Anderson | October 18, 2024 Rent control is in the news both in California and elsewhere. In California, voters will decide Proposition 33, which would permit local governments to impose draconian rent controls and other restrictions on property owners ...
automation
The future is now: Robots take aim at urban gridlock
Machines already flip burgers, fry potatoes and slice avocados for lunch. Some even deliver meals. While it’s still a bit of a novelty, especially to those who see for the first time a food-bearing wheeled robot roll by them on the sidewalk, it appears they are about to become far ...
Blog
Free cities in Honduras under attack by left-wing regime
The ruling, issued September 20, caps off a years-long campaign by the Central American country’s leftist President Xiomara Castro to outlaw the ZEDEs. “Justice for the Honduran people means not selling off our territory piecemeal or privatizing our sovereignty,” she wrote on X after the ruling. Since 2013, Honduras has ...
Blog
‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
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 ...
Ranked Choice Voting does nothing to improve local elections
Ranked Choice Voting does nothing to improve local elections By Matthew Fleming | November 5, 2024 A recent social media post by a San Francisco mayoral candidate announcing his political strategy for the city’s ranked-choice voting inadvertently highlights why ranked-choice voting is silly. Approved by San Francisco voters in 2002, RCV ...
ELECTION 2024 – California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness
ELECTION 2024 California’s ballot measures could worsen homelessness John Seiler | October 31, 2024 On Nov. 5, voters in California cities can make the housing and homeless crises better – or worse. Alas, most likely the latter. They likely will pass the vast majority of local sales tax increases, school ...
Would sales tax increase make Denver more "affordable"?
Legalizing housing will do more for Denver than a tax hike
Like many cities across the country, Denver has experienced soaring housing prices. While wages in the Denver area have increased 55% over the last decade, the median home sale price has surged 180%. A majority of renters are burdened by high rents eating up 30% or more of their incomes, ...
Western cities double down on taxes for failing transit
Western cities double down on taxes for failing transit By D. Dowd Muska | October 24, 2024 Well before COVID-19, transit was in big trouble. A 2018 analysis found that “factors such as lower fuel costs, increased teleworking, higher car ownership and the rise of alternatives such as Uber and Lyft” ...
Read the latest about overregulation holding up new housing construction
White House rightly calls out onerous local permit hurdles
The post, published by the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, correctly points out that discretionary permitting processes by their nature throw barriers before housing developments. This can slow or outright deter housing from being built. “With discretionary permitting, the proposal is subject to the approval of a public body, ...
Shocker from Argentina: Free Markets Work in Housing, too
Shocker from Argentina: free markets work in housing, too William L. Anderson | October 18, 2024 Rent control is in the news both in California and elsewhere. In California, voters will decide Proposition 33, which would permit local governments to impose draconian rent controls and other restrictions on property owners ...
The future is now: Robots take aim at urban gridlock
Machines already flip burgers, fry potatoes and slice avocados for lunch. Some even deliver meals. While it’s still a bit of a novelty, especially to those who see for the first time a food-bearing wheeled robot roll by them on the sidewalk, it appears they are about to become far ...
Free cities in Honduras under attack by left-wing regime
The ruling, issued September 20, caps off a years-long campaign by the Central American country’s leftist President Xiomara Castro to outlaw the ZEDEs. “Justice for the Honduran people means not selling off our territory piecemeal or privatizing our sovereignty,” she wrote on X after the ruling. Since 2013, Honduras has ...
‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
