Free Cities
Blog
Read latest on state's misguided transportation priorities
‘Induced demand’ a poor excuse not to build highways
Economists are known for different worldviews from others, and the gap usually is wide between economists and urban planners. Economist Thomas Sowell famously has said, “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs,” thinking that most planners reject out of hand. One contentious issue separating economists (or at least those that believe ...
Blog
Newsom’s housing bonds: Another failed-policy redux
According to the governor’s announcement, among other things the initiative would, “Amend the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), leading to at least $1 billion every year in local assistance for housing and residential services for people experiencing mental illness and substance use disorders, and allowing MHSA funds to serve people with ...
Blog
Get a Preview of Upcoming Study
Population trends prove people prefer pro-growth cities
The movement away from large cities is not universal, however. People may be leaving Los Angeles, but they are moving to Fort Worth, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Figure 1 presents the diverse five-year percentage change in population for the 50 largest cities in the United States. The vast differences in ...
Blog
Free Markets Fuel Outdoor Dining
Cities should maintain flexible outdoor dining programs
One of the few silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic was that governments were forced to think outside-of-the-box in order to make things happen. In the early months of the pandemic, local governments across the country loosened regulations to allow restaurants and bars to serve customers outdoors. They made it ...
Blog
Government health care hurts minority communities
Racial health gap is about government, not race
Black Americans continue to lag behind their peers of other races on numerous measures of health, from life expectancy to prevalence of chronic disease. Progressives take these data points as proof of systemic racism. The only antidote is more government: higher subsidies for insurance through Obamacare’s exchanges, Medicaid expansion, even ...
Blog
True conservatives should welcome state rollback of housing restrictions
‘Local control’ still is government control
At the state level, the concurrent Republican values of “local control” and “limited government” can compete and even conflict. Republicans have long stood against unfunded state mandates on local government and onerous red tape on the private sector, as well we should. However, we should welcome state intervention to reduce ...
Blog
Read the latest on road diets
Bicycle ridership declining even in bike-friendly Portland
According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the share of Portland employees riding bicycles to work peaked at 7.2 percent in 2014. By 2019, it had fallen to 5.2 percent. The pandemic led to a surge in bicycle sales, and the share grew to 5.4 percent in 2020 but ...
Blog
Read about debate over SB 9 and 10
Misguided fear and loathing over relaxed zoning rules
SB 9 essentially eliminated single-family-only zoning by allowing property owners – on a “by right” basis that avoids subjective local reviews – to subdivide their single-family properties and build additional units on the land provided it meets all the pre-existing local setback and land-use conditions. It would allow up to ...
Blog
Read exclusive book excerpt
Cities in Crisis: How to fix municipal government budgeting
Read an excerpt from The Municipal Financial Crisis: A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting by Mark Moses (reprinted with permission). There was an alleged exchange in the 1950s between golfing great Sam Snead and baseball legend Ted Williams regarding which sport is more challenging. Ted pointed out that a ...
Agriculture
Urban Ag Promotes Healthy Food, Thriving Gardens
Urban Ag Promotes Healthy Food, Thriving Gardens MARCH 27, 2023 Watch as Steven Greenhut of the Free Cities Center tours City Slicker Farms in Oakland, an urban agriculture program that promotes access to healthy food, thriving gardens and urban green spaces.
Read latest on state's misguided transportation priorities
‘Induced demand’ a poor excuse not to build highways
Economists are known for different worldviews from others, and the gap usually is wide between economists and urban planners. Economist Thomas Sowell famously has said, “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs,” thinking that most planners reject out of hand. One contentious issue separating economists (or at least those that believe ...
Newsom’s housing bonds: Another failed-policy redux
According to the governor’s announcement, among other things the initiative would, “Amend the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), leading to at least $1 billion every year in local assistance for housing and residential services for people experiencing mental illness and substance use disorders, and allowing MHSA funds to serve people with ...
Get a Preview of Upcoming Study
Population trends prove people prefer pro-growth cities
The movement away from large cities is not universal, however. People may be leaving Los Angeles, but they are moving to Fort Worth, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Figure 1 presents the diverse five-year percentage change in population for the 50 largest cities in the United States. The vast differences in ...
Free Markets Fuel Outdoor Dining
Cities should maintain flexible outdoor dining programs
One of the few silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic was that governments were forced to think outside-of-the-box in order to make things happen. In the early months of the pandemic, local governments across the country loosened regulations to allow restaurants and bars to serve customers outdoors. They made it ...
Government health care hurts minority communities
Racial health gap is about government, not race
Black Americans continue to lag behind their peers of other races on numerous measures of health, from life expectancy to prevalence of chronic disease. Progressives take these data points as proof of systemic racism. The only antidote is more government: higher subsidies for insurance through Obamacare’s exchanges, Medicaid expansion, even ...
True conservatives should welcome state rollback of housing restrictions
‘Local control’ still is government control
At the state level, the concurrent Republican values of “local control” and “limited government” can compete and even conflict. Republicans have long stood against unfunded state mandates on local government and onerous red tape on the private sector, as well we should. However, we should welcome state intervention to reduce ...
Read the latest on road diets
Bicycle ridership declining even in bike-friendly Portland
According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the share of Portland employees riding bicycles to work peaked at 7.2 percent in 2014. By 2019, it had fallen to 5.2 percent. The pandemic led to a surge in bicycle sales, and the share grew to 5.4 percent in 2020 but ...
Read about debate over SB 9 and 10
Misguided fear and loathing over relaxed zoning rules
SB 9 essentially eliminated single-family-only zoning by allowing property owners – on a “by right” basis that avoids subjective local reviews – to subdivide their single-family properties and build additional units on the land provided it meets all the pre-existing local setback and land-use conditions. It would allow up to ...
Read exclusive book excerpt
Cities in Crisis: How to fix municipal government budgeting
Read an excerpt from The Municipal Financial Crisis: A Framework for Understanding and Fixing Government Budgeting by Mark Moses (reprinted with permission). There was an alleged exchange in the 1950s between golfing great Sam Snead and baseball legend Ted Williams regarding which sport is more challenging. Ted pointed out that a ...
Urban Ag Promotes Healthy Food, Thriving Gardens
Urban Ag Promotes Healthy Food, Thriving Gardens MARCH 27, 2023 Watch as Steven Greenhut of the Free Cities Center tours City Slicker Farms in Oakland, an urban agriculture program that promotes access to healthy food, thriving gardens and urban green spaces.
