Free Cities
Blog
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Blog
Union power makes urban reform nearly impossible
It’s well known that private-sector unions imposed higher costs and competitive disadvantages on companies that remained in cities. In a 2010 Cato Journal article, Stephen J. K. Walters explained that unions sparked their transformation “from engines of prosperity into areas afflicted by economic stagnation, chronic poverty, and all the social ...
Blog
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Blog
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
California
Paul Cho – LifeArk’s Innovative Concept to House the Homeless
Our guest this week is Paul Cho, CFO of LifeArk, an organization that has designed rotationally molded houses for the homeless.
Blog
Anaheim’s freedom experiment still offers lessons to cities
It’s a distant and largely forgotten memory, but in the mid-2000s the city of Anaheim pursued a novel idea for bigger cities. Instead of pursuing development policies based on the usual array of central planning tools, the city decided to “pursue a market-oriented, freedom-friendly agenda that would create an atmosphere ...
Blog
How a freedom-friendly city descended into chaos
“How Far a ‘Freedom Friendly’ City Has Strayed” was an appropriate observation about Anaheim in 2016 – and it still works today. Back then, The Orange County Register was condemning the city’s war on short-term rental sites like Airbnb and VRBO. That issue seems so quaint now in the ...
Blog
Hot Nights In The City
California’s failure to control wildfires isn’t just a rural problem Facing longer dry seasons and hotter weather, California has experienced 18 of its 20 largest wildfires since 2000.[1] And while most urban dwellers have escaped the fires’ immediate wrath, they cannot escape its consequences. For one thing, wildfires have a significant ...
California
Steve Greenhut – End of Legislation Wrap-Up
Our guest this week is Steve Greenhut, a fellow at PRI and director of PRI’s upcoming Free Cities Center. Steve is back to discuss the just ended legislative session and the new laws that Californians could see in the books.
California
Randy Hicks – Georgia Center for Opportunity
Former Californian and Georgia Center for Opportunity President Randy Hicks joins us from the Heritage Resource Bank Conference in Nashville to discuss the important work of the Georgia Center in using free market ideas to help lift people out of poverty and up the economic ladder, and the lessons that ...
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Union power makes urban reform nearly impossible
It’s well known that private-sector unions imposed higher costs and competitive disadvantages on companies that remained in cities. In a 2010 Cato Journal article, Stephen J. K. Walters explained that unions sparked their transformation “from engines of prosperity into areas afflicted by economic stagnation, chronic poverty, and all the social ...
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
Paul Cho – LifeArk’s Innovative Concept to House the Homeless
Our guest this week is Paul Cho, CFO of LifeArk, an organization that has designed rotationally molded houses for the homeless.
Anaheim’s freedom experiment still offers lessons to cities
It’s a distant and largely forgotten memory, but in the mid-2000s the city of Anaheim pursued a novel idea for bigger cities. Instead of pursuing development policies based on the usual array of central planning tools, the city decided to “pursue a market-oriented, freedom-friendly agenda that would create an atmosphere ...
How a freedom-friendly city descended into chaos
“How Far a ‘Freedom Friendly’ City Has Strayed” was an appropriate observation about Anaheim in 2016 – and it still works today. Back then, The Orange County Register was condemning the city’s war on short-term rental sites like Airbnb and VRBO. That issue seems so quaint now in the ...
Hot Nights In The City
California’s failure to control wildfires isn’t just a rural problem Facing longer dry seasons and hotter weather, California has experienced 18 of its 20 largest wildfires since 2000.[1] And while most urban dwellers have escaped the fires’ immediate wrath, they cannot escape its consequences. For one thing, wildfires have a significant ...
Steve Greenhut – End of Legislation Wrap-Up
Our guest this week is Steve Greenhut, a fellow at PRI and director of PRI’s upcoming Free Cities Center. Steve is back to discuss the just ended legislative session and the new laws that Californians could see in the books.
Randy Hicks – Georgia Center for Opportunity
Former Californian and Georgia Center for Opportunity President Randy Hicks joins us from the Heritage Resource Bank Conference in Nashville to discuss the important work of the Georgia Center in using free market ideas to help lift people out of poverty and up the economic ladder, and the lessons that ...
