Free Cities
Blog
U.S. land ‘shortage’ is result of artificial growth limits
Some of the social-media responses to a Wall Street Journal article in September headlined, “The U.S. is Running Short of Land for Housing,” were heated. They proved – for anyone who has yet to realize it – that Tweeters and Facebook users might not always read posted articles particularly carefully ...
Crime
Marjy Stagmeier – Improving Low-Income Communities
Our guest this week is Marjy Stegmeier, a successful Georgia developer and author of the new book Blighted: A Story of People, Politics, and an American Housing.
Blog
‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable
‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable by John Seiler At a time when many Western officials are reducing housing restrictions to promote building and thereby ease the affordable-housing crisis, they also are embracing a policy that runs contrary to these goals. Most Western states continue to create Urban Growth ...
Blog
Is lefty San Francisco moving in a rightward direction?
Apparently, everyone has a breaking point and for San Franciscans things broke around COVID-19. While public schools shut down amid the pandemic and parents were openly frustrated, the school board took several actions that landed it on the wrong side of voters. That led to the recall of three members ...
Blog
Reclaiming Liberty on Giving Tuesday
Standing together, we are spreading the message of limited government, free enterprise, and personal responsibility far and wide throughout our state and nation. Our supporters powered our successes in 2022— from blocking single-payer health care in California to exposing the failures of disastrous initiatives on homelessness and climate change. Today ...
Featured
Watch Tour: Increasing Housing Density Can Build Thriving Neighborhoods
Watch as Steven Greenhut of PRI’s Free Cities Center and California YIMBY director of communications Matthew Lewis go on a tour of Berkeley to see first hand how denser, multi-family housing units and exist in harmony with single-family homes and create thriving neighborhoods.
Blog
‘Parasitic’ architecture offers a way to boost housing density
The concept is attractive. Taking advantage of an existing superstructure and utility conduits, developers can simply add new units on the sides and top of a residential building. In theory, this can save money, preserve the original building and create new housing in areas where housing tends to be in ...
Blog
Spiraling pension costs still crowding out city services
Spiraling pension costs still crowding out city services by Edward Ring About 20 years ago, I read an ad in a local Sacramento newspaper that said, “Get a government job and become an instant millionaire.” The ad described how public officials in California enjoyed benefits private sector employees can rarely ...
Blog
‘Free market’ cities give urban fiefdoms some competition
A tangle of encrusted bureaucracies and counterproductive regulations has made it inordinately difficult for urban residents to live productive and affluent lives. Rent control. Zoning. Central planning. Tenant boards. Parking minimums. Most urban problems, from decrepit housing to street crime, are largely solvable, but politics is typically the enemy of ...
Commentary
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities by Wendell Cox Over the six decades that transit subsidies have been virtually universal, governments and media have urged people to give up driving and switch to transit. Yet transit’s share of total urban travel was near modern lows ...
U.S. land ‘shortage’ is result of artificial growth limits
Some of the social-media responses to a Wall Street Journal article in September headlined, “The U.S. is Running Short of Land for Housing,” were heated. They proved – for anyone who has yet to realize it – that Tweeters and Facebook users might not always read posted articles particularly carefully ...
Marjy Stagmeier – Improving Low-Income Communities
Our guest this week is Marjy Stegmeier, a successful Georgia developer and author of the new book Blighted: A Story of People, Politics, and an American Housing.
‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable
‘Urban growth boundaries’ make cities less affordable by John Seiler At a time when many Western officials are reducing housing restrictions to promote building and thereby ease the affordable-housing crisis, they also are embracing a policy that runs contrary to these goals. Most Western states continue to create Urban Growth ...
Is lefty San Francisco moving in a rightward direction?
Apparently, everyone has a breaking point and for San Franciscans things broke around COVID-19. While public schools shut down amid the pandemic and parents were openly frustrated, the school board took several actions that landed it on the wrong side of voters. That led to the recall of three members ...
Reclaiming Liberty on Giving Tuesday
Standing together, we are spreading the message of limited government, free enterprise, and personal responsibility far and wide throughout our state and nation. Our supporters powered our successes in 2022— from blocking single-payer health care in California to exposing the failures of disastrous initiatives on homelessness and climate change. Today ...
Watch Tour: Increasing Housing Density Can Build Thriving Neighborhoods
Watch as Steven Greenhut of PRI’s Free Cities Center and California YIMBY director of communications Matthew Lewis go on a tour of Berkeley to see first hand how denser, multi-family housing units and exist in harmony with single-family homes and create thriving neighborhoods.
‘Parasitic’ architecture offers a way to boost housing density
The concept is attractive. Taking advantage of an existing superstructure and utility conduits, developers can simply add new units on the sides and top of a residential building. In theory, this can save money, preserve the original building and create new housing in areas where housing tends to be in ...
Spiraling pension costs still crowding out city services
Spiraling pension costs still crowding out city services by Edward Ring About 20 years ago, I read an ad in a local Sacramento newspaper that said, “Get a government job and become an instant millionaire.” The ad described how public officials in California enjoyed benefits private sector employees can rarely ...
‘Free market’ cities give urban fiefdoms some competition
A tangle of encrusted bureaucracies and counterproductive regulations has made it inordinately difficult for urban residents to live productive and affluent lives. Rent control. Zoning. Central planning. Tenant boards. Parking minimums. Most urban problems, from decrepit housing to street crime, are largely solvable, but politics is typically the enemy of ...
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities
Planners push transit, but it’s a hard sell in Western cities by Wendell Cox Over the six decades that transit subsidies have been virtually universal, governments and media have urged people to give up driving and switch to transit. Yet transit’s share of total urban travel was near modern lows ...
