Free Cities
Blog
Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure
One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central ...
Blog
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare by McKenzie Richards Perhaps I should not have moved to Los Angeles given that I hate driving. Driving here – and in any city, really – can be chaotic, unpredictable and time-consuming. For a recent doctor’s appointment, I opted to walk instead. Never having ...
Blog
Free money plan is thin gruel for cities’ starving artists
Starve no more, Sacramento artists. The City Council is apparently moving forward with a plan to offer guaranteed income to creative types in the city. Guaranteed income, often called Universal Basic Income, gives free money to those deemed in need of it by the government. Focusing this latest effort on ...
Blog
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist BY STEVE SMITH The murder of philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, the wife of famed music producer (“The Godfather of Black Music”) Clarence Avant, sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles society. Her death, during a home-invasion robbery on Dec. 1, 2021, not only shattered ...
Blog
Los Angeles: the city that organized labor wrecked
Los Angeles kicked off its 2022 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in inimitable style, with the release of a secret recording in which top Latino city officials are caught disparaging indigenous people – as well as African Americans, Armenians, Jews and (generally lost in the reporting) “white guys.” City Council President ...
Blog
Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing
Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing by John Seiler There are many reasons for California’s housing crisis, but a major problem everyone acknowledges, but never comes close to resolving, is the inability to advance reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA (pronounced See-Kwa). It thwarts the ...
Commentary
Sparking an urban revival by empowering the people
California is in trouble. Nowhere is this more evident than in its cities. Once bustling centers of commerce and culture now are showcases for dirty streets, empty storefronts and the homeless encampments. Many people would blame the present circumstance on the pandemic or our current economic woes, but these are ...
Blog
California pols push urbanism, as people flee cities
California pols push urbanism, as people flee cities Since the 1970s, California policy makers have embarked on a land-use strategy designed to promote “urbanism” – the idea that we all ought to live in dense housing developments, that suburban sprawl should be limited by government planning restrictions, and rural land should be ...
Blog
Rent control is destroying a city near you
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
Agriculture
Can big cities become an agricultural hotbed?
Over 4 billion people have joined the global population in the last 50 years, putting stress on available farmland, water and fertilizer. At the same time, the capacity of the planet to absorb farm waste – toxic farm runoff contaminating aquifers and rivers – has stretched the limit. Nearly 8 ...
Pothole vigilantes fill in for the government’s failure
One of my favorite movies is “Brazil,” by the Monty Python comedy troupe’s alum Terry Gilliam. In the most-telling scene, Harry Tuttle, played by Robert De Niro, breaks into an apartment, not to rob it, but to fix a broken air conditioning system. That’s because the vast government bureaucracy, Central ...
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare
Simple solutions that boost neighborhood healthcare by McKenzie Richards Perhaps I should not have moved to Los Angeles given that I hate driving. Driving here – and in any city, really – can be chaotic, unpredictable and time-consuming. For a recent doctor’s appointment, I opted to walk instead. Never having ...
Free money plan is thin gruel for cities’ starving artists
Starve no more, Sacramento artists. The City Council is apparently moving forward with a plan to offer guaranteed income to creative types in the city. Guaranteed income, often called Universal Basic Income, gives free money to those deemed in need of it by the government. Focusing this latest effort on ...
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist
How a ‘perfect storm’ killed an LA philanthropist BY STEVE SMITH The murder of philanthropist Jaqueline Avant, the wife of famed music producer (“The Godfather of Black Music”) Clarence Avant, sent shock waves throughout Los Angeles society. Her death, during a home-invasion robbery on Dec. 1, 2021, not only shattered ...
Los Angeles: the city that organized labor wrecked
Los Angeles kicked off its 2022 Indigenous Peoples Day celebration in inimitable style, with the release of a secret recording in which top Latino city officials are caught disparaging indigenous people – as well as African Americans, Armenians, Jews and (generally lost in the reporting) “white guys.” City Council President ...
Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing
Enviro law’s abusers continue to block urban housing by John Seiler There are many reasons for California’s housing crisis, but a major problem everyone acknowledges, but never comes close to resolving, is the inability to advance reform of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA (pronounced See-Kwa). It thwarts the ...
Sparking an urban revival by empowering the people
California is in trouble. Nowhere is this more evident than in its cities. Once bustling centers of commerce and culture now are showcases for dirty streets, empty storefronts and the homeless encampments. Many people would blame the present circumstance on the pandemic or our current economic woes, but these are ...
California pols push urbanism, as people flee cities
California pols push urbanism, as people flee cities Since the 1970s, California policy makers have embarked on a land-use strategy designed to promote “urbanism” – the idea that we all ought to live in dense housing developments, that suburban sprawl should be limited by government planning restrictions, and rural land should be ...
Rent control is destroying a city near you
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
Can big cities become an agricultural hotbed?
Over 4 billion people have joined the global population in the last 50 years, putting stress on available farmland, water and fertilizer. At the same time, the capacity of the planet to absorb farm waste – toxic farm runoff contaminating aquifers and rivers – has stretched the limit. Nearly 8 ...
