Free Cities

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‘Housing First’ puts lofty goals above real-world results

Proponents of housing first claim that housing is a basic human right, and a permanent and stable home is the best platform from which to help people overcome the challenges that led to their homelessness, including the problems of mental illness and addiction.   As a result of this premise, ...
Blog

About Free Cities Center

Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
Free Cities

California Think Tank Launches New ‘Free Cities Center’ to Incubate Free Market Ideas to Improve Cities

Pacific Research Institute today launched the “Free Cities Center,” an ambitious initiative cultivating innovative ideas to improve urban life based around freedom and property rights – not government.
Book

NEW BOOK RELEASE – Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities

NEW BOOK RELEASE Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities Steven Greenhut Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other ...
California

OC Rescue Mission: How a Private Charity is Turning Around Lives More Effectively Than Government

Watch video tour of the Orange County Rescue Mission and interview with president Jim Palmer to learn how the private charity is turning lives around more effectively than traditional government homeless programs.
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

‘Housing First’ puts lofty goals above real-world results

Proponents of housing first claim that housing is a basic human right, and a permanent and stable home is the best platform from which to help people overcome the challenges that led to their homelessness, including the problems of mental illness and addiction.   As a result of this premise, ...
Blog

About Free Cities Center

Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
Free Cities

California Think Tank Launches New ‘Free Cities Center’ to Incubate Free Market Ideas to Improve Cities

Pacific Research Institute today launched the “Free Cities Center,” an ambitious initiative cultivating innovative ideas to improve urban life based around freedom and property rights – not government.
Book

NEW BOOK RELEASE – Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities

NEW BOOK RELEASE Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities Steven Greenhut Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other ...
California

OC Rescue Mission: How a Private Charity is Turning Around Lives More Effectively Than Government

Watch video tour of the Orange County Rescue Mission and interview with president Jim Palmer to learn how the private charity is turning lives around more effectively than traditional government homeless programs.
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.
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