Free Cities
Agriculture
Taxes Up, Roads Still Down, Nothing New
Almost five years ago, the California Legislature passed, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed, Senate Bill 1, hiking fuel taxes to raise $52 billion over 10 years for overdue road repairs. For all the revenue raised and spent, the condition of the state’s highway system continues to decline. Under SB1, state ...
Blog
Cadiz Water Project a Victim of Can’t Do/Won’t Do California
An innovative project to squeeze water from the desert to help quench perpetually thirsty Southern California showed some promise – until the Biden administration decided to halt the plans. The courts might rule against the White House, but for now it looks just like another day in Can’t Do/Won’t Do ...
Agriculture
No Water Yet Says DWR
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced a zero percent water allocation on Dec. 1. The water agency said that the drought has forced state water regulators to prioritize “health and safety water needs” and that water deliveries are essentially on hold until the state recovers from the ongoing ...
Blog
Southern California Traffic Is Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels. Now What?
Well, it’s official: Southern California’s infamous traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels. Worse yet, according to one estimate for SR 91—connecting Los Angeles to her Orange and Riverside suburbs—it might actually be worse. While morning commutes have dampened with the rise of remote work and flexible scheduling, the data suggest ...
Blog
Absent State Leadership, California Cities Continue to Lead on Parking Deregulation
Recently, San Diego moved to eliminate minimum parking regulations for businesses near transit and in neighborhood commercial areas. As reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the measure—which ended the practice of local regulators telling certain walkable and transit-accessible businesses how many off-street parking spaces they must build—enjoyed unanimous support from ...
Blog
Criminals Respond To Incentives Just As Consumers Do
California seems to have become a plunderers’ paradise. Thieves have moved on from shoplifting with large garbage bags at drug stores to violent smash-and-run raids on retailers, some of them during the middle of the day. Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, and other stores from San Francisco to ...
Blog
First Data Shows Real Record of Controversial New DA Putting Public Safety at Risk
The San Francisco Chronicle recently asked if residents should “tolerate a high level of burglaries as a downside of city living, and focus on barricading their homes?” Or, if that’s not satisfactory, “should people who are repeatedly accused of stealing be targeted with rehabilitation services, or incarcerated so they can’t ...
Blog
Los Angeles Is Gearing Up to Ban Wood-Frame Construction. Renters Will Soon Pay the Price.
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted by ...
Blog
Are Schools Covering Up the School Crime Wave?
The scandal in Loudon County, Virginia, where the school superintendent and school board covered up the rape of a student, has made national headlines. National data indicates that such cover-ups may be occurring more frequently than the public realizes. In the Loudon County case, in June the local superintendent and ...
Blog
Single-Family Zoning Is Dead In California. Now What?
In late September, something big happened: SB 9 was signed into law, effectively ending single-family zoning in California. Depending on where you get your news, it was big for one of two very different reasons. To some, it heralded the end of the suburbs, an assault on the “suburban lifestyle ...
Taxes Up, Roads Still Down, Nothing New
Almost five years ago, the California Legislature passed, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed, Senate Bill 1, hiking fuel taxes to raise $52 billion over 10 years for overdue road repairs. For all the revenue raised and spent, the condition of the state’s highway system continues to decline. Under SB1, state ...
Cadiz Water Project a Victim of Can’t Do/Won’t Do California
An innovative project to squeeze water from the desert to help quench perpetually thirsty Southern California showed some promise – until the Biden administration decided to halt the plans. The courts might rule against the White House, but for now it looks just like another day in Can’t Do/Won’t Do ...
No Water Yet Says DWR
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced a zero percent water allocation on Dec. 1. The water agency said that the drought has forced state water regulators to prioritize “health and safety water needs” and that water deliveries are essentially on hold until the state recovers from the ongoing ...
Southern California Traffic Is Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels. Now What?
Well, it’s official: Southern California’s infamous traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels. Worse yet, according to one estimate for SR 91—connecting Los Angeles to her Orange and Riverside suburbs—it might actually be worse. While morning commutes have dampened with the rise of remote work and flexible scheduling, the data suggest ...
Absent State Leadership, California Cities Continue to Lead on Parking Deregulation
Recently, San Diego moved to eliminate minimum parking regulations for businesses near transit and in neighborhood commercial areas. As reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the measure—which ended the practice of local regulators telling certain walkable and transit-accessible businesses how many off-street parking spaces they must build—enjoyed unanimous support from ...
Criminals Respond To Incentives Just As Consumers Do
California seems to have become a plunderers’ paradise. Thieves have moved on from shoplifting with large garbage bags at drug stores to violent smash-and-run raids on retailers, some of them during the middle of the day. Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, and other stores from San Francisco to ...
First Data Shows Real Record of Controversial New DA Putting Public Safety at Risk
The San Francisco Chronicle recently asked if residents should “tolerate a high level of burglaries as a downside of city living, and focus on barricading their homes?” Or, if that’s not satisfactory, “should people who are repeatedly accused of stealing be targeted with rehabilitation services, or incarcerated so they can’t ...
Los Angeles Is Gearing Up to Ban Wood-Frame Construction. Renters Will Soon Pay the Price.
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted by ...
Are Schools Covering Up the School Crime Wave?
The scandal in Loudon County, Virginia, where the school superintendent and school board covered up the rape of a student, has made national headlines. National data indicates that such cover-ups may be occurring more frequently than the public realizes. In the Loudon County case, in June the local superintendent and ...
Single-Family Zoning Is Dead In California. Now What?
In late September, something big happened: SB 9 was signed into law, effectively ending single-family zoning in California. Depending on where you get your news, it was big for one of two very different reasons. To some, it heralded the end of the suburbs, an assault on the “suburban lifestyle ...
