Free Cities
Blog
George Lucas, Reluctant YIMBY?
The wages of California city planning spare no man—not even George Lucas. As recently as late 2020, the filmmaker sued the California town of San Anselmo to clear up a “surveying error” that may revert a portion of his property to the heirs of its 1920s owners. It’s a trivial ...
Blog
Despite Ring Scandal, Public-Private Partnerships Can Bring About True Community Policing
A few weeks ago, a neighbor knocked on my door. “My windows were smashed last night, but nothing was stolen,” she explained, clearly stressed, “my Ring camera caught the crime on film, but I could not identify the man or see the vehicle he left in.” She waited expectantly. Confused, ...
California
Steven Greenhut Joins KFBK Morning News to Talk Drought, Water
Steven Greenhut, author of PRI’s “Winning the Water Wars,” talks about California’s drought, water storage, the policy of “water abundance,” and what’s next for Californians.
Agriculture
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Blog
Getting CEQA Out of the Way of Missing Middle Housing
California is in the grips of an unprecedented housing crisis, which has sent hundreds of thousands of Californians packing for affordable states like Arizona and Nevada. Here in Los Angeles, both home prices and homelessness have hit record highs, a sign of the ironic situation of the Golden State. At ...
Agriculture
Progress in California Road Repairs Lagging Despite Gas Tax Hike
Four years ago, Will Kempton, then executive director of Transportation California and a former Caltrans director, said the state’s roads were “the worst I have seen.” A few months later, the state began collecting revenue from a $52 billion, 10-year fuel tax hike to raise enough revenue to bring up to date ...
Blog
Newsom UBI Plan: Expanding Government Dependency Without Increasing Economic Empowerment
By Wayne Winegarden and Tim Anaya After hiring defeated Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs as a special advisor and flush with a $75.7 billion budget surplus, it was probably inevitable that universal basic income would be included in Gov. Newsom’s massive billion May Revise budget proposal. True to form, Newsom’s budget ...
Agriculture
California Has Millions of Acre-feet of Water Waiting to Be Built
As part of its May Revise rollout, the Newsom administration announced $5.1 billion for water infrastructure and drought response. While the announcement invests on funding better data collection, continuing the implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, and maintaining current water infrastructure, nothing in Newsom’s proposed funding will solve ...
Blog
California DAs Hope to Slow the Flow of Early Inmate Releases
The planned early release of 76,000 inmates from California prisons is a big meal not well digested by prosecutors across the state. “Allowing the early release of the most dangerous criminals, shortening sentences as much as 50%, impacts crime victims and creates a serious public safety risk,” says Sacramento County ...
California
$12 billion to house the homeless, but ‘housing first’ doesn’t work
The governor has plans to spend an extraordinary sum of public money on the homeless, most of which would be used to put them up in hotels. Sounds compassionate. But it’s another empty promise. Housing-first policy is indistinguishable from housing-and-nothing-else. Part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $100 billion “California Comeback Plan” ...
George Lucas, Reluctant YIMBY?
The wages of California city planning spare no man—not even George Lucas. As recently as late 2020, the filmmaker sued the California town of San Anselmo to clear up a “surveying error” that may revert a portion of his property to the heirs of its 1920s owners. It’s a trivial ...
Despite Ring Scandal, Public-Private Partnerships Can Bring About True Community Policing
A few weeks ago, a neighbor knocked on my door. “My windows were smashed last night, but nothing was stolen,” she explained, clearly stressed, “my Ring camera caught the crime on film, but I could not identify the man or see the vehicle he left in.” She waited expectantly. Confused, ...
Steven Greenhut Joins KFBK Morning News to Talk Drought, Water
Steven Greenhut, author of PRI’s “Winning the Water Wars,” talks about California’s drought, water storage, the policy of “water abundance,” and what’s next for Californians.
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Getting CEQA Out of the Way of Missing Middle Housing
California is in the grips of an unprecedented housing crisis, which has sent hundreds of thousands of Californians packing for affordable states like Arizona and Nevada. Here in Los Angeles, both home prices and homelessness have hit record highs, a sign of the ironic situation of the Golden State. At ...
Progress in California Road Repairs Lagging Despite Gas Tax Hike
Four years ago, Will Kempton, then executive director of Transportation California and a former Caltrans director, said the state’s roads were “the worst I have seen.” A few months later, the state began collecting revenue from a $52 billion, 10-year fuel tax hike to raise enough revenue to bring up to date ...
Newsom UBI Plan: Expanding Government Dependency Without Increasing Economic Empowerment
By Wayne Winegarden and Tim Anaya After hiring defeated Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs as a special advisor and flush with a $75.7 billion budget surplus, it was probably inevitable that universal basic income would be included in Gov. Newsom’s massive billion May Revise budget proposal. True to form, Newsom’s budget ...
California Has Millions of Acre-feet of Water Waiting to Be Built
As part of its May Revise rollout, the Newsom administration announced $5.1 billion for water infrastructure and drought response. While the announcement invests on funding better data collection, continuing the implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, and maintaining current water infrastructure, nothing in Newsom’s proposed funding will solve ...
California DAs Hope to Slow the Flow of Early Inmate Releases
The planned early release of 76,000 inmates from California prisons is a big meal not well digested by prosecutors across the state. “Allowing the early release of the most dangerous criminals, shortening sentences as much as 50%, impacts crime victims and creates a serious public safety risk,” says Sacramento County ...
$12 billion to house the homeless, but ‘housing first’ doesn’t work
The governor has plans to spend an extraordinary sum of public money on the homeless, most of which would be used to put them up in hotels. Sounds compassionate. But it’s another empty promise. Housing-first policy is indistinguishable from housing-and-nothing-else. Part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $100 billion “California Comeback Plan” ...
