Free Cities

American cities are obviously a mess. They are plagued by crime, corruption, homelessness, drug addiction, failing schools and vast inequalities of wealth. The underlying problems aren’t rocket science. It’s partly due to our professional politicians, whose motivational interests often do not coincide with the common good of city residents. It ...

Muni’s latest data shows ridership on the city’s system of buses, cable cars, streetcars and light rail has rebounded dramatically from pandemic levels. It reports that ridership is at 74% of pre-pandemic levels and 92% of those levels on the weekends. The agency also trumpeted reductions in the number of ...

Growing federal debt will take its toll on city budgets John Seiler  |  December 20, 2024 IT HAS TO END SOMETIME.  The national debt has soared above $36 trillion – and counting. And when the party does end, cities are going to be hit. How hard is for the future. ...

At least everyone agrees there’s a problem. Americans’ preference for commute-free employment has yielded a surfeit of office vacancy. The phenomenon is a calamity for lessors plagued by plummeting income. Earlier this month, The Seattle Times reported that one of the city’s “most aggressive, and tenacious, developers” has “defaulted on a $240 million loan ...

Oregon housing demand down, but so is affordability By Randal O’Toole | December 13, 2024 Nearly two years ago, Oregon’s Gov. Tina Kotek set a target of increasing the number of homes built in Oregon each year from 22,000 to 36,000. At the time, I argued that the subsidies Kotek was ...

Voters slam California with new local taxes and bonds By John Seiler | December 6, 2024 California’s Nov. 5 election totals, finalized on Dec. 5 by county registrars, show voters slammed local taxpayers with around $2.3 billion in new direct tax increases. Plus $47.1 billion in new bond debt, which ...

She is a “Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed and connected places.” The author grew up in Houston, served for seven years as the head of Hartford, Conn.’s planning and zoning commission (her ex-husband was ...

Despite latest defense, zoning is just government coercion By Kerry Jackson | November 22, 2024 Central planning never goes out of style on the political left. On occasion, though, it gets special attention. That’s the case with a new book written by, according to Governing magazine, “​​an architect and zoning ...