Free Cities
Blog
Read latest about Seattle's housing woes
Seattle’s revised housing plan is still too restrictive
Harrell describes the plan as “bold” and says it takes a “deliberate and tailored approach – bringing a greater diversity of housing types to every neighborhood, uplifting the voices of neighbors and vulnerable communities, and building a city where teachers, baristas and working families can afford to live.” To its ...
Blog
Read about latest push for rent control
Even as rents fall, progressives push local rent controls
These local measures usually come with a tough cap on rent increases, as well as the creation of a new board of bureaucrats to monitor rents while diverting millions of dollars from other core city services. While local measures have fared better at the ballot box than the statewide efforts ...
California
Read about PRI’s big victory in the Supreme Court
PRI Wins Big Victory in Supreme Court in Key Homelessness Case
PRI filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, which you can read by clicking here. The case involves efforts by the city of Grants Pass, Oregon to discourage sleeping and camping in public spaces. Homeless advocates sued the city, arguing that its methods were cruel and unusual punishment. The ...
Agriculture
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Cities can end ‘food deserts’ by ending ‘crime oases’
But why is that? With urban crime out of control, nobody wants to open a store where unprosecuted theft drives unsustainable losses and random acts of violence are bottomless liabilities. To end urban “food deserts,” cities must end crime oases keeping businesses away from residents most in need. The U.S. ...
Blog
Flawed Project Homekey now immersed in scandal
My Pacific Research Institute colleague Kerry Jackson and I have written extensively about the inherent flaws of Project Homekey. As a refresher, Project Homekey is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s main program for addressing the state’s homelessness problem. It attempts to leverage the current hotel and motel infrastructure to move people from ...
Blog
City HAL 9000: Do cities overpromise AI’s benefits?
Denver is using it to “speed up the approval and delivery of … coupons” that allow “residents to recycle televisions, monitors and other electronics at a discount.” The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using it to “understand traffic patterns and safety issues at select intersections in the Las Vegas Valley.” ...
Blog
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Crime
Watch the latest Free Cities Center video
WATCH: Are Crime and Homelessness Shifting San Francisco Right?
Do recent election results show a rightward shift in San Francisco? Join Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut as he visits the City by the Bay and talks with two experts about what’s really going on in the City. They discuss whether things are really as bad as some media outlets ...
Blog
BOOK REVIEW: “Build, Baby, Build!” by Bryan Caplan
“Drill, baby, drill!” Those words were first popularized at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Republicans were widely mocked at the time for their sloganeering, but they largely carried the day. Domestic oil extraction came to 302.2 million metric tons in 2008. That was a 10-year low according ...
Blog
Read the latest on the Sacramento DA's homeless lawsuit
Sac DA’s homeless lawsuit falters, but effort wasn’t in vain
District Attorney Thien Ho tested how much his office directly can affect homeless policy by suing the city for not doing its job to deal with its festering homelessness crisis. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill H. Talley ruled on May 6 that Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council ...
Read latest about Seattle's housing woes
Seattle’s revised housing plan is still too restrictive
Harrell describes the plan as “bold” and says it takes a “deliberate and tailored approach – bringing a greater diversity of housing types to every neighborhood, uplifting the voices of neighbors and vulnerable communities, and building a city where teachers, baristas and working families can afford to live.” To its ...
Read about latest push for rent control
Even as rents fall, progressives push local rent controls
These local measures usually come with a tough cap on rent increases, as well as the creation of a new board of bureaucrats to monitor rents while diverting millions of dollars from other core city services. While local measures have fared better at the ballot box than the statewide efforts ...
Read about PRI’s big victory in the Supreme Court
PRI Wins Big Victory in Supreme Court in Key Homelessness Case
PRI filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, which you can read by clicking here. The case involves efforts by the city of Grants Pass, Oregon to discourage sleeping and camping in public spaces. Homeless advocates sued the city, arguing that its methods were cruel and unusual punishment. The ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Cities can end ‘food deserts’ by ending ‘crime oases’
But why is that? With urban crime out of control, nobody wants to open a store where unprosecuted theft drives unsustainable losses and random acts of violence are bottomless liabilities. To end urban “food deserts,” cities must end crime oases keeping businesses away from residents most in need. The U.S. ...
Flawed Project Homekey now immersed in scandal
My Pacific Research Institute colleague Kerry Jackson and I have written extensively about the inherent flaws of Project Homekey. As a refresher, Project Homekey is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s main program for addressing the state’s homelessness problem. It attempts to leverage the current hotel and motel infrastructure to move people from ...
City HAL 9000: Do cities overpromise AI’s benefits?
Denver is using it to “speed up the approval and delivery of … coupons” that allow “residents to recycle televisions, monitors and other electronics at a discount.” The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada is using it to “understand traffic patterns and safety issues at select intersections in the Las Vegas Valley.” ...
Buses should be transportation, not homeless shelters
“At night time, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., the homeless have nowhere to go,” a man who posted a video of a downtown-to-Santa Monica Metro bus filled with slumbering homeless told the Los Angeles Fox affiliate. “So they all get on the buses and they ride the buses all ...
Watch the latest Free Cities Center video
WATCH: Are Crime and Homelessness Shifting San Francisco Right?
Do recent election results show a rightward shift in San Francisco? Join Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut as he visits the City by the Bay and talks with two experts about what’s really going on in the City. They discuss whether things are really as bad as some media outlets ...
BOOK REVIEW: “Build, Baby, Build!” by Bryan Caplan
“Drill, baby, drill!” Those words were first popularized at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Republicans were widely mocked at the time for their sloganeering, but they largely carried the day. Domestic oil extraction came to 302.2 million metric tons in 2008. That was a 10-year low according ...
Read the latest on the Sacramento DA's homeless lawsuit
Sac DA’s homeless lawsuit falters, but effort wasn’t in vain
District Attorney Thien Ho tested how much his office directly can affect homeless policy by suing the city for not doing its job to deal with its festering homelessness crisis. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jill H. Talley ruled on May 6 that Mayor Darrell Steinberg and the City Council ...
