Free Cities
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Failed wildfire policy hikes cities’ housing, energy costs
Failed wildfire policy hikes cities’ housing, energy costs By Kenneth Schrupp | June 7, 2024 Two years of rain have finally ended California’s drought, leaving reservoirs full and hills in bloom. However, the prospect of new growth feeding future wildfires looms over a state where the costs of damage and ...
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Large majority of U.S. minorities live in the suburbs
Figure 1 below shows the share of the major minorities living in either the urban core or the suburbs of the 51 metropolitan areas included in the City Sector Model. It is based on 2015-2019 zip code data and the urban form as defined in Figure 2 (which is independent of ...
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LA shouldn’t abuse ‘historic’ zones to stop new housing
LA shouldn’t abuse ‘historic’ zones to stop new housing by Sal Rodriguez | May 31, 2024 Land-use restrictions and NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard-ism) come in many forms. One of the more creative is the invoking of “history” as a means of regulating or prohibiting housing some people ...
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SF’s ‘Grand Central Station’ is more like a mausoleum
Advocates for San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center have never lacked a sense of grandiosity about their goals. “The ability to envision the future and to transform aspirations into reality is what sets leaders apart,” boasted a glossy brochure published by the joint powers authority in charge of the project. “No ...
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Improving cities better than subsidizing weight-loss drugs
Improving cities better than subsidizing weight-loss drugs By Kenneth Schrupp | May 24, 2024 Legislation that would cover weight-loss drugs and surgery to mitigate the state’s ballooning weight crisis fortunately died in the Senate this year, but lawmakers still have productive ways to deal with a problem that’s leaving 28% ...
Blog
Socialism by any name is impeding America’s cities
The number of socialist mayors going back more than three decades is, thankfully, low as a portion of all U.S. mayors. A few stand out: Ron Dellums was Oakland’s mayor from 2007 to 2011; Konstantine Anthony had a short run in Burbank, Calif., that ended last year; and, of course, ...
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Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit Jeremy Lott | May 17, 2024 Washington state’s law on children in cars is quite something for parents to accommodate, as one illustrated state handout demonstrates. Your children must be in the back seat, in car seats facing backwards, for the ...
Blog
Portland gets serious about housing by slashing red tape
“The proposals, brought by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, would reduce bike parking requirements, allow residential units on the ground floor, relax rules for architectural reviews and temporarily suspend some requirements to hold neighborhood meetings in the areas where they want to build,” reported the Oregonian. As noted by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez ...
Blog
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies by John Seiler | May 10, 2024 Why reject government subsidies? After all, everyone pays huge amounts in taxes. Might as well get some of it back. But that’s just what’s happening in California’s housing crisis. In part of a new ...
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Read latest on BART's push for higher taxes
BART pushes to raise taxes to subsidize falling ridership
The pandemic is well behind us, yet transit ridership levels nationwide – and in the San Francisco Bay Area in particular – have only recovered somewhat from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, those pre-pandemic levels weren’t particularly great as transit ridership has been falling for years. Despite California’s reluctance to invest ...
Failed wildfire policy hikes cities’ housing, energy costs
Failed wildfire policy hikes cities’ housing, energy costs By Kenneth Schrupp | June 7, 2024 Two years of rain have finally ended California’s drought, leaving reservoirs full and hills in bloom. However, the prospect of new growth feeding future wildfires looms over a state where the costs of damage and ...
Large majority of U.S. minorities live in the suburbs
Figure 1 below shows the share of the major minorities living in either the urban core or the suburbs of the 51 metropolitan areas included in the City Sector Model. It is based on 2015-2019 zip code data and the urban form as defined in Figure 2 (which is independent of ...
LA shouldn’t abuse ‘historic’ zones to stop new housing
LA shouldn’t abuse ‘historic’ zones to stop new housing by Sal Rodriguez | May 31, 2024 Land-use restrictions and NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard-ism) come in many forms. One of the more creative is the invoking of “history” as a means of regulating or prohibiting housing some people ...
SF’s ‘Grand Central Station’ is more like a mausoleum
Advocates for San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center have never lacked a sense of grandiosity about their goals. “The ability to envision the future and to transform aspirations into reality is what sets leaders apart,” boasted a glossy brochure published by the joint powers authority in charge of the project. “No ...
Improving cities better than subsidizing weight-loss drugs
Improving cities better than subsidizing weight-loss drugs By Kenneth Schrupp | May 24, 2024 Legislation that would cover weight-loss drugs and surgery to mitigate the state’s ballooning weight crisis fortunately died in the Senate this year, but lawmakers still have productive ways to deal with a problem that’s leaving 28% ...
Socialism by any name is impeding America’s cities
The number of socialist mayors going back more than three decades is, thankfully, low as a portion of all U.S. mayors. A few stand out: Ron Dellums was Oakland’s mayor from 2007 to 2011; Konstantine Anthony had a short run in Burbank, Calif., that ended last year; and, of course, ...
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit
Grand Cayman’s mini buses: Lessons for failing US transit Jeremy Lott | May 17, 2024 Washington state’s law on children in cars is quite something for parents to accommodate, as one illustrated state handout demonstrates. Your children must be in the back seat, in car seats facing backwards, for the ...
Portland gets serious about housing by slashing red tape
“The proposals, brought by Commissioner Carmen Rubio, would reduce bike parking requirements, allow residential units on the ground floor, relax rules for architectural reviews and temporarily suspend some requirements to hold neighborhood meetings in the areas where they want to build,” reported the Oregonian. As noted by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez ...
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies
Cities can slash homeless housing costs by ditching subsidies by John Seiler | May 10, 2024 Why reject government subsidies? After all, everyone pays huge amounts in taxes. Might as well get some of it back. But that’s just what’s happening in California’s housing crisis. In part of a new ...
Read latest on BART's push for higher taxes
BART pushes to raise taxes to subsidize falling ridership
The pandemic is well behind us, yet transit ridership levels nationwide – and in the San Francisco Bay Area in particular – have only recovered somewhat from pre-pandemic levels. In fact, those pre-pandemic levels weren’t particularly great as transit ridership has been falling for years. Despite California’s reluctance to invest ...
