Blog
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
Blog
Prop 47 Never Stood a Chance
Nine years ago, Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 47 – The “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” – and in so doing affirmed and then reaffirmed in later elections their desire that California both reduce crime and rates of incarceration. This is a tall order for any bureaucracy – and one ...
Blog
Read about latest state homeless spending
Newsom Homeless Encampment Plan an Overly Costly Solution at Best
More likely, the $300 million that the Governor wants to spend will barely make a dent in the state’s worst in the country homeless problem. The reason: this $300 million is still adhering to the costly yet ineffective Housing First approach. According to the Notice of Funding Availability, which defines how ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: A 2024 Healthcare Reform Agenda for Achieving Affordable, Accessible, High Quality Care
The following is text of a speech given by PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes to the BYU chapter of the Adam Smith Society. My charge today is to outline a policy reform agenda that will make affordable, accessible, and high-quality ...
Blog
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
With motivation, even California can clean up its cities
Why can’t it be like this all the time? The efforts were criticized because so much of San Francisco has fallen into a state of disrepair, with pervasive homelessness, drug abuse, petty crime and even human feces (so much so that a map was created to document the location of poop) ...
Agriculture
Read about new government bureaucracy
Will New LA Government Agency Reduce ‘Food Inequality’?
This new bureau “will expand on the efforts of the Food Equity Roundtable,” a public-private partnership established in 2021 “to ensure just and equitable access to nutritious food in L.A. County.” “By creating the first-ever L.A. County Office of Food Equity, we can build on the work we already started ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
The state’s housing shortages have consequences
Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Blog
Your Support Makes Our Work Possible
Support PRI on Giving Tuesday 2023
As we celebrate #GivingTuesday and the start of the holiday season, all of us at the Pacific Research Institute have a lot to be thankful for. We are particularly grateful for the generosity of our supporters across the nation who have partnered with us in 2023 to advance personal freedom ...
Blog
Read about rise in crime against seniors
California – It’s No Place for the Old
On Halloween Eve this year a 79-year-old woman was walking along Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica when she was beaten on her head and robbed of her purse by four suspects, one of whom was armed with a handgun. An alert witness contacted the police and, thanks to a good ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
Prop 47 Never Stood a Chance
Nine years ago, Californians overwhelmingly passed Proposition 47 – The “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” – and in so doing affirmed and then reaffirmed in later elections their desire that California both reduce crime and rates of incarceration. This is a tall order for any bureaucracy – and one ...
Read about latest state homeless spending
Newsom Homeless Encampment Plan an Overly Costly Solution at Best
More likely, the $300 million that the Governor wants to spend will barely make a dent in the state’s worst in the country homeless problem. The reason: this $300 million is still adhering to the costly yet ineffective Housing First approach. According to the Notice of Funding Availability, which defines how ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: A 2024 Healthcare Reform Agenda for Achieving Affordable, Accessible, High Quality Care
The following is text of a speech given by PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes to the BYU chapter of the Adam Smith Society. My charge today is to outline a policy reform agenda that will make affordable, accessible, and high-quality ...
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
With motivation, even California can clean up its cities
Why can’t it be like this all the time? The efforts were criticized because so much of San Francisco has fallen into a state of disrepair, with pervasive homelessness, drug abuse, petty crime and even human feces (so much so that a map was created to document the location of poop) ...
Read about new government bureaucracy
Will New LA Government Agency Reduce ‘Food Inequality’?
This new bureau “will expand on the efforts of the Food Equity Roundtable,” a public-private partnership established in 2021 “to ensure just and equitable access to nutritious food in L.A. County.” “By creating the first-ever L.A. County Office of Food Equity, we can build on the work we already started ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
The state’s housing shortages have consequences
Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Your Support Makes Our Work Possible
Support PRI on Giving Tuesday 2023
As we celebrate #GivingTuesday and the start of the holiday season, all of us at the Pacific Research Institute have a lot to be thankful for. We are particularly grateful for the generosity of our supporters across the nation who have partnered with us in 2023 to advance personal freedom ...
Read about rise in crime against seniors
California – It’s No Place for the Old
On Halloween Eve this year a 79-year-old woman was walking along Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica when she was beaten on her head and robbed of her purse by four suspects, one of whom was armed with a handgun. An alert witness contacted the police and, thanks to a good ...
