Blog
Blog
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Blog
Read the Free Cities Center's latest book review
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World’
Post-COVID, are cities still the engines of civilization? Physicist Geoffrey West has called cities “the crucible of civilization.” That widely quoted metaphor is worth unpacking. A crucible is a mold that holds molten substances as they are cooling and gives them new form. The claim here is that cities are ...
Blog
Learn what the State Auditor found wrong with CA homelessness spending
Who is left to defend CA homelessness spending?
I received a text out of nowhere from a friend who shares vastly different political opinions than myself: Where is all the money that is supposed to go to the homeless? I had to report the homeless camp on my apartment street. I openly saw someone smoking from a crack ...
Blog
Read latest about push for electric vehicles
Will Electric Vehicle Push Make Any Difference In Lowering Emissions? Science Says Probably Not.
Let’s first look at indisputable facts. Carbon dioxide level as a portion of our atmosphere is now 425 parts per million (or 0.0425%), as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, up from 317 PPM in 1960. (About 500 million years ago, CO2 reached 7,000 PPM.) To understand just how ...
Blog
Read latest on SF's growing defecation problem
Scatology 101
It’s hard not to love Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants. He is the team’s public face and cheerleader in chief – a proud San Franciscan with diplomas from Lowell High School and Cal Berkeley that attest to his deep Bay Area roots. And no one ...
Blog
As drivers struggle, Seattle should scrap gig-worker law
As drivers struggle, Seattle should scrap gig-worker law By Sal Rodriguez | April 12, 2024 Back in May 2022, the Seattle City Council approved so-called “PayUp” legislation imposing minimum wage standards on app-based delivery services. Under the rules, app-based delivery drivers must be paid a city-established minimum per minute and ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Creating ‘Free Cities’ as Plan B for global societies
Editor’s Note: The Free Cities Foundation has no connection to the Pacific Research Institute’s Free Cities Center, but many of its ideas align with ours. The Foundation helps create real-world privatized cities across the globe, where market forces provide government services. PRI’s Center promotes myriad ideas to improve cities, including ...
Blog
Learn about Sacramento's latest anti-entrepreneurship bill
‘Right To Ignore Your Boss’ Bill Could Make Work-Life Balance Worse for Employees
Haney told the Bay Area News Group that “smartphones have blurred the boundaries between work and home life,” and that “workers shouldn’t be punished for not being available 24/7 if they are not being paid for 24 hours of work.” It’s a shockingly simplistic view of how things work in ...
Blog
Learn how much more you'll pay under $20 restaurant minimum wage
How Much Will Your Favorite Hamburger Cost After Minimum Wage Hike?
Didn’t someone say that raising the minimum wage would hurt most those it is intended to help? Yes, yes they did. And it’s been said many times. Yet here we are in the just-begun era of the $20-an-hour minimum wage and residents in the low-income district of South Los Angeles ...
Blog
Read latest on California's budget crisis
Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again
When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it
It’s build or bust in California, as subsidies can’t cut it by Kenneth Schrupp | April 19, 2024 With a 4.5-million home shortage driving California to have the 49th-worst ratio of residences to residents in the nation, efforts to increase up-front affordability without increasing the abundance of homes is resulting ...
Read the Free Cities Center's latest book review
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World’
Post-COVID, are cities still the engines of civilization? Physicist Geoffrey West has called cities “the crucible of civilization.” That widely quoted metaphor is worth unpacking. A crucible is a mold that holds molten substances as they are cooling and gives them new form. The claim here is that cities are ...
Learn what the State Auditor found wrong with CA homelessness spending
Who is left to defend CA homelessness spending?
I received a text out of nowhere from a friend who shares vastly different political opinions than myself: Where is all the money that is supposed to go to the homeless? I had to report the homeless camp on my apartment street. I openly saw someone smoking from a crack ...
Read latest about push for electric vehicles
Will Electric Vehicle Push Make Any Difference In Lowering Emissions? Science Says Probably Not.
Let’s first look at indisputable facts. Carbon dioxide level as a portion of our atmosphere is now 425 parts per million (or 0.0425%), as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, up from 317 PPM in 1960. (About 500 million years ago, CO2 reached 7,000 PPM.) To understand just how ...
Read latest on SF's growing defecation problem
Scatology 101
It’s hard not to love Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants. He is the team’s public face and cheerleader in chief – a proud San Franciscan with diplomas from Lowell High School and Cal Berkeley that attest to his deep Bay Area roots. And no one ...
As drivers struggle, Seattle should scrap gig-worker law
As drivers struggle, Seattle should scrap gig-worker law By Sal Rodriguez | April 12, 2024 Back in May 2022, the Seattle City Council approved so-called “PayUp” legislation imposing minimum wage standards on app-based delivery services. Under the rules, app-based delivery drivers must be paid a city-established minimum per minute and ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Creating ‘Free Cities’ as Plan B for global societies
Editor’s Note: The Free Cities Foundation has no connection to the Pacific Research Institute’s Free Cities Center, but many of its ideas align with ours. The Foundation helps create real-world privatized cities across the globe, where market forces provide government services. PRI’s Center promotes myriad ideas to improve cities, including ...
Learn about Sacramento's latest anti-entrepreneurship bill
‘Right To Ignore Your Boss’ Bill Could Make Work-Life Balance Worse for Employees
Haney told the Bay Area News Group that “smartphones have blurred the boundaries between work and home life,” and that “workers shouldn’t be punished for not being available 24/7 if they are not being paid for 24 hours of work.” It’s a shockingly simplistic view of how things work in ...
Learn how much more you'll pay under $20 restaurant minimum wage
How Much Will Your Favorite Hamburger Cost After Minimum Wage Hike?
Didn’t someone say that raising the minimum wage would hurt most those it is intended to help? Yes, yes they did. And it’s been said many times. Yet here we are in the just-begun era of the $20-an-hour minimum wage and residents in the low-income district of South Los Angeles ...
Read latest on California's budget crisis
Governor Newsom’s Budget Crisis Is Déjà vu All Over Again
When we last updated you on efforts by Gov. Newsom and legislative Democrats to close the state’s $73 billion budget deficit, Senate Democrats had proposed a $17.1 billion plan to “shrink the shortfall” – of which, just 19.3 percent were actual cuts. Just before the Legislature’s summer recess on March ...
