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Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Key to the City” – or the key to more control?
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 ...
Blog
Read about the latest victory in the war on cars
A Great Highway . . . But Not for Driving
Prop. K will permanently close a two-mile stretch – more than half its length – of the four-lane highway along Ocean Beach between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. It will become a public recreation space. The idea goes back to the early days of the COVID-19 panic. “In response to ...
Blog
Despite latest defense, zoning is just government coercion
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 ...
Blog
Gas Warfare in California
It took only a few hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a regulatory bill for Phillips 66 to announce that it is closing its Los Angeles refinery complex. Without actually using the words, the company is saying there’s no reason to stick around and be abused. In a ceremony designed ...
Blog
When Ambition And Ideology Outpace Reality And Prudent Policymaking
Turns out the electric trucks aren’t selling well, so manufacturers will be able to build more diesel trucks than regulations were allowing them to. Yet again, the state tacitly acknowledges that its net-zero ambitions are unrealistic. It was a lesson learned late, though. Several states that followed the California model ...
Blog
Read the latest about California's high speed rail boondoggle
Despite the promises, bullet train is lesson in ‘sunk costs’
Unfortunately, California officials pay no attention to sunk costs, which are reflected in the spending for the California High Speed Rail System. If there is a classic lesson regarding “sunk costs,” the ongoing project of building a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is the poster child. Yet, ...
Blog
Desert Push for New Solar Farm Threatens Worker Health, Local Water Supply
In California’s never-ending effort to retain its self-awarded climate MVP trophy, thousands of acres near Desert Center, east of Palm Springs in Riverside County, will be “cultivated” to accommodate a solar farm. The Intersect Power project, centered on a 390-megawatt solar array with an adjacent battery storage site, was unanimously ...
Blog
Market innovations can make our cities energy independent
Market innovations can make our cities energy independent By Edward Ring | November 15, 2024 A revolution in urban planning is well under way, driven by advances in wastewater recycling and runoff harvesting, along with waste-to-energy technologies and indoor agriculture. But perhaps the biggest and most unheralded breakthrough is the ...
Blog
Beyond rate cuts: Revived housing requires zoning reform
Recent reports by USC researchers and market analysts suggest that California’s already pricey housing stock requires far more than an interest rate cut to balance out, meaning an onrush of moderately priced units aren’t likely in the near term. But there has been further legislation from Sacramento this past session ...
Blog
Learn why even Bay Area progressives voted to stop rising crime
Progressives Reject Progressivism
If Democratic party registration is any indication of the popularity of the progressive agenda – which Gov. Gavin Newsom calls “the California way” – then San Francisco and Alameda counties are the most progressive in California. Yet, in the last two years amidst rising crime, exploding overdose deaths, and dying ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Key to the City” – or the key to more control?
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 ...
Read about the latest victory in the war on cars
A Great Highway . . . But Not for Driving
Prop. K will permanently close a two-mile stretch – more than half its length – of the four-lane highway along Ocean Beach between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. It will become a public recreation space. The idea goes back to the early days of the COVID-19 panic. “In response to ...
Despite latest defense, zoning is just government coercion
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 ...
Gas Warfare in California
It took only a few hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a regulatory bill for Phillips 66 to announce that it is closing its Los Angeles refinery complex. Without actually using the words, the company is saying there’s no reason to stick around and be abused. In a ceremony designed ...
When Ambition And Ideology Outpace Reality And Prudent Policymaking
Turns out the electric trucks aren’t selling well, so manufacturers will be able to build more diesel trucks than regulations were allowing them to. Yet again, the state tacitly acknowledges that its net-zero ambitions are unrealistic. It was a lesson learned late, though. Several states that followed the California model ...
Read the latest about California's high speed rail boondoggle
Despite the promises, bullet train is lesson in ‘sunk costs’
Unfortunately, California officials pay no attention to sunk costs, which are reflected in the spending for the California High Speed Rail System. If there is a classic lesson regarding “sunk costs,” the ongoing project of building a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is the poster child. Yet, ...
Desert Push for New Solar Farm Threatens Worker Health, Local Water Supply
In California’s never-ending effort to retain its self-awarded climate MVP trophy, thousands of acres near Desert Center, east of Palm Springs in Riverside County, will be “cultivated” to accommodate a solar farm. The Intersect Power project, centered on a 390-megawatt solar array with an adjacent battery storage site, was unanimously ...
Market innovations can make our cities energy independent
Market innovations can make our cities energy independent By Edward Ring | November 15, 2024 A revolution in urban planning is well under way, driven by advances in wastewater recycling and runoff harvesting, along with waste-to-energy technologies and indoor agriculture. But perhaps the biggest and most unheralded breakthrough is the ...
Beyond rate cuts: Revived housing requires zoning reform
Recent reports by USC researchers and market analysts suggest that California’s already pricey housing stock requires far more than an interest rate cut to balance out, meaning an onrush of moderately priced units aren’t likely in the near term. But there has been further legislation from Sacramento this past session ...
Learn why even Bay Area progressives voted to stop rising crime
Progressives Reject Progressivism
If Democratic party registration is any indication of the popularity of the progressive agenda – which Gov. Gavin Newsom calls “the California way” – then San Francisco and Alameda counties are the most progressive in California. Yet, in the last two years amidst rising crime, exploding overdose deaths, and dying ...
