Blog
About Free Cities Center
Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
Book
NEW BOOK RELEASE – Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities
NEW BOOK RELEASE Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities Steven Greenhut Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other ...
Blog
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Blog
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
Blog
The Very Thin Blue Line – Police staffing is down, and homicides are up
In Oakland in 2021, 133 people were killed and another 537 were shot, making Oakland one of California’s most dangerous cities. To put the numbers in perspective, more Oakland residents were killed per capita than the entire fatal casualties experienced by the US Armed Forces in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. ...
California
New Report Shows How “CEQA Gauntlet” Hinders Housing, School, Infrastructure, Climate Projects
With 3,000 prospective UC Berkeley students facing rejection due to a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released “The CEQA Gauntlet,” a new research project detailing how CEQA adds expense and delay to – and in some cases halts – critical California projects including ...
Blog
Mainstream Media Fuels False Narrative that SFPD Engages in Bad Conduct
Recently the San Francisco Chronicle again took aim at the SF Police Department accusing them of a litany of inaction, slow response times, and failure to investigate crimes concluding in a recent article: “What is the Police Department doing? Too often, the answer is not much”. Some answers to their ...
California
Michael Shellenberger – San Fransicko
Our guest on this podcast is national bestselling author, Michael Shellenberger. He recently spoke to PRI supporters at a luncheon in San Francisco on his new book: San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. Michael has witnessed San Francisco’s decline over the past 30 years as it struggles with lawlessness, homelessness, ...
Blog
Californians Are Growing Increasingly Concerned About Crime. What’s Behind the Change in Attitude?
Anecdotes of rising incidents of crime across California are too numerous to mention these days. While California had a regimen of tough-on-crime public safety laws on the books as late as a decade ago, the past decade has ushered in a dramatic shift in criminal justice policy that led to ...
California
Steve Smith – California’s Increasing Crime
In this podcast, our guest is Steve Smith, senior fellow in Urban Studies. Steve is a recognized leader in education, training, law enforcement, and peacekeeping operations, with over 20 years of experience in domestic and international policing and investigations. He discusses the growing crime in California and other major cities ...
About Free Cities Center
Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
NEW BOOK RELEASE – Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities
NEW BOOK RELEASE Back from Dystopia: A New Vision for Western Cities Steven Greenhut Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other ...
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
The Very Thin Blue Line – Police staffing is down, and homicides are up
In Oakland in 2021, 133 people were killed and another 537 were shot, making Oakland one of California’s most dangerous cities. To put the numbers in perspective, more Oakland residents were killed per capita than the entire fatal casualties experienced by the US Armed Forces in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. ...
New Report Shows How “CEQA Gauntlet” Hinders Housing, School, Infrastructure, Climate Projects
With 3,000 prospective UC Berkeley students facing rejection due to a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lawsuit, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released “The CEQA Gauntlet,” a new research project detailing how CEQA adds expense and delay to – and in some cases halts – critical California projects including ...
Mainstream Media Fuels False Narrative that SFPD Engages in Bad Conduct
Recently the San Francisco Chronicle again took aim at the SF Police Department accusing them of a litany of inaction, slow response times, and failure to investigate crimes concluding in a recent article: “What is the Police Department doing? Too often, the answer is not much”. Some answers to their ...
Michael Shellenberger – San Fransicko
Our guest on this podcast is national bestselling author, Michael Shellenberger. He recently spoke to PRI supporters at a luncheon in San Francisco on his new book: San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities. Michael has witnessed San Francisco’s decline over the past 30 years as it struggles with lawlessness, homelessness, ...
Californians Are Growing Increasingly Concerned About Crime. What’s Behind the Change in Attitude?
Anecdotes of rising incidents of crime across California are too numerous to mention these days. While California had a regimen of tough-on-crime public safety laws on the books as late as a decade ago, the past decade has ushered in a dramatic shift in criminal justice policy that led to ...
Steve Smith – California’s Increasing Crime
In this podcast, our guest is Steve Smith, senior fellow in Urban Studies. Steve is a recognized leader in education, training, law enforcement, and peacekeeping operations, with over 20 years of experience in domestic and international policing and investigations. He discusses the growing crime in California and other major cities ...
