Blog Archives - Pacific Research Institute

Blog

Blog

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
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

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely

Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Blog

Read the latest on California's housing crisis

Cities can and should streamline housing approvals

Convoluted approval processes can mean lengthy delays and costlier developments, which in turn can mean less and more expensive housing. Fortunately, many city leaders are not only recognizing this but taking action to streamline how their own governments are doing things. Since taking office in 2022, Los Angeles Mayor Karen ...
Blog

Read the latest from the State Capitol

Should NDAs Be Banned in Legislative Negotiations?

As KCRA 3 News reported, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) required business groups and others engaged in negotiations over the bill to sign NDA’s to keep provisions of the discussions secret.  The NDAs became controversial when it came to light that a billionaire donor of Gov. Newsom who is ...
Blog

Should CA pay unemployment to striking workers?

Subsidizing Strikes Is The California Legislature’s Latest Anti-Growth Proposal

Worsens California’s Uncompetitive Business Environment UI benefits are not designed for workers who have voluntarily walked off the job – it is part of the social safety net system designed to help those workers who have become unemployed through no fault of their own. Expanding these benefits to workers who ...
Blog

Spending Watch

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain

Expanding Unemployment Insurance Benefits – All Pain for No Gain Wayne Winegarden April 2024 SB 1434 would dramatically expand unemployment insurance benefits to current eligible workers. If implemented, it would expand benefits by over 55 percent, raise the number of workers who qualify for maximum benefits, increase the benefits for ...
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 ...
Scroll to Top