Edward Ring
Blog
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs
Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
Edward Ring
January 18, 2024
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 ...
Edward Ring
November 29, 2023
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city
To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Edward Ring
November 21, 2023
Blog
Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land
Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land Edward Ring | October 20, 2023 When it comes to food, America’s cities enjoy precarious abundance. We take for granted the remarkable system that allows us close proximity to chilled and gleaming shelves, loaded with apricots from Spain, avocados from Mexico, ...
Edward Ring
October 20, 2023
Blog
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two Edward Ring | September 29, 2023 Building a new city from scratch on 50,000 acres of cattle ranches is an audacious goal, even for the coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires who have been identified as behind the project. ...
Edward Ring
September 29, 2023
Blog
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One Edward Ring | September 22, 2023 It’s not news that California has a housing shortage, nor are the reasons for this shortage a mystery. For decades, California has restricted exurban development, passed building codes that are the most ...
Edward Ring
September 22, 2023
Blog
America’s future cities: A case for decentralization
America’s future cities: A case for decentralization As the virulence of the COVID pandemic subsided in 2020, a new phrase, “urban doom loop,” became a common way to describe the failure of America’s downtowns to recover economically. The concept is simple enough. As occupancy in downtown buildings declines, businesses that ...
Edward Ring
August 25, 2023
Blog
Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities
Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities By Edward Ring | July 27, 2023 It never rains in California But girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours —by Albert Hammond, 1972 “It Never Rains in Southern California“ Anyone who has experienced traffic on the Santa Monica ...
Edward Ring
July 27, 2023
Blog
Read about CA's war on suburbs
To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs
The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
Edward Ring
June 21, 2023
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
New cities offer unpredictable but exciting urban future
Although it was thoroughly lost amid his travails as the most prosecuted ex-president in American history, on March 4, in a video released on his campaign website, Donald Trump proposed a national contest for urban developers to submit designs for new “Freedom Cities,” with 10 winning designs to be allocated federal land ...
Edward Ring
May 11, 2023
Read the latest on California's housing crisis
Building infrastructure is key to lowering housing costs
Housing. Shelter. Room at the inn. A hearth and a home. From the moment neolithic humans emerged from caves to build structures in the open, they needed some place warm and dry to call home. It is a primal necessity and a prerequisite for civilization. This imperative is not lost ...
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 ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city
To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land
Greening the ‘food desert’ by farming vacant urban land Edward Ring | October 20, 2023 When it comes to food, America’s cities enjoy precarious abundance. We take for granted the remarkable system that allows us close proximity to chilled and gleaming shelves, loaded with apricots from Spain, avocados from Mexico, ...
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part Two Edward Ring | September 29, 2023 Building a new city from scratch on 50,000 acres of cattle ranches is an audacious goal, even for the coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires who have been identified as behind the project. ...
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One
How new city can change how California envisions its future: Part One Edward Ring | September 22, 2023 It’s not news that California has a housing shortage, nor are the reasons for this shortage a mystery. For decades, California has restricted exurban development, passed building codes that are the most ...
America’s future cities: A case for decentralization
America’s future cities: A case for decentralization As the virulence of the COVID pandemic subsided in 2020, a new phrase, “urban doom loop,” became a common way to describe the failure of America’s downtowns to recover economically. The concept is simple enough. As occupancy in downtown buildings declines, businesses that ...
Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities
Harvesting Southern California rain can reinvigorate its cities By Edward Ring | July 27, 2023 It never rains in California But girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours —by Albert Hammond, 1972 “It Never Rains in Southern California“ Anyone who has experienced traffic on the Santa Monica ...
Read about CA's war on suburbs
To reduce costs, California also needs to build new suburbs
The three myths that have led to this predicament are the following: Nuclear power and natural gas power causes unacceptable harm to the environment; reservoirs and desalination plants cause unacceptable harm to the environment; and single-family homes nestled in sprawling suburbs cause unacceptable harm to the environment. These are myths. ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
New cities offer unpredictable but exciting urban future
Although it was thoroughly lost amid his travails as the most prosecuted ex-president in American history, on March 4, in a video released on his campaign website, Donald Trump proposed a national contest for urban developers to submit designs for new “Freedom Cities,” with 10 winning designs to be allocated federal land ...