John Seiler

Blog

Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform

Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history

When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

Can district elections provide better city representation?

I was born in Detroit in 1955 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Wayne. So I had a front-row seat for Motown’s decline in the 1960s. One reason I’ve heard over the decades is Detroit from 1918 until 2013 elected council members at large. That was contrasted to ...
Blog

Will new California laws finally ease the housing shortage?

California’s twin housing and homelessness crises continue to fester. The Legislature in recent years passed some useful bills promoting housing construction by streamlining the local approval process, such as Senate Bills 9 and 10 from 2021. Yet cities remain plagued with homeless encampments. Housing prices, despite soaring interest rates that ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

Union-backed bills pose biggest challenges to cities

Cities are creatures of the state, so they have to obey. Residents are likely to suffer more and bigger potholes, further declining school test scores and higher taxes – meaning more people will flee the state or head to the suburbs. Here’s a look at some of the worst urban-related ...
Blog

Read latest for PRI's Free Cities Center

California cities face new challenges as their populations age

Back in 1990 I wrote several editorials in the Orange County Register criticizing Sen. Bob Dole’s Americans With Disabilities Act. I still think it was a bad idea that violated property rights and federalism. But now, dealing with arthritic knees at age 68, I’m using the amenities the ADA mandates ...
Blog

Mandates jamming big-city hospitals beyond capacity

Mandates jamming big-city hospitals beyond capacity by John Seiler  |  September 2, 2023 IN FEBRUARY 2010 SHARP PAINS STRUCK MY GUT around 8 a.m. I drove from my apartment in Huntington Beach to Newport Beach and Hoag Hospital, one of the country’s best, parked and struggled into the emergency room. ...
Blog

To protect and reform: How to fix urban police departments

After the death of George Floyd during a police encounter in Minneapolis three years ago on Memorial Day weekend, it sparked protests both salutary and sanguinary. Peaceful protests sometimes turned violent. And a national soul-searching began, including investigations into police procedures – such as the choke hold that killed Floyd ...
Blog

Read latest on California's failing transit systems

Transit systems battle crime to restore fallen ridership

Although I usually drive, sometimes I take the bus in Orange County, the last time a year ago. As you might expect in car-centric Southern California, almost all the other riders were poor people, some no doubt recent immigrants of unknown official status. I know many recent immigrants, and the ...
Blog

How local governments can prepare for a possible recession

A recession is beginning now, according to the June 22 Chapman Economic Forecast Update, the most accurate in the country for GDP prediction. Said President Emeritus Jim Doti at the event, “We’re pointing to a negative change in the third quarter and the fourth quarter and that’s the stuff of ...
Blog

City services will get slammed as public pay goes up

Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went ...
Blog

Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform

Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history

When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

Can district elections provide better city representation?

I was born in Detroit in 1955 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Wayne. So I had a front-row seat for Motown’s decline in the 1960s. One reason I’ve heard over the decades is Detroit from 1918 until 2013 elected council members at large. That was contrasted to ...
Blog

Will new California laws finally ease the housing shortage?

California’s twin housing and homelessness crises continue to fester. The Legislature in recent years passed some useful bills promoting housing construction by streamlining the local approval process, such as Senate Bills 9 and 10 from 2021. Yet cities remain plagued with homeless encampments. Housing prices, despite soaring interest rates that ...
Blog

Read latest from Free Cities Center

Union-backed bills pose biggest challenges to cities

Cities are creatures of the state, so they have to obey. Residents are likely to suffer more and bigger potholes, further declining school test scores and higher taxes – meaning more people will flee the state or head to the suburbs. Here’s a look at some of the worst urban-related ...
Blog

Read latest for PRI's Free Cities Center

California cities face new challenges as their populations age

Back in 1990 I wrote several editorials in the Orange County Register criticizing Sen. Bob Dole’s Americans With Disabilities Act. I still think it was a bad idea that violated property rights and federalism. But now, dealing with arthritic knees at age 68, I’m using the amenities the ADA mandates ...
Blog

Mandates jamming big-city hospitals beyond capacity

Mandates jamming big-city hospitals beyond capacity by John Seiler  |  September 2, 2023 IN FEBRUARY 2010 SHARP PAINS STRUCK MY GUT around 8 a.m. I drove from my apartment in Huntington Beach to Newport Beach and Hoag Hospital, one of the country’s best, parked and struggled into the emergency room. ...
Blog

To protect and reform: How to fix urban police departments

After the death of George Floyd during a police encounter in Minneapolis three years ago on Memorial Day weekend, it sparked protests both salutary and sanguinary. Peaceful protests sometimes turned violent. And a national soul-searching began, including investigations into police procedures – such as the choke hold that killed Floyd ...
Blog

Read latest on California's failing transit systems

Transit systems battle crime to restore fallen ridership

Although I usually drive, sometimes I take the bus in Orange County, the last time a year ago. As you might expect in car-centric Southern California, almost all the other riders were poor people, some no doubt recent immigrants of unknown official status. I know many recent immigrants, and the ...
Blog

How local governments can prepare for a possible recession

A recession is beginning now, according to the June 22 Chapman Economic Forecast Update, the most accurate in the country for GDP prediction. Said President Emeritus Jim Doti at the event, “We’re pointing to a negative change in the third quarter and the fourth quarter and that’s the stuff of ...
Blog

City services will get slammed as public pay goes up

Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went ...
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