Housing
Book
In Advance of Recall Election, New PRI Book Offers Realistic Path to Saving California
Experts Offer Market-Based Solutions on Issues from Health Care to the Economy SACRAMENTO – With the September 14 recall on the horizon, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released Saving California, a new book offering realistic, market-based reforms to 10 of the state’s major policy challenges. The authors are current ...
Blog
San Francisco’s Summer of Discontent
This summer, San Francisco’s politicians have likely endured their coldest winter ever. As we write, there are no less than four recall efforts underway – three school board members and the district attorney. If we throw in the statewide effort to recall the city’s former mayor, Gavin Newsom, that makes ...
Blog
Tax Cuts, the “New New Thing”, but not for Californians
COVID-19 launched a whole host of trends, from house remodeling to restaurant delivery to working from home. But who knew that tax relief would become in vogue? Thanks to revenue windfalls and the prospect of employees working from anywhere, state tax-cuts have been sweeping the nation. The Tax Foundation reports ...
Blog
Well-Intentioned Program May Actually Saddle Low-Income Families with Overwhelming Debt
Local government ordinances in California often require that a portion of homes in new housing projects be made available to low-income buyers. One program in a Southern California city may not only fail to help low-income buyers, but it may actually harm already disadvantaged buyers. Collett Crossings is a small ...
Blog
Demystifying RHNA: A Guide for the Perplexed Californian
The state of California is in the midst of a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) cycle. It happens every eight years, and with the sixth cycle currently underway, you’ve no doubt seen headlines about it. For the uninitiated, it probably seems like an alphabet soup of bureaucracy. What exactly is ...
Blog
When Public Policy Is Predatory
The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
Blog
George Lucas, Reluctant YIMBY?
The wages of California city planning spare no man—not even George Lucas. As recently as late 2020, the filmmaker sued the California town of San Anselmo to clear up a “surveying error” that may revert a portion of his property to the heirs of its 1920s owners. It’s a trivial ...
Agriculture
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Blog
Getting CEQA Out of the Way of Missing Middle Housing
California is in the grips of an unprecedented housing crisis, which has sent hundreds of thousands of Californians packing for affordable states like Arizona and Nevada. Here in Los Angeles, both home prices and homelessness have hit record highs, a sign of the ironic situation of the Golden State. At ...
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: Is This How California is Solving Its Housing Crisis?
DOWNLOAD PDF Not too terribly long ago, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said that to meet demand, each year the state needed 100,000 new housing units in addition to the 100,000 to 140,000 that are expected to be built annually, an impossibility in today’s political environment. But, intentional or not, policymakers ...
In Advance of Recall Election, New PRI Book Offers Realistic Path to Saving California
Experts Offer Market-Based Solutions on Issues from Health Care to the Economy SACRAMENTO – With the September 14 recall on the horizon, the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute today released Saving California, a new book offering realistic, market-based reforms to 10 of the state’s major policy challenges. The authors are current ...
San Francisco’s Summer of Discontent
This summer, San Francisco’s politicians have likely endured their coldest winter ever. As we write, there are no less than four recall efforts underway – three school board members and the district attorney. If we throw in the statewide effort to recall the city’s former mayor, Gavin Newsom, that makes ...
Tax Cuts, the “New New Thing”, but not for Californians
COVID-19 launched a whole host of trends, from house remodeling to restaurant delivery to working from home. But who knew that tax relief would become in vogue? Thanks to revenue windfalls and the prospect of employees working from anywhere, state tax-cuts have been sweeping the nation. The Tax Foundation reports ...
Well-Intentioned Program May Actually Saddle Low-Income Families with Overwhelming Debt
Local government ordinances in California often require that a portion of homes in new housing projects be made available to low-income buyers. One program in a Southern California city may not only fail to help low-income buyers, but it may actually harm already disadvantaged buyers. Collett Crossings is a small ...
Demystifying RHNA: A Guide for the Perplexed Californian
The state of California is in the midst of a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) cycle. It happens every eight years, and with the sixth cycle currently underway, you’ve no doubt seen headlines about it. For the uninitiated, it probably seems like an alphabet soup of bureaucracy. What exactly is ...
When Public Policy Is Predatory
The same city that requires employers to pay workers at least $16.32 an hour, far more than twice the federal minimum wage, also limits how much some businesses can charge for their services. It’s enough to send some companies seeking relief from the court system. Two have done just that. ...
George Lucas, Reluctant YIMBY?
The wages of California city planning spare no man—not even George Lucas. As recently as late 2020, the filmmaker sued the California town of San Anselmo to clear up a “surveying error” that may revert a portion of his property to the heirs of its 1920s owners. It’s a trivial ...
Key Supreme Court ruling protects Californians’ private property rights
“I’m going to take this to the Supreme Court,” is almost always an empty, baseless threat generated by in-the-moment fury from someone who believes they were wronged. But sometimes cases get that far. Sometimes the offended party wins. And on occasion, that victory undergirds the framework of a free society. ...
Getting CEQA Out of the Way of Missing Middle Housing
California is in the grips of an unprecedented housing crisis, which has sent hundreds of thousands of Californians packing for affordable states like Arizona and Nevada. Here in Los Angeles, both home prices and homelessness have hit record highs, a sign of the ironic situation of the Golden State. At ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Is This How California is Solving Its Housing Crisis?
DOWNLOAD PDF Not too terribly long ago, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said that to meet demand, each year the state needed 100,000 new housing units in addition to the 100,000 to 140,000 that are expected to be built annually, an impossibility in today’s political environment. But, intentional or not, policymakers ...
