Housing
Blog
Read latest about government overregulation
By managing growth, planners make cities less livable
While Euclidean zoning has been credited with segregating developments that have incompatible uses – a chemical plant next to a school or a landfill right up against a residential district, for a couple of examples – it has a record of going too far. In some cases, planners “decided that ...
Blog
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Coercion-free planning can lead to glorious results
Central planning, no matter if the target is an economy or a community, has generally had historically disastrous results. When the government plots and schemes the future, people are ultimately doomed to lower living standards at best, and misery, all too often. Yet central planning can work – but only ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
San Diego offers pragmatic model to restore downtown life
According to Neighborhood Scout, a data-driven organization that provides detailed insights into local crime rates at a far more granular level than national statistics, San Diego has 4 violent crimes and 19.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents. In contrast, Los Angeles has 8.4 violent crimes and 24.6 property crimes per ...
Blog
True conservatives should welcome state rollback of housing restrictions
‘Local control’ still is government control
At the state level, the concurrent Republican values of “local control” and “limited government” can compete and even conflict. Republicans have long stood against unfunded state mandates on local government and onerous red tape on the private sector, as well we should. However, we should welcome state intervention to reduce ...
California
Based on Past Results, Newsom’s Latest Homeless Plan Likely Won’t Work
By Kerry Jackson & Wayne Winegarden Gov. Gavin Newsom kicked off his latest State of the State tour with a focus on homelessness. We wish his upbeat attitude inspired us, but it’s hard to have faith. In 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he promised that he would end the ...
Blog
Read about debate over SB 9 and 10
Misguided fear and loathing over relaxed zoning rules
SB 9 essentially eliminated single-family-only zoning by allowing property owners – on a “by right” basis that avoids subjective local reviews – to subdivide their single-family properties and build additional units on the land provided it meets all the pre-existing local setback and land-use conditions. It would allow up to ...
California
A Delinquent Tenant’s Paradise
Los Angeles recently changed its municipal code to give tenants “permanent protections against eviction and burdensome rent increases.” L.A. County has extended its eviction moratorium, originally scheduled to be lifted on January 31, through the end of March. And a few hundred miles north, California state lawmakers are considering a bill ...
Blog
Anti-camping ordinances or Housing First programs?
It’s no surprise to any resident that, for more than a decade, a disproportionate share of the homeless population has been living in California, and that number continues to grow. We see it every day: on the way to work, dropping our kids off at school, enjoying a nice dinner ...
Blog
How Eminent Domain Obliterated the Character of Cities
No city can possibly express its character – the many urban quirks and idiosyncrasies, as well as the strangely appealing grittiness and shining luxury that often coexist side-by-side – when government planners use the bulldozer to “improve” cities. Writing about the “wave of urban renewal that swept the world in ...
Read latest about government overregulation
By managing growth, planners make cities less livable
While Euclidean zoning has been credited with segregating developments that have incompatible uses – a chemical plant next to a school or a landfill right up against a residential district, for a couple of examples – it has a record of going too far. In some cases, planners “decided that ...
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Coercion-free planning can lead to glorious results
Central planning, no matter if the target is an economy or a community, has generally had historically disastrous results. When the government plots and schemes the future, people are ultimately doomed to lower living standards at best, and misery, all too often. Yet central planning can work – but only ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
San Diego offers pragmatic model to restore downtown life
According to Neighborhood Scout, a data-driven organization that provides detailed insights into local crime rates at a far more granular level than national statistics, San Diego has 4 violent crimes and 19.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents. In contrast, Los Angeles has 8.4 violent crimes and 24.6 property crimes per ...
True conservatives should welcome state rollback of housing restrictions
‘Local control’ still is government control
At the state level, the concurrent Republican values of “local control” and “limited government” can compete and even conflict. Republicans have long stood against unfunded state mandates on local government and onerous red tape on the private sector, as well we should. However, we should welcome state intervention to reduce ...
Based on Past Results, Newsom’s Latest Homeless Plan Likely Won’t Work
By Kerry Jackson & Wayne Winegarden Gov. Gavin Newsom kicked off his latest State of the State tour with a focus on homelessness. We wish his upbeat attitude inspired us, but it’s hard to have faith. In 2004, as mayor of San Francisco, he promised that he would end the ...
Read about debate over SB 9 and 10
Misguided fear and loathing over relaxed zoning rules
SB 9 essentially eliminated single-family-only zoning by allowing property owners – on a “by right” basis that avoids subjective local reviews – to subdivide their single-family properties and build additional units on the land provided it meets all the pre-existing local setback and land-use conditions. It would allow up to ...
A Delinquent Tenant’s Paradise
Los Angeles recently changed its municipal code to give tenants “permanent protections against eviction and burdensome rent increases.” L.A. County has extended its eviction moratorium, originally scheduled to be lifted on January 31, through the end of March. And a few hundred miles north, California state lawmakers are considering a bill ...
Anti-camping ordinances or Housing First programs?
It’s no surprise to any resident that, for more than a decade, a disproportionate share of the homeless population has been living in California, and that number continues to grow. We see it every day: on the way to work, dropping our kids off at school, enjoying a nice dinner ...
How Eminent Domain Obliterated the Character of Cities
No city can possibly express its character – the many urban quirks and idiosyncrasies, as well as the strangely appealing grittiness and shining luxury that often coexist side-by-side – when government planners use the bulldozer to “improve” cities. Writing about the “wave of urban renewal that swept the world in ...
