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YIMBYs win political victories, but where are the new houses?

Gov. Gavin Newsom even held up passage of the state budget until lawmakers approved two reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Assembly Bill 130 exempts a broader number of environmentally friendly infill housing projects from CEQA. Senate Bill 131 exempts nine types of projects from CEQA. These include ...
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Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco

Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco By Sal Rodriguez | September 15, 2025 Since taking office in January, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has made streamlining his city’s notoriously challenging regulatory processes a top priority. In February, Lurie established PermitSF, a multi-agency effort tasked with speeding up ...
Blog

Los Angeles Faces an Olympian Task

The city and county of Los Angeles have struggled to jump-start home and business reconstructions eight months after wildfires destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena, with only 17 permits issued for the Palisades and fewer than 300 for all the affected areas combined. State and local officials have waived myriad building ...
Blog

Violent crime lessons from D.C., as it faces spike in carjackings

Violent crime lessons from D.C., as it faces spike in carjackings Jeremy Lott | September 5, 2025 Editor’s Note: This is the first of two columns addressing crime in Washington, D.C. This one addresses the problem that has grown over the first half of this decade. The next one will ...
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Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

L.A. homeless counts fall before World Cup, Olympics

According to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count from July, “For the second straight year, homelessness is down across Los Angeles County, falling 4% to 72,308. Homelessness also declined in the city of Los Angeles, falling by 3.4% to 43,699.” That contrasts with a 3% increase in California in ...
Blog

Disaster plans: Cities persist with pointless climate ‘action’

Disaster plans: Cities persist with pointless climate ‘action’ “We’ve lost the culture war on climate, and we have to figure out a way for it to not be a niche leftist movement.” — Jody Freeman, Director, Environmental and Energy Law Program, Harvard Law School “We’re not doing that climate change, you ...
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Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

You have rights to your property, not to control others

Everything in this world does seem nonsensical, especially as we consider the issue of land-use regulation and California’s efforts (led by progressives) to jump-start housing construction by—yes, you heard this right—reducing the role of government in dictating what we can do with our property. Meanwhile, many conservatives have dug in ...
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After reforms, Casitas quietly are reshaping California’s cities

After reforms, Casitas quietly are reshaping California’s cities By John Seiler | August 22, 2025 Although I now live in Irvine, a highly planned community, I weekly drive to Huntington Beach. For most of the 38 years since I came to California, I lived near the power plant now called ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Here Come the Democratic Socialists

Although democratic socialism is a fringe position at one extreme of the political spectrum, voters in the country’s two largest cities have been open to electing its proponents. Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in July and Los Angeles has four democratic socialists on ...
Book

New Free Cities Book

New Free Cities Center Booklet Calls for Common-Sense Reforms to Better Protect Californians from Wildfires

SACRAMENTO – The Free Cities Center at the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – today released a new booklet examining the failures in state and local wildfire prevention and response policies during this year’s devastating Southern California wildfires, offering practical reforms to make California ...
Blog

YIMBYs win political victories, but where are the new houses?

Gov. Gavin Newsom even held up passage of the state budget until lawmakers approved two reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Assembly Bill 130 exempts a broader number of environmentally friendly infill housing projects from CEQA. Senate Bill 131 exempts nine types of projects from CEQA. These include ...
Blog

Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco

Mayor Daniel Lurie slashes red tape in San Francisco By Sal Rodriguez | September 15, 2025 Since taking office in January, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has made streamlining his city’s notoriously challenging regulatory processes a top priority. In February, Lurie established PermitSF, a multi-agency effort tasked with speeding up ...
Blog

Los Angeles Faces an Olympian Task

The city and county of Los Angeles have struggled to jump-start home and business reconstructions eight months after wildfires destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena, with only 17 permits issued for the Palisades and fewer than 300 for all the affected areas combined. State and local officials have waived myriad building ...
Blog

Violent crime lessons from D.C., as it faces spike in carjackings

Violent crime lessons from D.C., as it faces spike in carjackings Jeremy Lott | September 5, 2025 Editor’s Note: This is the first of two columns addressing crime in Washington, D.C. This one addresses the problem that has grown over the first half of this decade. The next one will ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

L.A. homeless counts fall before World Cup, Olympics

According to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count from July, “For the second straight year, homelessness is down across Los Angeles County, falling 4% to 72,308. Homelessness also declined in the city of Los Angeles, falling by 3.4% to 43,699.” That contrasts with a 3% increase in California in ...
Blog

Disaster plans: Cities persist with pointless climate ‘action’

Disaster plans: Cities persist with pointless climate ‘action’ “We’ve lost the culture war on climate, and we have to figure out a way for it to not be a niche leftist movement.” — Jody Freeman, Director, Environmental and Energy Law Program, Harvard Law School “We’re not doing that climate change, you ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

You have rights to your property, not to control others

Everything in this world does seem nonsensical, especially as we consider the issue of land-use regulation and California’s efforts (led by progressives) to jump-start housing construction by—yes, you heard this right—reducing the role of government in dictating what we can do with our property. Meanwhile, many conservatives have dug in ...
Blog

After reforms, Casitas quietly are reshaping California’s cities

After reforms, Casitas quietly are reshaping California’s cities By John Seiler | August 22, 2025 Although I now live in Irvine, a highly planned community, I weekly drive to Huntington Beach. For most of the 38 years since I came to California, I lived near the power plant now called ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Here Come the Democratic Socialists

Although democratic socialism is a fringe position at one extreme of the political spectrum, voters in the country’s two largest cities have been open to electing its proponents. Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in July and Los Angeles has four democratic socialists on ...
Book

New Free Cities Book

New Free Cities Center Booklet Calls for Common-Sense Reforms to Better Protect Californians from Wildfires

SACRAMENTO – The Free Cities Center at the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – today released a new booklet examining the failures in state and local wildfire prevention and response policies during this year’s devastating Southern California wildfires, offering practical reforms to make California ...
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