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Prop. 50 will reduce the voting strength of cities and counties

Prop. 50 will reduce the voting strength of cities and counties By Daniel M. Kolkey  |  October 24, 2025 Proposition 50 – an admitted gerrymander of California’s congressional districts that is the subject of November 4’s special election – will not only harm voters by making our congressional districts less ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Seattle’s public-housing experiment is heading toward disaster

It’s long been obvious that America’s history with government-run housing projects has been an unmitigated disaster. They were quite the rage when I grew up around Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, but these public-housing projects always ended up as dangerous, poorly designed, soulless and racially segregated – places that ...
Blog

If you build it, they will socialize? Public spaces and loneliness

If you build it, they will socialize? Public spaces and loneliness By D. Dowd Muska  | October 17, 2025 Urbanists have a new item for cities’ to-do lists: Fix America’s loneliness crisis. And their preferred tool? Public spaces. The William Penn Foundation’s Shawn McCaney is typical. He believes the nation’s ...
Blog

Congestion pricing an open question, but equity concerns are bogus

Congestion pricing an open question, but equity concerns are bogus by Rafael Perez | October 10, 2025 New York City in January became the first city in America to implement congestion charges in an effort to curb traffic, reduce pollution and raise funds to improve transit systems. Los Angeles is ...
Blog

Yes In God’s Back Yard: YIGBYs fight for more housing

Yes In God’s Back Yard: YIGBYs fight for more housing by D. Dowd Muska | October 3, 2025 When it’s time to thwart an unwanted land use, NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yarders) consult a list of hardy perennials. Parking. Traffic. Crime. Noise. Property values. “Preserving the character of the ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Insurers return to California, but we’re not yet out of the woods

California’s property insurance market had been on the precipice before the massive wildfires wreaked havoc in Pacific Palisades and Altadena this year, with insurers fleeing the state following a series of costly wildfires from 2017 to 2021. January’s fires were among the worst in the state’s history, with estimated industry ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

It’s not just AI: California city minimum wages also kill jobs

As if it didn’t kill enough jobs, 39 cities have imposed their own, even higher minimums. A dozen of the cities did so on July 1. The highest general minimum is Emeryville’s, at $19.90. Some cities also mandate higher minimums for certain jobs. For the city of Los Angeles, the ...
Blog

California loosens housing regs, but they still slow construction

California loosens housing regs, but they still slow construction By Sarah Downey | September 26, 2025 As the rate of homeownership declines in California, it’s raising more questions about the bureaucratic costs that make housing development in the Golden State much slower than other parts of the country. New data ...
AI

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Cities should rethink their zeal for subsidizing AI data centers

Kate Gallego has had it. In her 2025 State of the City address, Phoenix’s mayor called on lawmakers to eliminate Arizona’s special tax treatment for “new data centers.” Calling it “a holdover from a time before our economy was the magnet for job growth that it is today,” Gallego declared ...
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

Prop. 50 will reduce the voting strength of cities and counties

Prop. 50 will reduce the voting strength of cities and counties By Daniel M. Kolkey  |  October 24, 2025 Proposition 50 – an admitted gerrymander of California’s congressional districts that is the subject of November 4’s special election – will not only harm voters by making our congressional districts less ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Seattle’s public-housing experiment is heading toward disaster

It’s long been obvious that America’s history with government-run housing projects has been an unmitigated disaster. They were quite the rage when I grew up around Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s, but these public-housing projects always ended up as dangerous, poorly designed, soulless and racially segregated – places that ...
Blog

If you build it, they will socialize? Public spaces and loneliness

If you build it, they will socialize? Public spaces and loneliness By D. Dowd Muska  | October 17, 2025 Urbanists have a new item for cities’ to-do lists: Fix America’s loneliness crisis. And their preferred tool? Public spaces. The William Penn Foundation’s Shawn McCaney is typical. He believes the nation’s ...
Blog

Congestion pricing an open question, but equity concerns are bogus

Congestion pricing an open question, but equity concerns are bogus by Rafael Perez | October 10, 2025 New York City in January became the first city in America to implement congestion charges in an effort to curb traffic, reduce pollution and raise funds to improve transit systems. Los Angeles is ...
Blog

Yes In God’s Back Yard: YIGBYs fight for more housing

Yes In God’s Back Yard: YIGBYs fight for more housing by D. Dowd Muska | October 3, 2025 When it’s time to thwart an unwanted land use, NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yarders) consult a list of hardy perennials. Parking. Traffic. Crime. Noise. Property values. “Preserving the character of the ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Insurers return to California, but we’re not yet out of the woods

California’s property insurance market had been on the precipice before the massive wildfires wreaked havoc in Pacific Palisades and Altadena this year, with insurers fleeing the state following a series of costly wildfires from 2017 to 2021. January’s fires were among the worst in the state’s history, with estimated industry ...
Blog

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

It’s not just AI: California city minimum wages also kill jobs

As if it didn’t kill enough jobs, 39 cities have imposed their own, even higher minimums. A dozen of the cities did so on July 1. The highest general minimum is Emeryville’s, at $19.90. Some cities also mandate higher minimums for certain jobs. For the city of Los Angeles, the ...
Blog

California loosens housing regs, but they still slow construction

California loosens housing regs, but they still slow construction By Sarah Downey | September 26, 2025 As the rate of homeownership declines in California, it’s raising more questions about the bureaucratic costs that make housing development in the Golden State much slower than other parts of the country. New data ...
AI

Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center

Cities should rethink their zeal for subsidizing AI data centers

Kate Gallego has had it. In her 2025 State of the City address, Phoenix’s mayor called on lawmakers to eliminate Arizona’s special tax treatment for “new data centers.” Calling it “a holdover from a time before our economy was the magnet for job growth that it is today,” Gallego declared ...
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 ...
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