Free Cities
Commentary
A $20,000 model trashcan showcases San Francisco’s dysfunction
Three years ago, my East Coast relatives flew to San Francisco for my daughter’s wedding. At the time, national publications were having a field day depicting the city as a pit of decay filled with poop-covered sidewalks and rampant homelessness. My relatives were primed to see an urban landscape beset ...
Blog
Beyond trailer parks: Modular housing can boost affordability
The nation enjoys a “very high rate of economic activity,” yet “housing construction hasn’t been high.” Inflation’s a major factor — “land is several times more expensive than it’s been in the past,” and costs for “materials have gone way up.” Paradoxically, “we’ve been losing ground in meeting housing needs ...
Blog
BOOK EXCERPT Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s Big Metros: Smaller-City Case Studies from California, Washington and Michigan
It’s easy to think that urban policy is solely about big cities and their surrounding suburbs, much in the way that one would naturally believe that farm policy is solely about farm regions. A quick perusal of the statistics suggests that America is indeed an urban nation despite its vast ...
Blog
Where Americans ride transit
A close look, however, reveals that the map is deceptive in two ways. First, it is based on pre-pandemic data. The map includes Ann Arbor, Mich.; Baltimore; Champaign, Ill.; Pittsburgh; Portland; and State College, Pa., in the 5-10% category, but none of these areas qualify today. Second, the map ...
Blog
Don’t blame Big Oil for California’s failed insurance system
Don’t blame Big Oil for California’s failed insurance system by Steven Greenhut | April 30, 2026 The Southern California News Group, of which I am a member, once interviewed Sen. Scott Wiener about his bill to decriminalize the use of some psychedelics. We questioned the obvious inconsistency between his anti-prohibition stance ...
Book
America’s Smaller Cities Hold Big Answers for Urban Revival, New PRI Booklet Finds
As policymakers search for answers to the growing challenges facing America’s largest cities, a new study from the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – suggests they may be looking in the wrong places. PRI’s Free Cities Center today released Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s ...
Blog
Santa Barbara needs more housing, not more decrees
Santa Barbara needs more housing, not more decrees Rent control is a bad idea politicians just can’t let go of. From Santa Monica to New York City, cities have discovered time and again that government decree is no guarantee of housing affordability. But that hasn’t stopped California cities like Pasadena, ...
Blog
Proposed $10 billion housing bond will only burden California cities
California’s housing overhaul has been so extensive — 45 bills signed last October alone by Gov. Gavin Newsom — the results won’t be clear for years. Even so, voters this November 3 may get to decide on another $10 billion in housing bonds. That’s from the Affordable Housing Bond Act ...
Blog
Las Vegas shakes, rattles business model to draw back tourists
Las Vegas shakes, rattles business model to draw back tourists Sarah Downey | April 17, 2026 You can’t always bet on a full house so always be ready to adapt — that’s likely the message Las Vegas is getting after the number of visitors fell last year. The national news ...
Blog
BOOK REVIEW: Does backing the blue mean backing unions’ ‘Blue Power’?
Five years ago, in response to George Floyd’s death, the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute issued a report outlining methods to move toward a “criminal justice system — police, courts, prison, reentry, community supervision — that is focused on the safety, health and well-being of communities rather than ...
A $20,000 model trashcan showcases San Francisco’s dysfunction
Three years ago, my East Coast relatives flew to San Francisco for my daughter’s wedding. At the time, national publications were having a field day depicting the city as a pit of decay filled with poop-covered sidewalks and rampant homelessness. My relatives were primed to see an urban landscape beset ...
Beyond trailer parks: Modular housing can boost affordability
The nation enjoys a “very high rate of economic activity,” yet “housing construction hasn’t been high.” Inflation’s a major factor — “land is several times more expensive than it’s been in the past,” and costs for “materials have gone way up.” Paradoxically, “we’ve been losing ground in meeting housing needs ...
BOOK EXCERPT Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s Big Metros: Smaller-City Case Studies from California, Washington and Michigan
It’s easy to think that urban policy is solely about big cities and their surrounding suburbs, much in the way that one would naturally believe that farm policy is solely about farm regions. A quick perusal of the statistics suggests that America is indeed an urban nation despite its vast ...
Where Americans ride transit
A close look, however, reveals that the map is deceptive in two ways. First, it is based on pre-pandemic data. The map includes Ann Arbor, Mich.; Baltimore; Champaign, Ill.; Pittsburgh; Portland; and State College, Pa., in the 5-10% category, but none of these areas qualify today. Second, the map ...
Don’t blame Big Oil for California’s failed insurance system
Don’t blame Big Oil for California’s failed insurance system by Steven Greenhut | April 30, 2026 The Southern California News Group, of which I am a member, once interviewed Sen. Scott Wiener about his bill to decriminalize the use of some psychedelics. We questioned the obvious inconsistency between his anti-prohibition stance ...
America’s Smaller Cities Hold Big Answers for Urban Revival, New PRI Booklet Finds
As policymakers search for answers to the growing challenges facing America’s largest cities, a new study from the Pacific Research Institute – the California-based, nonpartisan, free market think tank – suggests they may be looking in the wrong places. PRI’s Free Cities Center today released Urban Policy Beyond the Nation’s ...
Santa Barbara needs more housing, not more decrees
Santa Barbara needs more housing, not more decrees Rent control is a bad idea politicians just can’t let go of. From Santa Monica to New York City, cities have discovered time and again that government decree is no guarantee of housing affordability. But that hasn’t stopped California cities like Pasadena, ...
Proposed $10 billion housing bond will only burden California cities
California’s housing overhaul has been so extensive — 45 bills signed last October alone by Gov. Gavin Newsom — the results won’t be clear for years. Even so, voters this November 3 may get to decide on another $10 billion in housing bonds. That’s from the Affordable Housing Bond Act ...
Las Vegas shakes, rattles business model to draw back tourists
Las Vegas shakes, rattles business model to draw back tourists Sarah Downey | April 17, 2026 You can’t always bet on a full house so always be ready to adapt — that’s likely the message Las Vegas is getting after the number of visitors fell last year. The national news ...
BOOK REVIEW: Does backing the blue mean backing unions’ ‘Blue Power’?
Five years ago, in response to George Floyd’s death, the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute issued a report outlining methods to move toward a “criminal justice system — police, courts, prison, reentry, community supervision — that is focused on the safety, health and well-being of communities rather than ...