Free Cities
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‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
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New Free Cities Book
Building Cities From Scratch
SACRAMENTO – The plan by a group of San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists to build an entirely new city on ranch land in Solano County between the Bay Area and Sacramento has become one of the most controversial housing plans in Northern California in years. The East Solano Plan ...
Blog
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs Steven Greenhut | October 2, 2024 Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the Free Cities Center’s forthcoming booklet (“Building New Cities from Scratch: America’s Long History of Urban Experimentation”) about new cities, which was prompted by California Forever’s proposal to ...
Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Democratic plan would bring turmoil to housing markets
A century ago, the federal government involved itself hardly at all in housing, leaving that to state and local governments, and the market. The major exception was housing on federal land, including the District of Columbia, other territories and military bases. That changed in 1937 when, as part of President ...
Blog
Time for release: Can cities unshackle themselves from abusive union perk?
Time for release: Can cities unshackle themselves from abusive union perk? By D. Dowd Muska | September 20, 2024 The stewards for Los Angeles County’s health-science professionals are allowed as much as 1,200 hours each year in a controversial benefit known as “release time,” whereby union officials are released to ...
Blog
Learn about the problems with rent control
Rent-control madness is coming to California’s November ballot
Indeed, the so-called Justice for Renters Act features this simple text: “The state may not limit the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” If voters approve the initiative, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Control Act. That 1995 law ...
Blog
The three-bedroom solution to our ‘childless’ cities
The three-bedroom solution to our ‘childless’ cities by Kenneth Schrupp | September 13, 2024 Take a look around your city and think about a modal of American life for many people – college, rent, get married, start a family, work at a downtown employer, then retire and later move into ...
Blog
Urbanist dreams foiled by lousy big-city governments
SACRAMENTO – One of the silliest things about the urbanism movement is its insistence that suburbanites abandon single-family homes, spacious yards and placid neighborhoods for the excitement of big-city living. In those cities, we can supposedly experience more “community,” reduce our carbon footprint and take a bike to buy overpriced groceries at ...
Free Cities
Steven Greenhut talks with Judge Glock
Watch as the Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut interviews the Manhattan Institute’s Judge Glock. They talk about what can be done to stimulate more housing construction, the latest anti-free market efforts of California NIMBY’s to stop new housing, how policymakers can increase housing affordability, and how free market reforms can ...
Blog
Converting offices to homes helps ease housing crunch
Converting offices to homes helps ease housing crunch By John Seiler | September 6, 2024 “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” —Jane Jacobs, author As cities in California and ...
‘An idea so bad, Seattle hasn’t done it’
“Homelessness isn’t an identity,” said a full-page ad in the Aug. 25 issue of the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper. “Tell the City Council to VOTE NO on making their hardship a protected class.” The ad, sponsored by the Washington Business Properties Association, included contact info for the Spokane City Council, which ...
New Free Cities Book
Building Cities From Scratch
SACRAMENTO – The plan by a group of San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists to build an entirely new city on ranch land in Solano County between the Bay Area and Sacramento has become one of the most controversial housing plans in Northern California in years. The East Solano Plan ...
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs
The strange hypocrisy of the ‘just build housing’ YIMBYs Steven Greenhut | October 2, 2024 Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the Free Cities Center’s forthcoming booklet (“Building New Cities from Scratch: America’s Long History of Urban Experimentation”) about new cities, which was prompted by California Forever’s proposal to ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Democratic plan would bring turmoil to housing markets
A century ago, the federal government involved itself hardly at all in housing, leaving that to state and local governments, and the market. The major exception was housing on federal land, including the District of Columbia, other territories and military bases. That changed in 1937 when, as part of President ...
Time for release: Can cities unshackle themselves from abusive union perk?
Time for release: Can cities unshackle themselves from abusive union perk? By D. Dowd Muska | September 20, 2024 The stewards for Los Angeles County’s health-science professionals are allowed as much as 1,200 hours each year in a controversial benefit known as “release time,” whereby union officials are released to ...
Learn about the problems with rent control
Rent-control madness is coming to California’s November ballot
Indeed, the so-called Justice for Renters Act features this simple text: “The state may not limit the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” If voters approve the initiative, it would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Control Act. That 1995 law ...
The three-bedroom solution to our ‘childless’ cities
The three-bedroom solution to our ‘childless’ cities by Kenneth Schrupp | September 13, 2024 Take a look around your city and think about a modal of American life for many people – college, rent, get married, start a family, work at a downtown employer, then retire and later move into ...
Urbanist dreams foiled by lousy big-city governments
SACRAMENTO – One of the silliest things about the urbanism movement is its insistence that suburbanites abandon single-family homes, spacious yards and placid neighborhoods for the excitement of big-city living. In those cities, we can supposedly experience more “community,” reduce our carbon footprint and take a bike to buy overpriced groceries at ...
Steven Greenhut talks with Judge Glock
Watch as the Free Cities Center’s Steven Greenhut interviews the Manhattan Institute’s Judge Glock. They talk about what can be done to stimulate more housing construction, the latest anti-free market efforts of California NIMBY’s to stop new housing, how policymakers can increase housing affordability, and how free market reforms can ...
Converting offices to homes helps ease housing crunch
Converting offices to homes helps ease housing crunch By John Seiler | September 6, 2024 “There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” —Jane Jacobs, author As cities in California and ...
