Free Cities
Free Cities
Watch: Video tour of Sacramento’s K Street
Watch as Steven Greenhut of the Free Cities Center tours Sacramento’s K Street – a poster child for the negative consequences of government planning dictates – with longtime former Capitol staffer and proponent for ending eminent domain abuse Richard Mersereau. They discuss how eminent domain and the lasting legacy of ...
Blog
An ode to the suburb
An ode to the suburb By Andrew Smith | January 4, 2024 Suburbs are considered the ugly stepchild of American urban design. They’re generally despised, considered bastions of conformity, derided as “cookie-cutter vinyl villages,” considered eyesores and blamed for virtually every malady that has affected urban America. But if they’re ...
Blog
Oppressive state policies keep cities shackled in chains
Oppressive state policies keep cities shackled in chains By Kerry Jackson | December 26, 2023 Ken Griffin, founder and chairman of hedge fund company Citadel, caused a bit of a stir when he recently suggested that Miami could eventually replace New York City as the nation’s financial capital. “We’ll see ...
Blog
Lower costs – not subsidies – spur Sacto’s restaurant scene
Lower costs – not subsidies – spur Sacto’s restaurant scene By Steven Greenhut | December 22, 2023 When I moved to Sacramento in 2009, the city’s restaurant and nightlife scene was rather bleak. I recall roaming around downtown on an election night looking for an open bar, figuring Capitol staffers ...
Blog
Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform
Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history
When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Blog
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ – Part Two
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ Part Two Political polarization shaped the battle over Spokane’s misnamed ‘Camp Hope’ Jeremy Lott | December 15, 2023 Jeffrey Finer is a lawyer who represented Jewels Helping Hands, one of the charities that was involved in bringing services to Spokane, ...
Blog
Reason for hope or despair? Part 1
PART ONE Reason for hope or despair? Lessons from the battle over Spokane’s ‘Camp Hope’ homeless encampment Jeremy Lott | December 11, 2023 Camp Hope was, for a time, the largest homeless encampment in the state of Washington, but it was much more than that as well. The encampment regularly ...
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
Blog
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
With motivation, even California can clean up its cities
Why can’t it be like this all the time? The efforts were criticized because so much of San Francisco has fallen into a state of disrepair, with pervasive homelessness, drug abuse, petty crime and even human feces (so much so that a map was created to document the location of poop) ...
Watch: Video tour of Sacramento’s K Street
Watch as Steven Greenhut of the Free Cities Center tours Sacramento’s K Street – a poster child for the negative consequences of government planning dictates – with longtime former Capitol staffer and proponent for ending eminent domain abuse Richard Mersereau. They discuss how eminent domain and the lasting legacy of ...
An ode to the suburb
An ode to the suburb By Andrew Smith | January 4, 2024 Suburbs are considered the ugly stepchild of American urban design. They’re generally despised, considered bastions of conformity, derided as “cookie-cutter vinyl villages,” considered eyesores and blamed for virtually every malady that has affected urban America. But if they’re ...
Oppressive state policies keep cities shackled in chains
Oppressive state policies keep cities shackled in chains By Kerry Jackson | December 26, 2023 Ken Griffin, founder and chairman of hedge fund company Citadel, caused a bit of a stir when he recently suggested that Miami could eventually replace New York City as the nation’s financial capital. “We’ll see ...
Lower costs – not subsidies – spur Sacto’s restaurant scene
Lower costs – not subsidies – spur Sacto’s restaurant scene By Steven Greenhut | December 22, 2023 When I moved to Sacramento in 2009, the city’s restaurant and nightlife scene was rather bleak. I recall roaming around downtown on an election night looking for an open bar, figuring Capitol staffers ...
Learn about latest effort to subvert free market housing reform
Protect property rights to boost housing and preserve history
When I came to Orange County in 1987 to write editorials for The Orange County Register, I rented an apartment in Huntington Beach about half a mile from the famous beach to the south. Half a mile to the west was Main Street, then a funky row of surfboard shops, ...
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ – Part Two
Shutting a homeless camp that resembled ‘Lord of the Flies’ Part Two Political polarization shaped the battle over Spokane’s misnamed ‘Camp Hope’ Jeremy Lott | December 15, 2023 Jeffrey Finer is a lawyer who represented Jewels Helping Hands, one of the charities that was involved in bringing services to Spokane, ...
Reason for hope or despair? Part 1
PART ONE Reason for hope or despair? Lessons from the battle over Spokane’s ‘Camp Hope’ homeless encampment Jeremy Lott | December 11, 2023 Camp Hope was, for a time, the largest homeless encampment in the state of Washington, but it was much more than that as well. The encampment regularly ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Portland overrules bureaucrats and streamlines permitting
Back in March 2021, city auditors issued a blunt assessment of the city’s permitting system. “Getting a building permit in Portland can be a frustratingly slow process,” the auditors concluded, noting the city had for years missed its own timeliness goals. “Delays can affect the economy and motivate property owners ...
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save the Planet
Sorry, Urbanists, But Bicycles Will Never Save The Planet Steven Greenhut | December 4, 2024 SACRAMENTO – After my recent column chiding urbanists for their visceral dislike of suburbia and cars, I’ve been bemused by posts from a subset of their movement: hard-core bicyclists. Lots of people, myself included, enjoy an occasional ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
With motivation, even California can clean up its cities
Why can’t it be like this all the time? The efforts were criticized because so much of San Francisco has fallen into a state of disrepair, with pervasive homelessness, drug abuse, petty crime and even human feces (so much so that a map was created to document the location of poop) ...
