Free Cities
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
The state’s housing shortages have consequences
Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Free Cities
Watch latest video from PRI's Free Cities Center
Watch: Tour Sacramento’s New “Safe Stay Communities” to Help the Homeless
Blog
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city
To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Free Cities
Scott Beyer – Latin America’s Urban Experience
Our guest this week is Scott Beyer, founder of the Market Urbanist, a website that reports and researches innovative free-market policy solutions to the myriad of problems many cities are facing. Scott is the author of PRI’s new mini book: Latin America’s Urban Experience: How Markets Help Developing Countries Cope ...
Blog
Latin America Should Upgrade Rather Than Demolish ‘Favelas’
Latin America Should Upgrade Rather Than Demolish ‘Favelas’ By Scott Beyer | November 16, 2023 Some developing countries are making the same urban-renewal mistakes made by the United States in the post-war era. Sensible market-oriented policies can transform slums into safe and decent neighborhoods rather than simply displacing poor people. ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Can district elections provide better city representation?
I was born in Detroit in 1955 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Wayne. So I had a front-row seat for Motown’s decline in the 1960s. One reason I’ve heard over the decades is Detroit from 1918 until 2013 elected council members at large. That was contrasted to ...
Book
NEW BOOK RELEASE
Latin America’s Experience Shows How Markets Can Help Urban America Overcome Government-Created Problems
SACRAMENTO – Despite its socialist political traditions, Latin America offers some free market lessons for the West Coast’s urban centers on housing, transportation, government services and startup cities, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click ...
Blog
Freedom – Not Density – Should Drive Land-Use Decisions
Freedom – Not Density – Should Drive Land-Use Decisions By Steven Greenhut | November 10, 2023 SACRAMENTO – California has in recent years embarked on a remarkable legislative journey that has seen some of the state’s most-onerous land-use regulations rolled back. Lawmakers have recognized that government restrictions are the key ...
Blog
Read latest about road diets
Car-free cities about social engineering, not public demand
Scientific American insists that car-free cities are the future, because the data from facial analysis caught by surveillance cameras proves that “people do not like looking at cars.” Or maybe the trend is just another planning movement led by elitists who believe their vision of a city is the only ...
Blog
Time To Ask Why So Many San Francisco Homes Are Vacant
Time To Ask Why So ManySan Francisco Homes Are Vacant Steven Greenhut | November 3, 2023 Journalism 101 classes teach that every news story needs to include the five main Ws: Who, What, Where, When and Why. Yet most of the recent news reports about San Francisco’s newly implemented “Empty ...
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
The state’s housing shortages have consequences
Due to a combination of population growth and a slow response by the home-building industry, California had by 2020 fallen an estimated 3.5-million units short of what was needed to bring supply into balance with demand. Since that time, the gap has narrowed by half, with the state logging a net population loss ...
Watch latest video from PRI's Free Cities Center
Watch: Tour Sacramento’s New “Safe Stay Communities” to Help the Homeless
Read latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Tejon Ranch’s CEQA battle offers warning for new Solano city
To cope with an ongoing and severe housing shortage, California’s Legislature has passed laws that override local zoning laws to make it easier for developers to construct high-density “infill” projects within existing cities. What California’s policymakers have not done, however, is encourage the development of new cities on raw land. One such ...
Scott Beyer – Latin America’s Urban Experience
Our guest this week is Scott Beyer, founder of the Market Urbanist, a website that reports and researches innovative free-market policy solutions to the myriad of problems many cities are facing. Scott is the author of PRI’s new mini book: Latin America’s Urban Experience: How Markets Help Developing Countries Cope ...
Latin America Should Upgrade Rather Than Demolish ‘Favelas’
Latin America Should Upgrade Rather Than Demolish ‘Favelas’ By Scott Beyer | November 16, 2023 Some developing countries are making the same urban-renewal mistakes made by the United States in the post-war era. Sensible market-oriented policies can transform slums into safe and decent neighborhoods rather than simply displacing poor people. ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Can district elections provide better city representation?
I was born in Detroit in 1955 and grew up in the nearby suburb of Wayne. So I had a front-row seat for Motown’s decline in the 1960s. One reason I’ve heard over the decades is Detroit from 1918 until 2013 elected council members at large. That was contrasted to ...
NEW BOOK RELEASE
Latin America’s Experience Shows How Markets Can Help Urban America Overcome Government-Created Problems
SACRAMENTO – Despite its socialist political traditions, Latin America offers some free market lessons for the West Coast’s urban centers on housing, transportation, government services and startup cities, finds a new book released today by the Free Cities Center at the nonpartisan, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click ...
Freedom – Not Density – Should Drive Land-Use Decisions
Freedom – Not Density – Should Drive Land-Use Decisions By Steven Greenhut | November 10, 2023 SACRAMENTO – California has in recent years embarked on a remarkable legislative journey that has seen some of the state’s most-onerous land-use regulations rolled back. Lawmakers have recognized that government restrictions are the key ...
Read latest about road diets
Car-free cities about social engineering, not public demand
Scientific American insists that car-free cities are the future, because the data from facial analysis caught by surveillance cameras proves that “people do not like looking at cars.” Or maybe the trend is just another planning movement led by elitists who believe their vision of a city is the only ...
Time To Ask Why So Many San Francisco Homes Are Vacant
Time To Ask Why So ManySan Francisco Homes Are Vacant Steven Greenhut | November 3, 2023 Journalism 101 classes teach that every news story needs to include the five main Ws: Who, What, Where, When and Why. Yet most of the recent news reports about San Francisco’s newly implemented “Empty ...
