Free Cities
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Bay Area transit tax would lock in flawed spending system for decades
It’s a tax that would run for 14 years and raise an average of $1.2 billion a year. The four northern counties of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma looked at the deal and opted out. To work around the need for a two-thirds majority, tax proponents funded a petition drive to place ...
Blog
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
Blog
Charter reform is fine, but sinkhole points to LA’s deeper problems
That’s just one facet of the recommendations delivered to Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission (CRC) members in April while the primary campaign was in full swing. An abundance of Angelenos clearly want something better than spending their tax dollars on failed policies, programs and virtue-signaling. LA residents certainly want functioning ...
Blog
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization By Sal Rodriguez | August 11, 2026 Fiscal challenges — from diminishing revenues to rising expenses — are a common reason for localities to decide to put out services to bid. For the vast majority of things a city government can ...
Blog
A not so Brightline: California’s other bullet train boondoggle
It’s happening. This time, it’s really happening. That’s what dignitaries at the pseudo-event told themselves on April 22, 2024 — the day Brightline West “officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system.” Bureaucrats, politicians, and civic leaders predicted nothing but sunshine for the long-sought HSR route linking ...
Blog
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts By Steven Greenhut | August 7, 2026 California’s state recycling agency, CalRecycle, boasts that “California is building a circular economy that can recycle all waste by reducing how much trash we make [and] creating responsible recycling markets.” There’s nothing wrong with recycling, of ...
Blog
Austin’s housing solutions offer a model for California cities
As LAist’s David Wagner reported, only about 16% of Orange County households earn the $350,400 needed to afford the county’s median home price of $1,442,930, according to the California Association of Realtors. That’s all despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office boasting on July 13 about his record of “hundreds of pieces ...
Blog
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing by D. Dowd Muska | July 31, 2026 Advocates of deregulation-oriented solutions to the affordable-housing crisis continue to notch wins in liberal and conservative states, including California’s “by right” housing reforms and a recently passed package of permitting reforms known as the ...
Blog
Challenge to market-based housing reforms comes up short
Several causes have been offered to explain runaway real-estate valuation. For instance, some cities face serious geographic constraints that make building a difficult proposition. I live in an area in northwest Washington that is bounded by Canada to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Cascade mountains to ...
Blog
American suburbs are better than most people think
American suburbs are better than most people think By Randal O’Toole | July 24, 2026 Economist Noah Smith writes that suburbs are “not my personal cup of tea, but there are good reasons people like them.” Most of those reasons will be familiar to Antiplanner readers [and to readers of the Free Cities ...
Bay Area transit tax would lock in flawed spending system for decades
It’s a tax that would run for 14 years and raise an average of $1.2 billion a year. The four northern counties of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma looked at the deal and opted out. To work around the need for a two-thirds majority, tax proponents funded a petition drive to place ...
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires?
Who should be liable when utility equipment sparks wildfires? by Kerry Jackson | August 21, 2026 California utilities have been responsible for more than 1 million acres of scorched land. Power lines and other equipment, often outdated, have caused thousands of wildfires. Last year’s Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County for instance, ...
Charter reform is fine, but sinkhole points to LA’s deeper problems
That’s just one facet of the recommendations delivered to Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission (CRC) members in April while the primary campaign was in full swing. An abundance of Angelenos clearly want something better than spending their tax dollars on failed policies, programs and virtue-signaling. LA residents certainly want functioning ...
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization
After union flex, Folsom squelches plan to eye privatization By Sal Rodriguez | August 11, 2026 Fiscal challenges — from diminishing revenues to rising expenses — are a common reason for localities to decide to put out services to bid. For the vast majority of things a city government can ...
A not so Brightline: California’s other bullet train boondoggle
It’s happening. This time, it’s really happening. That’s what dignitaries at the pseudo-event told themselves on April 22, 2024 — the day Brightline West “officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system.” Bureaucrats, politicians, and civic leaders predicted nothing but sunshine for the long-sought HSR route linking ...
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts
California’s latest ‘green’ strategy threatens local recycling efforts By Steven Greenhut | August 7, 2026 California’s state recycling agency, CalRecycle, boasts that “California is building a circular economy that can recycle all waste by reducing how much trash we make [and] creating responsible recycling markets.” There’s nothing wrong with recycling, of ...
Austin’s housing solutions offer a model for California cities
As LAist’s David Wagner reported, only about 16% of Orange County households earn the $350,400 needed to afford the county’s median home price of $1,442,930, according to the California Association of Realtors. That’s all despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office boasting on July 13 about his record of “hundreds of pieces ...
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing
Useful data, but misguided advice: Harvard on housing by D. Dowd Muska | July 31, 2026 Advocates of deregulation-oriented solutions to the affordable-housing crisis continue to notch wins in liberal and conservative states, including California’s “by right” housing reforms and a recently passed package of permitting reforms known as the ...
Challenge to market-based housing reforms comes up short
Several causes have been offered to explain runaway real-estate valuation. For instance, some cities face serious geographic constraints that make building a difficult proposition. I live in an area in northwest Washington that is bounded by Canada to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Cascade mountains to ...
American suburbs are better than most people think
American suburbs are better than most people think By Randal O’Toole | July 24, 2026 Economist Noah Smith writes that suburbs are “not my personal cup of tea, but there are good reasons people like them.” Most of those reasons will be familiar to Antiplanner readers [and to readers of the Free Cities ...