Blog
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or …
Read excerpt from new Free Cities Center book
Providing us with the transportation that planners want
One need only spend a little time on a transit-oriented social-media page or reading the thoughts of urban-focused writers to detect a certain disdain toward the automobile, suburbia and the construction of road and freeway lanes. Such attitudes are not outliers, as any quick search of New Urbanist and pro-transit …
Juvenile Justice – A Crisis in the Making
On July 1, California will close its three remaining juvenile justice facilities. Located in Stockton and Ventura, the three facilities house just 300 juvenile offenders – down from a system high of 8000 ten years ago. Once closed, the 300 inmates will be returned to the county from which they …
Natural Gas Ban And A Flameout Of Five-Star Dining In California?
When California cities began banning natural gas connections, restaurateurs and chefs kicked up a fuss. How could they be expected to create their culinary gems using inferior electric stoves? “To say that an electric stove is as good as a gas one is misunderstanding the art of cooking,” said George …
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills by Sal Rodriguez Colorado and Arizona had a shot at passing substantive reform of development-stifling land-use regulations this year. But both efforts went down in the last few months thanks in large part to fierce opposition from city governments, which …
City services will get slammed as public pay goes up
Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went …
Colorado River ‘plan’ staves off federal interference, keeps water coming
The Colorado River supplies 4.4-million-acre feet of water to California every year with about 80 percent of that allocation being delivered to farms in the Imperial Valley. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover one acre of land with one foot of water or 326,000 gallons.) Earlier this week, California, …
Learn About Latest Costly Green Mandate
California Emphasizes The ‘DIE’ In Diesel
The state Air Resources Board has approved new rules that says, “all Class I line haul locomotives” that have “an original engine build date of 2035 and beyond” can operate in California only if they have “a zero-emissions configuration.” That’s also the last year that new diesel big rigs can …
Celebrate National Beef Month
The best activism is the one that allows everyone to make their own dietary choices
Considering how much beef is consumed annually in the United States, it is odd to think about the amount of vitriol aimed at cattle production. Whether it is a story about the greenhouse gas emissions of cattle, the misunderstanding of animal breeding and care, or the anthropomorphism of animal rights …
Part of WOTUS struck down in victory for private property owners
The ruling changes how “waters of the United States” can be applied by leaving wetlands that are not directly flowing into a body of water that meets the definition of “rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water that flow across or form a part of State boundaries” out of the …
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles
Soaking rich homeowners fails in Los Angeles By Randal O’Toole | June 9, 2023 To help fund the $1.3 billion that Los Angeles’ City Council believes it needs to house the homeless, the city decided to impose a “mansion tax” of 4 percent on the sales of any homes or …
Read excerpt from new Free Cities Center book
Providing us with the transportation that planners want
One need only spend a little time on a transit-oriented social-media page or reading the thoughts of urban-focused writers to detect a certain disdain toward the automobile, suburbia and the construction of road and freeway lanes. Such attitudes are not outliers, as any quick search of New Urbanist and pro-transit …
Juvenile Justice – A Crisis in the Making
On July 1, California will close its three remaining juvenile justice facilities. Located in Stockton and Ventura, the three facilities house just 300 juvenile offenders – down from a system high of 8000 ten years ago. Once closed, the 300 inmates will be returned to the county from which they …
Natural Gas Ban And A Flameout Of Five-Star Dining In California?
When California cities began banning natural gas connections, restaurateurs and chefs kicked up a fuss. How could they be expected to create their culinary gems using inferior electric stoves? “To say that an electric stove is as good as a gas one is misunderstanding the art of cooking,” said George …
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills
Arizona and Colorado Report: Power-hungry cities kill pro-housing zoning-reform bills by Sal Rodriguez Colorado and Arizona had a shot at passing substantive reform of development-stifling land-use regulations this year. But both efforts went down in the last few months thanks in large part to fierce opposition from city governments, which …
City services will get slammed as public pay goes up
Consider these recent increases: University of California Health. In February, unionized medical residents at UC’s six urban medical centers (in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange) were prescribed 16-percent raises over two years. Los Angeles. In April, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School district went …
Colorado River ‘plan’ staves off federal interference, keeps water coming
The Colorado River supplies 4.4-million-acre feet of water to California every year with about 80 percent of that allocation being delivered to farms in the Imperial Valley. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover one acre of land with one foot of water or 326,000 gallons.) Earlier this week, California, …
Learn About Latest Costly Green Mandate
California Emphasizes The ‘DIE’ In Diesel
The state Air Resources Board has approved new rules that says, “all Class I line haul locomotives” that have “an original engine build date of 2035 and beyond” can operate in California only if they have “a zero-emissions configuration.” That’s also the last year that new diesel big rigs can …
Celebrate National Beef Month
The best activism is the one that allows everyone to make their own dietary choices
Considering how much beef is consumed annually in the United States, it is odd to think about the amount of vitriol aimed at cattle production. Whether it is a story about the greenhouse gas emissions of cattle, the misunderstanding of animal breeding and care, or the anthropomorphism of animal rights …
Part of WOTUS struck down in victory for private property owners
The ruling changes how “waters of the United States” can be applied by leaving wetlands that are not directly flowing into a body of water that meets the definition of “rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water that flow across or form a part of State boundaries” out of the …
