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Blog
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Seattle’s ‘social housing’ plan struggles to get off the ground
Two years ago, voters approved Initiative 135, which created the Seattle Social Housing Developer. Supporters of Initiative 135 argued the Seattle Social Housing Developer would be “a new, powerful tool to counter” the city’s housing crisis by empowering a governmental entity to develop and acquire properties for housing. Explained the ...
Blog
Urbanists can slow but not stop our transportation progress
Urbanists can slow but not stop our transportation progress By Marc Joffe | May 1, 2025 California is the prime battleground between transportation innovation and legacy mass transit. While Silicon Valley is rolling out driverless taxis and testing flying cars, urbanists and transit unions are seeking more taxpayer funding to ...
Blog
Newsom Gets One Right on State Return to Office Order
Virtually every other state and most private sector employers in California and nationally returned to normal employment arrangements years ago. A February Bay Area Council survey showed 84 percent of private sector employers have already implemented long-term in-person work policies, and just 6 person of employers do not require employees ...
Blog
Read about the latest bill to weaken CA's public safety laws
AB 622 – Early Release for Violent Offenders
Historically, an inmate serving a 25 to life sentence for murder is eligible for parole review 13 months prior to their 25th year in custody, adjusted for time in custody prior to sentencing. This is known as the Minimum Parole Eligibility Date (MEPD). After the passage of Prop 57, the ...
Blog
QALYs Put Patients Last
In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Blog
Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks
Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Blog
Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis
Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis by Rafael Perez | April 24, 2025 There are two uncomfortable truths that have settled in after the smoke cleared from the Los Angeles County fires. The first is that the public will pay for a significant share of the damage. The ...
Blog
West Coast cities need to catch up on office-to-home conversions
Some buildings are in the pipeline, just waiting for approval, but many cities need to do more improving of infrastructure, cleanliness and safety in order to thrive. In a sign of good news, more office-to-residential conversions have developed in cities as distinct as Cleveland, Houston and Washington, D.C. The West ...
Blog
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
Blog
New Rankings Confirm California’s Status as Too Restrictive for Homebuilding
In fact, those nine are all among the bottom 15. Los Angeles landed in the middle of the rankings, even though its “composite price levels” are 8.6 times higher than income, higher than San Jose (7.9), San Diego (7.7), San Francisco (7.6) and even New York City (6.6). California, was ...
Read the latest from PRI's Free Cities Center
Seattle’s ‘social housing’ plan struggles to get off the ground
Two years ago, voters approved Initiative 135, which created the Seattle Social Housing Developer. Supporters of Initiative 135 argued the Seattle Social Housing Developer would be “a new, powerful tool to counter” the city’s housing crisis by empowering a governmental entity to develop and acquire properties for housing. Explained the ...
Urbanists can slow but not stop our transportation progress
Urbanists can slow but not stop our transportation progress By Marc Joffe | May 1, 2025 California is the prime battleground between transportation innovation and legacy mass transit. While Silicon Valley is rolling out driverless taxis and testing flying cars, urbanists and transit unions are seeking more taxpayer funding to ...
Newsom Gets One Right on State Return to Office Order
Virtually every other state and most private sector employers in California and nationally returned to normal employment arrangements years ago. A February Bay Area Council survey showed 84 percent of private sector employers have already implemented long-term in-person work policies, and just 6 person of employers do not require employees ...
Read about the latest bill to weaken CA's public safety laws
AB 622 – Early Release for Violent Offenders
Historically, an inmate serving a 25 to life sentence for murder is eligible for parole review 13 months prior to their 25th year in custody, adjusted for time in custody prior to sentencing. This is known as the Minimum Parole Eligibility Date (MEPD). After the passage of Prop 57, the ...
QALYs Put Patients Last
In his latest entry for the American Action Forum’s “Reality Check-Up: The Truth About Single-Payer Systems,” Michael Baker offers an excellent primer on this heartless metric. QALYs attempt to assign a monetary value to life. A year in perfect health equals one QALY. A year with illness or disability counts ...
Newsom’s Diaper Plan Stinks
Why a new program when the old one is working ok? The state argues that there are gaps in the existing program, which targets low-income parents. Instead of simply filling the gaps, the state wants to impose some elaborate scheme that is akin to killing a gnat with a shotgun. ...
Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis
Examining the roots of California’s ongoing insurance crisis by Rafael Perez | April 24, 2025 There are two uncomfortable truths that have settled in after the smoke cleared from the Los Angeles County fires. The first is that the public will pay for a significant share of the damage. The ...
West Coast cities need to catch up on office-to-home conversions
Some buildings are in the pipeline, just waiting for approval, but many cities need to do more improving of infrastructure, cleanliness and safety in order to thrive. In a sign of good news, more office-to-residential conversions have developed in cities as distinct as Cleveland, Houston and Washington, D.C. The West ...
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong
Gavin Newsom claims California taxes aren’t high. Here is why he’s wrong Originally published in Sacramento Bee by Matt Fleming READ MORE Gov. Gavin Newsom often claims California is not a high-tax state. “So, this notion of even being a high tax state is B.S.,” Newsom podcasted in March. “Sixteen ...
New Rankings Confirm California’s Status as Too Restrictive for Homebuilding
In fact, those nine are all among the bottom 15. Los Angeles landed in the middle of the rankings, even though its “composite price levels” are 8.6 times higher than income, higher than San Jose (7.9), San Diego (7.7), San Francisco (7.6) and even New York City (6.6). California, was ...
