Blog
About Free Cities Center
Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
Blog
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Blog
Union power makes urban reform nearly impossible
It’s well known that private-sector unions imposed higher costs and competitive disadvantages on companies that remained in cities. In a 2010 Cato Journal article, Stephen J. K. Walters explained that unions sparked their transformation “from engines of prosperity into areas afflicted by economic stagnation, chronic poverty, and all the social ...
Blog
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Blog
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
Blog
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
Blog
Tax The Rich To Pay For The EV Scam
On the ballot this fall is a measure that, if passed, would hike taxes on California’s richest residents to fund electric vehicle and charging station subsidies. Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t like it, calling it “one company’s cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer subsidy.” He’s referring to Lyft, the top ...
Blog
Fast-food Restaurants’ Future Now in the Hands of California Voters
The controversial fast-food labor law, AB 257, was signed into a law just last week by Governor Newsom. AB 257, also known as the Fast Recovery Act, will see a new government-appointed body set industry standards on wages and working hours among other things for fast-food workers in California. However, ...
Blog
Anaheim’s freedom experiment still offers lessons to cities
It’s a distant and largely forgotten memory, but in the mid-2000s the city of Anaheim pursued a novel idea for bigger cities. Instead of pursuing development policies based on the usual array of central planning tools, the city decided to “pursue a market-oriented, freedom-friendly agenda that would create an atmosphere ...
Blog
Americans Are Overwhelmingly Satisfied with their Health Coverage, Finds New PRI National Survey
The results of a new national survey commissioned by PRI find that 86 percent of Americans are satisfied with their current health insurance plans, compared to 8 percent who said they were dissatisfied.
About Free Cities Center
Cities throughout the West face rising crime, soaring housing costs, a sprawling homelessness crisis and devastated downtown areas following two years of COVID restrictions and the aftermath of destructive protests. Policymakers typically address these and other urban problems in a piecemeal fashion. They fail to understand what makes great cities ...
Urban bike lanes no answer to climate change ‘code red’
But not in California, where the barriers to having a constructive debate about this issue are many. They start with the huge logical gap between the state’s goal to have “eligible” renewable power sources and zero-carbon resources supply 100 percent of California’s electricity retail sales and the electricity used by ...
Union power makes urban reform nearly impossible
It’s well known that private-sector unions imposed higher costs and competitive disadvantages on companies that remained in cities. In a 2010 Cato Journal article, Stephen J. K. Walters explained that unions sparked their transformation “from engines of prosperity into areas afflicted by economic stagnation, chronic poverty, and all the social ...
First thing we do, let’s retrain all the planners
As a group of rebels bantered about the possibilities of an England with a new king in William Shakespeare’s “Henry The VI,” Dick the Butcher suggests “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Though the (likely sarcastic) comment resonates with many, we need to keep lawyers around. ...
Want to save cities? Then revamp urban schools
Want to Save Cities? Then Revamp Urban Schools There are many reasons for the decline of America’s cities, but one of the key reasons why many families flee older urban areas is because of the poor quality of urban public schools. Research has shown, however, that one way to reverse ...
In Political Speech, “Universal” Means Anything But
Every few months, the argument to “universalize” some sector of the economy captures national attention – be it for universal health care, universal childcare, or universal student loan forgiveness. All the arguments have an all-too-often overlooked fatal flaw: they assume goods are not scarce. In economic terms, all goods have ...
Tax The Rich To Pay For The EV Scam
On the ballot this fall is a measure that, if passed, would hike taxes on California’s richest residents to fund electric vehicle and charging station subsidies. Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t like it, calling it “one company’s cynical scheme to grab a huge taxpayer subsidy.” He’s referring to Lyft, the top ...
Fast-food Restaurants’ Future Now in the Hands of California Voters
The controversial fast-food labor law, AB 257, was signed into a law just last week by Governor Newsom. AB 257, also known as the Fast Recovery Act, will see a new government-appointed body set industry standards on wages and working hours among other things for fast-food workers in California. However, ...
Anaheim’s freedom experiment still offers lessons to cities
It’s a distant and largely forgotten memory, but in the mid-2000s the city of Anaheim pursued a novel idea for bigger cities. Instead of pursuing development policies based on the usual array of central planning tools, the city decided to “pursue a market-oriented, freedom-friendly agenda that would create an atmosphere ...
Americans Are Overwhelmingly Satisfied with their Health Coverage, Finds New PRI National Survey
The results of a new national survey commissioned by PRI find that 86 percent of Americans are satisfied with their current health insurance plans, compared to 8 percent who said they were dissatisfied.
