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Unions push $30 minimum wage for all Los Angeles workers

Under current policy, hotel and airport workers are already on their way to a $30 an hour wage floor ($38.85 if you add in a mandatory additional stipend for health coverage). Good for those who keep their jobs, but not for those who will lose them, or will never be hired ...
Blog

Despite fast-track promises, LA rebuilding is mired in red tape

More than 18,000 structures were burned in Los Angeles County in January. The greatest losses were in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. While updating the recovery “progress” more than three months ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass vowed that she was “committed to rebuilding” this community at “lightning speed.” “I just ...
Blog

Read about California's growing crime problem

Violent Crime in California– The Newsom Years, 2019-2023

Newsom, in turn, called out the murder rates in each of the lawmakers’ home states, proclaiming that Alabama had “…3X the murder rate of California”, Oklahoma had a murder rate “…40 % higher than California’s” and Arkansas was “literally DOUBLE California’s”. In order for Newsom’s posts on X to be ...
Blog

Regulation bottlenecks impede state’s infrastructure grants

Regulation bottlenecks impede state’s infrastructure grants by Sarah Downey  | June 26, 2025 Editor’s Note: While the Free Cities Center advocates for regulations that encourage market-rate construction rather than affordable-housing subsidies, it’s useful to look at the status of the myriad grant programs that the state government is offering—and the ...
Agriculture

Context matters when considering immigration enforcement

According to most recent data, 44 percent of farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented. However, it is hard to know with certainty how accurate that percentage is with some estimates hovering around 50 percent and others as high as 75 percent. The U.S. National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) breaks down ...
Blog

Slowing Consumption Poses an Additional Fiscal Threat to California

The California New Car Dealers Associationnotes that total new vehicle registrations in the state stagnated in 2024 and are expected to decline slightly in 2025. The California Chamber of Commerce reports that tourism, which generated over $12 billion in tax revenue from both international and domestic visitors in 2024, is ...
Blog

Newsom and the National Guard

Newsom’s office stated that the president’s order and the presence of the guard: “not only caused widespread panic and chaos, but have unnecessarily created an additional diversion of resources as the state tries to calm a community terrorized by this reckless federal action.” In fact, the “panic and chaos” was ...
Agriculture

Mental Health is Important for Food Security

Brian Brett is credited with writing, “Farming is a profession of hope.” It is one of my favorite reminders about the life I pursue. My bio notes I am a fourth-generation farmer in Eastern Washington who works in public policy advocating for farmers and ranchers. It is a balancing act ...
Blog

Getting it all wrong about the other city by the bay

To be charitable, miners brave enough to go digging can discover occasional nuggets of value in Madrigal’s ponderous, and entirely predictable, jeremiad. For example: Oakland had its own version of the urban-renewal thuggery that would eventually lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In ...
Blog

Learn why California's unemployment rate is rising

Disaster looms with California’s high unemployment

Currently, California currently ranks as the fourth-highest unemployment rate of any state (including the District of Columbia) in the nation, at 5.3 percent. California’s unemployment rate steadily increased by a full percentage point between March 2023 and September 2024 and, despite continued economic growth, has plateaued ever since. By contrast, ...
Blog

Unions push $30 minimum wage for all Los Angeles workers

Under current policy, hotel and airport workers are already on their way to a $30 an hour wage floor ($38.85 if you add in a mandatory additional stipend for health coverage). Good for those who keep their jobs, but not for those who will lose them, or will never be hired ...
Blog

Despite fast-track promises, LA rebuilding is mired in red tape

More than 18,000 structures were burned in Los Angeles County in January. The greatest losses were in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. While updating the recovery “progress” more than three months ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass vowed that she was “committed to rebuilding” this community at “lightning speed.” “I just ...
Blog

Read about California's growing crime problem

Violent Crime in California– The Newsom Years, 2019-2023

Newsom, in turn, called out the murder rates in each of the lawmakers’ home states, proclaiming that Alabama had “…3X the murder rate of California”, Oklahoma had a murder rate “…40 % higher than California’s” and Arkansas was “literally DOUBLE California’s”. In order for Newsom’s posts on X to be ...
Blog

Regulation bottlenecks impede state’s infrastructure grants

Regulation bottlenecks impede state’s infrastructure grants by Sarah Downey  | June 26, 2025 Editor’s Note: While the Free Cities Center advocates for regulations that encourage market-rate construction rather than affordable-housing subsidies, it’s useful to look at the status of the myriad grant programs that the state government is offering—and the ...
Agriculture

Context matters when considering immigration enforcement

According to most recent data, 44 percent of farmworkers in the U.S. are undocumented. However, it is hard to know with certainty how accurate that percentage is with some estimates hovering around 50 percent and others as high as 75 percent. The U.S. National Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS) breaks down ...
Blog

Slowing Consumption Poses an Additional Fiscal Threat to California

The California New Car Dealers Associationnotes that total new vehicle registrations in the state stagnated in 2024 and are expected to decline slightly in 2025. The California Chamber of Commerce reports that tourism, which generated over $12 billion in tax revenue from both international and domestic visitors in 2024, is ...
Blog

Newsom and the National Guard

Newsom’s office stated that the president’s order and the presence of the guard: “not only caused widespread panic and chaos, but have unnecessarily created an additional diversion of resources as the state tries to calm a community terrorized by this reckless federal action.” In fact, the “panic and chaos” was ...
Agriculture

Mental Health is Important for Food Security

Brian Brett is credited with writing, “Farming is a profession of hope.” It is one of my favorite reminders about the life I pursue. My bio notes I am a fourth-generation farmer in Eastern Washington who works in public policy advocating for farmers and ranchers. It is a balancing act ...
Blog

Getting it all wrong about the other city by the bay

To be charitable, miners brave enough to go digging can discover occasional nuggets of value in Madrigal’s ponderous, and entirely predictable, jeremiad. For example: Oakland had its own version of the urban-renewal thuggery that would eventually lead to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In ...
Blog

Learn why California's unemployment rate is rising

Disaster looms with California’s high unemployment

Currently, California currently ranks as the fourth-highest unemployment rate of any state (including the District of Columbia) in the nation, at 5.3 percent. California’s unemployment rate steadily increased by a full percentage point between March 2023 and September 2024 and, despite continued economic growth, has plateaued ever since. By contrast, ...
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