New Cities Offer a Chance To Rethink How Local Government Works
California would benefit from building more housing and having more experimentation with how public services are delivered.
Cities
Urban Living Would Be Better if Big City Governments Were Less Incompetent
Unions and other special interests seem to get what they want before many urban residents get basic services.
The Housing Theory of Childless Cat Ladies
Would a YIMBY building boom rejuvenate urban family life or produce sterile, megacity hellscapes?
Does Miami Have the Answer to Homelessness?
There may not be a perfect solution to ending homelessness, but there are some clear principles to reduce the friction for those working to do so.
As America Becomes More Secular, American Religion Will Need To Become More Urban
It's in cities that greater absolute numbers of religious people can compensate for declining per capita rates of religious observance.
Central Planners Can't Fix Iraq—or Detroit
In Fragile Neighborhoods, author Seth Kaplan applies his Fixing Fragile States observations domestically.
A Brand New City in Northern California Will Show if the State Is Serious About Housing Solutions
The project might determine whether new generations will be able to take part in the American Dream.
How Third-World Countries Build Walkable Cities Without Central Planning
Jakarta, Indonesia, shows why you don't need central planners to get pedestrian-friendly urban design.
California Stopped San Francisco's $1.7 Million Toilet. The City Can't Build Something Cheaper.
"Why isn't there a toilet here? I just don't get it. Nobody does," one resident told The New York Times last week. "It's yet another example of the city that can't."
Campus Speech Restrictions Come Back To Bite Universities
Plus: A listener asks if there is any place libertarians can go to start their own country or city state.
Is Wichita Mayor-Elect Lily Wu a Libertarian?
"I believe in empowering the individual and limited government. I chose to become a Libertarian on my registration because it spoke to who I was."
Government-Run Grocery Store Is Predictably Losing Money
The folly of government-run grocery stores is sadly not a historical relic like the USSR.
Wisconsin Politicians Want To Spend $550 Million on Ballpark Subsidies the Public Opposes
Just 24 percent of self-identified Trump voters and 34 percent of self-identified Biden voters say they support a public handout for the Milwaukee Brewers' 22-year-old stadium.
Africa's Planned Cities Need Unplanning
Nigeria's shantytowns are more functional than its centrally planned gated communities.
San Francisco's Got Problems. There's No Need To Exaggerate Them for Political Reasons.
If you don't like San Francisco, that's fine, but don't tell tall tales about it.
Problems With Mass Transit Won't Be Solved With More Money
The transit systems we're supposed to hop aboard ultimately operate as jobs programs for government workers.
How a Public Housing Project Became an Unplanned Neighborhood
A favela in southern Brazil shows the upside of an "invasive" urban form—and offers lessons for U.S. housing policy.
Is There a Future for the City of Tomorrow?
The consequences of our obsession with urban dystopias and utopias
Politics Is Getting in the Way of What Makes Cities Great
Healthy cities are a boon not just for those who live in them, but for our entire society.
San Francisco Wants To Spend $1.7 Million on a Single Public Toilet
Local officials argue that the eye-popping sum is necessary due to rising construction costs, but experts disagree.
Los Angeles City Council Scandal Highlights Ugly Influence of Big Labor
Having a city council secretly dominated by people with racist views is troubling, but having an entire political system controlled by one special interest group is also scandalous.
San Francisco Spent Over $20,000 on a Trash Can
“We need to have a trash can that works for the city of San Francisco,” said city project manager Lisa Zhuo.
Christopher Alexander's Utopian Blueprint
There is telling people how to live, and there is maximizing people's ability to live the lives they want.
The Death of Walt Disney's Private Dream City?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to end a wildly successful half-century experiment in municipal governance.
California Cities Are Rethinking Their Marijuana Business Bans
Nearly two dozen towns that had said no to legal weed shops are reconsidering.
Crime Is Down From Pre-Pandemic Levels in San Francisco (and Other Cities)
Plus: Substack stands up for free speech, a nonprofit challenges lawyers' stranglehold on giving legal advice, and more...
How Much Would You Pay To Escape Australia's COVID 'Ring of Steel'?
Australian researchers used changes in home prices and rents to tease out how much people were willing to spend to avoid the country's harshest lockdown.
Cities Undermine the Holiday Spirit with Unconstitutional Bans on Sharing Food with the Homeless
Do you, like many Americans, feel especially charitable this time of year? Enjoy helping those in need? Better buy a permit.
Karol Markowicz's Escape From New York Should Worry Blue-State America
This Brooklyn-bred New York Post columnist and her family are fleeing to Florida due to bad education policy and COVID mismanagement.
L.A. Finally Lets People Eat In Parking Lots
Los Angeles temporarily eased parking requirements during the pandemic, offering a glimpse of how much a less restrictive zoning code improves urban life.
Texas Wins the Census
Plus: Oregon ditches high school proficiency requirements, new vaccine rules in San Francisco and New Orleans, and more...
A City Got Protections From Qualified Immunity After a Cop Killed a Man. SCOTUS Won't Hear the Case.
The decision will make it even more difficult for victims to hold the government accountable when their rights are violated.
Florida's 'Anti-Rioting' Bill Gives the Government New Powers That Have Nothing to Do With Riots
Among other things, it calls for online censorship to shield identities of public officials and lets the governor control city police budgets.
Under 'Approval Voting,' St. Louis Voters Rally Behind Two Progressive Potential Mayors
No third-party options were on the menu for the launch of this new voting system.
Singapore Is Not the Model for a More Libertarian America
The island nation's harsh drug sentences, crackdowns on speech, and poor treatment of blue-collar immigrants make Singapore's policy not worth replicating.
Remote Work Is Here to Stay and That's a Good Thing
Able to do our jobs from where we please, life for many of us will reflect a bit more of what we want rather than what we have to do to get by.
Will Cities Survive 2020?
COVID-19 is reigniting old debates about zoning, public health, urban planning, and suburban sprawl.
The Shaky Case for State Bailouts
Governments should prepare for emergencies by cutting spending during flush times.
Taxpayers Still on the Hook for Stadium Debts, Even Though Coronavirus Canceled Sports
But then, those stadiums weren't likely to bring the growth the cities wanted in the first place.
COVID-19 Could Force City Planners To Rethink Their Priorities
The coronavirus shutdown might alter buying patterns, as more people flee tightly packed cities for suburban, exurban, and rural areas.
Will New York Ever Recover From COVID-19?
Urbanist Joel Kotkin says the pandemic will accelerate America's urban decline. Richard Florida is "100 percent convinced" NYC will be just fine.
Stop Ignoring the Different Needs of Rural Areas and Cities Responding to COVID-19
A uniform national response risks doing more harm than good in a nation that’s not uniform.
Density or Sprawl? How To Solve the Urban Housing Crisis
Land use regulation is making cities unaffordable. In an unfettered market, how would Americans choose to live?
Can U.S. Cities Be Forced To House Coronavirus Patients?
Plus: Supreme Court will hear Catholic foster agency case, Apple and TikTok reject Sen. Josh Hawley's testimony request, and more...
Trump Uses Clemency To Help Drug War Victims, Reward GOP Donors, and Spite James Comey
Plus: China boots three reporters, megacities are getting a smaller share of growth than they used to, and Dems gather to debate in Las Vegas..
