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.
Policy
Ilhan Omar's Bill Would Enable the Feds To Seize Landlords' Properties for Trying To Collect Rent During Coronavirus
The Minnesota congresswoman's proposal to cancel rents and mortgages during the coronavirus pandemic is both wildly impractical and constitutionally dubious.
Can't Afford Your Rent? Blame Herbert Hoover.
The feds pushed cities to implement zoning restrictions. High prices and social inequality were the inevitable results.
With 30 Percent of Tenants Unable To Pay Their Bills This Month Due to COVID-19, Many Want Rent Canceled
Alexandria, Virginia, is the latest city to entertain demands to cancel rent payments during the current pandemic.
Emergency COVID-19 Rules Effectively Give California's NIMBYs Unlimited Time To File Anti-Housing Environmental Lawsuits
And they are taking full advantage of the opportunity
Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley Will Do Everything Necessary To Combat Coronavirus (Unless It Involves Deregulation)
In two separate op-eds yesterday, the senators pitch central planning as the best response to the coronavirus pandemic.
California's Eviction Ban Will Worsen Current Economic Woes
Yes, tenants are losing their jobs because of the COVID-19 shutdown, but forcing businesses to provide services for free would have a ripple effect.
Make Pandemic-Related Occupational License Reform Permanent
Pandemic patients get better care when medical professionals are free to work where they're needed. The same will undoubtedly be true of regular patients after COVID-19 has left our lives.
FDA Will Lift Restrictions on Face Mask Imports, Toppling Another Pointless Regulation
Health care workers will now be allowed to use the Chinese-certified KN95 masks, which are equivalent to the N95 masks that are in short supply.
The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Exposing Government Follies on Many Levels
Most serious approaches to the crisis, however, are decidedly libertarian. They involve reducing regulations that keep industries from responding rapidly in an emergency situation.
FDA Will Finally Let Gays Donate Blood—If They Wait 3 Months After Having Sex
Before this, the wait period was a year.
Coronavirus: 10 Public Safety Regulations Set Aside in the Name of Public Safety
Restrictions on takeout cocktails, telemedicine, hand sanitizer, and plastic bags are among the rules being chucked aside in a crisis.
Coronavirus Puts Counterproductive Regulations Into Perspective
Many regulations serve little to no public purpose.
L.A. Bureaucrats Shut Down Restaurants for Selling Groceries Without a Permit
"You cannot just decide you want to sell groceries," said Barbara Ferrer, the director of L.A. County Public Health.
The Coronavirus Testing Debacle Stems From Decades of Bad FDA Policy
The agency's emphasis on caution over speed led to needless suffering and loss of life long before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pregnant Moms Scared of COVID-19 in Hospitals Need More Home Birth Options
It's time to free midwives from excessive regulation and make room for more home births.
New York Legislators Introduce Bill To Cancel Rent for 90 Days for Workers Affected By Coronavirus Closures
Sen. Mike Gianaris (D–Queens) argues eviction moratoriums don't go far enough to protect renters who've been put out of a job because of the virus.
Should the Government Break Up Companies Like Amazon and Facebook? A Soho Forum Debate
Law professors Tim Wu and Richard Epstein went head to head at a live event.
Should the Government Break Up Big Tech? A Soho Forum Debate
Tim Wu vs. Richard Epstein on whether antitrust laws should be applied to firms like Amazon and Facebook.
Federal 'Fair Housing' Policy Set for a Major Overhaul
The new rule would ask localities receiving federal funding to report on their housing market outcomes and propose concrete steps for improving affordability.
Politicians Declare Eviction Moratoriums To Combat Coronavirus. Will They Give Up That Power After the Virus Fades?
Emergency measures can easily become routine policy.
Minnesota Is Latest State to Consider Ban on Single-Family Zoning
State legislators want to allow duplexes statewide and eliminate local governments' ability to impose aesthetic design requirements.
California Wants To Carve Out Religious Exemptions to Its Insane Housing Laws
State lawmakers want to override local zoning codes to let churches and other nonprofits build affordable housing on their own land.
Just How Good Is Trump's Economy, Anyway?
While the 2017 tax cuts didn't deliver the results promised by Trump and his magical-thinking supporters, the administration has delivered some economic expansion, some job creation, and some investment growth.
San Francisco Has Added a Lot of Jobs but Not Enough Housing. City Voters Approved a Ballot Initiative That Cuts Back on the Jobs.
The city's voters, politicians, and activists should stop trying to dictate how exactly their city will change over the years. They’re not very good at it.
A Mississippi Woman Gave Diet Advice Without a License. The State Threatened To Throw Her in Jail.
Mississippi has a reputation for being one of the most obese states in the nation, as well as having one of America's highest incarceration rates. Neither will be improved by treating unlicensed dieticians like serious criminals.
California's Government Has Turned Homelessness Into Big Business
The new money will be consumed in a bureaucratic hiring frenzy, used to pay state-level salaries and pensions, and build a bigger "homeless industrial complex."
Oregon Tried To Silence This Engineer's Red Light Camera Research. Now Experts Say He Was Right All Along.
Mats Järlström's research never would have seen the light of day if the Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying had its way.
Bernie Sanders Signal-Boosts Boston Activists Fighting 10,000 New Homes That Would Replace a Dilapidated Horse Racing Track
Local activists have argued that the housing officials in charge of reviewing the Suffolk Downs mega-development has violated residents' civil rights by not translating enough planning documents into Spanish, Arabic
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?
California's Fees on New Development Are 3 Times the National Average. New State Legislation Would Cap Them.
California lawmakers have introduced legislation to cap impact fees, change the way they are assessed, and give developers more tools to claw back unjustified charges.
Judge Rules Businesswoman Must Remove Dresses From Her Home
Fairfax County, Virginia, allows home businesses but prohibits them from keeping inventory on site.
Yes, the Constitution Means Your Political Opponents Get Due Process Too
Americans are so locked into their political sides that many of them seem willing to cast aside some of the nation's long-established constitutional protections.
California Bill Would Require Occupational Licenses for Porn Actors, Strippers, Cam Girls
Adult performers are outraged at the proposed licensing requirements, and have vowed to fight the bill.
Judge Rules Developers Must Remove Up to 20 Existing Floors From Manhattan Condo Tower
Two non-profit groups argued that developers had been improperly awarded a building permit for a 112-unit condo building on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Virginia Is About To Require a Government License for 'Art Therapy,' Because Glue and Scissors Are 'Potentially' Dangerous
The real motive for laws like this has nothing to do with scissors and glue. It's all about protectionism.
Seattle City Council's Lone Socialist Is Reintroducing Her Amazon Tax
A previous version of the tax was repealed a month after it was passed in 2018.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Wants to Use Commercial Rent Control to Save Small Businesses
City reports and industry find taxes, regulation, and permitting delays are often a bigger drag on small businesses than rising rents.
A Proposal for a New Federal Clerkship Hiring Plan (When The Current One Collapses)
It's time to stop trying to cartelize the market for law clerks
SimCity Created a Generation of Urban Planners
Three decades later, is it time for the city simulation game to get political?
San Francisco Bureaucrats Can Shoot Down Almost Any Housing Project They Want. This Ballot Initiative Would Change That.
Mayor London Breed's Affordable Homes Now initiative would streamline the approval of code-compliant housing projects as long as developers include additional affordable units.
New York Regulators Issue Surprise Ban on Charging Renters Broker Fees
Brokers and building owners are vowing to fight a regulation they say will be catastrophic for their industry.
Undercover Cops Hired 118 Handymen, Then Arrested Them All for Not Having Licenses
Undercover sheriff's deputies posing as homeowners hired handymen to paint, install recessed lighting, or do other tasks that require licenses. Then they arrested them.
