San Francisco finds a new way to break the bank

By Mark Moses
10/18/2023
The City of San Francisco is reeling from rampant crime and facing a commercial real estate crash. Arguably, City policies have created both problems – the former, a result of lax law enforcement, and the latter, a consequence of the first, coupled with unfriendly business policies. Meanwhile, the City is facing a $489 million budget...

TAGS: Climate Action Plan, environmentalism, Housing, Public Bank, San Francisco, Zoning

Solutions in Plain Sight

By Edward Ring
08/24/2023
California could make a major dent in its homelessness problem merely by reversing some of its most destructive policies. Half of America’s so-called unsheltered homeless live in California. It’s not hard to understand why. Along with having the most hospitable weather on earth, California is a welcoming place for drug addicts, petty thieves, and anyone else attracted...

TAGS: homelessness, Housing, Housing First, Newsom

Huntington Beach’s Lawsuit Challenges Newsom’s Housing Mandates

By Will Swaim
03/13/2023
We’ve seen Gov. Gavin Newsom impose questionable — even dangerous and illegal — policies by declaring states of emergency or merely “crisis” with regard to Covid, climate and energy. He’s done it again on the issue of housing. The problems of housing affordability and homelessness constitute a crisis so compelling, the governor says, that they...

TAGS: affordable housing, California housing costs, Gavin Newson, Housing

“Housing First” Policies Create More Homelessness

By Edward Ring
08/31/2022
Earlier this month a guest column in San Jose Spotlight defended efforts by homeless nonprofits to end homelessness in Santa Clara County. The author, Ray Bramson, is Chief Impact Officer at the nonprofit “Destination Home,” a tax exempt organization that collected over $62 million in contributions and grants in 2020. The CEO of this organization made a reported $335,404 in that...

TAGS: affordable housing, California housing crisis, homeless, Homeless Industrial Complex, homelessness, Housing

California’s Homeless Housing Scam

By Edward Ring
02/11/2022
Progressive politicians have created the homeless crisis. Their policies have made housing unaffordable, driven away decent job opportunities, and encouraged vagrancy and drug addiction. Their solution – to build taxpayer subsidized housing, provided free and with no conditions to any homeless person – is a special interest scam, guaranteed to never solve the problem. Nowhere...

TAGS: bonin, homeless, Housing

The key to affordable housing? More suburbs

By Edward Ring
04/26/2021
An article just published in City Journal, “Is Texas’s Affordable Housing Endangered,” describes how housing prices in Texas are becoming unaffordable. The article notes how the average home price in the Austin metropolitan area has doubled in just 10 years. In the Dallas suburbs a decade ago, more than 50 percent of homes sold for...

TAGS: Housing, Suburbs

Mayor Garcetti’s Homeless Policy is Destroying Los Angeles

By Edward Ring
01/15/2021
There are many flawed theories that underlie housing and homeless policies in Los Angeles. To name a few: “Housing first,” first endorsed by Obama’s Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, which prioritizes funds to provide shelter before using any government money for treatment or counseling. The concept of “wet shelters,” which admit homeless individuals regardless...

TAGS: Housing

The Wondrous, Magnificent Cities of the 21st Century

By Edward Ring
03/10/2020
The American Conservative recently laid an egg. They published a misanthropic, pessimistically aggressive Malthusian screed, written by James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler’s “Why America’s Urban Dreams Went Wrong” attacks pretty much every urban amenity Americans have built since the invention of the automobile. And his reasoning, all of it, reflects a dismal lack of faith in human...

TAGS: cities, Edward Ring, environmentalists, Housing, libertarians, Suburbs

The Manger vs The Monster – Housing California’s Homeless

By Edward Ring
12/18/2019
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:7 Advocates for the homeless frequently invoke biblical passages in order to appeal to the Christian compassion that still guides the hearts of most Americans, whether...

TAGS: City of Los Angeles, Edward Ring, Homeless Industrial Complex, homelessness, Housing, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Prop 47, San Francisco, Venice Beach