Zoning
Help Workers by Breaking Down Barriers to Labor Mobility
Each Labor Day since 2021, I have written posts explaining how breaking down barriers to labor mobility can help many millions of workers around the world. The main points everything last year's post are just as…
Japan’s flexible zoning laws allow small businesses to flourish
This is part of Reason's 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue. A three-story house tucked into a mere one-meter gap between tall buildings. A flower shop shaped like a triangle, wedged…
New Pew Research Center Report on “How States and Cities Decimated Americans’ Lowest-Cost Housing Option”
Julie Feinstein/Dreamstime.com The Pew Research Center has a valuable new report on how state and local governments destroyed much of their potential low-income housing stock by banning or severely restricting…
What Curtis Sliwa brings to New York’s wild mayoral race
Long before Curtis Sliwa became the Republican nominee for mayor of New York, long before his multi-decade career as a talk radio host preaching law and order, long before he launched the beret-sporting volunteer crimewatch…
America’s housing shortage won’t be fixed with ‘one weird trick’
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. As I mentioned last week, I'm on vacation and out of the country. So this newsletter, like the last, will be a bit shorter and less pegged to the news. Rent…
Georgia woman could lose $30,000 after government denies her hair salon permit
When Khalilah Few opened her salon, Creative Crowns Collective, in 2023, she didn't think her business savvy would put her at odds with the local government. But two years later, she now finds herself in a legal battle…
How D.C. proves the need for housing deregulation
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. To start with a brief programming note, I am off on vacation these next two weeks. Consequently, the newsletter will be a bit more abbreviated and a little less…
My New Boston Globe Article on why Massachusetts Should Reject Rent Control, and Instead End Exclusionary Zoning
Illustration: Lex Villena; Lev Kropotov Today, the Boston Globe published my article on why rent control is a terrible approach to addressing the housing crisis. Massachusetts should instead ban exclusionary zoning. Here is…
Andrew Cuomo proposes ‘Zohran’s Law’ to fix the unfairness of rent law Cuomo signed
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week's stories include: Andrew Cuomo's remarkably hypocritical attacks on Zohran Mamdani for living in a rent-stabilized apartment. A nonprofit tiny…
Minnesota town denies family permission to build affordable housing unit on their property
Like many cities in the United States, Blaine, Minnesota, is facing a housing shortage. In 2021, the city took steps to address this issue by passing Local Ordinance 21-2489, which permitted property owners in residential…
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