RealClear Radio Hour: City Extortion and Cities’ Heroine

In this episode of RealClear Radio Hour, Brian Hodges discusses West Hollywood’s extortion of local developers and Robert Kanigel shares stories of Great American Cities heroine Jane Jacobs.

Opening the show this week is Brian Hodges, Principal Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). Brian tells the story of how his organization, the first public interest group to defend property rights and challenge government overreach, has helped change the American legal landscape. As an example, he details a current case in which PLF is defending an entrepreneurial couple from an unconstitutional attempt by the City of West Hollywood, California to extort a half-million dollar “affordable housing” permitting fee on their new condominium development.

Closing this week’s show is Robert Kanigel, author of Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs. Robert shares how Jacobs, the renowned urban activist, rallied both the political left and right behind her crusade to save New York City’s treasured neighborhoods from Robert Moses’s flawed highway and urban renewal projects.

You can hear the discussion by listening to the full show as-aired on iTunes, or you can check out the podcasts hosted on YouTube and SoundCloud. Make sure to check back next week for another episode of RealClear Radio Hour.

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