Free Republic

Experiencing a city on foot gives you the freedom to amble from one attraction to another, discovering hidden bars, quirky shops, and lesser-known spots along the way. It’s also free and reduces your carbon footprint. But what makes a city pedestrian-friendly? In 2023, the sustainable living nonprofit organization Smart Growth America released their Foot Traffic Ahead report, which analyzed factors such as how easily residents in America’s largest metro areas can walk from their homes to amenities, the distances between blocks, and access to public transportation. So, lace up some comfortable footwear and explore the most walkable cities in the...

If you spend most of your life driving or taking public transportation from point A to point B, there's nothing quite like breaking from planes, trains, and automobiles and exploring a destination on foot. Doing so allows you to slow down and savor all the sites around you, no parking necessary. With that in mind, we have rounded up 12 of the most beautiful walkable cities around the world (with a few in the U.S.) to inspire your future travel plans. There are certainly many benefits to exploring with your own two feet, and we give all of the cities...

As I watch former Presidential candidate and US Secretary of State John F. Kerry (although the always bitter Hillary Clinton comes to mind as well), I roll my eyes at the staggering hypocrisy of “climate envoy” John Kerry flying the globe in his private jet while entering the US into climate scams that most Americans don’t want. And lecturing us in that droning voice on why we are bad people if we drive a gas-powered car. But Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum approves of Kerry’s message. Even the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is on board with the WEF’s...

The tech billionaires behind a project to build a utopian new city in California's Bay Area have released the first artistic renderings of their ambitious plans. Previously known only as 'Flannery Associates,' the group rebranded as 'California Forever' and released the plans in a publicity blitz on Thursday night, following months of silence and speculation. Led by former Goldman Sachs trader Jan Sramek, the group's backers include Silicon Valley heavyweights such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Andreessen Horowitz investor Marc Andreessen, and Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs. California Forever is now the largest landowner in Solano County, which is...

Travis Air Force Base and surrounding land in Solano County, Calif. Image: Google Maps Since 2017, a shadowy Silicon Valley company has bought up 52,000 acres of farmland around Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, Calif., totaling about $800 million.Flannery Associates is a company run by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader. Beyond that, nothing much is known of the company except that some of the most famous names in Silicon Valley have invested in a project being promoted by Flannery. Some backers include Marc Andreessen, Powell Jobs, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn co-founder Reid...

Across the United States, some cities are building parks above the roadways in an effort to reconnect communities, often low-income neighborhoods, that had been splintered decades ago when new freeways were rammed through in the name of progress. When Marvin Anderson walks along the tree-lined streets of Rondo – his childhood neighborhood – in St. Paul, Minn., the memories come rushing back. “That’s what I miss about it ... the smells of the food, hearing laughter ... in the barbershop, over a soda fountain,” he says. Mr. Anderson was born in this primarily African-American neighborhood in 1949. As a child,...