American Dream

Linking the Power of the Past to the Promise of the Future
An AASHTO Clearinghouse of Interstate Events and Information Welcome

The year 2006 will mark the 50th anniversary of the federal law that brought America its unparalleled Interstate Highway System. This 42,795-mile web of superhighways has transformed our nation and our economy. It is a symbol of freedom and a tribute to human ingenuity—although some of the changes it has brought our nation have been controversial.

A Golden Anniversary for a Priceless Asset

June 29, 2006, will mark the 50th anniversary of the day federal legislation was signed to begin one of the biggest engineering projects ever undertaken: the U.S. Interstate Highway System.

The wide, relatively straight roadways in the Interstate Highway System were designed to be faster and safer than the two-lane roads that preceded them—designs that worked. And, the system has brought amazing changes to our way of life:
* It has put Americans within a few days' drive of practically everyone else in our nation, altering our willingness to travel and the way we schedule our time.
* It has revved our economy, forever changing the way we move people and freight; It has facilitated international trade; and turned trucks into rolling warehouses.
* It has stretched the link between homes and jobs—for better and for worse—and has redefined the relationship between urban and rural America.

And yet somehow, it has come to be taken for granted. An increasing percentage of Americans cannot remember our nation without an Interstate Highway System. And, many Americans no longer experience it as the "open road" that spurred a generation of novels and films, as population growth has outstripped system expansion, and heavy use has led to congestion.

Half a century into the quantum mobility leap the Interstate System provided, it is time to reflect on what America has gained from it and ask what might need to change in future years to keep it working for us. 2006 will be "The Year of the Interstate."

AASHTO, which represents the state transportation departments that built, own, and continue to operate the Interstate Highway System, will sponsor numerous events and public activities in the coming year commemorating this important anniversary. AASHTO and its members will join with other organizations to "Celebrate the Interstate!" and participate in forums that will help shape policy regarding the Interstate Highway System for years to come.

[See Web site for much more]

State funds sought for light rail patrols

Balto. Co. official, Arundel residents say local police should return to stations
By Lisa Goldberg
Sun Staff

July 8, 2005

Baltimore County officials and at least one community group in Anne Arundel County say they are planning to continue lobbying the state to restore money for paying local police officers to patrol light rail stops.

The state funding, which had been in place for 11 years, ended with the 2005 fiscal year June 30, and Baltimore County Executive
James T. Smith Jr. said he plans to bring up the issue during a meeting with Deputy Transportation Secretary James F. Ports Jr. today.

Smith said he has also asked Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. for a meeting to discuss various transportation issues, including the light rail funding.

"Having Baltimore County-trained police officers at these light rail stations is a tremendous additional benefit for security of these stations," Smith said.

Members of the Linthicum-Shipley Improvement Association in Anne Arundel County have also drafted a letter to send to the state asking for the funding to be restored, said Rik Forgo, the community group's immediate past president.

"We want the cops back," he said.

State Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan said that the funding cut to the counties, which received $2.4 million for the
patrols during the past fiscal year, does not mean the state is shirking security concerns at its suburban stations.

Instead, state transportation officials decided to replace an outdated enforcement model with a new one that will include increased patrols by the Maryland Transit Administration's police force, as well as the use of fare inspectors on trains and the future addition of cameras to monitor activity, he said.

Those initiatives have already made riding the light rail safer, he said. A comparison of January through April 2004 with the same period this year showed a drop in crime of about 56 percent on the light rail system, he said.

"Basically, we consider it a reallocation of resources," Flanagan said. "We think this is a huge step forward."

But some local leaders say it's not the same as having officers with marked patrol cars at the stations at all times the light rail is running.

And while Flanagan noted that the state can still call on the counties for assistance when the terror alert is raised - as was
done yesterday for mass transit systems in the wake of the London bombings - Baltimore County Councilman Vincent J. Gardina said the system is most vulnerable when the alerts expire.

Cutting the subsidy is akin to "letting our guard down for most of the year," said Gardina, a Towson-Perry Hall Democrat.

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun

THE NATION

National Environmental Policy Act Is 'at a Crossroads'

The 35-year-old law gives citizens input in the review of land-use proposals. Those who say it slows progress are trying to curb its power.
By Tim Reiterman
Times Staff Writer

July 7, 2005

Quotes:

SAN FRANCISCO — After the National Environmental Policy Act was adopted 35 years ago, the law led to a major design change in one of the nation's most ambitious energy projects — the 800-mile pipeline that carries oil from Alaska's North Slope.

As a result of the often contentious ecological review, most of the pipeline was laid above ground so it would not damage the
fragile permafrost, and built in a way that would not block the movement of caribou herds.

More recently, the law assured San Franciscans a voice in the conversion of one of the city's most prized historic sites — the old Army Presidio — into a national recreation area designed to be self-supporting and divided into open space, public use areas and commercial offices, including a recently opened 23-acre digital arts center built by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas.

Now, however, NEPA is facing strong challenges from the Bush administration, Congress and business interests who say the law has been holding up progress on a number of fronts, among them building highways, preventing forest fires and drilling for oil and gas in the Rocky Mountains.

The House version of the pending energy bill would exempt many oil and gas exploration projects from NEPA review. And a congressional committee is holding public hearings with the stated intention of changing how the law works. To expedite a wide range of projects, the administration and lawmakers have exempted some categories of federal actions from NEPA assessments or limited their scope.

The federal government takes an estimated 50,000 actions each year — including building campgrounds in national forests and
plotting the routes of superhighways. And, to varying degrees, every one of those actions involving federal land, funds and permits is subject to scrutiny under NEPA.

The three-page statute, known as the Magna Carta of environmental law, required the government for the first time to involve the public in decisions that could harm natural surroundings or disturb neighborhoods. The law has been imitated by other countries and many states.

But its critics — including mining, timber and energy companies, developers, farmers and ranchers — have long chafed under the costly and protracted environmental reviews that the law often sets in motion.

"NEPA is at a crossroads," said Bradley C. Karkkainen, a University of Minnesota law professor who is an expert on the statute. "We could end up undoing 35 years of progress or [providing] a NEPA that can address the environmental challenges of the 21st century. It could go either way."

Along with the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, NEPA was adopted after the catastrophic 1969 oil rig blowout that blackened Santa Barbara County beaches and killed thousands of seabirds.

For the first time, the law guaranteed the public information and a forum on many matters directly affecting their lives. "It affects the air they breathe, the water they drink, their recreational resources and the views they enjoy," said Lucy Swartz, a former government lawyer who now serves on the
board of the National Assn. of Environmental Professionals.

However, those calling for changes to NEPA say the law has made it far too easy for environmentalists and others to mount legal challenges over technicalities. "It has been used as a stick in the spokes of the wheels of progress," said Russ Brooks, an attorney for the property rights-oriented
Pacific Legal Foundation.

Proponents of the law fear that a House Resources Committee task force recently convened by Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) is setting the stage to gut the law. Pombo and Republican colleagues proposed the exemptions now pending in the House energy bill. The task force is conducting public hearings around the country to review NEPA.

"Over the past few years, it has been death by a thousand cuts," said Neha Bhatt, a Sierra Club representative in Washington. "We see these hearings as an attempt to build a bad public record and come back with a big hit overhauling the existing law."

Pombo said the accumulation of requests for exemptions for energy, transportation, defense and domestic security projects signaled the need for a thorough reexamination of the law. "Everyone is complaining about the way NEPA works," he said.

James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the law generally was working well, but that the administration was trying to accelerate some environmental assessments without sacrificing protection.

During the first congressional task force hearing, held in April in Spokane, Wash., Utah mining executive Luke Russell
called NEPA "a monster, devouring millions of dollars and years of time needlessly on redundant studies, conflicting requirements and wasteful litigation."

Greener pastures

by Catherine Dolinski
Staff Writer

July 6, 2005

Quotes:

It's not just housing costs keeping workers out of the county; some simply prefer to live elsewhere

Timothy Patrie tries to wake up by 4:30 a.m. to make the drive from Hagerstown to Tilden Middle School in Rockville, where he teaches grades 6 through 8.

Lately, the commute has been getting hard.

"I'm getting to the point were I'm so exhausted that it's tough," the 25-year-old teacher said. "I try to leave the house no later than quarter to 6; if I do, I can be at Tilden at 7:15. But for every minute I leave after that, the amount of extra time it takes to get there seems to increase exponentially."

The reason he lives in Hagerstown is largely the high cost of housing in Montgomery County, he said. Second-year teachers like Patrie earn between $40,000 and $47,000 a year, and Patrie said his wife earns only about half the money he does.

But there are other reasons:

Patrie's wife works at a mental health facility in Martinsburg, W.Va.; she has family near Hagerstown; and Patrie does not like the traffic that clogs Montgomery County's roads.

"I like Hagerstown very much," he said. "Most of my life I grew up in the suburbs or out in the sticks. Living near Tilden doesn't appeal that much -- it's too congested."

If he could afford it, Patrie said, he might move. To Frederick.

Soaring housing prices are forcing the middle class out of Montgomery County, politicians and housing activists say. Many of the county's teachers, police and firefighters are commuting from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which has sparked proposals to create "workforce housing" to help these vital workers live closer in.

But talking with long-distance commuters paints a complex picture. While nearly all agree that the cost of housing in Montgomery is discouraging, many cite a variety of other reasons why they choose to live in distant regions: family obligations, a desire for large houses or rural properties, even a desire to live near the Chesapeake Bay.

Peters said that while he cannot speak for everyone, he believes that many probably prefer a more rural setting to go home to.

"I see a lot of people moving away from the urban areas, up to Frederick and the Eastern Shore. They're not moving into a cheaper city; they're moving out," he said.

Mass Transportation
The need for efficiency hinders transit security

By Alec MacGillis
Sun Staff

July 8, 2005

Quotes:

In the battle to protect mass transit systems against attacks, the world has few better models than London. Motivated partly by its history fighting Irish Republican Army bombings, the city has 6,000 cameras throughout its subway system, strategically placed phones for riders to report suspicious activities, and plainclothes transit police units.

But yesterday, those measures were powerless to stop a series of bombings on a bus and subway cars.

The attacks on one of the world's better-secured transportation networks bring home a daunting truth: The large mass transit
systems that safely and speedily move millions every day, and without which many cities and countries could hardly function, are exceedingly difficult to protect.

Nonetheless, U.S. authorities took steps yesterday to increase transit security, raising the national security alert to orange for
mass transit. In Maryland, that resulted in expanded canine patrols and warnings that train passengers should be prepared to present identification and have their bags searched.

When al-Qaida members hijacked four planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, officials took obvious steps to improve airline security: cockpit doors were solidified, air marshals were hired, and airport screening of bags and passengers was improved.

There are no equivalent across-the-board fixes to protect trains, buses and subways, say transit-security experts. That's because successful transit systems depend on the very qualities that make them ill-suited to airtight security - they are far-flung, with many different stops for passengers to board, and they are rapid, allowing trains or buses to continue without lengthy delays at every stop.

Systemwide checkpoints would not only be prohibitively expensive, they would undermine the very purpose mass transit is supposed to serve.

Critics of the government's approach to rail transit safety point out, though, that there has been much less invested in securing the country's rails, subways and bus lines than its airlines, even though U.S. transit systems carry 11 million passengers per day, roughly six times the number of Americans who travel by plane. Public transit systems have received $250 million in federal security funds since Sept. 11, a fraction of the $18 billion approved for airline security over that period, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

That organization says transit systems have spent $1.7 billion of their own money since Sept. 11 on security, far short of the $6 billion that the organization estimates systems need.

"It's pretty amazing, the difference" between airline and transit funding, said Rose Sheridan, the organization's vice president. "We certainly hope that Congress will see that transit systems have been attacked and that measures need to be taken to mitigate."

More funding would allow systems to invest more in security technology, from surveillance cameras to machines that can detect explosive residue on unattended bags. Air-quality monitors that can detect chemical toxins were recently installed in the Washington Metro system and found to be successful, but have not been installed elsewhere because of the cost - $15 million alone in D.C.

Honolulu has one of the most successful transit systems in the country. The Hawaiian legislature seems intent on destroying it by building an expensive rail line. The governor is considering a veto, but if she does proponents in the legislature say they will try to override the veto. If she does not veto, the city council can decide to build the rail line, and seven members of the nine-member council have already indicated they will vote to do so.

The debate is also covered in the Honolulu Advertiser, Star-Bulletin, and Hawaii Reporter.

washingtonpost.com
Project Costs Revive Dulles Metrorail Foes

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 7, 2005; VA03

Quotes:

Talking over the sounds of sirens and trucks passing by on Route 7, a half-dozen community activists and current and former elected officials gathered on the oil-stained lot behind a Best Western hotel to argue -- once again -- that the rail project would cost too much, benefit too few people and ultimately do nothing
to help congestion in the area.

The estimated price tag to extend Metrorail through Tysons Corner on its way toward Dulles International Airport has jumped by 60 percent, to $2.4 billion, and opponents hope this news will serve as additional ammunition in their difficult battle against the plan.

"The price increase is a blessing to the people of Fairfax," said state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax). He said the jump, from the previous estimate of $1.5 billion, will prove to the public that the rail extension s "a boondoggle."

"We can still stop this project," Cuccinelli said.

The group called for another environmental impact review, preferably by an independent commission, that would evaluate new design proposals and look at alternative uses for transportation funding. The opponents also said that decisions about spending for the project should be made by voters.

"Imagine pillars along this whole street," said Audrey Moore, a Democrat who served as chairman of the Fairfax County Board
of Supervisors from 1988 through 1991. She compared the proposal to an elevated rail line in New York City that was eventually torn down, and which she said people called "a monstrosity." Moore and the others called attention to the balloons, mostly bouncing along the pavement, which were attached to a 50-foot twine intended to show how high the elevated line would be.

"The whole point of the plan is to make Tysons more pedestrian-friendly," Bill Vincent, a longtime opponent of the rail project, said in a telephone interview last week. He said that eliminating the tunnel and pedestrian bridges would drastically reduce people's ability to walk through the area.

Vincent, and the opponents at the news conference, advocated a rapid-transit bus system, which they said could run at a fraction of what a rail system would cost to build and operate. They also encouraged more high-occupancy vehicle lanes and a network of high-occupancy toll lanes, which would be free for carpoolers, buses and emergency vehicles.

John F. "Jack" Herrity, a Republican whom Moore defeated as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said it made sense to build rail in the 1960s and '70s, when most people worked downtown. Many people now, he noted, commute to and from jobs in the suburbs, causing a lot of congestion. He said those commuters would not be served by Metrorail but would be forced to pay for it.

"Hundreds of thousands of people pay a toll so a few thousand people can ride a choo-choo train through Tysons Corner and benefit a handful of developers," Herrity said.

Chris Walker, founder of a group of taxpayers in the special tax district who oppose their portion of the financing plan, said that given the cost increase, he's confident the project will fail. "Just look at the numbers," he said.

The United States has raised the threat level for mass transit systems to "high-risk orange" in the wake of bombings of London subways and a London double-decker bus. The New York Times admitted that officials were "walking a verbal tightrope" because they didn't want to suggest that anyone stop using mass transit, only that they be more "vigilent."

Personally, I plan to be vigilent on my bicycle and in my car.

Cost overruns have led to the resignations of the Seattle Monorail Project executive director and board chair on July 4. Monorail proponents continue to say that the line, whose total cost including interest is fast approaching a billion dollars a mile, must be built no matter what the cost. But opponents hope that shaky finances will lead to the abandonment of the project.

The project's board presented a financial plan that called for repayment of bonds over as much as seventy years. This would bring total repayment costs to as much as $11 billion. This plan caused such controversy that the monorail seemed to be in jeopardy, so the projects leaders decided to resign in hopes that this would deflect the debate. The remaining members of the board are now considering asking the voters for more taxes.

However, Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly argues that it is "time to pull the plug on the monorail." He says that even liberal voters are becoming resistant to new taxes and resentful of the "tax-and-spend crowd." But Seattle voted for the monorail even after their light-rail plan experienced huge cost overruns. Will they ever learn their lesson?

Hallowed Ground survey veers from ideal poll standards

By Cheryl K. Chumley
07/05/2005

Quotes:

A new poll from the nationally recognized Mason-Dixon research and survey group finds the majority of residents from 11 counties cite growth as a top concern.

"The overwhelming majority of people like looking at farms ... more than strip malls," said Larry Harris, a principal with the Mason-Dixon Polling and Research firm that conducted the 2005 voter survey. "Is this any surprise or shock to anybody?"

That may be -- but of importance to any survey is how the results stand the test of analysis, how accurate the methodology proves.
And according to standards published by the National Council on Public Polls, several questions arise when examining the 2005 Journey Through Hallowed Ground voter survey.

Background and both sides

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Initiative is an effort that began in 1996, a self-described "public-private partnership to raise national awareness of the heritage and cultural resources ... from Gettysburg, Penn., to Monticello, Va." The estimated 175-mile route follows the path of Old Carolina Road, also known as Route 15/20/231, JTHG Internet postings report.

Cate Magennis Wyatt, JTHG executive director, puts it another way.

"This is all about a business-oriented approach," tying tourism and agricultural production with growth, transportation and preservation issues, she said of the Initiative. "It's all about economic development."

The JTHG Initiative partners seek to educate the public about this historical significance and in so doing, gain support for designation of certain corridor lands as federal Heritage Areas or Scenic Byways, as well as gain opportunity to help with certain Transportation Department plans for Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, according to its Internet site.

The Initiative members also hope to bring to fruition a Real Estate Investment Trust program that, once funded, would provide the necessary money to buy lands along the corridor to place in easement status, Magennis Wyatt said.

But, she added, it's a misconception to characterize the Initiative as did John Taylor, president of the Virginia Institute of Public Policy.

"Is that the Initiative that (prohibits) development of that stretch of land from Gettysburg to Monticello?" Taylor asked. He continued, "On one hand, certainly we would like to preserve the heritage and battlefield. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I'm not sure that it can't be done privately, instead of using public dollars."

Wyatt said designating lands Scenic Byways opens the door to receipt of federal funds.

"Voters give overwhelming support to Journey Through Hallowed Ground Initiative," reads the headline of a June 2 press release from the JTHG Web site.

But such claims may be overstated in terms of what the poll actually measured, and what margin of error accompanied those measurements.

The Mason-Dixon survey of 900 registered voters from the 11 counties took place from May 20-27.

"A consortium of the (JTHG) coalition paid for the poll," Harris said, adding that certain members of this consortium were also allowed to preview the poll questions before the actual survey was conducted.

According to the National Council on Public Polls, the source of financing for any poll should be of consideration when determining the accuracy of results. And about "special interest" groups, NCPP says this:

"Reporting on a survey by a special interest group is tricky," the organization reports on its Internet site. "For example, an environmental group trumpets a poll saying the American people support strong measures to protect the environment. That may be true, but the poll was conducted for a group with definite views. That may have swayed the question wording, the timing of the poll, the group interviewed and the order of the questions."

Moreover, margins of error become statistically insignificant when they reach into the double digits.

The margin of error for this JTHG poll was plus or minus 3 percentage points, Harris said, which means "there is a 95 percent probability that the true figure would fall within that range if all registered voters within the corridor were interviewed."

The numbers of respondents from each county polled varied, however, in proportion to population figures.

For instance, 27 percent of the 900 participants came from Prince William County; 19 percent from Loudoun County; and 18 percent from Frederick County, Md. Only 5 percent of the 900 respondents were from Fauquier County -- a total of 45 people, Harris explained.

These 45 participants do not give an accurate picture of how Fauquier County residents feel about the poll objectives, because the margin of error from this sampling is 14 percent, Harris said.

As such, JTHG participant Piedmont Environmental Council paid for a separate survey specific to Fauquier County residents. This poll, using the same questions as the initial survey, elicited response from 300 Fauquier County registered voters.

Surprising, too, given the 5.8 percent margin of error for the 300 over-samples taken in Fauquier County, and the even larger 14 percent margin of error for Fauquier County statistics in the initial 900-respondent poll, are how Piedmont Environmental Council and the JTHG summarize the Mason-Dixon findings.

This is a "press release regarding a recent Mason-Dixon poll of Fauquier County residents and their overwhelming concerns related to the impact of growth in their community," Robert Lazaro, director of communications for PEC wrote, in a June 13 e-mail.

And of the JTHG press release presented as "overwhelming support (for) Journey Through Hallowed Ground Initiative," Magennis Wyatt called concerns about any overstatement of fact "semantics."

In the Mason-Dixon survey, the questions first centered on determining quality-of-life concerns of the respondents. They were then asked to rate their level of awareness of the JTHG Initiative; 96 percent were not familiar with the plan.

Following, participants were read a two-paragraph description of the corridor's historical benefits and asked to rate how important these assets were to quality of life.

Participants were then cited more historical benefits of the 175-mile region, asked to rate each benefit in terms of importance to quality of life, and offered Census Bureau statistics indicating the population growth of the region.

After gauging respondents' levels of concern about this explosive growth and its negative impact on quality of life, poll questions focused on explaining how the JTHG Initiative, "in response to the pressure and threats posed by this rapid development," would "promote balanced approaches to development that will protect the quality of life of the corridor's residents."

The respondents were then asked if they supported or opposed the JTHG Initiative.

According to the survey, 46 percent then strongly supported the Initiative, 35 percent somewhat supported, 4 percent somewhat opposed, 3 percent strongly opposed and 12 percent were undecided.

Of interest to note, too, is question number two of the survey, which asked, "Overall, how would you rate the quality of life in your county? Excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor."

Of 900 respondents, and with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points, 38 percent answered "excellent" and 52 percent answered "good."

E-mail the reporter: cchumley@timespapers.com

©Times Community Newspapers 2005

Note that several of the areas described below are touted by Smart Growth advocates and groups (including the Sierra Club, Surface Transportation Policy Project, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities and the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC)) as an ideal place to erect massive new apartment complexes, and that families with middle-class incomes should be forced to live in them, instead of single-family detached houses or at least townhomes or row houses.

I am not aware of a state border anywhere else in the U.S. that has this extent of violent criminal activity.

PEC press release - Blueprint for a Better Region

Blueprint for a Better Region Web site

Living on Edge of Violence
District-Prince George's Border Is Region's Most Dangerous Area

By Allison Klein and Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 6, 2005; B01

Graphic: Border Crime

Quotes:

Liquor stores. Seafood joints. People hanging out on the streets. For several blocks in either direction, it's hard to tell whether you're in the city or the county.

"Now we're in Prince George's," says Capt. Kevin Davis of the county police as he drives over Southern Avenue in Capitol Heights on a recent night. "And now we're in D.C."

The traffic lights are the clue, he says. In Prince George's, they hang from cables at intersections. In the District, they are fixed to street posts.

But Davis says the criminals know exactly where the border is, and they know how to work it. The corridor has become the most dangerous stretch in the region, the scene of the majority of the 86 killings in Prince George's County this year. Of those, just
11 have been outside the Capital Beltway, and 14 have been on the D.C. border or within a few blocks of it.

The criminals know how to dart back and forth to avoid police, who do not have arrest or other official powers on the other side of the line, except in extreme circumstances such as a homicide
or carjacking in progress.

"These guys learn from an early age they can work the line like a dodge ball game," says Davis, executive officer for the chief of patrol services bureau. "They know where to stand and where to
move to avoid getting hit."

Southern and Eastern avenues, which run along the District's southeast and northeast quadrants, separate the county from the city. Much of the border area has been troubled, crime-plagued turf for years, the focus of community activism and police initiatives.

But this year, violent activity along the corridor has picked up so significantly on the county's side that the number of homicides in Prince George's is about 21 percent higher than at this time last year. In contrast, the number of killings has dipped about 3 percent in the District.

Police have different theories about why violent crime is an increasing problem along the border and whether the proximity of the District to Prince George's is a factor.

Former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who experienced a similar crime surge in the city in the early 1990s, believes that some of the county's problems stem from the District's systematic effort to raze and scatter public housing complexes. He said many
of those residents, who can no longer afford to live in the District's increasingly expensive housing market, took their vouchers and moved to Prince George's.

Whatever the causes, the homicide numbers have been steadily increasing in the past five years in Prince George's, mostly in border communities such as Capitol Heights, District Heights, Seat Pleasant and Suitland.

GAO Report - Gasoline Markets: Special Gasoline Blends Reduce Emissions and Improve Air Quality, but Complicate Supply and Contribute to Higher Prices, GAO-05-421, June 17, 2005

Highlights (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, 39 KB)

Full report (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, 1.15 MB)

Abstract:

The Clean Air Act, as amended, requires some areas with especially poor air quality to use a "special gasoline blend" designed to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and requiring the use of an oxygenate such as ethanol. In less severely polluted areas, the Act allows states, with EPA approval, to require the use of other special blends as part of their effort to meet air quality standards. GAO agreed to answer the following: (1) To what extent are special gasoline blends used in the United States and how, if at all, is this use expected to change in the future? (2) What effect has the use of these blends had on reducing vehicle emissions and improving overall air quality? (3) What is the effect of these blends on the gasoline supply? (4) How do these blends affect gasoline prices?

Although there is no consensus on the total number of gasoline blends used in the United States, GAO found 11 distinct special blends in use during the summer of 2004. Further, when different octane grades and other factors are considered, there were at least 45 different kinds of gasoline produced in the United States during all of 2004. The 11 special blends GAO found are often used in isolated pockets in metropolitan areas, while surrounding areas use conventional gasoline. The use of special blends may expand because a new federal standard for ozone may induce more states to apply to use them. To date, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has generally approved such applications and does not have authority to deny an application to use a specific special blend as long as that blend meets criteria established in the Clean Air Act. EPA staff told us that there had been recent congressional debate regarding EPA's authority with regard to approving special gasoline blends but that the bills had not passed. EPA models show that use of special gasoline blends reduces vehicle emissions by varying degrees. California's special blend reduces emissions the most--VOCs by 25-29 percent, NOx by 6 percent compared with conventional gasoline, while also reducing emissions of toxic chemicals. In contrast, the most common special gasoline blend (used largely in the Gulf Coast region) reduces VOCs by 12-16 percent and NOx by less than 1 percent compared with conventional gasoline. The extent of reductions remains uncertain, because they rely, at least in part, on data regarding how special blends affect emissions from older vehicles, and these estimates have not been comprehensively validated for newer vehicles and emissions controls. Regarding air quality, EPA and others have concluded that improvements are, in part, attributable to the use of special blends. The proliferation of special gasoline blends has put stress on the gasoline supply system and raised costs, affecting operations at refineries, pipelines, and storage terminals. Once produced, different blends must be kept separate throughout shipping and delivery, reducing the capacity of pipelines and storage terminal facilities, which were originally designed to handle fewer products. This reduces efficiency and raises costs. In the past, local supply disruptions could be addressed quickly by bringing fuel from nearby locations; now however, because the use of these fuels are isolated, additional supplies of special blends may be hundreds of miles away. GAO evaluated pretax wholesale gasoline price data for 100 cities and generally observed that the highest prices tended to be found in cities that use a special gasoline blend that is not widely available in the region, or that is significantly more costly to make than other blends. There is general consensus that increased complexity, and higher costs associated with supplying special blends, contribute to higher gasoline prices either because of more frequent or severe supply disruptions or because higher costs are likely passed on at least in part to consumers.

In the P-A-D Yahoo! group, Joel Schwartz added these very relevant comments:

Something GAO missed: If there's ethanol in the gasoline then it causes an increase in VOC emissions on hot days. This has been shown using on-road and emissions inspection data. GAO's claim is based only on running EPA's model. Since many areas of the country have ethanol in their gasoline--it's required by the Clean Air Act and EPA has refused to grant anyone a waiver--the reformulated gasoline requirement is actually increasing ozone levels on hot days in much of the country.

- Joel

Op-Ed Columnist
Your Land Is My Land
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: July 5, 2005

Quotes:

PITTSBURGH — Two questions I'd like to ask candidates for Sandra Day O'Connor's job:

1. Does the Constitution forbid the government from seizing your home and giving it to someone else?

2. If you're not sure, would you be willing to tour Pittsburgh before taking this job?

Justice O'Connor had no problem with the first question. Noting that the Fifth Amendment allows property to be taken only for a "public use" like a road, she rejected arguments that it could be given to a developer just because the public could benefit from new jobs and tax revenues. By that logic, she argued in one of her last opinions, no one's home or business would be safe from anyone with a better use in mind for it.

But her side was outvoted, 5 to 4, by justices not inclined to be too literal about the Bill of Rights. They were pragmatists, arguing that land grabs like this had previously been allowed, which is quite right. And that's why I recommend a trip to my hometown to see the long-term effects.

Pittsburgh has been the great pioneer in eminent domain ever since its leaders razed 80 buildings in the 1950's near the riverfront park downtown. They replaced a bustling business district with Gateway Center, an array of bland corporate towers surrounded by the sort of empty plazas that are now considered hopelessly retrograde by urban planners trying to create street life.

At the time, though, the towers and plazas seemed wonderfully modern. Viewed from across the river, the new skyline was a panoramic advertisement for the Pittsburgh Renaissance, which became a national model and inspired Pittsburgh's leaders to go on finding better uses for private land, especially land occupied by blacks.

Bulldozers razed the Lower Hill District, the black neighborhood next to downtown that was famous for its jazz scene (and now famous mostly as a memory in August Wilson's plays). The city built a domed arena that was supposed to be part of a cultural "acropolis," but the rest of the project died. Today, having belatedly realized that downtown would benefit from people living nearby, the city is trying to entice them back to the Hill by building homes there.

In the 1960's, the bulldozers moved into East Liberty, until then the busiest shopping district outside downtown. Some of the leading businessmen there wanted to upgrade the neighborhood, so hundreds of small businesses and thousands of people were moved to make room for upscale apartment buildings, parking lots, housing projects, roads and a pedestrian mall.

I was working there in a drugstore whose owners cursed the project, and at first I thought they were just behind the times. But their worst fears were confirmed. The shopping district was destroyed. The drugstore closed, along with the department stores, movie theaters, office buildings and most other businesses.

You'd think a fiasco like that would have humbled Pittsburgh's planners, but they just went on. They kicked out a small company to give H. J. Heinz more room. Mayor Tom Murphy has attracted national attention for his grand designs - and fights - to replace thriving small businesses downtown and on the North Side with more upscale tenants.

Philadelphia Enquirer story about Septa being overwhelmed by riders leaving a downtown "no drive zone" created to manage traffic for the 'Live 8' shows.

""The city and event coordinators forced the situation when they cut off all those blocks to be a no-drive zone," Deon said.

Rosen, who had left his car at home and even purchased a special $8 ticket for rides to and from the show, said he probably would not go through the frustration of taking SEPTA again."

Read it here at Philly.com

washingtonpost.com
Rating the Airports
BWI for Price, National for Convenience, Dulles for Choice

By Mark Chediak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 4, 2005; D01

Quotes:

With wait times increasing at airports across the country -- a J.D. Power and Associates study last year found the average time spent waiting for security checks was up 15 percent in 2004, to an average of 15 minutes -- pleasing business passengers is more challenging than ever.

"We know people are time crunched," said Linda Hirneise, executive director of travel industry research at J.D. Power. Hirneise said airports that move people through check-in, departure and arrival quickly rated the highest in J.D. Power's customer satisfaction study, which surveyed more than 9,000 passengers.

According to the study, National rated highest of the three local airports, 15th out of 34 mid-size international airports, defined as serving 10 million to 30 million passengers a year. Baltimore-Washington International ranked 20th and Washington Dulles International was third-worst, in part because of its long security lines.

Still, given tight corporate budgets, local business travel managers are more concerned about the price than customer satisfaction when making travel arrangements, said Dillon H. Boyer, chairman of the Baltimore-Washington Business Travel Association, a nonprofit group of corporate travel executives and travel management companies.

"The decisions are really based on cost savings and are fare-driven," Boyer said.

Dulles and BWI are expanding. Dulles is building a train system, a new air traffic control tower, a fourth runway, a new security mezzanine behind the main terminal and 12 additional gates at Concourse B. Those projects are planned to be completed by 2009. At BWI, a terminal-widening project, upgrades to baggage claim and ticketing areas and road widening will be completed by the end of 2006.

Officials at all three airports said they were encouraged by the increase in passengers. "This will be a record summer for us in terms of traffic," said James E. Bennett, president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages National and Dulles. BWI is also looking at "very busy" season, said Paul J. Wiedefeld, executive director of the Maryland Aviation Administration.

Here's what travelers can expect at each airport:

Washington Dulles International

As part of the expansion, two parking garages were completed in the past 2 1/2 years, adding 8,500 daily spaces. Projects including an underground train are to be completed in 2009, connecting all the concourses. Improvements to the baggage-claim area and a new security screening area will help the airport run more smoothly.

Despite Dulles's drawbacks, including its distance from downtown Washington and limited public transportation options (an $8 shuttle runs every 30 minutes from the West Falls Church Metro station), the airport offers more West Coast destinations than National, and 40 international routes.

Baltimore-Washington International

"Part of the program was to anticipate growth, but also to take care of some the problem areas we had such as the roadway
system," Wiedefeld said.

Travelers will have to put up with another year of construction needed to expand the main access roads. Drivers wanting to drop off or pick up passengers can park free for the first hour in the covered parking garage, where electronic signs alert them to empty spaces. There is also a free lot where cell phone users can await a call from arriving passengers. Those parking in the daily A garage can go to the airport's Web site (www.bwiairport.com) and print out a $2-off coupon.

Erin Reid, of Dayton, Md., a regular flier at BWI who was waiting for a friend there on a Friday afternoon, said she was tired of the seemingly endless construction at the airport. "The remodeling is an inconvenience," she said.

Reagan National

National scores high with business travelers, given its proximity to downtown Washington, easy Metro access and efficient terminals.

National's Achilles' heel is its limited parking. On busy travel days during the week, the hourly garages can fill up, forcing people who want to spend an hour there to circle the airport until a space opens, or to pull into the more expensive daily parking garages.

Web sites:
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (Dulles and National)
Baltimore/Washington International Airport
Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA)

Rapid Bus Service to Start in San Jose at a cost of 3.5 million for 25 miles service VS 314 million for 5 miles of new Light-Rail service to open in August.

Sacbee news reports on two communitites in the Sacramento CA area that voted to remove traffic circles installed eight years ago.
Residents have voted the traffic circles out for the same reason city traffic engineers want them in - safety.
Click here to read the story.

Portland claims it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof believes it. But a close look at Portland's report raises some questions.

Though Portland's press release -- and Kristof's article -- emphasizes Portland's streetcar and light-rail system, the report shows that these have not reduced greenhouse gas emissions at all. Instead, all of the decrease is in the industrial sector. Moreover, no transportation-air pollution model yet devised accurately accounts for the effects of the huge increase in congestion that Portland has suffered on pollution emissions.

An even bigger problem with Portland's claims is that they only apply to Multnomah County, not any of the other three counties in the Portland area. Portland's industrial base has shifted from Multnomah County to Washington County, so the huge decline in industrial emissions is pretty meaningless.

Creative accounting, not the success of Portland's transit system, allows Portland to claim a reduction in greenhouse gases.

Planners seek audit after lies uncovered

by Margie Hyslop and Douglas Tallman
Staff Writers
July 1, 2005

Quotes:

Montgomery County planning officials are calling for a stem-to-stern examination of how the county oversees development following allegations that a staffer falsified documents to make it appear builders did not violate construction limits in the massive Clarksburg Town Center.

More than 500 homes have been built too tall or too close to streets, according to a report from Rose G. Krasnow, chief of the planning department's Development Review Division.

The report found that the county did not police height standards for the Town Center development and that a staffer altered a document to make it appear that the homes met those standards. The employee, who resigned, first said that the change was made in 1998 before construction began, but later admitted that she changed the document last year after neighbors raised questions, Krasnow said.

Krasnow, who joined park and planning director Charles Loehr in calling for the independent review, said part of the problem is that the county's departments of planning and permitting services each thought that the other was checking to see that buildings complied with height restrictions.

"That's the planning department's response," said Montgomery County Chief Administrative Officer Bruce F. Romer, who said an audit "strikes me as a good idea."

"We were certainly aware that there were problems," he said. "It was our own permitting services department that found problems with the height."

In fact, it was an ad hoc group of Clarksburg Town Center residents who researched files and discovered that most buildings in the Newland development were taller than the 35- to 45-foot limit specified in a key document.

The drawings that the developer submitted to permitting services showed the actual height of the buildings rather than the required height and that permitting services and the planning department "didn't say anything," Krasnow said.

Four hundred eighty-nine homes violated height limits and 102 violated setback requirements, the report found.

Krasnow suggested that such problems would be limited to special cases such as "neotraditional" developments where builders are allowed shorter setbacks and other allowances.

Clarksburg has the first neotraditional developments to fall under the county's planning and permitting authority. King Farm in Rockville and Kentlands in Gaithersburg fall under those cities' rules.

See also these articles in the Washington Post:

Montgomery to Probe Alteration of Site Plan and Clarksburg Intentions Vary From Its Reality

Official Defends Altering Site Plan
Clarksburg Homes May Violate Codes

Montgomery Gazette - 2005-07-08:
Town Center violations rampant

New inspector general sees role in investigation

Washington Post - 2005-07-08:
Hundreds of Homes Violate Montgomery Size Limits

And official responses from the staff of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCP&PC) to be presented to the Montgomery County Planning Board on 7 July 2005:

RECONSIDERATION of Alleged Height Violations CONSIDERATION of Alleged Setback Violations (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 152 KB) and PLAN OF COMPLIANCE for Height and Setback Violations (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 26 KB)

Source Book of World Urbanization - Draft
(Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, 5.65 MB)