American Dream

From the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch :

372 miles round-trip a day

BY CHIP JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 15, 2006

Think you have a long drive to work?

Meet Dave Givens, an electrical engineer from Mariposa, Calif. Five days a week he drives 186 miles one way from his home to Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose.

That's a round-trip journey of 372 miles a day, a drive that takes a total of seven hours.

He makes the trip five days a week and has been doing so since 1989.

A few comments about this story are in order.

First, regarding I-270 and I-495 in Montgomery County, Maryland, this is really a complex of SIX interchanges, not just one, as you can see from this Google map. Though the congestion here is indeed terrible.

Second, this is Montgomery County. Home to Smart Growth long before anyone in Portland, Oregon was using the word. Home to land use plans for suburban areas based on "concepts of transit serviceability." Home to a county general plan based on Wedges and Corridors as far back as 1964 (same year that the Capital Beltway was completed).

Third, the other Maryland interchange, I-95 and I-495, is right next to Montgomery County, in its "sister" county, Prince George's, which has been home to similar land use themes, including a general plan based on Smart Growth (and cancellation of many highway projects) as well.

Did I just write that cancelling highway projects does not ease congestion? WOW!

"Garden"-style mid-rise apartment buildings are often touted by advocates of Smart Growth (who generally don't reside in apartment buildings) as a way to achieve increased transit patronage and "livable" communities in suburbia. But there are problems with with these apartment complexes - problems that the advocates of same don't mention.

Do garden apartment complexes have a monopoly on fires? No, of course not. But garden apartment fires seem to impact lots of people (including fatalities).

Consider the following recent incidents:

People Rescued During 3-Alarm Fire In Wheaton (from NBC4)
Three Alarm Apartment Fire - Georgian Way (Burtonsville VFD)

Two Alarm Apartment Fire In Wheaton - - April 8, 2006 - 0342 hours (Kensington VFD)
10857 Amherst Ave (from TheWatchDesk.com)
Garden Apartment Fire - Amherst Avenue (Burtonsville VFD)

2300 Blue Ridge Ave(also TheWatchDesk.com)

2nd Alarm Fire in Laurel (Laurel VFD)

Apartment Fire – 7100blk Hanover Parkway (Berwyn Heights VFD)

3-Alarm Fire – 6200blk Springhill Ct (Berwyn Heights VFD)

Five Alarm Fire In Glenmont Destroys 42 Apartments - June 19, 2005- 12100 block of Shorefield Court (Kensington VFD)

Vienna Apartment Fire Displaces Sixty-Five Residents (Fairfax County FD)

Springfield Garden Apartment Fire (Fairfax County FD)

Perhaps nothing better sums up the problems with garden apartments than this brief from the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department (Prince George's County, Maryland - Company 33):

WORKER FALLS FROM ROOF OF "NEW" LOW-INCOME HOUSING

For those interested in how fire fighters plan for and fight garden apartment fires, see a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation by the Montgomery County Department of Fire and Rescue here (3.3 MB).

MISSISSIPI - In an example of Nissan Motor's flexing its corporate might, old eminent domain laws have been rewritten in Mississippi allowing the State to take land and homes from local landowners for the sole private benefit of Nissan Motor. How the State was "convinced" to change these laws is unclear, but it is clear that local individuals are being deprived of their property rights so Nissan Motor can build its own plant.

This video of the State forcibly taking people's property will make your stomach flip, viewers be warned.

Cry for Secession Grows in Loudoun County
Apr 13th - 1:02pm
Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. -- Ever heard of Catoctin County?

That's because it doesn't exist -- yet.

For the past few years, the east and west in Loudoun have been battling over development.

Now, a group called Citizens for Catoctin County have a new study they say bolsters the economic viability of splitting away from Loudoun County.

Aladdin residents fear 1-year notice
Anxiety rises as mobile home park's sale advances
By Larry Carson
Sun reporter
Originally published April 9, 2006

After school, children play in the streets of Aladdin Village Mobile Home Park near Jessup as they have for decades. But their shouts and laughter belie a quiet tension gripping many of the families living there. By summer, residents expect to get a letter that many of them dread, giving them the state-required, one-year notice that the 241-lot park will close for redevelopment and that they must move or lose their homes.

With land values in Howard County soaring, park owners are looking toward more lucrative redevelopment, which is what county officials want along U.S. 1. But that also means the loss of the kind of traditional affordable housing that mobile homes represent.

On Thursday, the Planning Board recommended, on a 3-2 vote, that a rezoning of the property being sought by the owners of Aladdin be approved. The matter will now be considered by the Zoning Board, made up of the five members of the County Council.

On Road Funding, Kaine Finds Slow-Growth Camp Is No Ally

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 16, 2006; VA04

In 2002, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) put his chief political strategist (now helping to run his presidential exploration) in charge of winning a referendum on a sales tax for transportation in Northern Virginia.

He made sure that Mary K. " Mame" Reiley had $2 million and a virtual who's who of the business world to counter the expected barrage from anti-tax activists and lawmakers.

But the tax effort lost, and it was the surprisingly strong opposition from another quarter -- the slow-growth and environmental crowds -- that caused Warner to fume about betrayal.

Fast-forward four years. Just elected and planning another fight for transportation funds, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) was determined
to woo the green and slow-growth groups to his side.

It looks as though he has failed.

With Kaine's proposal for higher taxes in limbo, the leaders of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the Piedmont Environmental Council issued a statement three days before the end of the 2006 General Assembly session: "Far too much emphasis has been placed on increasing transportation funding and far too little on better growth management or transportation planning reform" at the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Stewart Schwartz , the coalition's executive director.

EVERYWHERE, USA - Mobile home parks around the country are being scooped up by developers, depleting affordable housing in many booming real estate markets and spurring states and counties to help residents being evicted. The rising price of land has made mobile home parks a hot commodity and developers are replacing the trailer parks with condominiums, town houses, strip malls and big-box stores. Suburban sprawl has surrounded these communities and now you have a 10- to 15-acre property in a suburban area - then it is an attractive target for developers.

WINSTON SALEM, North Carolina - Forsyth County commissioners can't stop the city of Winston-Salem from annexing unincorporated parts of the county, but the commissioners took a symbolic stand against involuntary annexation last night. About 20 residents of areas affected by the city's annexation attempts stood and loudly applauded after the commissioners unanimously approved a resolution calling for the discontinuation of involuntary annexation. The resolution asks the county's municipalities to employ only annexation by petition. The resolution was similar to one recently passed by Buncombe County. Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman of the Forsyth County commissioners, said that her goal is to help spread the resolution to counties throughout the state. "It's certainly for Forsyth County, but I don't see the city of Winston-Salem stopping just because we ask them to," Whisenhunt said. "But if we can make it a statewide issue, then perhaps we can have an impact."
• Author James Romoser can be reached at jromoser@wsjournal.com

2006.04.12
SURVEY
Tollroads play increasing role - report by PB for FHWA

A survey by PB Consult for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) details the expanding role of tolling in highway development. Titled "Current Toll Road Activity in the US: a Survey and Analysis" the report finds that in the past 15 years 22 states have advanced a total of 147 new tollroad (TR) projects that provide 3,400 new centerline-miles (5,472km) and 13,800 lane-miles (22.2k lane-km) of capacity, representing $76.7b in cost.

The report says that over the last decade, an average of 50 to 75 miles a year of new expressway has been constructed as toll roads out of an overall average of the less than 150 miles of urban expressways opened annually.:

"Toll roads, therefore, have been responsible for 30 to 40 percent of new upper level road mileage over the past decade."

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina - Residents would have access to public transportation under a proposal that would cost millions of dollars more each year. But local leaders have yet to embrace the idea.The main obstacle has been the politically unpopular decision to raise taxes to pay for expanding transit service.
The current Fayetteville Area System of Transit, or FAST, costs the city about $4.8 million a year. One option for expanding the system would cost $14.1 million; the other option would be almost $11 million. Under both options, bus hours and routes would be extended beyond the city. Fayetteville transit officials first proposed the expansion two years ago, hoping to increase the speed and frequency of riders, and for the first time, get the county’s financial support.
But local officials have yet to act on that proposal. Commissioner Jeannette Council said county commissioners are unwilling to raise taxes to pay for mass transit, even though they have heard a presentation on expanding FAST three times. “I just don’t want to hear it again and again...,” she said.

TENNESSEE/NORTH CAROLINA - The U.S. Forest Service has more than 200,000 comments to sort through, and rangers have calls to take — some from landowners and some from developers. The Forest Service is finding people have plenty to say about a proposal to sell public land to help cover costs of a rural schools program. The Forest Service wants Congress to approve using land sales to raise $800 million over five years to help pay for the popular Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination program, which is up for renewal this year. Up to 300,000 acres of land could be at stake.

Map of Nantahala National Forest showing the tracts of land that have the potential to be sold (1,674 KB)
Map of Pisgah National Forest showing the tracts of land that have the potential to be sold (1,262 KB)
Map of Uwharrie National Forest showing the tracts of land that have the potential to be sold (449 KB)

It seems that the United States has plenty of land for agricultural use (consider this Heritage Foundation brief from 2004).

Could use of land to raise crops (be it sugar cane or other plants) be viable for producing motor fuels in the U.S. and other First World nations?

In the July/August 2004 of the Washington Monthly magazine, Sam Jaffe made the case that switchgrass might be one of those other plants. Read more about it here.

It seems that none of the parties in this debate have read the op-ed by Wendell Cox in the Washington Post from 2005 (you can read it here).

Baltimore Sun: ICC foes criticize impact report

Washington Post: Impact Statement Prompts Threat Of Renewed Environmental Fight

AP Via WTOP Radio: Preservationists Seek Heritage Trail Designation
Apr 10th - 4:55pm

By DERRILL HOLLY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Virginia congressman announced plans Monday to preserve a nearly 200-mile, history-rich corridor that stretches along U.S. Route 15 from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate in Virginia to Gettysburg, Pa.

The proposed four-state National Heritage Area, known as the "Journey Through Hallowed Ground," includes 13 national parks, 47 historic districts and dozens if historic downtowns that played roles in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

"The Journey Through Hallowed Ground holds more American history than any other region of the country," Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., said at a news conference in Leesburg, Va.

Wolf's bill will be introduced when Congress returns from spring break the week of April 23. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., will introduce a Senate version of the bill, which would designate the corridor one of 28 National Heritage Areas in the country.

Kat Imhoff, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation that runs Monticello, said the goal of the heritage area designation is
tying the sites together while promoting tourism and managing growth to preserve history for future generations.

Global climate warmed from 1970 to 1998, leading to mass hysteria. But guess what -- since 1998 it hasn't warmed at all.

Global climate also warmed between 1918 and 1940, which the models say is before we were emitting enough greenhouse gases to make any difference. But it did not warm between 1940 and 1965, when we were emitting enough CO2 and other greenhouse gases to supposedly make a difference.

The author of this article, a paleoclimatologist, says that the global warming bandwagon is made up of anti-technology alarmists and scientists going after the "gravy train" of research funds provided by the United Nations and other government bodies. But he concludes that recent changes in global temperatures have natural causes, "partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown."

So don't blow a billion dollars on a light-rail line with the expectation that you are doing something for the global climate. It is much more likely that you are merely making a few contractors rich at everyone else's expense.

Portland city commissioner Dan Saltzman caved in to pressure from the mayor and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and voted to spend more city money building the aerial tram. The tramway, which was already under construction, was nearly 300 percent overbudget and contractors expected to run out of money in a few weeks.

Thoush OHSU is the biggest supporter of the tram, it wanted the city to pay some of the cost overrun. Saltzman, along with two others of the five-member Portland city commission, vowed not to spend another cent on it. But Saltzman changed his mind and tram construction will continue -- at least until the next cost overrun.

Saltzman's turnabout is especially curious because he is up for reelection in just five weeks. Voters will start casting their vote-by-mail ballots in a few days. Since the tram is one of the biggest controversies in Portland, Saltzman's decision to vote for it risks his seat. He may be betting that his incumbancy will override any irritation the voters may feel about his tram vote.

Only one of the four candidates challenging Saltzman has come out against high-density projects such as the SoWhat District (which the aerial tram is to serve), so he probably feels pretty safe. Under Oregon law, if no candidate gets a majority, there will be a runoff in November between the top two.

By Jeff Ostrowski Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Save Our Homes, the tax relief package aimed at keeping Floridians of moderate means from being taxed out of their houses, increasingly divides Florida property owners into two classes — winners and losers. The winners? Longtime property owners with homestead exemptions. The losers? Everyone else, from recent buyers of homes to apartment tenants, from snowbirds to owners of malls and office buildings, even longtime residents. Throughout Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, neighbors in nearly identical homes pay vastly different tax bills depending on when they bought their homes and whether they have a homestead exemption.
Even Save Our Homes' supporters acknowledge that such gaps aren't fair, and a growing chorus of critics complains that the tax break disproportionately rewards owners of high-priced homes.
But the measure's staunchest critics say Save Our Homes won't go away. Instead, there's a push to expand the break by letting homeowners take it with them when they move.
The wide discrepancies in tax bills aren't the only unintended consequence of Save Our Homes. Faced with big increases, many homeowners stay put rather than moving up or downsizing, creating a drag on an already-slowing housing market.

These days, people come up and rant about the topic - and not just policy wonks, but ordinary folks of various political perspectives. Friends from all over the country send newspaper clips of eminent-domain abuses in their community, with yellow sticky notes bearing their outraged comments. The sea change occurred June 23, 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that cities should be granted the utmost latitude when they decide to condemn homes, businesses and whole neighborhoods and turn the properties over to big-box retailers, auto malls, condo developers or whatnot. Most of the public understood what Justice Sandra Day O'Connor explained in her dissent: "Today nearly all real property is susceptible to condemnation on the Court's theory. In the prescient words of a dissenter from the infamous decision in Poletown, '[n]ow that we have authorized local legislative bodies to decide that a different commercial or industrial use of property will produce greater public benefits than its present use, no homeowner's, merchant's or manufacturer's property, however productive or valuable to its owner, is immune from condemnation for the benefit of other private interests that will put it to a "higher" use.'"

Over at From the Heartland, Wendell Cox shares the results of a recent study of transit priority in Paris, France here.

The blog entry describes where to obtain the report, which is unfortunately only available in French.

Activists Prefer Car Lots to High-Rises
Victories Seen by Some as Intimidation

By Elissa Silverman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 9, 2006; C12

For Carolyn Sherman, the latest front in the ground war for her neighborhood is a used-car lot steps from the Friendship Heights Metro station. She says a proposed 79-foot-tall building with condominiums and ground-floor retail would be more of an eyesore than the old Buick dealership on the site.

"It doesn't fit in," explained Sherman, insisting that a seven-story, boxy edifice would be "destabilizing" to the area she loves. Sherman moved to upper Northwest 13 years ago and enjoys listening to the robins chirp in her back yard, watching children play on the tire swing down the block and walking to an independently owned coffee shop just off Wisconsin Avenue.


This area is, in my opinion, Ground Zero for anti-highway, pro-congestion and old-fashioned not-in-my-backyward-ism in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs.

In spite of its location within the corporate limits of the District of Columbia, it is very suburban in apperance - single-family homes predominate off of the main drag, Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.

These neighborhoods (never mind the auto-oriented land use) got themselves "saved" from the U.S. 240 (I-270 today) Northwest freeway in the late 1950's and early 1960's, promoting Metro as an alternative (and the Red Line runs below this section of Wisconsin Avenue). But now they don't want the transit-oriented development that's supposed to go with a multi-billion dollar investment in rail transit. Why would that be?

See also Doug Willinger's Highways And Communities web site for more.

Apparently, Dr. Brzezinski has lived in his home in this area of McLean, Fairfax County, Va., for many years - perhaps even before McLean was as fashionable and expensive as it is these days. As the Washington Post reports today, there are some people that want him to give up some of his private property for a sidewalk.


For more than half a year after DuBois's first letter, there was little communication, according to the file of correspondence in her office, and several calls to the Brzezinskis went unreturned. In July, a neighborhood representative, Michael Fruin, called Brzezinski's son, a Washington lawyer, who put in touch with his father. Fruin reported to others that Brzezinski was concerned about compensation and privacy.


It's unfortunate that the people wanting the sidewalk are discussing the use of eminent domain to take it from the Brzezinski property.


Hugh Neighbour, another McLean resident, was less resigned, saying that a sidewalk would make it easier for children to ride bikes on errands and thereby help keep them fit. He raised eminent domain as a possibility.