American Dream

PORTLAND, OR - To its supporters, including Mayor Potter OHSU is a valuable ally that will help produce thousands of good-paying jobs in the new neighborhood rising along the west bank of the Willamette River. To its critics, including Commissioner Leonard OHSU isn’t a reliable partner and has placed itself above the public good. The clash of opinions helped inflame the dispute over the skyrocketing costs of the aerial tram that will link OHSU’s existing facilities on Marquam Hill to the district. No one is happy that tram costs have nearly quadrupled, to approximately $57 million. But OHSU insisted on the tram before it would commit to the overall development. Wednesday they voted to approve a new financing plan that includes additional incentives to OHSU and South Waterfront property owners to accelerate the construction schedule. Leonard accused OHSU of lying to the council about the costs of the tram and using its role in the development to financially benefit its employees saying “They have not been forthright with us. They are not a trustworthy partner.” The attacks on OHSU have been even sharper in the neighborhoods affected by the tram, “The reason they wanted the tram was so that OHSU doctors could get to better restaurants for lunch,” said David Redlick, a consultant who is the former chairman of the Homestead Neighborhood Association.

PORTLAND, OR - The continued ability of Portlanders to ride TriMet buses and light-rail trains for free as part of the 31-year-old Fareless Square program is under review because of a proposal from an agency budget advisory committee to save money and combat “undesirable behavior.” That proposal to review the program is contained in the committee’s April 12 report. The report said the agency is wrestling with increased costs and needs to find money in order to provide “adequate financial security.” One way to do so is to reduce or end Fareless Square. Although the TriMet committee made a similar recommendation last year, this year the proposal appears to have legs — judging by the city’s action and TriMet’s plans for a committee to study just this topic. But spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said no decision will be made without an extensive public process.

"Hello, I think I may be the Hospital Fairy," Stephens said as he was introduced at the end of a forum on Measure C, Thursday night. If Stephens has really succeeded at finding a new 'why not buy this property that is for sale instead' solution, he may have helped not only save a hospital, but friendships as well. What Stephens has done is put together a deal that would allow the Sonoma Valley Hospital District to back away from using eminent domain.

RALEIGH - The Raleigh City Council is expected to reject a 72 percent increase in impact fees when it meets in April 18, but home builders beware - the reason Mayor Charles Meeker expects the proposal to be killed is that he and other city leaders want a bigger increase, perhaps as much as 400 percent. Raleigh's fee has hovered unchanged for 10 years. The proposal under consideration would raise the fees to $1,173 - a 72 percent increase that essentially would catch the rate up with the inflation of the past decade. That's not enough to satisfy Meeker, who says Raleigh needs to collect higher impact fee income to offset the cost of infrastructure improvements - specifically, new roads and parks - required by new housing developments. He cites a recent report that says Raleigh could charge a maximum of $3,404 in street and park fees, or 400 percent more than its current $682 rate.

The eminent-domain activist who received national attention by attempting to have the home of a Supreme Court justice seized is starting an effort to help any American whose property is about to be taken against their will by a government entity. Logan Darrow Clements of Freestar Media has launched "Project Frontline," a campaign to surround pieces of property set for government-enforced seizure with protesters, hoping it will attract media attention and stall the eviction of the affected property owners.

The stunning April edition of WND's acclaimed Whistleblower Magazine titled "THE END OF PRIVATE PROPERTY" Subtitled "How bureaucrats use eminent domain to steal homes, trample the Constitution and destroy lives," is a groundbreaking investigative report that takes readers on a jarring tour of America – a land where bureaucrats can decide to take away your home and give it to another individual or company, for no other reason than that it will the result in higher tax revenues for them.

As reported in this story in the New York Times: Power Failures Leave Tram Passengers Hanging for Hours.

A four-minute trip on the Roosevelt Island Tramway turned into a harrowing ordeal that lasted hours last night as a series of power failures left more than 70 passengers suspended hundreds of feet in the air.

Around 9:30 p.m., after officials had tried and failed to restore power, and with options running out, emergency workers scrambled to prepare for a daring midair rescue. The ordeal began shortly before 5 p.m. when the power gave out, leaving two tram cars motionless on cables that rise as high as 250 feet above the East River between the East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.

Anne Applebaum often writes about foriegn affairs, including a well-regarded history of the former Soviet empire's network of secret forced-labor and concentration camps, GULAG: A History.

But her column today, Tilting at Windmills (Wednesday, April 19, 2006) in the Washington Post is about people and groups that oppose everything, including, in particular, new electric generating capacity powered by the wind.

She rightly refers to these people and groups as examples of BANANAism: "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything."

I've also heard BANANAs described as Build Absolutely Nothing Anyplace Near Anyone and as CAVEs (Citizens Against Virtually Everything).

You can choose the one you like.

Las Vegas, NV - The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada approved moving forward with the Regional Fixed Guideway project today at their April Board Meeting. The choice of rubber tire rapid transit was based on greater flexibility and lower-cost than rail alternatives. During the public process, citizens expressed a desire to go to McCarran Airport and UNLV, among other places close to the proposed route. The plan provides the flexibility to adjust the route according to demand, while a rail option does not. In addition, the lower initial cost of the rubber tire rapid transit system presents a more attractive offer.

FLORIDA, Lakeland - The Community Redevelopment Agency has moved closer to taking private property for a plan that could put condominiums on blighted land. But at least one property owner isn't convinced the key to renewal is tearing down neighborhoods to build new homes. John Shelburne, who rehabbed the home on East Bay Street for rental property, disagrees with the CRA's methods. Shelburne bought the property about 1 1 years ago, remodeled it extensively and said the CRA's offer is not enough. He estimates replacing the property could cost $400,000."I'm not trying to squeeze the city for extra money," Shelburne said. "I'd rather keep the property than break even or take a loss."

CHICAGO- One development, singled out by consortium members as a model development in the making, built with smart-growth design principles in mind is the Coffee Creek Center. Reggie Korthals, environmental director for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission said,"Local planners have identified a need of more education for smart growth and conservation design principles..." However, Korthals is somewhat critical of the development, noting it has neither met initial expectations nor grown as fast as it should have.

"We are seeing more middle-class people and people working two jobs falling into homelessness because wages are not keeping up with rents," said Karol Schulkin, coordinator of Ventura County Homeless Services. HOWEVER, what they fail to mention is that Ventura has a very strict no growth policy, and trying to build a tract of new homes requires voters approval. They can't have it both ways since every housing proposal on the block so far has been rejected by voters. Real estate in ventura county is a solid investment, prices will remain high and homelessness numbers will get higher too.

Repeat of Quake Of 1906 Could Be Even More Deadly
Study Simulates Disaster in Bay Area

By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 17, 2006; A03

Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake this week, researchers have calculated the possible death and destruction that could occur if another temblor of equal strength struck the Bay Area today.

The worst-case scenario? As many as 3,400 dead, mostly crushed by buildings; up to 700,000 people displaced or homeless; 130,000 structures extensively damaged or destroyed; and immediate losses exceeding $125 billion -- a forecast that rivals the mayhem unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and the breaching of the New Orleans levees.

[snip]

Mary Lou Zoback, a senior research scientist with the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., reviewed the study and endorses its forecast. She says what leaps out at her is how vulnerable the urban core of the Bay Area is -- the cities of San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland -- because so many of the residents live in apartments and houses built before building codes were tightened in 1970. (And because many units are rent-controlled apartments, she says, landlords have few incentives to seismic retrofit.)

This op-ed, by Lon Anderson of AAA Mid-Atlantic and Anne Ferro of the Maryland Motor Truck Association raises some good advice, and some good points to ponder.

Good advice:

For the immediate future, motorists should concentrate on doing better at sharing the road with trucks. For their own safety,
they should avoid:

· Holding a position on either side of a truck. Trucks have large blind spots on both sides. If the truck driver's face isn't visible in the side-view mirror, a truck driver can't see a car that is traveling alongside his vehicle.
· Tailgating. Trucks also have huge blind spots behind them. A truck driver cannot see cars that are following too closely, and if the truck driver must brake suddenly, a tailgater has no place to go.
· Cutting in front of a truck after passing. Trucks require nearly twice the stopping time and distance that cars do.

While National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data show that the fatal accident rate for both cars and trucks is at a historical low, last year more than 42,000 people were killed on the nation's highways and more than 2.5 million were injured.

Points to ponder:

Government officials and law enforcement agencies can do their part to improve this safety record by:

· Increasing enforcement efforts, especially by targeting aggressive and careless drivers.
· Improving engineering and adding capacity where feasible, especially at exit and entry ramps to ensure adequate space for safe merging.
· Reinforcing the restraining barriers on heavily traveled overpasses above interstates to better protect vehicles below.
· Increasing truck parking along busy routes.
· Maintaining wide shoulders along highways as a refuge for disabled vehicles.
· Creating a bypass for through traffic on Interstate 95 so that traffic is not forced on to the [Capital] Beltway.
Motorists, truckers and government working together can ensure that increasing cargo and congestion on the highways do not mean
more accidents.