Friday, May 19, 2006
Book Review: Sprawl : A Compact History
This review, by Slate's Witold Rybczynski is from November of 2005, but still worth reading.
In my opinion, the book itself is worth the cover "list" price of $27.50 (yes, I bought a copy).
Title: Sprawl : A Compact History
Author: Robert Bruegmann
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 1, 2005)
ISBN: 0226076903
This volume can be purchased from Amazon.com here.
In my opinion, the book itself is worth the cover "list" price of $27.50 (yes, I bought a copy).
Title: Sprawl : A Compact History
Author: Robert Bruegmann
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 1, 2005)
ISBN: 0226076903
This volume can be purchased from Amazon.com here.
Virginia, N.C. push for I-95 toll
The AP is reporting, via the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that North Carolina and Virginia are considering a toll on I-95 at the state border.
Virginia, N.C. push for I-95 toll
Associated Press
May 19, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina and Virginia hope to go into the toll road business together.
A law passed by Virginia's General Assembly in April and legislation filed this week in Raleigh would set up a toll booth at the border on Interstate 95, charging each passing car $5.
The money raised through the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate Toll Road Compact would be split between the states and used for improvements to the highway.
"We proposed this to get the discussion started about the concept," Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe, said Thursday.
North Carolina's Transportation Department estimates I-95 through the state needs $4 billion in repairs. A broad gap between tax revenue and rising construction costs means state leaders must consider tolls and other fundraising sources, Jenkins said.
Virginia, N.C. push for I-95 toll
Associated Press
May 19, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina and Virginia hope to go into the toll road business together.
A law passed by Virginia's General Assembly in April and legislation filed this week in Raleigh would set up a toll booth at the border on Interstate 95, charging each passing car $5.
The money raised through the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate Toll Road Compact would be split between the states and used for improvements to the highway.
"We proposed this to get the discussion started about the concept," Sen. Clark Jenkins, D-Edgecombe, said Thursday.
North Carolina's Transportation Department estimates I-95 through the state needs $4 billion in repairs. A broad gap between tax revenue and rising construction costs means state leaders must consider tolls and other fundraising sources, Jenkins said.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
N.Y.: Tramway Reopening May Wait Until Fall
Tramway Reopening May Wait Until Fall
Published: May 18, 2006
The operator of the Roosevelt Island Tramway said yesterday that it would probably take 10 to 12 weeks to complete repairs and upgrades, at which point it will call in state inspectors to authorize the resumption of service on the line, which broke down last month, stranding dozens of people.
Published: May 18, 2006
The operator of the Roosevelt Island Tramway said yesterday that it would probably take 10 to 12 weeks to complete repairs and upgrades, at which point it will call in state inspectors to authorize the resumption of service on the line, which broke down last month, stranding dozens of people.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Md.: Mall's Comedown Taints Lerner Image
What is left of Landover Mall is located next to the Capital Beltway in Landover, Maryland. You can see a map of the area on Google Maps here.
The site of the mall is between Brightseat Road and the Beltway. To the south of the mall is FedEx Field, where the NFL Washington Redskins play.
The Post article seems to imply that Landover Mall was killed by its owners, the Lerner family (who are the new owners of the Washington Nationals baseball club). I disagree. I believe that the development of far too many high-density, low-income garden apartment complexes (such as the ones along Brightseat Road, across the street from the mall), and the crime that has come along with those apartments, has much more to do with the death of Landover Mall.
DeadMalls.Com has an interesting feature on Landover Mall here.
The site of the mall is between Brightseat Road and the Beltway. To the south of the mall is FedEx Field, where the NFL Washington Redskins play.
The Post article seems to imply that Landover Mall was killed by its owners, the Lerner family (who are the new owners of the Washington Nationals baseball club). I disagree. I believe that the development of far too many high-density, low-income garden apartment complexes (such as the ones along Brightseat Road, across the street from the mall), and the crime that has come along with those apartments, has much more to do with the death of Landover Mall.
DeadMalls.Com has an interesting feature on Landover Mall here.
Tax Break Credited In Saving Va. Land
This Washington Post article describes Virginia's (and, to a lesser extent, Maryland's) land "conservation" programs.
I consider most of these to be a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The following lines, from deep in the article, are relevant:
Critics view the tax credit less favorably. They say the program is a boondoggle for rich landowners that isn't adequately monitored for compliance. Landowners donate their easement to a third-party agency -- usually the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which then assumes responsibility to protect the easement. Easement donors qualify not only for the state tax credit but also for charitable deductions on their federal income tax returns. And they are eligible for major reductions in their local property tax bills.
"It's a huge scam," said Sally R. Mann, a property owner near Hamilton who believes her neighbor's use of his land for farming violates the terms of his easement. "The government is paying very wealthy people to live on their estates that they would never subdivide to begin with."
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the state agency that holds most easements donated in the state, disagrees. Easements are noted permanently on property deeds, making it almost impossible for property to be developed illegally, said Leslie Grayson, a stewardship director with the foundation. And the foundation employs field inspectors to investigate complaints and monitor compliance, she said.
I consider most of these to be a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The following lines, from deep in the article, are relevant:
Critics view the tax credit less favorably. They say the program is a boondoggle for rich landowners that isn't adequately monitored for compliance. Landowners donate their easement to a third-party agency -- usually the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, which then assumes responsibility to protect the easement. Easement donors qualify not only for the state tax credit but also for charitable deductions on their federal income tax returns. And they are eligible for major reductions in their local property tax bills.
"It's a huge scam," said Sally R. Mann, a property owner near Hamilton who believes her neighbor's use of his land for farming violates the terms of his easement. "The government is paying very wealthy people to live on their estates that they would never subdivide to begin with."
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the state agency that holds most easements donated in the state, disagrees. Easements are noted permanently on property deeds, making it almost impossible for property to be developed illegally, said Leslie Grayson, a stewardship director with the foundation. And the foundation employs field inspectors to investigate complaints and monitor compliance, she said.
Monday, May 15, 2006
N.Y.: Coming Through in the Clutch at Stick-Shift U.
As a lifelong driver of cars (and over the past 25 years, mostly pickup trucks and SUVs) with clutches and manual transmissions, I found this article, about someone learning to drive a vehicle with a manual transmission in New York City traffic, to be rather amusing. I have to drive quite a lot in congested traffic here in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., so it's no big deal with all my years and miles of manual transmission driving.
I think it's still correct to say that everything else being equal, a vehicle with a manual transmission will tend to consume less fuel than a vehicle with an automatic gearbox.
I think it's still correct to say that everything else being equal, a vehicle with a manual transmission will tend to consume less fuel than a vehicle with an automatic gearbox.
What's Ahead for MAX? Death
The Sunday Oregonian rhetorically asks about the future of Portland's light-rail (MAX) lines, while the Monday Oregonian provides an answer: another pedestrian fatality.
The Sunday article is reasonably fair and balanced, pointing out that MAX costs far more to build than bus lines, and while it costs less to operate than the average bus, fares collected by many of the more popular bus lines actually cover their operating costs while MAX operating costs are $1.18 more than fares. It also adds that bus ridership on "frequent-service bus lines" is growing as fast as rail ridership, implying that riders are sensitive to frequencies, not to whether the transit service is on rubber tires or steel wheels.
The article also mentions the claim that MAX generated billions of dollars of development projects, but points out that "Critics say growth would have fueled this development anyway." It adds that redevelopment along the latest route "has been underwhelming." Development on the airport line is now taking place with an IKEA and Costco, but these two retailers were not at all attracted by the light rail; instead, it is the proximity to Washington shoppers who won't have to pay sales taxes for what they buy in Oregon.
If the article was fairly balanced, the headline in the hardcopy edition -- but not the on-line edition -- was not. Instead, it erroneously claims, "the sleek, quiet MAX trains now carry one of every four commuters heading east or west." The truth is they carry one of every four downtown commuters heading east or west, but not commuters to other employment areas. Since downtown only has about 10 percent of the region's jobs, that just is not very many commuters.
The Sunday article is reasonably fair and balanced, pointing out that MAX costs far more to build than bus lines, and while it costs less to operate than the average bus, fares collected by many of the more popular bus lines actually cover their operating costs while MAX operating costs are $1.18 more than fares. It also adds that bus ridership on "frequent-service bus lines" is growing as fast as rail ridership, implying that riders are sensitive to frequencies, not to whether the transit service is on rubber tires or steel wheels.
The article also mentions the claim that MAX generated billions of dollars of development projects, but points out that "Critics say growth would have fueled this development anyway." It adds that redevelopment along the latest route "has been underwhelming." Development on the airport line is now taking place with an IKEA and Costco, but these two retailers were not at all attracted by the light rail; instead, it is the proximity to Washington shoppers who won't have to pay sales taxes for what they buy in Oregon.
If the article was fairly balanced, the headline in the hardcopy edition -- but not the on-line edition -- was not. Instead, it erroneously claims, "the sleek, quiet MAX trains now carry one of every four commuters heading east or west." The truth is they carry one of every four downtown commuters heading east or west, but not commuters to other employment areas. Since downtown only has about 10 percent of the region's jobs, that just is not very many commuters.
D.C.: Supreme Court Rejects Commuter Tax Appeal
Supreme Court Rejects Commuter Tax Appeal
May 15th - 11:05am
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for the D.C. government to be allowed to impose a commuter tax.
The city wanted to tax about 500,000 people who come into town every day from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It's suing to overturn a federal law requiring permission from Congress to do that.
May 15th - 11:05am
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for the D.C. government to be allowed to impose a commuter tax.
The city wanted to tax about 500,000 people who come into town every day from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It's suing to overturn a federal law requiring permission from Congress to do that.
Md./Va.: Commute's New Dawn
Commute's New Dawn
The Path to New Wilson Span, and What Lies Ahead
By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006; C01
About 11 a.m. Thursday, a new drawbridge half as heavy as the Eiffel Tower will be lowered over the Potomac River and the governors of Virginia and Maryland will walk from opposite shores to shake hands, signaling a new era for hundreds of thousands of commuters.
The transformation will be brought on by the opening next month of the first of two spans of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a muscular hunk of 25,000 tons of concrete and more than 30,000 tons of steel nearly two difficult decades in the making that promises to ease drives across the area -- at least for a while.
In a politically complex region that rarely agrees on how to solve its severe traffic problems, the bridge construction stands out as a success story. When the entire project is completed, Virginia and Maryland leaders will have joined hands to refashion 12 percent of the Capital Beltway and unclog the area's worst bottleneck.
The Path to New Wilson Span, and What Lies Ahead
By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006; C01
About 11 a.m. Thursday, a new drawbridge half as heavy as the Eiffel Tower will be lowered over the Potomac River and the governors of Virginia and Maryland will walk from opposite shores to shake hands, signaling a new era for hundreds of thousands of commuters.
The transformation will be brought on by the opening next month of the first of two spans of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, a muscular hunk of 25,000 tons of concrete and more than 30,000 tons of steel nearly two difficult decades in the making that promises to ease drives across the area -- at least for a while.
In a politically complex region that rarely agrees on how to solve its severe traffic problems, the bridge construction stands out as a success story. When the entire project is completed, Virginia and Maryland leaders will have joined hands to refashion 12 percent of the Capital Beltway and unclog the area's worst bottleneck.
Md.: Moving Up the Corridor
Commercial Real Estate Report
Moving Up the Corridor
Frederick County Enjoys a Boom in Office-Building Development
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006; D01
Wearing black sunglasses, a starched white shirt and purple-striped necktie, Mickey Abrams drove his silver Mercedes convertible onto the freshly paved parking lot of his latest real estate venture in Frederick County one recent morning and surveyed the results.
He'd gotten a good deal on farmland just off Interstate 270 and Route 85, and put $9 million into building two one-story brick
office buildings with space adding up to the size of a football field. This spring -- five months after completion -- his brokers found two tenants -- Western Services Corp., a nearby software company that was expanding, and a Kaiser Permanente Inc. branch. They agreed to pay the going rate of about $16 a square foot.
Not bad, Abrams thought.
Just behind the two buildings, Abrams can see a source of more tenants: a steady stream of brake lights from cars and trucks heading south along Interstate 270 during the morning rush hour.
"All those employees spend an hour or more in the car instead of 10 minutes from their home to their office," Abrams said as the traffic crept past his office buildings.
It's importat to note that this segment of I-270 has not been widened or upgraded since the freeway was built - in the 1950's - and some proposals to widen have been rejected for the usual reasons.
80 Year Old Granny Poses Threat
Long Branch, NJ - The city wants Anna DeFaria's home, and if she doesn't sell willingly, officials are going to take it from the 80-year-old retired pre-school teacher. In place of her "tiny slip of a bungalow" - and two dozen other weathered, working-class beachfront homes - city officials want private developers to build upscale townhouses. "We thought this was going to be our home forever," said DeFaria, sitting in a kitchen cozy with photos of children and grandchildren, quotes from the Bible and a game of Scrabble that she plays against herself. "Now they want to take it away. It's unfair, it's criminal, it's unconstitutional." DeFaria said she was offered $325,000 for the home she and her late husband bought in 1960 for $6,400. But it's not the money, she said: $1 million wouldn't convince her. "They're taking my home away - not my house. My home. My life."
D's & R's Both Back Corn Gas
U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes didn't know his 2005 Chevy Suburban could run on fancy E85 corn fuel until Tuesday morning, when a staff member popped his gas cap after a news conference and filled it up with the $2.69-a-gallon fuel (a blend of 15% gas and 85% corn ethanol). The fuel is so rare fewer than 1 percent of all gas stations in the United States carry it. But E85 is considered more environmentally friendly than regular gasoline. Hayes introduced a bill he hopes will make the fuel more widely available. He wants to increase a tax incentive offered to gas station owners who install the hardware for the E85 fuel.
U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Democrat from Lillington, introduced legislation Thursday to promote biofuels as an alternative to gasoline. The legislation would double the percentage of renewable fuel sold in the United States within six years. It would require that 75 percent of American-made cars be able to run on alternative fuels within six years. Etheridge wants to promote E85 fuel through a combination of incentives and requirements.
U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Democrat from Lillington, introduced legislation Thursday to promote biofuels as an alternative to gasoline. The legislation would double the percentage of renewable fuel sold in the United States within six years. It would require that 75 percent of American-made cars be able to run on alternative fuels within six years. Etheridge wants to promote E85 fuel through a combination of incentives and requirements.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Early life in big yards key to health
From The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia) comes this report by Kara Phillips, dated 02-May-2006.
Thanks to Wendell Cox of Demographia and The Public Purpose for alerting me to this. Here are the first several paragraphs:
SOUTH Australian children with big backyards are less likely to be overweight and inactive than those with small courtyards, a study has found.
Preliminary data from the Flinders University Achieving a Healthy Home Environment study, which surveyed the homes and lifestyles of 280 southern suburbs families, found the size and set-up of homes contributed largely to how fit and healthy young children were.
Researchers looked at more than 75 physical and nutritional variables in each family home over the past year.
"We found the bigger the backyard, the more active the kids," said Flinders Medical Centre consultant pediatrician Dr Nicola Spurrier, who headed the study that will continue until next year.
"But we also found the amount of play equipment and play areas in a back yard had a big impact too."
The study also found 20 per cent of the children surveyed did not do 60 minutes of moderate activity each day and just 35 per cent watched less than the recommended two hours of TV.
[click the heading above for the rest of the story]
Thanks to Wendell Cox of Demographia and The Public Purpose for alerting me to this. Here are the first several paragraphs:
SOUTH Australian children with big backyards are less likely to be overweight and inactive than those with small courtyards, a study has found.
Preliminary data from the Flinders University Achieving a Healthy Home Environment study, which surveyed the homes and lifestyles of 280 southern suburbs families, found the size and set-up of homes contributed largely to how fit and healthy young children were.
Researchers looked at more than 75 physical and nutritional variables in each family home over the past year.
"We found the bigger the backyard, the more active the kids," said Flinders Medical Centre consultant pediatrician Dr Nicola Spurrier, who headed the study that will continue until next year.
"But we also found the amount of play equipment and play areas in a back yard had a big impact too."
The study also found 20 per cent of the children surveyed did not do 60 minutes of moderate activity each day and just 35 per cent watched less than the recommended two hours of TV.
[click the heading above for the rest of the story]
