Saturday, May 27, 2006
Speaking of crime at or near transit stations ...
Body found at Rockville Metro station
Friday, May 26, 2006
by Warren Parish
Staff Writer
The body of a man was found at the Rockville Metro Station early this morning.
Police are withholding the name of the man, who they say was a victim of homicide, pending notification to the family.
The victim, described by police as Hispanic, was found in the bushes of the station’s Kiss and Ride parking lot along Rockville Pike by a Metro employee around 5:45 a.m.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the victim suffered gun shot wounds to his body, police reported. The cause of death will be determined after an autopsy by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore.
Friday, May 26, 2006
by Warren Parish
Staff Writer
The body of a man was found at the Rockville Metro Station early this morning.
Police are withholding the name of the man, who they say was a victim of homicide, pending notification to the family.
The victim, described by police as Hispanic, was found in the bushes of the station’s Kiss and Ride parking lot along Rockville Pike by a Metro employee around 5:45 a.m.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the victim suffered gun shot wounds to his body, police reported. The cause of death will be determined after an autopsy by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore.
Md.: What's faster than E-ZPass? Just wait
What's faster than E-ZPass? Just wait
By Larry Carson
Sun reporter
Originally published May 27, 2006
As motorists hit the highways this holiday weekend, more than half will be speeding through Maryland tolls with E-ZPass electronic transponders - a Memorial Day milestone that has planners thinking about the next stage: high-speed lanes that would allow cars to pass through tolls without slowing down.
Already in use in some states, the "full-speed" toll collection lanes are included in plans for the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County and in a widening slated for Interstate 95 north of Baltimore in the next few years. "Once the Intercounty Connector opens, we'll see a dramatic rise in the use of E-ZPass," said Maryland Transportation Authority Executive Secretary Trent M. Kittleman.
The new system will allow drivers to move at full speed while paying tolls electronically, either through E-ZPass or by photos of their license plates, though that will cost slightly more. Kittleman said a widened 10-mile section of I-95 north of Baltimore would also be equipped for separate high-speed E-ZPass-only use when it opens by 2011. Barring delays, portions of the ICC are expected to open in 2010.
By Larry Carson
Sun reporter
Originally published May 27, 2006
As motorists hit the highways this holiday weekend, more than half will be speeding through Maryland tolls with E-ZPass electronic transponders - a Memorial Day milestone that has planners thinking about the next stage: high-speed lanes that would allow cars to pass through tolls without slowing down.
Already in use in some states, the "full-speed" toll collection lanes are included in plans for the Intercounty Connector in Montgomery County and in a widening slated for Interstate 95 north of Baltimore in the next few years. "Once the Intercounty Connector opens, we'll see a dramatic rise in the use of E-ZPass," said Maryland Transportation Authority Executive Secretary Trent M. Kittleman.
The new system will allow drivers to move at full speed while paying tolls electronically, either through E-ZPass or by photos of their license plates, though that will cost slightly more. Kittleman said a widened 10-mile section of I-95 north of Baltimore would also be equipped for separate high-speed E-ZPass-only use when it opens by 2011. Barring delays, portions of the ICC are expected to open in 2010.
East Coast: Rail Officials Promise a Faster Response to Future Problems
Rail Officials Promise a Faster Response to Future Problems
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
Published: May 27, 2006
The widespread power failure that disrupted train service in five states on Thursday morning exposed shortcomings in Amtrak's system for evacuating riders from stalled trains, rail officials said yesterday, and they pledged to undertake steps to react faster if the problem should recur.
The electrical failure, which stranded tens of thousands of commuters in tunnels and between stations for hours, was the first of its kind in Amtrak's history, said Clifford Black, a spokesman for the railroad. Yesterday, Amtrak began stationing employees at three substations that previously had been monitored electronically, he said.
Mr. Black said Amtrak had not identified the cause of the electrical problem, which tripped circuit breakers from Maryland to Queens, shutting down power along more than 200 miles of track used by Amtrak and three commuter lines.
"They are going to stay there until we determine the cause," Mr. Black said. "Until we determine the cause, we can't be certain that it won't happen again."
See also:
Thousands Are Stuck as Trains in the Northeast Go Dark
The Passengers:
Reading. Cursing the Heat. Hiking to a Parking Lot.
What Went Wrong:
The Breakers Kept Tripping and the Substations Went Dark
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
Published: May 27, 2006
The widespread power failure that disrupted train service in five states on Thursday morning exposed shortcomings in Amtrak's system for evacuating riders from stalled trains, rail officials said yesterday, and they pledged to undertake steps to react faster if the problem should recur.
The electrical failure, which stranded tens of thousands of commuters in tunnels and between stations for hours, was the first of its kind in Amtrak's history, said Clifford Black, a spokesman for the railroad. Yesterday, Amtrak began stationing employees at three substations that previously had been monitored electronically, he said.
Mr. Black said Amtrak had not identified the cause of the electrical problem, which tripped circuit breakers from Maryland to Queens, shutting down power along more than 200 miles of track used by Amtrak and three commuter lines.
"They are going to stay there until we determine the cause," Mr. Black said. "Until we determine the cause, we can't be certain that it won't happen again."
See also:
Thousands Are Stuck as Trains in the Northeast Go Dark
The Passengers:
Reading. Cursing the Heat. Hiking to a Parking Lot.
What Went Wrong:
The Breakers Kept Tripping and the Substations Went Dark
Friday, May 26, 2006
Md.: Homeowner sues activist
Some readers of this blog may be familiar with the controversy associated with Little Dobbins Island in the Magothy River, a saltwater branch of the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis. Seems that the owner of the island (you can see an image from above here, it's the smaller of the two islands) (re-)built a home without the appropriate permits.
My sympathies tend to run with the owner of the island (it's his land, after all), and I know how elaborate, expensive and long the approvals process is (and the lands along the Magothy River are hardly untouched or pristine), but I don't think I agree with his lawsuit against the person and groups that are opposing what he has done.
You can read more at the links below:
Washington Post: One Man Is an Island
Magothy River Association and Magothy River Land Trust
CBF Appeals Little Dobbins Island Variance Decision (Chesapeake Bay Foundation Web site).
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Light-Rail Stations Top List of Crime Calls
Police say a light-rail station generates almost three times as many crime calls as the next highest location in Washington County, which includes the suburbs west of Portland. Two other light-rail stations are also in the top-five list of crime scenes.
Other areas on the top-ten list include shopping centers, a high school, two apartment buildings, and a hospital. Collectively, the three light-rail stations have generated 643 crime calls this year, while the other seven locations on the top-ten list have generated 782 calls.
Other areas on the top-ten list include shopping centers, a high school, two apartment buildings, and a hospital. Collectively, the three light-rail stations have generated 643 crime calls this year, while the other seven locations on the top-ten list have generated 782 calls.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Wal-Mart and Eminent Domain
Last week, Florida news reports indicated that Wal-Mart was threatening landowners in Florida that if they did not sell their land to the retailer, the company would ask local officials to use eminent domain to take the land away from them.
Turnabout is fair play. Yesterday, San Francisco Bay Area news reports indicated that the town of Hercules, which does not want a Wal-Mart, was threatening to use eminent domain to take Wal-Marts land away and sell it to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or another upscale retailer.
"A big-box store is not part of our plan," said one resident. Another was more blunt: "I don't want to have anything ghetto around me." The city's plan calls for, surprise, "a high-density, mixed-use village." But what makes them think that Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or other upscale realtors want to be around them?
Now, Wal-Mart is apologizing for the Florida threat, saying that the threat of eminent domain was actually made by "an overly agressive site selection consultant." Wal-Mart says it should have reviewed the letter (actually an email) before it went out and deleted the eminent domain threat. It hinted that it might cut off its relationship with the consultant.
Can you imagine emailing someone an offer to buy their land with a threat that you will use eminent domain to take it if they don't accept their offer? Can you imagine threatening someone at all when you are trying to get on their good side?
The news reports do not indicate that Wal-Mart said it would never ask a local government to use eminent domain. It just said that threatening to do so "did not reflect the company's position."
On the other hand, identifying Wal-Mart with "ghetto" is reprehensible and borders on racism. Wal-Mart should be allowed to build where it has a market (and where the traffic to its stores do not unduly impact its neighbors). But it should not rely on eminent domain.
Turnabout is fair play. Yesterday, San Francisco Bay Area news reports indicated that the town of Hercules, which does not want a Wal-Mart, was threatening to use eminent domain to take Wal-Marts land away and sell it to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or another upscale retailer.
"A big-box store is not part of our plan," said one resident. Another was more blunt: "I don't want to have anything ghetto around me." The city's plan calls for, surprise, "a high-density, mixed-use village." But what makes them think that Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or other upscale realtors want to be around them?
Now, Wal-Mart is apologizing for the Florida threat, saying that the threat of eminent domain was actually made by "an overly agressive site selection consultant." Wal-Mart says it should have reviewed the letter (actually an email) before it went out and deleted the eminent domain threat. It hinted that it might cut off its relationship with the consultant.
Can you imagine emailing someone an offer to buy their land with a threat that you will use eminent domain to take it if they don't accept their offer? Can you imagine threatening someone at all when you are trying to get on their good side?
The news reports do not indicate that Wal-Mart said it would never ask a local government to use eminent domain. It just said that threatening to do so "did not reflect the company's position."
On the other hand, identifying Wal-Mart with "ghetto" is reprehensible and borders on racism. Wal-Mart should be allowed to build where it has a market (and where the traffic to its stores do not unduly impact its neighbors). But it should not rely on eminent domain.
The High Cost of Land-Use Planning
The San Francisco Chronicle published an intelligent, thoughtful op ed on the effects of planning on housing prices. I would say more good things about this op ed but it would sound immodest because I wrote it.
Meanwhile, a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera had an article on the same subject yesterday that also quotes me. Boulder is famous for limiting building permits and buying up all the land around it as open space, something known as the "Danish plan" after Paul Danish, the former city commissioner who promoted the plan back in the 1970s.
Danish is also quoted in the article claiming that Boulder's high housing prices are due solely to its livability, not to any government restrictions on housing supply. Any place with lower prices, he says, must be "a really awful place to live." Since that takes in most of the United States, I guess this just confirms the oft-stated motto that Boulder is "25 square miles surrounded by reality."
Meanwhile, a reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera had an article on the same subject yesterday that also quotes me. Boulder is famous for limiting building permits and buying up all the land around it as open space, something known as the "Danish plan" after Paul Danish, the former city commissioner who promoted the plan back in the 1970s.
Danish is also quoted in the article claiming that Boulder's high housing prices are due solely to its livability, not to any government restrictions on housing supply. Any place with lower prices, he says, must be "a really awful place to live." Since that takes in most of the United States, I guess this just confirms the oft-stated motto that Boulder is "25 square miles surrounded by reality."
Sunday, May 21, 2006
N.Y./N.J./Conn./Pa.: Bigger Houses, Longer Commutes
May 21, 2006
Bigger Houses, Longer Commutes
By ELSA BRENNER
ON weekdays, Julie Kroloff sets the coffee maker for 5:45 a.m., then speeds through her kitchen in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., and grabs a cup to fortify herself for the long drive ahead. If Ms. Kroloff, a self-employed consultant, is on time, she backs out of the garage just before 6 and makes the trip from Dutchess County to her office in Midtown Manhattan in just under two hours. If traffic is heavy, Ms. Kroloff's 54-mile commute can take two and a half hours or more.
About the same time, in Burlington, N.J., south of Trenton, Ronny Byrd, a vault custodian for the Bank of New York, boards a bus bound for Wall Street. If the New Jersey Turnpike and the Holland Tunnel are not backed up, Mr. Byrd will reach his destination in two hours.
In Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Atul Ramayani, a computer analyst, boards Metro-North's increasingly crowded 7:10 express bound for Grand Central Terminal. In all, Mr. Ramayani's commute takes close to two hours, including the 20-minute drive to the station and a 10-minute walk from Grand Central before he clocks in for the day.
Priced out of an increasingly expensive real estate market in close-in areas like Westchester, Bergen and Nassau Counties, some workers are pushing their commutes up to the two-hour mark, and even beyond.
It is the price they are willing to pay to own the home of their dreams, said Alan E. Pisarski, the author of a series of books titled "Commuting in America" (the third is being published by the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board).
"In essence, what this group of commuters is doing," Mr. Pisarski explained, "is contributing to their house payment with travel time."
Bigger Houses, Longer Commutes
By ELSA BRENNER
ON weekdays, Julie Kroloff sets the coffee maker for 5:45 a.m., then speeds through her kitchen in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., and grabs a cup to fortify herself for the long drive ahead. If Ms. Kroloff, a self-employed consultant, is on time, she backs out of the garage just before 6 and makes the trip from Dutchess County to her office in Midtown Manhattan in just under two hours. If traffic is heavy, Ms. Kroloff's 54-mile commute can take two and a half hours or more.
About the same time, in Burlington, N.J., south of Trenton, Ronny Byrd, a vault custodian for the Bank of New York, boards a bus bound for Wall Street. If the New Jersey Turnpike and the Holland Tunnel are not backed up, Mr. Byrd will reach his destination in two hours.
In Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Atul Ramayani, a computer analyst, boards Metro-North's increasingly crowded 7:10 express bound for Grand Central Terminal. In all, Mr. Ramayani's commute takes close to two hours, including the 20-minute drive to the station and a 10-minute walk from Grand Central before he clocks in for the day.
Priced out of an increasingly expensive real estate market in close-in areas like Westchester, Bergen and Nassau Counties, some workers are pushing their commutes up to the two-hour mark, and even beyond.
It is the price they are willing to pay to own the home of their dreams, said Alan E. Pisarski, the author of a series of books titled "Commuting in America" (the third is being published by the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board).
"In essence, what this group of commuters is doing," Mr. Pisarski explained, "is contributing to their house payment with travel time."
Va.: As Loudoun Grows, So Do Its Families
As Loudoun Grows, So Do Its Families
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 21, 2006; Page A01
If suburbia has always been for child rearing, to enter the quaint and shaded 10-year-old neighborhood off Route 50 is to find the fertile epicenter of a county with one of the highest birthrates in the nation. Loudoun County rivals parts of suburban Utah, where the Mormon faith encourages large families, and areas such as Hidalgo, Tex., and Manassas Park, where large numbers of recent immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries account for the growth.
After decades of decline, birthrates in the United States, unlike those of most industrialized nations, have in recent years begun to tick up slightly, driven largely by immigration and to a lesser degree by people, including immigrants, who have followed the building boom into such counties as Loudoun and have produced, it seems, a mini baby boom of their own.
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 21, 2006; Page A01
If suburbia has always been for child rearing, to enter the quaint and shaded 10-year-old neighborhood off Route 50 is to find the fertile epicenter of a county with one of the highest birthrates in the nation. Loudoun County rivals parts of suburban Utah, where the Mormon faith encourages large families, and areas such as Hidalgo, Tex., and Manassas Park, where large numbers of recent immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries account for the growth.
After decades of decline, birthrates in the United States, unlike those of most industrialized nations, have in recent years begun to tick up slightly, driven largely by immigration and to a lesser degree by people, including immigrants, who have followed the building boom into such counties as Loudoun and have produced, it seems, a mini baby boom of their own.
Colorado: The price of smart growth
The price of smart growth
Communities debate how to follow Boulder's lead
By Eric Schmidt, Camera Staff Writer
May 21, 2006
With open-space and planning policies dating back four decades, Boulder was among the first American cities to curtail development with growth control and publicly funded land preservation.
The wisdom of what came to be known as "smart growth" remains up for debate. As communities east of Boulder's greenbelts establish growth limits and open-space programs of their own, the question is whether Boulder represents an example to follow or a mistake to avoid.
"I certainly take it as a compliment to be compared to the city and county of Boulder when it comes to open-space purchases," said Louisville Mayor Chuck Sisk, whose city has amassed about 2,000 acres of open space since the early 1990s. "If I can leave any part of a legacy for our children and grandchildren, that is what I would choose."
Yet in a March report titled "The Planning Penalty," Randal O'Toole, of the Independence Institute — a free-market think tank in Golden — cites Boulder as proof that slow growth and open space drive housing prices past what average residents can afford.
O'Toole estimates the combination adds $117,000 to the median price of a home in Boulder County, even when adjusted to reflect affluent residents' buying power. He writes that a planning-induced housing shortage added $3 billion to the cost of homes statewide in 2005.
[Click title above to read the rest (registration required)]
Communities debate how to follow Boulder's lead
By Eric Schmidt, Camera Staff Writer
May 21, 2006
With open-space and planning policies dating back four decades, Boulder was among the first American cities to curtail development with growth control and publicly funded land preservation.
The wisdom of what came to be known as "smart growth" remains up for debate. As communities east of Boulder's greenbelts establish growth limits and open-space programs of their own, the question is whether Boulder represents an example to follow or a mistake to avoid.
"I certainly take it as a compliment to be compared to the city and county of Boulder when it comes to open-space purchases," said Louisville Mayor Chuck Sisk, whose city has amassed about 2,000 acres of open space since the early 1990s. "If I can leave any part of a legacy for our children and grandchildren, that is what I would choose."
Yet in a March report titled "The Planning Penalty," Randal O'Toole, of the Independence Institute — a free-market think tank in Golden — cites Boulder as proof that slow growth and open space drive housing prices past what average residents can afford.
O'Toole estimates the combination adds $117,000 to the median price of a home in Boulder County, even when adjusted to reflect affluent residents' buying power. He writes that a planning-induced housing shortage added $3 billion to the cost of homes statewide in 2005.
[Click title above to read the rest (registration required)]
