American Dream

It's been quite a few years since Jason DeParle wrote an article in the January, 1989 edition of the Washington Monthly magazine entitled The worst city government in America - Washington, D.C. with a subheading of When it comes to screwing the poor and feathering their nests, the District of Columbia's bureaucrats take the prize.

Also, from 1991, but still relevant, is this Cato Institute brief: The District of Columbia: America's Worst Government?

After reading what happened to N.Y. Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum after he was beaten and robbed on a street in the Upper Northwest section of D.C. on the night of January 6, 2006, one has to wonder if the municipal government of the capital of the United States still isn't worthy of the title of "worst city government."

There are an assortment of Smart Growth groups that continue to advocate that D.C. be the "hub" of the National Capital Region (examples here, here and here (not a word in any of these about lousy D.C. municipal services for some reason)), but with D.C.'s emergency services (police, fire and EMS) continuing to have fundamental problems like the ones documented below, it becomes reasonable to ask one question: why?

The Washington Post's most-recent reporting are in these articles: Emergency Worker Fired Over Response to Attack - Sources Also Say 4 Being Disciplined, Report Scolds D.C. Agencies In Response to Assault and Conspiracy Charged in Killing of Journalist. Post op-ed columnist Colbert I. King appears to have had most of the story figured out as far back as March 18, 2006, when he write this: Rosenbaum's Undiagnosed (Critical) Condition.

Post editorial on June 19, 2006: A Death and Multiple Failures: D.C. Fire and Emergency Services, police and Howard Hospital responded abysmally to an injured 'man down.'

N.Y. Times story: Inquiry Into Reporter's Death Finds Multiple Failures in Care.

Hot Document entry by Timothy Noah on Slate: Killing David Rosenbaum

Related stories on the WTOP Radio Web site: Rosenbaum Family Reacts to IG Report, I.G.: Apathy, Indifference, in Response to Rosenbaum Attack and D.C. Mayor Issues Statement on I.G.'s Report.

For those not familiar with D.C. geography, Mr. Rosenbaum was attacked in an area fairly close to the northwest border of D.C. with Montgomery County, Maryland. Unlike most of the rest of D.C., there's an alternative to D.C. ambulance service in this part of the city - the volunteer Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad (BCCRS) has long responded to emergency calls for ambulance service in Upper Northwest neigborhoods from its station in Bethesda, Maryland, but only if someone calls the BCCRS directly on its non-911 emergency line, as provided in a written agreement between D.C. and BCCRS. As this exchange in Post columnist Marc Fisher's online chat (from a few days after the attack on Mr. Rosenbaum) here points out, calling a D.C. ambulance may literally have been a fatal mistake:

Tenleytown, Washington, D.C.: If you live in upper NW D.C., immediately program your cell and home phones with the number of the BCC Rescue Squad 301-652-1000. Who knows, maybe you'll save a neighbor.
Marc Fisher: Excellent suggestion. Would Rosenbaum have lived if the neighbor who found him had called the Bethesda-Chevy Chase ambulance rather than the District? We'll never know, and clearly his wounds were very serious. But all who live in upper Northwest should know to call BCC rather than 911.

Government of the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General
Summary of Special Report: Emergency Response to the Assault on David E. Rosenbaum
OIG No. 06-I-003-UC-FB-FA-FX June 2006 (Adobe Acrobat .pdf - BIG - 3.96 MB).

Nice catch by the Richmond Times-Dispatch in documenting the

ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST

anti-nuclear propaganda effort by the Greenpeace folks.

Thanks to Out of Control at Reason.org for this one (even though Richmond is just a hop, skip and a jump down I-95 from me).

Intermodal Transportation: Challenges to and Potential Strategies for Developing Improved Intermodal Capabilities, GAO-06-855T, June 15, 2006

Abstract (HTML, small)

Note that the illustrations in this report (both the highlights and full report) appear to put excessive emphasis on modes of transport that run on steel rails for some reason.

Highlights of report (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 124 KB)

Full report (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 558 KB)



2010 Census: Census Bureau Needs to Take Prompt Actions to Resolve Long-standing and Emerging Address and Mapping Challenges, GAO-06-272, June 15, 2006

Abstract (HTML, small)

Highlights of report (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 289 KB)

Full report (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, BIG - 3.68 MB)

Many environmental, anti-auto and anti-suburban groups blame the widespread use of motor vehicles for being the cause of increased rates of asthma and other breathing problems. See examples here and here.

But at least when it comes to rats, more dirt may mean less allergies and less in the way of allergic reactions and asthma.

A paper published this week in the peer-reviewed Scandinavian Journal of Immunology and reported by the AP through the N.Y. Times Web site here, says that rats which grow up in clean laboratory environments are much more likely to have severe allergies and allergic reactions, when compared to their fellow rodents that run free in sewers, on farms and in other dirty environments.

When the immune cells in the wild rats are stimulated by researchers, ''they just don't do anything they sit there; if you give them same stimulus to the lab rats, they go crazy,'' said study co-author Dr. William Parker, a Duke University professor of experimental surgery. He compared lab rodents to more than 50 wild rats and mice captured and killed in cities and farms.

Also, the wild mice and rats had as much as four times higher levels of immunoglobulins, yet weren't sick, showing an immune system tuned to fight crucial germs, but not minor irritants, Parker said. He said what happened in the lab rats is what likely occurs in humans: their immune systems have got it so cushy they overreact to smallest of problems.

The N.Y. Times has an interesting article today on suburbs, "inner" suburbs and "outer" suburbs and how they relate to the 2006 elections.

The following paragraphs are espcially relevant:

In the inner suburbs, the rings just around big cities, Democrats won 58 percent of the presidential vote in 2004, Dr. Lang found. In the mature suburbs, the next tier out, the Democratic share was less, 51.9 percent.

But the fastest-growing areas are at the far edge, sometimes 80 miles or more from the urban center, and that is where Republicans built up huge majorities. In the outer two tiers of the study, President Bush won 56.6 percent of the 2004 vote in what Dr. Lang called "the emerging suburbs," and 62.3 percent in the exurbs.

[Click the heading to read the full article.]

As a lifelong Democrat, I have to wonder if too many in the Democratic Party have succumbed to demonizing residents of these new and outer suburbs because of their rational decisions about where to reside? Clearly ex-Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening spoke in very critical ways of such people and families as he promoted his Smart Growth program (and he did not have much electoral success in those fastest-growing areas of the state).

If the Sierra Club and other "anti-sprawl" groups want to make residents of these communities feel unwelcome in their groups just for moving to neighborhoods that do not meet their specifications, well, I suppose that is OK, but I think it's a mistake for Democrats to play along with such foolishness, for it hurts the party on election day.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - Green Party member and Black Panther, Malik Rahim, does not fit the stereotype of a property-rights activist - but that's exactly what he's become in the upside-down political world of post-Katrina New Orleans. Property owners who had their homes and businesses damaged by Katrina's wrath now face a more powerful and potent threat because government officials, armed with the public health code, eminent domain powers and a bevy of dubious legal techniques, aim to demolish buildings, and strip titles from owners--in what are being euphemistically called "forced buyouts."
Mr. Rahim is the founder of Common Ground. Because of his work, their Lower Ninth Ward headquarters is on the only street in the district with electricity or communications. This has become a fight, in many respects, between those who believe in organic urban development and those who favor political central planning. While he is no defender of capitalist principles, he is engaged in a struggle for what he calls "self-determination." He wants to "rebuild a community that offers opportunities to all its residents."

Durham, NC - Many of North Carolina's 100 counties are growing so rapidly that local governments cannot provide infrastructure like water, sewerage, roads, and schools rapidly enough using the traditional ad valorem property taxes. Some counties and municipalities have resorted to imposing impact fees on developers to help pay the costs, but the N.C. Court of Appeals recently ruled that unless a county has specific legislative authorization to impose impact fees they cannot do so, leaving several counties faced with both the possibility of having to refund fees already imposed and also of losing future revenues. The homebuilders of the state feel like they have won a major victory here!

Wendell Cox has an op-ed in the Orange County Register pointing out that, which high-speed rail might seem like a nice idea, it is not worth the tens of billions of dollars it is expected to cost. High-speed rail will do little to reduce highway congestion, and airlines -- its main competition -- will reduce their fares to draw passengers away from the trains.

Current estimates pin the cost at about $37 billion -- Cox thinks it could be double that. Of course, California has a huge budget surplus. Its schools, health care systems, fire, police, and other important services have plenty of money and they certainly would not mind sharing billions of dollars with a train system that will do little to add to anyone's mobility. Or, as Pat Zilliacus would say, NOT!

Getting Real on Air Pollution and Health

By Joel Schwartz
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, June 14, 2006; 12:00 AM

There is no question that air pollution can kill. About 4,000 Londoners died during the infamous five-day "London Fog" of December 1952, when pollution soared tens of times higher than current peak levels, and visibility dropped as low as 20 feet. Today's fears, however, center on the extent to which current, far lower air pollution levels can be harmful.

Regulators and environmental activists claim air pollution is still a major health threat. In its State of the Air 2006 report, the American Lung Association claimed "over half of the U.S. population lives in counties that have unhealthful levels of either ozone or particle [soot] pollution." According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fact sheet, "ozone can irritate lung airways and cause inflammation much like a sunburn. . . People with respiratory problems are most vulnerable, but even healthy people that are active outdoors can be affected when ozone levels are high."

Air pollution reductions are expensive, costing Americans at least tens of billions of dollars each year. Recently, the EPA implemented tough new standards for ozone and soot that will cost at least an additional $100 billion per year -- or about $1,000 per household -- and the agency plans to clamp down still further in the future.

[Click title for the full column.]

Desmoines, Iowa - State Republicans will try to muster enough support to override the Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack's crazy veto of legislation to limit local governments' ability to take private property. Republican leaders announced Monday their intention to seek two-thirds support from the members in both the House and Senate to take this rare step (1960 was the last time). Both chambers are almost evenly split among the parties, so a bi-partisan effort will be the only way to restore House File 2351 which put a greater burden on local governments that want to steal private property.

Research Triangle Park, NC - The section, which will connect I-40 and 55, could become a toll road, along with a 12-mile stretch of I-540 yet to be built called the Western Wake Parkway, and a five-mile extension of the Durham Freeway called the Triangle Parkway. "Projected growth in this corridor is extremely high in both population and employment," said Ed Regan, a study consultant to the project. That means the studies show there will probably be enough people using the proposed portion of I-540 to make tolls worth it. If approved, the tolls would go into effect in about five years. They would cost somewhere between $1 and $1.50. But the tolls will not cover the entire cost of the $800 million project. Even if the proposed toll roads go through, the Turnpike Authority still needs $12 million a year to cover the costs which they will also ask the taxpayers to pick up the tab for via the Legislature.

An audit of the Portland Development Commission, which handles the city's urban-renewal projects, found that the commission spent $384 million of TIF money on five projects whose primary goal was economic development. As premiere Portland blogger Jack Bogdanski observes, that yielded just 305 jobs, at a cost of nearly $550,000 per job, between 1996 and 2004.

The audit, which you can download, also reviewed several comparable areas of the city that had not received any urban-renewal or other subsidies. The report found that jobs in those areas grew three times faster than the areas of the urban-renewal projects.

Some of the five urban-renewal projects studied in the audit gained jobs and others lost. The biggest winner was the River District, which contains the Pearl District, a yuppified former warehouse district. But the biggest loser was downtown Portland, which is directly south of the River District. This raises the suspicion that the River District growth was at the expense of downtown. The two of them together netted just 256 jobs.

The audit points out that economic development was not the only purpose of the urban-renewal investments. Another was the construction of high-density housing (meaning more traffic congestion). Since much of that housing also received ten years of property tax waivers that are not counted in the $384 million, it is hard to claim that this high-density housing is a benefit of urban renewal.

This is just one more confirmation that all the money spent on urban renewal (including, in Portland's case, money spent on streetcars and light rail) is a waste.

The United States Government Accountability Office recently released this report, which may be of interest:

AIRLINE DEREGULATION:
Reregulating the Airline Industry Would Likely Reverse Consumer Benefits and Not Save Airline Pensions

Report GAO-06-630

Report Abstract

Report Highlights
(Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 61 KB)

Full Report
(Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 791 KB)

Maybe we could refer to many urban rail transit systems as Southwest Airlines (NOT!), at least when it comes to the equipment that is used to transport customers. Unlike Southwest (and Europe's Ryanair, based at London's Stansted Airport), which fly one model of aircraft only - members of the Boeing 737 family, rail transit authorities in the U.S. will generally purchase a few railcars from one vendor that gets the low bid, a few railcars from another vendor who submits the winning bid the next time and so on. And because most rail agencies have very unique requirements, the railcars are almost custom products, with a custom (read: high) price tag.

Compare and contrast with the classic PCC streetcar, where there was an effort to provide something of a standard design across many street railway systems.

Take, for instance, the Washington, D.C. Metrorail system. Its original railcars were built by Rohr Industries (no longer in the railcar business). The next two batches came from the Italian company now known as Ansaldobreda. Next came an order from Spanish CAF. The next addition to the WMATA railcar fleet is being built by Alstom Transportation Inc. Alstom also has a contract to rehabilitate 364 of the Ansaldobreda railcars for Metrorail.

All of this diversity means that many different types of spare parts have to be kept, and the spares are not needed in especially large quantities either, which leads to greater expense through the lifetime of this complex fleet.

The Washington Post has an interesting article by Lena H. Sun that describes some of these problems today, which can be read here: Rail Car Problems Delay Metro Relief.