American Dream

WASHINGTON - President Bush ordered Friday that federal agencies cannot seize private property except for public projects such as hospitals or roads. The move occurred on the one-year anniversary of a controversial Supreme Court decision.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, welcomed Bush's executive order, but said Congress must do more. Cornyn has introduced legislation that would also bar federal funding for any state or local projects in which the land was obtained through eminent domain.
Doug Kendall, who backed the city's right to take the homes in the Connecticut case, said Bush's order is relatively benign precisely because it doesn't include a funding ban. "This order appears to apply to a null set of government actions. ... I'm not aware of any federal government agency that takes property for economic development," he said.
The White House defended the president's approach saying, "The president is a strong supporter of private property rights, and this executive order put the federal government on record opposing eminent domain for merely economic development purposes."

Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to strengthen the rights of the American people against the taking of their private property, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.
Sec. 2. Implementation. (a) The Attorney General shall:
(i) issue instructions to the heads of departments and agencies to implement the policy set forth in section 1 of this order; and
(ii) monitor takings by departments and agencies for compliance with the policy set forth in section 1 of this order.
(b) Heads of departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law:
(i) comply with instructions issued under subsection (a)(i); and
(ii) provide to the Attorney General such information as the Attorney General determines necessary to carry out subsection (a)(ii).
Sec. 3. Specific Exclusions. Nothing in this order shall be construed to prohibit a taking of private property by the Federal Government, that otherwise complies with applicable law, for the purpose of:
(a) public ownership or exclusive use of the property by the public, such as for a public medical facility, roadway, park, forest, governmental office building, or military reservation;
(b) projects designated for public, common carrier, public transportation, or public utility use, including those for which a fee is assessed, that serve the general public and are subject to regulation by a governmental entity;
c) conveying the property to a nongovernmental entity, such as a telecommunications or transportation common carrier, that makes the property available for use by the general public as of right;
(d) preventing or mitigating a harmful use of land that constitutes a threat to public health, safety, or the environment;
(e) acquiring abandoned property;
(f) quieting title to real property;
(g) acquiring ownership or use by a public utility;
(h) facilitating the disposal or exchange of Federal property; or
(i) meeting military, law enforcement, public safety, public transportation, or public health emergencies.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) authority granted by law to a department or agency or the head thereof; or
(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budget, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order shall be implemented in a manner consistent with Executive Order 12630 of March 15, 1988.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 23, 2006.
# # #

(1) Why are these folks protesting high motor fuel prices? Are they not in favor of everyone taking mass transit?

(2) That BP station to be the site of the protest today, like all gas stations in the District of Columbia, collects many dollars in transit subsidies from every paying customer that fills up.

A modest proposal:

One way to substantially lower motor fuel prices in D.C. would be for the D.C. Government to stop collecting transit subsidies from motorists at the pump.

One less customer for Amtrak, I suppose (though this patron could have afforded to pay the un-subsidized and fully-allocated cost of taking a trip on Amtrak).

Until I read his obituary in the L.A. Times, I did not know that TV producer Aaron Spelling, who died this week, refused to fly in airplanes.

If you have not seen it, this special edition of the L.A. Times is worth a look.

Be sure to check out the great photographs associated with the stories.

Two items today in the Washington Post on this subject, following on to this blog entry from last week.

Group Home Failures Persist
Care Still Lacking, D.C. Report Says

The District government continues to provide dangerous, substandard care to disabled residents at some of its group homes and has recently hampered oversight efforts by failing to provide full and timely information on critical operations, a federal court monitor has found.

In her latest quarterly report, court monitor Elizabeth Jones describes numerous and chronic problems with the city's Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration. She also questions whether she is getting complete reports on death investigations, saying that at least one document she received from the District was edited to remove information critical of the city.

And Colby King's op-ed column today has some more unpleasant truths: The Dysfunction Williams Didn't Tackle

The night before D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams announced he was standing by his man, embattled Fire Chief Adrian Thompson, Virginia Rosenbaum, the wife of slain New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum, quietly passed away. This has been a tragic year for the Rosenbaum family. The mayor's vote of confidence in the chief who stoutly defended his department's indefensible response to the fatally injured journalist was one more blow that Rosenbaum's family and friends didn't deserve.

Of course that may be the least of the mayor's concerns. At Thursday's press briefing, Williams proclaimed that "the chief is here to stay." He forgot to add, however, "not for long."

More controversies over building heights - this time next to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland.

What's curious about this controversy is the city in which it's taking place - Baltimore. This is a city that has, according to Census Bureau figures, lost hundreds of thousands of residents over the past 30 years - and the Maryland Smart Growth industry (including 1,000 Friends, the Baltimore Regional Partnership, MaryPIRG (see this MaryPIRG report in particular: Transit-Oriented Development: Strategies to Promote Vibrant Communities) and CEDS) cranks out an unceasing stream of reports and messages about the need to encourage population growth and new development in Baltimore.

But as Robert Bruegmann pointed out in his superb Sprawl : A Compact History:

Increasingly, however, as affluent citizens have moved to the center, they are doing just what their counterparts have long done in the suburbs. They have found that the can use zoning ordinances, historic preservation measures, environmental regulations, and other means to resist continued change, to control the appearance and character of their neighborhoods and to stop densities from rising.

From the article in the Baltimore Sun:

Putting the luxury homes over the 58-foot height limit are roof-top structures that are supposed to house only mechanical equipment but are instead billed by the developer as "penthouses" with optional wet bars.

The penthouses add at least four feet to the structures, a lapse that could seem small to some, but not to anyone involved in the increasingly acrimonious battles between communities and developers over building height.

"We believe we're absolutely 100 percent in compliance with the Key Highway urban renewal plan," said Wise. "The city has raised a question to that compliance based on unknown information from a local community group."

Yesterday, as news spread that the city had issued the stop-work order, the handful of activists who had pushed for it were somewhat gratified but even more surprised.

After pleading with top city officials including Rolley, Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano and Mayor Martin O'Malley since last summer to stop the development, they had given up hope that the city would take action.

Update: 2006-06-23:
Builder, city near deal on heights
Developer defied stop-work order on harbor homes

Speed-Hump Fight Jars Parents
As Device's Value Is Reexamined, A Feud Grows in North Arlington

By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 23, 2006; Page B01

Some highlights:

A debate over whether to place speed humps on North 35th Street in Arlington County has generally pitted the families in the modest brick ramblers in one neighborhood against the empty-nesters living in the white-columned homes of another. The parents say their kids need safer streets; the other side says the humps are unsafe. Herring describes the pitched battle as "class warfare at its worst."

Community meetings have turned into shouting matches worthy of Britain's House of Commons. "Keep Kids Alive -- Drive 25" signs have been stolen from yards. Fliers and counterfliers are flying. A signature drive was launched.

It's neighbor vs. neighbor in Arlington -- over four speed humps.

Arlington began reevaluating its speed hump program this spring because of such controversies. Some residents say the county has gone overboard with humps since introducing a "traffic calming" program in 2000. More than 200 have sprouted in five years, twice the number in Fairfax County, which is 15 times bigger than Arlington.

What the reporter did not mention in the paragraph above is relevant to this discussion. Most neighborhood streets in Arlington County, Virginia are maintained by the county - which is unusual in Virginia. By contrast, all streets and roads in Fairfax County, except those inside the corporate limits of its towns, are maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), which is much more common in Virginia. Out of Virginia's over 90 counties, only Arlington County and Henrico County maintain their own "secondary" roads (e.g. subdivision streets). VDOT still maintains the major streets and highways that are assigned a state route number in Arlington and Henrico.

While most Virginia counties do not own or maintain streets and roads, Virginia cities (which are independent of adjoining counties) and towns (which are part of a county) do generally maintain their own streets and roads.

A Northwest environmental group has published a junk-science report claiming that suburbs are dangerous for people's health. Here is the reasoning:

1. A study of highway safety shows that rural roads are more dangerous than urban roads (which includes roads in both cities and suburbs). Since everyone knows that suburbs are halfway between cities and rural areas, the report concludes that suburban roads must be more dangerous than city roads.

2. Everyone knows that suburban sprawl "locks people into their cars." So therefore, the suburbs must be the cause of the obesity epidemic you've heard so much about.

3. Air pollution tends to concentrate around roads. Since everyone knows that suburbanites drive more than city dwellers, they must breathe dirtier air.

All I can do is roll my eyes in disbelief, especially when I see newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer print this stuff. The report is guilty of so many junk-science fallacies it is difficult to count them all, but at minimum they include:

• Relying on innuendo and other things that "everyone knows"
• Presuming that correlation equals causation
• Finding weak correlations between data sets that don't even compare suburbs with cities and then blaming the correlations on the suburbs.

The report is published by a group called the Sightline Institute that claims to be a "think tank." Since it relies almost entirely on pseudoscience, it is more realistic to call it a pseudothink tank.

The San Francisco Chronicle describes life in the Sacramento County, California municipality of Elk Grove, the fastest-growing in the United States in this article: ELK GROVE: Sacramento County city is nation's fastest-growing Census confirms status -- police, builders, schools try to keep up.

Updated 2006-06-21: Ken Stevenson was nice enough to share the following comments about Elk Grove and its annexation of the Laguna West development, some of which I have pasted-in below:

The interesting thing about Laguna West is that it was an early New-Urbanist development, designed by Peter Calthorpe and developed by Phil Angiledes, the current Democratic candidate for governor. An article a few years back in the Sacramento Bee found that people there lived their lives pretty much as they do in any other other suburb -- they got around by car -- providing evidence of the limited influence that the physical environment has on people's behavior. Building "pedestrian-friendly" communities doesn't ensure that people are going to walk.

Wendell Cox of Demographia.com shares these:

Annexation information (Elk Grove Planning Commission Web site)

You are right that Laguna Westers seem to behave like normal people in their travel patterns (Interesting table from Demographia.com)

This is also confirmed by the attached picture, taken by yours truly on a visit to this paradise...

In the meantime, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an article about Norfolk, Virginia, described as the "nation's fastest-shrinking big city" in this report: Norfolk ranks first as fastest shrinking city - Mayor calls census report 'nuts' and sees signs to the contrary.

The Times-Dispatch story is also of interest for this reason - it reports that Arlington County, Virginia, darling of Smart Growth activists everywhere, is listed "among the fastest shrinking cities of at least 100,000 population."

Read the press release from the U.S. Census Bureau here.

Press Release: Arlington Disputes 2005 Census Bureau Population Estimate for County

I recently wrote an extensive entry here in this blog about how the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department botched the handling of the (ultimately fatal) battery on the late N.Y. Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum.

Well, sometimes there are better stories from the streets of D.C. The Washington Post reported that Curtis Hessler was stricken on Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. in Washington last Saturday. As luck would have it, a car with two agents from the Uniformed Division of the U.S. Secret Service was passing by, and they rendered prompt aid and assistance to Mr. Hessler, in marked contrast to the terrible service that Mr. Rosenbaum received.

Could it be that federal law enforcement officers from the U.S. Secret Service have a better work ethic and willingness to serve the public than D.C.'s municipal police department?

United Kingdom - The government came under fierce attack yesterday after quietly bringing in measures to give councils the power to seize the homes of the dead from bereaved families. Ministers were accused of "burying bad news" by publishing details of the rules while the nation's eyes were trained on the World Cup. The measures, released by Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, on Friday afternoon, give local authorities the power to confiscate homes that have been vacant for six months and rent them out to the homeless. From next month councils will be able to break into, alter or refurbish the properties and let them out to tenants of their choice for up to seven years.

But the Conservatives, housing experts and bereavement charities reacted furiously, arguing that the Empty Dwelling Management Orders left bereaved families facing the appalling prospect of having deceased relatives' homes confiscated unless they rushed through a quick sale. Michael Gove, the shadow housing and planning minister, accused the Government of releasing details of the orders when the nation was still mulling over England's World Cup match against Trinidad and Tobago. Bureaucrats would be able to take over "private homes in perfect condition", he said. "Seizing homes of the recently deceased is particularly disturbing. This is a stealthy new form of inheritance tax. People don't always want to sell the house quickly. Often it's where they grew up and there are sentimental attachments."

San Diego, CA - Virtually everything American society has done for the past 100 years has made it easier for us to be fatter, said James Sallis, a San Diego State University psychology professor. "We've built an unhealthy world in a lot of different ways," said Sallis, who was once dubbed an "obesity warrior" by Time magazine. Sallis contends change will come only when the public demands walkable development, more federal money for parks and bike paths and even a tax on industries that promote sedentary lifestyles - he pointed to video game makers, movie theater chains and even electric Segway scooters. (DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO ACTUALLY OWNS A SEGWAY - NO!?!?!?) Proof that people will accept an active lifestyle and walk to parks and shopping if they can is found in the "new urbanism" style of planned communities, the experts contend. "People will walk if you give them that opportunity," he said.

I don't know which, if any, of the alternative fuels from agricultural products is viable in economic terms. Ethanol has been a big success in Brazil, but they have a nation that's right on the Equator, and the climate there lends itself to growing sugar cane, which can be refined into motor fuel.

Are fuels refined from corn or sugar beets better? Maybe! But we should not allow the search for alternative fuels to turn into a federal porkfest, and from what I read in this article, that is already happening.

Added 2006-06-20 from the Baltimore Sun: For addiction to oil, dose of distilled corn

Quotes:

Pat Tate drove into the Citgo Quik Mart in Annapolis and stopped in front of an odd-looking fuel pump. It featured pictures of corn stalks waving in a blue sky and advertised a price per gallon - $2.95 - 9 cents cheaper than the gas at the next pump.

Tate filled up his car with "E85," a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The gas station, one of three in Maryland to sell the fuel, has seen a sharp increase in customers filling up on E85 over the past year - a trend across the nation as soaring gas prices and the Iraq war have attracted drivers more to a home-grown alternative to gasoline.

"Anything you can do to reduce your use of oil, and lessen your emissions into the environment, the better," said Tate, 64, who is director of architecture and engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. "We are only borrowing the Earth, and we owe it to our grandchildren to leave it as pristine as we can."

He was driving a state-owned Dodge Stratus with a "flex fuel" engine designed to run on either gasoline or ethanol. Car makers have been building and marketing an increasing number of these flex fuel vehicles, with 5 million on the road today, about 2.5 percent of the nation's cars. Many are owned by government or university fleets.

And there's this from the Wall Street Journal Web site ($): Demand for Ethanol Aggravates Pain at the Pump

The first few paragraphs:

Ethanol has been touted by President Bush and others as a possible long-term cure for Americans' addiction to fossil fuels, especially expensive gasoline. But right now it is pushing pump prices higher in the U.S.

Ethanol, a plant-based fuel, is being used in the U.S. primarily as an additive to blend with gasoline in proportions of up to 10%, not as an outright substitute. Demand for ethanol as an additive has caused its price to soar about 65% since early May to around $4.50 a gallon in U.S. spot markets, according to the Oil Price Information Service. That makes it far more expensive than gasoline, which costs about $2.90 a gallon at the pump on average, according to the AAA driving club.

At service stations across the U.S., the gasoline that drivers pump into their cars is up to 10% ethanol.

Analysts say this has set up a lesson straight out of the Economics 101 textbook: If you add an ingredient to a product that is pricier than the product itself, in effect, you're driving up the price of the product.

"We'd probably have retail gasoline prices between $2.30 and $2.40 a gallon if not for ethanol," estimates economist James Glassman of J.P. Morgan.

[Emphasis added]

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (commonly called AASHTO ("ashtoe") for short) has assembled a very attractive and informative set of Web pages to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Interstate system, which will be observed during 2006.

Said pages are well worth a visit.

From the Introduction:

The year 2006 will mark the 50th anniversary of the federal law that brought America its unparalleled Interstate Highway System. This 46,508-mile web of superhighways has transformed our nation and our economy. It is a symbol of freedom and a tribute to human ingenuity—although some of the changes it has brought our nation have been controversial.

A Convoy Reenactment – Retracing the Trip that Changed America is going on as this message is posted, and will end in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 29, 11:30 A.M. at the Ellipse Park – 17th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.

And the San Francisco Chronicle (sfgate.com) ran an article on this subject over the weekend (I do not agree with everything written in it - see what you think):
THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM AT 50: America in fast lane with no exit Freeways have changed our way of life and given birth to new industries.

As reported by the Washington Post: Court Split Over Wetlands Protections.

The first paragraph:

A divided Supreme Court ruled today that federal regulators may have overreached when they stopped two Michigan landowners from developing property deemed to be wetlands, but the justices were unable to come to a majority view on limiting the scope of the federal Clean Water Act.

Read more about this important case over at Out of Control here.

You can read the Supreme Court's "slip" opinion here (Adobe Acrobat .pdf, 787kb).

From EDN:

A few highlights:

An explicitly acknowledged value of convenience and safety systems for drivers is that they can make driving safer, easier, or less stressful. The implied value of these systems is that they might be able to alert and direct a driver's attention to an important detail, thereby avoiding an accident. Peter Schulmeyer, director of strategy for Freescale's Transportation and Standard Products Group, points out, "A main aim of in-car electronic systems currently in development or early deployment is to reduce the load on the driver."

In 2004, police reported approximately 6.2 million motor-vehicle accidents that killed 42,636 people and injured approximately 2.8 million. According to an NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) report and the VTTI (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute), driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes. The report found that 80% of collisions and 65% of near-collisions involved driver inattention, such as from drowsiness or cell-phone use, within three seconds before the event.

One last hurdle for these emerging systems is the cultural acceptance of letting the automobile take over more of the tasks of driving. A complaint from driving enthusiasts about the existing systems, such as electronic stability control, is that they make driving less fun. Also, as these systems become more interdependent, the opportunity for self-adjusting the vehicle will decrease as such changes could adversely affect the performance of the entire system. The underlying concept of these types of systems is appropriate for any type of vehicle, such as planes, trains, and boats—not just automobiles. The success of one system in one type of vehicle could translate to acceptance in another type of vehicle.