American Dream

July 25, 2006
Oregon’s Property Rights Law Kicks In, Easing Rigid Rules
By TIMOTHY EGAN

BEND, Ore. — With 50,000 acres of lakes, lava flows and otherworldly rock features that offer a peek into central Oregon’s geologic tumult, the Newberry National Volcanic Monument is one of the more theatrical of the nation’s protected natural wonders.

In the eyes of James R. Miller, who owns a doughnut hole of private land inside the monument, all that volcanic energy just below the surface makes the big caldera a perfect place for a pumice mine and power plant.

And under a landmark property rights law enacted by Oregon voters two years ago, Mr. Miller now says the government must allow him to go ahead with his development or pay him $203 million in compensation.

The claim may be the biggest yet among hundreds of filings by Oregon property owners since voters approved Measure 37, the property rights proposal, in 2004. The measure says that when land rules reduce the value of property, the government must compensate the owner or waive the regulations.

[Click heading for the full article]

Interview with Jamie Smith Hopkins, the author of this series on WBAL Radio (.mp3 format).

A section of this Q&A session with Jamie Smith Hopkins is especially relevant.

John Robertson, Baltimore: How can we seriously complain about a housing shortage when large swaths of Baltimore City are sitting vacant? What creative methods are being used in the area to increase affordable housing? What about mass transportation infrastructure that is moving slower than the housing supply? How will those people get from point A to point B?

Smith Hopkins: As the third part of the series notes, Baltimore City makes a lot of sense as a place to funnel growth. So why are we facing a housing shortage? Because substantial population gains in the city are not a sure thing. Baltimore has lost a third of its population since 1950 and would have to make changes, or change perceptions, to make a 180-degree turn. State planners expect growth in the city, but not huge growth, and The Sun's housing shortage calculations were done with that in mind. Many of those vacant homes you mention are not in physical shape for people to live in, never mind whether they would feel safe in the neighborhoods where those homes are located.

But -- as the third part of the series also points out -- the potential is there, and the city is now seeing positive trends that could help it capitalize on the possibilities. Rehabbers are turning shells into livable units. Developers are queuing up with plans for thousands of new homes. Average values rose sharply in the past few years during the housing-market boom. And it doesn't hurt that an increasing number of Americans are either childless or empty-nesters, because they're more likely to be interested in city living than the traditional nuclear family.

To answer your other questions, local mechanisms to increase the amount of affordable housing range from nonprofit community developers rebuilding parts of the city to legal requirements that developers set aside a percentage of new homes at prices moderate-income buyers can afford. Even so, affordable-housing advocates in the suburbs frequently say the high cost of land is a major obstacle. As for mass transit, you touch on a point that local economists have already made: If city residents can't get to jobs in the region, it hurts not only their prospects but also those of employers trying to fill open positions.

Former Presidential Contender turned Hollywood Superstar, Senator John Kerry (D, MA), recently gave a speech on a quasi-transportation issue called "Enegery Independence". While he, like many politicians from both sides of the aisle before him, set guidlines for fuel efficiency - he did NOT advocate for more mono rail costruction, cramped neighborhood living, or fewer roads. And, in keeping with our ADC Platform, at no point, did he suggest that Americans give up their automobiles!

CNW Marketing Research, Inc. released a detailed study that shows that the overall energy consumption (building, transporting, driving and disposing) of hybrid vehicles, is actually more than their non-hybrid counterparts. For example, a Honda Civic has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $2.42/mile, compared to the Honda Civic Hybrid which has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $3.238/mile. This means that although the hybrid version has better fuel efficiency, over the entire life of the car, the Honda Civic will be using less energy than the Honda Civic Hybrid. Check out their cool graphs on Hummer vs Hybrid.

Two questions - how much more is the construction cost for Dulles Rail going to rise if the line is built through a tunnel? And how many other unexpected (and expensive) construction problems lay in the path of the Dulles Rail line?

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 29, 2006; B04

Metro suspended a major refurbishment of nearly 20 percent of its fleet of rail cars because of continuing quality control problems with the company performing the work, Metro officials said yesterday.

Earlier in the week, Metro workers discovered a safety hazard during a routine maintenance inspection. Mechanics found that the doors on a recently rehabilitated rail car were open even though a signal light in the train operator's cab showed them to be closed. The rail car was not in service at the time.

Metro managers ordered all 194 cars that had been retooled by Alstom Transportation Inc. to undergo a safety inspection and discovered that 16 additional cars were at risk of the same door problem. Repairs have since been made on those cars, officials said.

The problems did not affect any passengers, according to Steve Feil, Metro's chief operating officer for rail.

"We believe the trains are safe," Metro's interim general manager, Dan Tangherlini, said in a statement. "However, as a precaution, Metro and Alstom officials will conduct a complete reinspection of the 194 rehabilitated rail cars already received. . . . We're taking this step together to ensure the improved quality of the existing rail cars and all future rail car deliveries."

[Click link above for the rest of the story]

Dear Hillary,
Thank you so much for helping to promote the AMERICAN DREAM coalition. All the free press and increased web traffic has been great!
Thanks,
:-)Kat

Hillary Clinton: 'It's the American dream, stupid'
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), a possible White House contender in 2008, said Monday in Denver, that the Bush administration had hurt working Americans, and that Democrats must offer new ideas (same slogan as Bill had in 92') to strengthen the middle class. The American Dream Initiative, proposes to make college and home ownership more affordable, help small businesses, improve retirement savings and expand health insurance coverage. Clinton said she hoped the agenda would "unite Democrats and help elect Democrats" in November. "This plan will make the basics of life in the middle class; health care, education and retirement- affordable for those who take responsibility. These ideas will make sure every American will get a fair wage, access to college and home ownership and a path out of poverty and into the middle class," she said. While much of the agenda covers familiar Democratic territory, it adds some flourishes - an 'American Dream Grant' would award money to states based on attendance and graduation from state colleges, while 'American Dream Accounts' would enhance retirement savings.

The link to this article is too long for our ADC blog title line, so here it is: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-07-27T121635Z_01_N13445774_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-TREES.xml

Ketchum, ID - Resort towns are the latest among a growing number of communities seeking to protect their dwindling natural canopies by placing restrictions on the cutting of trees on private land. The policies, which do not apply to timber harvesting on private tree farms or federal lands, are being imposed amid debates over future growth in exclusive enclaves where developers seek to fill entire lots with structures. Tree devotees applaud the measures but property rights proponents say towns are going too far. "Since when do the rights of trees take precedence over the rights of people?" said Elbie Bellon, owner of a tire and auto store in Hailey. "I'm a tree-hugger. I've planted hundreds in my lifetime, but I think it's totally ridiculous that someone can come along and tell you not to cut a tree down."

Cincinnati, OH - The Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a suburb cannot take private property by eminent domain for a $125 million project of offices, shops and restaurants. The case was the first challenge of property rights laws to reach a state high court since KELO. The case involves the city of Norwood, which used its power of eminent domain to seize properties holding out against private development in an area considered to be deteriorating. The court found that economic development isn't a sufficient reason under the state constitution to justify taking homes.
In the ruling, Justice Maureen O'Connor said cities may consider economic benefits but that courts deciding such cases in the future must "apply heightened scrutiny" to assure private citizens' property rights. "For the individual property owner, the appropriation is not simply the seizure of a house," she wrote. "It is the taking of a home — the place where ancestors toiled, where families were raised, where memories were made."

Hillsboro, TX - Fear and anger among farmers across the Texas countryside could become a political problem for Gov. Rick Perry (R) as he runs for re-election in November. It was Perry who proposed the Trans Texas Corridor in 2002, envisioning a combined toll road and rail system that would whisk traffic from the Oklahoma line to Mexico. The 4,000-mile, $184 billion transportation network would be up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, even broadband transmission cables. Of Perry's major opponents — Democrat Chris Bell and Independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman — Strayhorn has stirred the most fury calling the plan the "Trans Texas Catastrophe," a "land grab" of historic proportions. She refers to Perry's appointees on the transportation commission as "highway henchmen." A week ago, Strayhorn picked up a $6,500 campaign donation and endorsement from the Blackland Coalition, a group of anti-corridor farmers.

Boston, MA - The $15 billion "Big Dig" was meant to inspire awe, an engineering marvel on scale with the Panama Canal that would thrust U.S. cities into a new era. Instead, it faces a crisis of public confidence after a fatal tunnel collapse that could derail plans for other U.S. urban mega-projects. Cost overruns, leaks, delays, falling debris, criminal probes and charges of corruption plague the nearly completed 15-year project, giving ammunition to opponents of similar plans in other cities considering tearing down aging elevated highways built in a construction boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, with motorists afraid to travel through Big Dig after a woman was killed last week by falling cement, those skeptics have their most persuasive case yet. "When things leak and certainly when things fall down that aren't suppose to, clearly that undermines people's confidence in government's ability to deliver," said David Luberoff, a Harvard researcher and co-author of "Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment."

By offering free transit rides, the San Francisco Bay Area has managed to increase ridership by 15 percent on "spare the air" days. The new mayor of Los Angeles wants to offer a week of free transit.

At first glance, this sounds like a good idea. Transit riders pay only about 20 percent of the cost of service. So by increasing the subsidy from 80 percent to 100 percent -- say, from $4 to $5 a ride -- we can get lots of cars off the road.

The only problem is that it doesn't cost just $4 or $5 to get one person out of their car. If you offer free transit service to new riders, you also have to offer it to existing riders. So, if free transit increases ridership by 15 percent, then you end up spending $10 to $30 or more just to get one person out of their car and onto transit for one ride. (The cost in the San Francisco Bay Area is a little more than $10 per ride, but in other areas it may be much more.)

The real problem with transit is not that it is expensive. As this blogger points out, the real problem is that it is inconvenient. Improvements to bus service that increase frequencies, speeds, and other measures of convenience can increase ridership at a cost of $1 to $6 per ride. Transit agencies should spend their scarce dollars making such improvements rather than giving free transit service or, ahem, building expensive rail lines.

Howard citizens lose bill battle -
Court blocks placement of zoning challenge on November ballot

By Larry Carson
sun reporter
Originally published July 27, 2006

A group of Howard County citizens worried about the pace of growth lost a bid yesterday before the state's highest court to place dozens of government-approved zoning changes on the ballot this year.

The citizens were trying to defeat a bill, called Comp Lite, that provided for a series of comprehensive zoning changes for new homes, office parks, businesses and a major church expansion. The Maryland Court of Appeals' refusal to re-examine the Howard case could also have political implications for local candidates.

In my opinion, the Smart Growth rhetoric that was tossed around by Maryland's ex-Gov. Parris N. Glendening deserves a fair share of the blame for this problem.

This is a series of articles that ran this week in the Baltimore Sun:

The coming housing crunch - Homebuilding limits, impending job surge are putting the region on a collision course

Homeowners driven to extreme - To get the homes they want and can afford, many are relocating to Eastern Shore, Pa., Del.

About the analysis

Searching for solutions - Creative strategies, policy changes, focused planning could help avert shortage

Gap gives city its chance - Forces now favor growth, but major challenges persist

Sun Q&A: The coming housing crunch - Sun reporter answers questions about her series on housing in the region

Or, perhaps more to the point, it seems that people with an assortment of skin colors and ethnic backgrounds find the suburban and (relatively) affordable single-family housing stock of Prince George's County to be attractive.

Not one mention of Smart Growth in this article either.

The Dulles Rail project is again making the pages of the Washington Post - here are two articles about it that are closely related to each other:

Tysons Landowners Could Cover Cost Of Metro Tunnel
State Considers Raising Tax in Area

Wolf, Davis Say Tunnel May Delay Dulles Rail