What Is Middle Class?
A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Proctor & Gamble was no longer marketing to the middle class but instead has a two-tier marketing strategy (if you don’t have a subscription, you can get the gist of the article here). This has led to all kinds of discussion by the chattering […]
High-Speed Rail Is Still Dead (and Let’s Keep It That Way)
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend a token $100 million on high-speed rail after its own transportation subcommittee had zeroed out funding for the program. The purpose, said a rail advocate with US PIRG, is “to keep things on life support until Congress comes to its senses.” The only way Congress will “come to […]
Here We Go Again
Density is good. That’s the message from Ryan Avent, a writer for The Economist, whose new ebook, The Gated City, received a boost from a promotional op ed in the New York Times. Density, according to Avent, makes people wealthier, happier, and more productive. The data he uses to support these ideas, however, are suspect. […]
Sorry Smart Growthers, Baby Boomers Aren’t Interested
One of the articles of faith among smart-growth advocates is that retiring baby boomers will want to move into downtown or suburban high-density, mixed-use developments. In 2009, “Chris” Nelson himself came to Damascus, a very low-density suburb of Portland, to tell residents how wonderful it would be if they rezoned their city for high-density housing. […]
Another LRT Exceeds Minimalist Expectations
Norfolk Virginia finally opened its light-rail line, and ridership “exceeds expectations” at 5,600 riders a day. Considering they run 212 trains a weekday, that’s just over 26 passengers per train. How many 40-passenger buses would have been needed to handle all that traffic? Of course, the rail line exceeded expectations in many other ways as […]
Be Careful What You Wish For
A House Natural Resources Committee bill would turn national forests into fiduciary trusts mandated to produce both a minimum amount of timber and a minimum amount of revenues for the counties in which the forests are located. Thus, the Antiplanner’s original proposal to turn federal lands into fiduciary trusts become increasingly warped. A fiduciary trust […]
Ten Best Transit Cities? Not!
Someone asked the Antiplanner to comment on this list of the supposed ten best transit cities in the nation. The list includes, in order, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Washington, San Jose, Honolulu, and Salt Lake City. This is supposed to be for students, but it must really be for students who […]
Michigan Considers Teacher-Empowering Payroll Reform, Like Colorado Did in 2008
Business Week features a brief story about a piece of legislation under consideration in the Michigan legislature:
A proposal that would prohibit public schools from automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks is advancing in the Michigan Legislature.
The Republican-led House Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee approved the measure Tuesday with a party line 4-2 vote. The […]
Can Buses Compete with Planes?
The House of Representatives agreed to extend reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for four months and for surface transportation for six months. That’s not as long as the two years the Senate wanted for surface transportation, but apparently House Republicans weren’t ready to give up the gas tax (which would otherwise have expired […]
Louisville Bridge Is Falling Down?
The Interstate 65 bridge across the Ohio River was closed after inspectors found “two cracks in a load-bearing structure of the bridge.” Naturally, this has generated huge traffic jams, as many people in southern Indiana use the bridge to commute to Louisville and the six-lane bridge carries 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles a day. Flickr photo […]
Life in the WUI, 2011
Unlike much of the rest of the country, the Northwest has had a mild summer. But at the end of August we finally had a few thunderstorms, and they naturally lit some wildfires. So we are getting another lesson in modern wild land fire suppression. Mary Bernsen photo of backfires started by a helicopter. Click […]
Arizona Judge Orders More Transit Subsidies
When the Arizona legislature cut state subsidies to urban transit, an environmental group challenged the cuts in court. The federal judge agreed with the environmentalists and ordered the state to restore the subsidies. How can a judge order a legislature to spend money that the legislators felt they didn’t have? Apparently, the state had written […]
