Deadline Headaches
The Antiplanner is working on a big project with a tight deadline, so postings may be thin for awhile.
U.K. HSR Questioned
The venerable Economist has come out in opposition to a $52 billion plan to build high-speed rail from London to Manchester and Leeds. As the magazine-that-calls-itself-a-newspaper explains in an accompanying article, the new line would take two decades to build and produce questionable benefits for the nation. While rail proponents claim that new train lines […]
What’s the Opposite of a “Clean Extension”?
While the Antiplanner was in Montana, President Obama asked Congress to pass a “clean extension” of the surface transportation laws. By this, he meant that Congress should continue spending money like a drunken sailor the way it has been spending it for the past several years (more specifically, spending it faster than it has been […]
September ‘Tis Season for Colo. School Employees Who Want to Opt Out of Union Dues or Fees
In Colorado schools across the state are back in session, which puts us in the short time frame in which union members in several school districts can choose to opt out of a year’s worth of union dues (and in a few cases for non-union members to opt out of paying hundreds of dollars in union fees). You can find a complete list of membership revocation information for all teachers and school employees.
Another Bad Idea
Someone named Marc Fasteau urges the United States to adopt an industrial policy. Because, after all, it worked so well in Japan (two lost decades of nearly zero economic growth), China (rapid growth but rampant corruption), and Germany (which has fined one of its biggest manufacturers more than $1.5 billion for bribing local officials to […]
Honolulu Showdown
The Antiplanner is at a conference this week so postings will be light. In the meantime, readers might want to discuss this editorial against the Honolulu rail project, which it says “would change the landscape in ways many are unwilling to accept.” Only subscribers can read more than the first couple of paragraphs, but Honolulu […]
Pipeline Brings Attention to Tar Sands
The New York Times editorialized against a pipeline aimed at bringing petroleum from Alberta into the United States, saying the pipeline “would traverse highly sensitive terrain” and the oil involved would generate too much carbon emissions. As far as “highly sensitive terrain” goes, the federal government’s environmental review found “no significant impact” from the pipeline. […]
The Myth That Will Not Die
Transportation planning today suffers from several common fallacies, including the myth of the great streetcar conspiracy and the notion that we should spend billions of dollars on obsolete forms of transportation to give people “choices.” But the most troublesome myth is the notion of induced-demand, that is, that new roads will automatically become fully congested […]
Why Conservatives Hate Trains
Debates over high-speed rail and federal transit funding have inspired a number of writers asking why conservatives hate passenger trains. Most of them get it wrong. The real answer is: they don’t. They just hate subsidies, at least if they are fiscal conservatives (as opposed to social conservatives like the late Paul Weyrich). Case in […]
Debate Over Future of BLM Lands
Andy Stahl debates the DeFazio forest trust proposal with Douglas County (Roseburg) Commissioner Doug Robertson. Robertson also chairs the association of counties that collect revenues from the lands in question. Instead of dividing the lands in two, Robertson proposes to give all the lands to a single board of trustees set up something like the […]
New Phi Delta Kappa Poll Makes Case for Teacher Membership Alternatives
Update, 8/23: The new PDK poll isn’t alone in making the case for teacher alternatives. PACE membership director Tim Farmer makes a great case that “professional associations are the future of teaching” today on the Ed News Colorado blog.
The state of American public opinion on teachers and their unions, as reported in the recent Phi […]
World Boondoggle Center
The World Trade Center that was destroyed almost ten years ago was a frequently photographed symbol of New York City, but it was also a huge boondoggle of the New York & New Jersey Port Authority that was heavily subsidized by motorists paying bridge tolls. So of course, it is completely appropriate that the building […]
