How Many Subsidies Can Dance on the Head of a TOD?
Rail transit advocates often claim that new rail lines increase the value of properties near rail stations. While the Antiplanner is skeptical of many of these claims, a new report casts a dark light on such increased property values. According to this report from the Dukakis Center for Urban Policy (yes, that Dukakis), increased property […]
So… “How Much Does NEA Spend on Politics?”
Of course, the answer to the question is: Depends what you mean. Some issues to consider:
Are we talking about the national union headquarters, state union affiliates and/or local union offices?
Are we only discussing “PAC money” or all the kinds of independent expenditures that regular dues money may be spent on?
Are we looking at spending only […]
Protests in Stuttgart
From 5,000 miles away, it is difficult to tell what is going on in Stuttgart, Germany, where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest against a $6 billion plan to replace the city’s World War I-vintage train station. Is the main concern the cost? The loss of a historic structure? […]
DC Unions Bankroll Colorado Campaign Against Health Care Choice
By Linda Gorman People who need to spend $100,000 to interpret 90 words of a ballot initiative, that the Blue Book interprets for free, shouldn’t have much credibility when it comes to controlling health care costs. That’s how much the campaign against the health care choice amendment, Amendment 63, spent on fancy campaign consultants. The […]
Amendment 63 vs. The Unlicensed Vampire Alarmists
Does the Colorado Constitution guarantee the rights of violent criminals to be armed in prison or when released on parole? You might think so if you believe criticisms of Amendment 63. Amendment 63 would prohibit the state from forcing you to buy a politician-approved health plan and protect your right to pay for medical care […]
Getting Priorities Straight
Detroit is America’s eleventh-largest urban area and (unless you count the insipid people mover) the largest without rail transit. So, naturally, the city suffers from light-rail envy. In 2008, the mayor promised a Detroit-to-Ann Arbor commuter train by October 25, 2010–a promise that, since then, has been deferred indefinitely. The city also wants to build […]
Urban Planning Dream or Nightmare?
In Best-Laid Plans, the Antiplanner argues that cities are too complicated to plan, so anyone who tries to plan them ends up following fads and focusing on one or two goals to the near-exclusion of all else. The current fad is to reduce per capita driving by increasing density and spending money on rail transit. […]
Crash Postpones Driverless Test
The Antiplanner was looking forward to seeing Volkswagen run a driverless Audi up the windy Pikes Peak Road at racing speeds last month. Unfortunately, this test was postponed by a crash — not of the driverless car but of a helicopter that was aiming to photograph the test. (Maybe someone should develop a pilotless helicopter.) […]
Another County Heard From
Article on high-speed rail in the on-line edition of USA Today. Key point: “The history of transportation shows that we adopt new technologies when they are faster, more convenient, and less expensive than the technologies they replace. High-speed rail is slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and far more expensive than either one. As […]
Postcards from Asia
My visit to Korea was courtesy of the Korean Institute of Public Administration (KIPA), which asked me to speak at a conference on “Conflict Management and Collaborative Governance.” Apparently, since Korea became a democracy in 1987, people have expressed their new-found freedom by protesting and debating all sorts of things, conflicts that one analyst estimates […]
Rest in Peace, Old Friend
July 1, 1993 – October 11, 2010 Chip on Christmas, 2009. Knowing this day would eventually arrive didn’t make it any easier, nor did the fact that, at 17 years three months, Chip outlived most other dogs of his size by several years. If I live to share my home with a hundred more dogs, […]
NJ Governor Cancels Raildoggle
The big transportation news while the Antiplanner was in Japan was that New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie cancelled a major rail construction project: a planned new tunnel under the Hudson River. Spurred by cost overruns, Christie said “far more than New Jersey taxpayers can afford and the only prudent move is to end this project.” […]
