Hawaii – Land of Crony Capitalism
Wikipedia defines crony capitalism as an “allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between businesspeople and government officials.” Crony capitalism has sadly played an important role in state and, especially, local government for just about ever. But Hawaii suffers from a particularly strong case. Hawaii’s history of crony capitalism dates […]
So What Exactly Will This Amendment Do?
We hear the questions everyday from folks who want to help us collect signatures or who support what we’re doing: what exactly will this initiative do? How in the world can we stop the federal government from imposing Obama Care on us? How many signatures do you guys need? How can I help? Those are […]
LaHood Acts Like a Hood — Again
Not content to just threaten any airlines that might oppose heavy subsidies to high-speed rail aimed at putting their unsubsidized operations out of business, Secretary of Immobility Ray LaHood is now threatening railroads that are supposedly dragging their wheels in response to federal plans to run moderate-speed (up to 110 mph) trains on their freight […]
The Antiplanner’s Library: Visiting Paradise
One of the Antiplanner’s co-speakers during a couple of events in Honolulu is David Callies, a law professor and author of two books on Hawaii land-use law: Regulating Paradise and Preserving Paradise. Hawaii passed the first statewide growth-management law in 1961, and still has about the strictest land-use laws in the nation. Not coincidentally, it […]
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner is spending the next week in Hawaii to talk with people about both transportation and land-use planning. On Friday from 9:30 am to 11:00 am, I’ll speak about transportation issues at the University of Hawaii, Holmes Hall 353, Honolulu. On Tuesday, June 29, I’ll speak on land-use issues at a luncheon at 1132 […]
Clouding the Debate
Amid the conservatives blaming the oil spill on Obama and liberals blaming it on America’s auto addiction, journalist Robert Samuelson gets it right, noting that one of the most worrisome consequences of the Gulf oil spill is a “more muddled energy debate.” All the proposals to end oil consumption, such as one to convert the […]
Are Suburbs Authentic?
Andrew Potter, who recently wrote a delightful book on what is “authentic,” has now come out in defense of the suburbs. Potter challenges James Kunstler’s view of the suburbs as having no “sense of place.” “This is the sort of thing that could only be argued by someone who has either never visited a suburb, […]
Planning Student Proves Consultants Are a Waste of Money
Spending around $1,000, 20-year-old Daniel Jacobson, a Stanford University undergraduate student, has written a 140-page streetcar feasibility study for Oakland, California. The city of Oakland itself had already spent $300,000 on a streetcar study back in 2005, and planned to spend another $330,000 for further study this year. Of course, the Jacobson’s study is filled […]
Urban Planners’ Employment Act
Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has introduced a “Livable Communities Act” that promises more than $4 billion in federal grants to communities that promote smart-growth principles. The Senate held hearings on the bill last week, and a somewhat similar bill has been introduced in the House by Representative Albio Sires of New Jersey. The Senate bill […]
Pretty Ridiculous Transit
After the Antiplanner started writing about driverless cars, I received a lot of emails congratulating me for jumping on the PRT bandwagon. I just had to roll my eyes, as I’ve argued since 2003 that driverless cars are the reason why PRT, short for personal rapid transit, will never happen. First proposed in the 1970s […]
More High-Speed Spending
Here’s a brilliant idea from a disappointing governator who ran as a fiscal conservative but then helped his state run up tens of billions of dollars of deficits: build a “demonstration” high-speed rail project from Los Angeles to San Diego. The trains would use existing tracks and so would be moderate-speed rail, not true high-speed […]
Transit Agencies vs. Transit Unions
A recent article in the Washington Post highlights new tensions within the transit industry. Most federal transit grants are legally dedicated to capital improvements, but the recession has left most transit agencies short of operating funds, so they have been lobbying Congress to allow them to use more federal funds for operating subsidies. The main […]
