The demand for rail transit “is strong all across the country,” says a new report from Reconnecting America. How do they know? They simply added up all the “planned and proposed fixed-guideway transit projects” they could find. They found a total of 643 projects (1-mb Excel spreadsheet) in about 80 urban areas whose total costs […]
READ MORELife-cycle budgeting is suddenly the latest transportation-planning fad. Even some free-market groups are promoting it as a way to save tax dollars. The theory is that a life-cycle analysis will look ahead at all future costs, not just the initial cost, of transportation projects. At first glance, this sounds great. Most transportation fixed infrastructure needs […]
READ MOREHere‘s a great way to bring about the collapse of civilization: declare that Mother Earth has equal rights with humans and give anyone standing to represent Mother Earth in court in challenging any activity by anyone else. In practically no time, the gears of industry would grind to a halt, agriculture would shut down, and […]
READ MOREBe sure to read part one first. Greedy bankers: Changes in the banking industry caused the crisis, many writers claim, by creating perverse incentives to earn short-term profits by making long-term risks. “High leverage and risk-taking in general was fueled by the Street’s indulgent compensation practices,” says Lowenstein (p. 287). A prime example is Joseph […]
READ MOREToday and tomorrow, as a part of the Antiplanner’s continuing series about the 2008 economic meltdown, I am going to look at many of the supposed causes of the crisis and show that, while some of them may have made the crisis worse, none of them were the ultimate cause of the crisis. In some […]
READ MORERepublican and Democratic responses to Standard & Poor’s negative outlook on the federal debt are so predictable they could have been scripted years ago. Democrats want to address the deficit by soaking the rich; Republicans want to cut supposedly vital programs such as Medicare and Planned Parenthood. The problem with soaking the rich, as economist […]
READ MORELast fall, the Onion made fun of Obama’s high-speed rail plan with an alternative high-speed bus proposal. But Wubbo Ockels, a physicist and the first Dutch astronaut, wasn’t laughing. High-speed trains, Ockels says, are too slow and don’t go where people want to go. So he has designed and built a prototype electric-powered bus capable […]
READ MOREThe Antiplanner continues to read recent books about the 2008 financial crisis, but there are definite diminishing returns. I just finished Roger Lowenstein‘s The End of Wall Street and found it disappointing. It covered almost exactly the same ground as Too Big to Fail, but unlike the latter book, which was based mainly on interviews, […]
READ MOREOn March 29, Colin Barr, a Fortune magazine financial writer, argues in a blog post that “housing prices will keep falling.” Just two weeks later, the cover story of the April 11 Fortune proclaims the “return of real estate” and says “it’s time to buy again.” They can’t both be right: either Fortune magazine is […]
READ MOREThe Antiplanner is in Washington DC today and tomorrow to participate in various meetings on transportation. Tomorrow (Friday), I’ll speak on Capitol Hill at a Cato forum on America’s transportation future. Alan Pisarski, the author of Commuting in America, will talk about the future of commuting. Clyde Hart of the American Bus Association will talk […]
READ MOREEarly Tuesday morning, Congressional leaders agreed on a 2011 budget package that zeros out funding for high-speed rail and rescinds $400 million in 2010 funding that remains unspent (transportation begins on p. 404). The package has the support of Senate Majority Leader Reid, House Speaker Boehner, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers. The budget […]
READ MORETriMet, Portland’s transit agency, gets about half its operating funds from a payroll tax. In 2004, this tax was 0.6218 percent, meaning employers had to pay TriMet $62.18 for every $10,000 they paid employees. Employees, other than the self-employed, are largely unaware of this since it is on top of pay, not a deduction from […]
READ MORESaturday, the Antiplanner spoke in Damascus, Oregon, a rural community on the fringe of the Portland area that Metro planners have targeted to become a dense, New Urban city of 100,000. The residents of the area are none too happy about that and have been fighting it by passing initiatives preventing the city from cooperating […]
READ MOREThe Bureau of Land Management has always labored in the shadow of its sister agency, the National Park Service, and its cousin, the Forest Service. While the national parks are America’s “crown jewels” and the Forest Service represents the best (and worst) of the Progressive era, the BLM manages the federal lands left over after […]
READ MORELots of groups have been blamed for the recent financial crisis, including the Federal Reserve, banks, and Congress for deregulating financial institutions by repealing the Glass-Steagall Act (which separated banks that accepted deposits from investment banks). One that deserves scrutiny is the ratings agencies–Moody’s, Standard & Poors, and Fitch–that gave AAA ratings to bonds made […]
READ MOREHigh-speed rail may be dead, but numerous states would be happy to get some of Florida’s $2.4 billion in rejected high-speed rail funds. Yesterday was the deadline for applications for this money, and some of the applicants include: California, of course, would like it all, even though that would still leave it $50 billion or […]
READ MOREAmy Oliver Cooke, Director
Email: Amy@i2i.org
Phone: 303-279-6536, ext 107
Amy Oliver Cooke, Director
Email: Amy@i2i.org
Phone: 303-279-6536, ext 107
As explained by author Marya DeGrow, conflict between some Colorado public school districts and parents led to the adoption of a 1988 legislative bill that established guidelines for home education.
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Foster and kinship children too often miss out on supplemental services and activities. A new breed of program called a Supplemental Educational Support Account (SESA) would provide a set amount of annual funding for each student that can be used for services such as tutoring, therapies, music lessons, specialized programs, transportation, and a wide variety
READ MOREWho knew it would be such a busy week? Before I head off to go play in the snow or jump in a pile of leaves or two — you never know with the weather here in Colorado — I thought you’d like to see the new results from the Association of American Educators nationwide […]
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