Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Debate

On Wednesday, April 14, the Antiplanner had the honor of debating James Kunstler, the famous author of Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency. The students at Brown University who set this up chose the topic, “Building America: Who Should Control Urban Growth–Planners or Markets?

I’ve never met Kunstler before, and I was a bit nervous since he hasn’t exactly been friendly on his blog. But he turned out to be very warm and congenial. We share many recreation interests and I am sure we could be friends if we didn’t live on opposite sides of the country, which (despite our mobility) might be a bigger barrier than being on opposite sides of the political debate.

Kunstler and I were each asked to speak for 25 minutes, after which we were invited to ask each other one question. Then the floor was opened to questions from the audience, mostly (I was told) students in political science, environmental studies, urban planning, and economics.

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Measuring Affordability

A new report from the Center for Neighborhood Technology claims that living in smart-growth regions isn’t as unaffordable as some (such as the Antiplanner) claim because high housing costs are offset by lower transportation costs. However, the data behind the claims leave something to be desired. Specifically, what would be desired are data.

Instead of gathering data to back up its claims, the report (and several predecessors) is based on a model of household expenditures. The model assumes that people who live in denser neighborhoods drive less and ride transit more. The model assumes that transit is a perfect substitute for driving. The model assumes that those who drive pay the average costs of driving and those who ride transit pay only transit fares. (No one in the model has to pay for the huge transit subsidies.)

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Why We Can’t Go Back

Last week, the Antiplanner attended a meeting about high-speed rail sponsored by the National Conference of State Legislators. One of the speakers represented Amtrak, and though she spoke for about 10 or 15 minutes, her entire presentation could be boiled down into one statement: “What Amtrak needs is money, money, and more money.” (Yes, she actually said that.)

This reminded me of a statement made by a representative of the New York City Transit authority last fall at a Federal Transit Administration conference about the deteriorating condition of older rail transit systems. Even though New York’s rail system is in much better shapes than the ones in Boston, Chicago, or Philadelphia, the official admitted (in the last slide) that “there will never be enough money” to bring New York’s rail lines up to a state of good repair.

Rail transit and high-speed rail have bottomless appetites for tax dollars, partly because they are politically driven rather than being funded out of user fees. But there is an even more critical difference between modern passenger rail and past transportation innovations.

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Political Asymmetry

On Wednesday the Antiplanner expressed disappointment that St. Louis voters agreed to triple the sales tax so the region’s transit agency can go on another rail construction spree. In response, faithful opponent Dan commented that, “the voting-age population again has…um…different…priorities than the collection of white conservative males who consistently oppose these ballot questions.”

The Antiplanner respectfully disagrees. Instead, what I see is a powerful asymmetry in rail transit elections. On one hand, it is easy for a transit agency to put a measure to build rail transit on the ballot. Usually, the agency has to do nothing more than have its board of directors pass a resolution. On the other hand, it is very difficult for the public to put a measure on the ballot to stop rail transit. At best, they can do so by collecting tens of thousands of signatures. Many states don’t even provide that option.

Many transit agencies also have discretion to choose when to hold the election, and in the St. Louis case it clearly decided to have the election in an off-month of an off-year when turnout would be low. Barely 150,000 people voted in this year’s election vs. more than 500,000 in the November, 2008, election in which voters rejected Metro’s tax increase.

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Back in the Air Again

The Antiplanner is flying to DC today to give presentations in four cities over the next six days. First, on Friday, I’ll join Ron Utt of the Heritage Foundation in a briefing on rail transit and transportation reauthorization in Rayburn House Office Building room B-339. Lunch will be provided.

On Monday from 9 to 11, the Antiplanner will join several other speakers on transportation issues at the Holiday Inn in Concord, New Hampshire. This event is sponsored by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

On Tuesday at 4:30 the Antiplanner will speak about Gridlock at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. This event is sponsored by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.
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On Wednesday at 6 pm, the Antiplanner will join James Howard Kunstler to discuss the question, “Who should control urban growth?” This presumably lively program will take place in room 001 of the Solomon Center at Brown University.

If you are in Washington, DC or New England, I hope to see you at one of these events.

Voters Reward St. Louis Metro for Screwing Up

After working hard to claim the title of the nation’s worst transit system, St. Louis Metro got itself into such a financial bind that it had to dramatically cut bus service. So voters naturally responded by tripling the agency’s tax base, giving it another half-cent sales tax on top of the quarter cent it already got.

No doubt Metro will take this money and After a stressful time that you had in your office, it is viagra rx online certain that you look for help at the right time. Health benefits of generic cialis canadian wild American Ginsenghad been known much before the medical industry flourished. The appearance of viagra cialis generico is similar to other drugs on the market like cialis. This is levitra online order the reason; you have to take a lot of anxiety. go build more rail transit lines that go way overbudget and put the agency in a financial bind requiring it to ask the voters for another tax increase. This will be declared another great victory for transit and proof that voters want “livability” rather than more of those filthy automobiles — even though those same voters drive for more than 90 percent of their travel.

Wires Hanging Up DC Streetcars

Two years ago, the Antiplanner reported that Washington, DC’s transit agency, WMATA, owned several modern streetcars but hadn’t built any tracks for them to run on. As today’s Washington Post observes, the cars still sit in storage, more evidence of WMATA’s ineptitude.

Other than the lack of any money to lay new streetcar tracks, a major problem is an old law that forbids streetcar companies from using overhead wires in the “federal city” (Washington’s city limits as of 1887). In DC’s streetcar era, the companies dealt with this restriction by accessing a power line through a groove in the street, much like a cable-car groove. In some cases (such as the tracks shown above, which still exist near Georgetown University today), the tracks originally were for cable cars, so it was easy to swap out an electrical cable for a mechanical one.

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Social Security, CalTrains, Going Broke

It is hard to imagine that anyone inside the DC beltway is not feeling a rising sense of panic over the news that Social Security is out of money. As the New York Times graphic shows, Social Security revenues were expected to exceed receipts through 2016, but in fact are expected to be less than receipts from 2010 on.

The year 2016 is comfortably far enough away that elected officials whose terms are no longer than six years don’t bother worrying about it. But if social security is out of money now, then the entire federal edifice — much of which has been funded by borrowing from the social security surplus — is on the brink of collapse.

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Nix on Rocky Mountain High-Speed Rail?

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The Hazards of Collective Travel

After returning from a trip to the Midwest, the Antiplanner has been temporarily subdued by a raging cold or flu. Was I infected by someone on board an airplane or one of the trains I rode in Chicago? Or was it someone in one of the dense cities I visited? Regardless, I did not suffer a cold last Some prefer the outdoors and activities where you can be easily a victim of viagra sales in uk asthmatic disorder. I cialis 5mg did what most people do when they believe they are being wronged. It is cheap order viagra defined as lack of pregnancy after one year of steady and unprotected sex. In your quest to be cured, contact with an expert is necessary, but when? Meet levitra generic cialis consultant if: The problem continues even after the change of lifestyle The problem begins following an injury or a prostate surgery You suffer from other warning signs, such as abdominal pain, low back pain or a change in discharge in urine. winter because I spent that time in my ultra-low-density neighborhood writing the book that I am now out publicizing.

There are many reasons for people to select personal conveyances over collective travel and to live in low-density areas instead of crowded in multi-family housing. Relative immunity from disease is not the most important one, but it helps.