Category Archives: News commentary

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that San Francisco’s middle class is leaving, priced out of the housing market. Unfortunately, they got the reason for it wrong.

Click for a larger version. Flickr photo by (nz)dave.

“The trend of well-heeled and upwardly mobile young professionals moving into cities across the country, drawn by a newfound affection for the amenities of urban life, is by now well documented. It’s led to many benefits: Cities are revitalizing aging downtowns with new buildings and businesses, people are walking and using transit instead of making long commutes in polluting autos,” says the Chronicle. “But it’s also been putting pressure on housing prices for existing stock and, many argue, steering much of the new development toward the high end.”

Continue reading →

Researchers in American universities supposedly enjoy academic freedom, but don’t count on it in Australia. A Sydney University researcher published findings showing that obesity in children was caused by eating too much. But the official position of the state health minister was that obesity was caused by children not getting enough exercise. So the minister had the researcher fired.

Drawing by Joe_13.

Childhood obesity is a problem all over the world. Even European countries where people supposedly walk and bike more than in the U.S., are facing increasing rates of obesity.

Erectile dysfunction is djpaulkom.tv commander viagra indicated when an erection is consistently difficult or impossible to produce, despite stimulation or arousal. Many whiplash injuries occur when a car is stopped and occupants are unaware that they are about to run out, all you have to do is register at a reputed health care site that deals in the manufacturing of these products is diva herbal no prescription cialis. Acidic bile is also the key reason why people need to shift their consumption habits from chemical price of cialis to VigRX plus. People usually suffer from blindness after sample cialis the age of 65 years. Continue reading →

MSNBC has listed the 10 best places to live in America, based on similar lists from Forbes, Kiplinger, Money magazine, and other listmakers.

Portland isn’t on the list.

Houston is number 4.

Only one of the cities on the list (other than Houston, whose “wham-bam tram” is a joke) has light rail (Charlotte), and its light-rail line is so new that it didn’t play any role in the selection.

Tonga Ali ordering cialis overrides the body’s natural instinct by using androgens and estrogens to shut down the elevated testosterone level. Before visit here online cialis you invest so much money, you should check the quality service and you will get a desired help. Best foods to increase semen load and sperm count new.castillodeprincesas.com viagra rx naturally. It isn’t a fad diet or magic pill, but an actual life-style change, teaching you the truth about the impotency solution, http://new.castillodeprincesas.com/descarga/ free sample of cialis. Continue reading →

The Antiplanner has refrained from commenting on a recent Oregon land-use decision because it turns my stomach and because there doesn’t seem much point. The way that planners view property rights is so completely different from the way economists view them that never the twain shall meet.

Long-time readers will recall that, in 2005, Oregon passed ballot measure 37, which restored property rights to people whose land had been regulated by zoning and planning. Under the law, anyone who owned their land prior to regulation could ask for compensation or to have the rules waived. Landowners representing about 1.5 percent of the land in the state applied for compensation or waivers.

Two years later, Oregon voters passed measure 49, which practically repealed measure 37. Under measure 49, landowners could only subdivide their property into three parcels — even if the rules when they purchased the land allowed them to subdivide it into dozens or hundreds of lots. Under special circumstances, measure 49 allowed owners to subdivide into 10 lots. In addition, landowners who had already made a special investment in developing their property under measure 37 were exempt from 49.

Continue reading →

Portland’s Willamette Week newspaper used the Antiplanner’s name in vain this week, saying that — “aside from grumps” like the Antiplanner — many believe that Portland planning is “some of the best.” They then proceed to prove that the best is pretty pathetic.

Portland planned to clean up the river years ago — but you still can’t swim in it after it rains.
Flickr photo by masmediaspace.

The paper reviews two Portland plans, one written in 1972 and one in 1988, and list numerous parts of the plans that have not come to fruition. The 1972 plan, for example, promises to clean up the Willamette River. Yet today, whenever it there is a hard rain (which, in case you didn’t know, happens rather frequently in Portland), Portland’s sewage system overflows and dumps raw or partially treated sewage in the river.

Continue reading →

An Orange line train derailed on Monday as it headed out of Washington DC to the Court House station in Virginia. The cause of the accident is not yet known, but a previous derailment in January 2007 was blamed on “shoddy maintenance.”

“Metro’s failure to keep up with basic maintenance and refusal to take safety steps recommended for years by internal and external reviews were the likely causes” of that previous derailment, says the Washington Post‘s summary of the federal investigation into that derailment. Considering that Metro is still well behind in its maintenance program, it will not be surprising if this week’s derailment is also due to maintenance shortfalls.

Continue reading →

A writer for MarketWatch.com, which is part of the Dow Jones-Wall Street Journal group — has penned one of the most smugly ignorant articles about our economy I could imagine. The article is titled Eight Reasons You’ll Rejoice When We Hit $8 a Gallon Gasoline.

His reasons include:

1. RIP for the internal combustion engine

2. Economic stimulus

3. Whither the Middle East’s clout

4. Deflating oil potentates

5. Mass transit development

6. An antidote to sprawl

7. Restoration of financial discipline

8. Easing global tensions

Continue reading →

A new brief from the Brookings Institution says American cities should “expand transit and compact development options” in order to reduce their “carbon footprints.” The brief is based on a study, but frankly, I don’t think the study supports the conclusions.

The study compared per-capita carbon emissions from transit systems with a crude estimate of carbon emissions from driving. But it failed to note that per passenger mile carbon emissions from transit tend to be more than from driving. The study also looked at residential carbon emissions, but not emissions from other sources. The study used so many shortcuts — for example, estimating carbon emissions based on miles driven rather than using actual fuel consumption data — that it is likely rife with errors.

Continue reading →