Last March, I criticized the National Association of Realtors for spinning the data (really, for lying) to make it look like the housing bubble wasn’t bursting. It turns out that the Realtors’ economist who wrote that paper, David Lereah, has been widely criticized for such things.
Some call him the realtors’ equivalent of “Baghdad Bob,” the guy who claimed that American soldiers were losing to the Iraqi army.
I got so involved in writing about the history of San Jose last week that I neglected to make some important points about the planned development in North Bethany, near Portland, that set me off on that rant. Fortunately, some of these points are brought out in an article in the Beaverton Valley Times.
First, planners are projecting that North Bethany will have about 10 homes per acre, which is fairly dense considering that a lot of acres will be devoted to streets, parks, etc. “Net” density — the density of the land actually used for residential — is generally about 25 to 50 percent denser than “gross” density, which means planners are thinking of average lot sizes of 3,000 to 3,400 square feet. Nearby developments built in the 1970s average 6 units per acre, while more recent developments have 7 to 8 units per acre.
The Oregon House of Representatives has approved a law intended to promote bicycle safety. In fact, it will simply create more hostile conditions for auto drivers.
The law would require autos to pass cyclists with enough clearance that they would miss the cyclist if the cyclist were to fall over into the traffic lane. This is an amendment to an existing law that simply requires drivers to pass cyclists “at a safe and reasonable distance.”
Give me room.
Bandon, Oregon, my home town, was featured in the New York Times last week as a “hard-luck community” apparently inhabited by a bunch of rubes who foolishly subsidize wealthy executives. The article (also viewable as a video) actually left out some of the juiciest parts of this tale.
#6 at Bandon Dunes Golf Course. Photo by Bandon Dunes Resort.
The story is about Bandon Dunes, a destination golf resort built by a wealthy golf enthusiast named Mike Keiser (who, everybody likes to observe, made his money selling greeting cards printed on recycled paper). Keiser spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money building the course on sheer speculation. When he opened, greens fees started at something like $175 a round (and are now as high as $250). But every hole has an ocean view and the course was quickly rated one of the best in America, so he got more business than originally anticipated.
Keiser did not need any subsidies to build. Full disclosure: I understand Keiser gives money to my new employer, the Cato Institute. After his resort proved successful, however, some local governments decided to promote their empires by subsidizing Bandon Dunes and its wealthy customers.
The Census Bureau just released 2005 data indicating that the city of Portland “ranks first in the nation for biking to work.” The bureau director actually came to Portland to make the announcement. “It’s like a Swiss city, clean, with trains and bikes everywhere,” he gushed.
Cyclists crossing the Willamette River. When I did this in the 1970s, it seemed like I was one of a mere handful of Portlanders who biked to work year round.
Flickr photo by Bike Portland.
Actually, the numbers show that only 3.5 percent of Portland workers bike to work, which hardly suggests they are “everywhere.” In fact, only in downtown and the inner city do you see a lot of cyclists. Downtown has about a third of the jobs in the city of Portland, but the Portland Business Alliance’s census of downtown employers indicates that well over half of all bike commuters work downtown.
Fifty-seven years ago, the city of San Jose hired a new city manager, A. P. “Dutch” Hamann, who previously had been a middle manager for General Motors. Hamann had a vision for San Jose and he carried it out with gusto.
Sprawling San Jose.
Hamann had grown up in Orange County and felt there was something wrong with an urban area that did not have an identifiable central city. He could see that the area that would eventually be known as Silicon Valley was growing, and he set out to make San Jose, which calls itself the oldest city in California, the most important city in the region.
Add two more costs to the exhorbitant price of light-rail transit: crime, and the cost of preventing such crime. Portland’s TriMet transit agency is spending $560,000 dollars adding security cameras to five light-rail stations — that’s $112,000 per station.
“Crime activity,” says the Gresham police chief, “has increased in the areas along the platforms.” This is hardly news. A decade ago, the Milwaukie police chief told me that police throughout the Portland area knew that the opening of a light-rail station would be followed by an increase in property crime in the vicinity.
About 100 mixed-use, transit-oriented developments are being built in this country, says the June 11 Wall Street Journal (link will expire in six days). The writer of the article falls for the transit propaganda about “revitalizing cities” and “smaller households” wanting to live in higher densities.
Most mixed-use developments “are public-private partnerships,” admits the article. “Local governments build or refurbish rail lines and surrounding infrastructure like roads and parking facilities. Private developers then build in the surrounding areas.”
Transit-oriented developments like this one in Portland typically receive tens of millions of dollars in subsidies. See also Save Portland and Debunking Portland.
Flickr photo by agencyaspen.
A woman who stumbled as she tried to board a light-rail train in Minneapolis fell under the train and was killed. Horrifically, the driver of the train did not realize what had happened, so proceeded to take the blood-splattered train four more stops to the end of the line.
Passengers on board the train said they heard knocking on the doors, then “bup bup bup bup,” and then saw blood spattering the windows. But none bothered to inform the driver even though the trains are equipped with a passenger-to-driver intercom.
Angry taxpayers raised enough money to collect tens of thousands of signatures to put a transit tax back on the ballot in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte-area voters had approved a half-cent tax to support light-rail construction in 1998.
But cost overruns made the project controversial, and opponents want to stop the transit agency from beginning construction on more lines. The voters will get a chance to repeal the tax in November, just a few weeks before the first line opens for business.
Will Charlotte drivers switch to light rail or do they just want other people to switch so they can drive on uncongested roads?
Flickr photo by jacreative.
