The Antiplanner » Home Page

Fire Season Begins: New Cato Paper

By | | Wildfire
3 Comments

Wildfire season has begun with nearly half a million acres burned so far this year, mostly in the South. And so it is time for the armchair generals to pontificate on problems with U.S. fire policy and how those problems can be fixed.

When it comes to the Forest Service, few have as much experience at armchair generaling as me, so it is timely that the Cato Institute should publish my paper on wildfire, The Perfect Firestorm. The paper shows that Forest Service fire expenditures are growing out of control, having increased by 450 percent in the last 15 years.

Continue reading →

Will Transit Prevent Bay Area Traffic Jams?

By | | News commentary, Transportation
4 Comments

A key part of the MacArthur Freeway, one of the most congested roads in the San Francisco Bay Area, collapsed in a tanker fire early Sunday morning. As shown in these graphic photos, the accident managed to put Interstate 80, 580, 880, 980, and state highway 24 out of commission.

In response, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that all Bay Area transit services will be free on Monday as commuters adjust to the new situation. BART promised to run longer trains and other transit agencies promised to increase frequencies.

Continue reading →

Condo Boom Over

By | | News commentary
3 Comments

Remember all those condominiums being built in various downtowns, and how they were supposed to herald the return of people to the cities? Not so much.

“We’re in for a fairly ugly correction,” says the president of Trammel Crow Residential. It turns out there are 5.5 million vacant homes out there, mostly purchased by speculators who expected condo and other home prices to go ever upwards.

Continue reading →

Federal Program Fails to Promote Transit

By | | News commentary, Transportation
Leave a comment

Here’s a great idea. The federal government should give its employees free transit passes. That will encourage a lot of them to leave their cars at home.

Actually, it turns out that it will encourage a lot of them to continue driving but to sell their passes on ebay to people who are already taking transit, thus taking zero cars off the road. When the GAO followed up on ebay transit pass sales, they were all being sold by federal employees.
They believe lack of sympathy for partners has a great deal of work within a short frame of time. viagra canada cost That viagra sale in india can also improve your performance in bed. It could have something to do with prescription free tadalafil the nerve supply to the teeth. It has emerged viagra pfizer online raindogscine.com as a magical medicine to help men going through this phase of their life.
The GAO estimates that this scam costs federal taxpayers $17 million a year — and that is an absolute minimum. But isn’t it worth the cost to know that the intentions were good?

Monorail for Portland?

By | | News commentary, Transportation, Urban areas
5 Comments

When I was a kid, I had a toy monorail. It looked like a rocketship, only pointed on both ends, or possibly two airplane fuselages back to back, and it hung from a thin, round metal rail. I saw one on a web site about historic toys once, but can’t find it now.

Now a former Boeing engineer wants to build a full-scale monorail like it in Portland. Instead of calling it a monorail, which is what it is, he calls it an “air tram,” possibly because he thinks that will sell better in a city that has already built an aerial tram.

Continue reading →

“This Pig Stinks,” Say Bus Ads

By | | Follow up, News commentary
1 Comment

Opponents of a tax increase for Grand Rapids transit (previously discussed here) have a new ad, illustrated below.


If you experience cialis generic france low libido or sexual desire. It also helps in normalizing the hormonal levels of the hormones fall, resulting the womb lining to be shed just as a monthly check out these guys generic viagra rx period. Iatrogenic causes of impotence include consequences of viagra online overnight rectal or prostate surgery, and bad effects of certain therapeutic drugs. Goldstein’s new analysis on the consequences of seat stress and stress cialis free samples on the penis artery.
They are paying the transit agency $290 to carry a 2-foot-by-6-foot version of the ad on one of its buses. Isn’t freedom wonderful?

Making California Housing Affordable

By | | News commentary, Planning Disasters
10 Comments

A bill being considered by the California legislature aims to make the state’s housing more affordable. According to this analysis, the bill amends the state’s Planning and Zoning Act by requiring cities and counties to take more steps to keep housing affordable.

The bill is supported by various home building associations as well as some non-profit groups such as the California Council of Churches, St. Vincent DePaul, and the California State Firefighters Association, which worries that firefighters and other public employees can’t afford to live in the cities they serve.

Is California’s housing system broken? This house would cost $150,000 in Houston, $400,000 in Bakersfield, $950,000 in Marin County, and well over $1.2 million in San Jose.

Continue reading →

Subsidized Development Dumbfounds NY Times Reporter

By | | News commentary, Transportation
Leave a comment

“Rail Line Drives Utah Development” trumpets an article in Sunday’s New York Times. The article tells of a $140 million mixed-use development being built along a Salt Lake City-area light-rail line.

It took me less than five minutes to find what was really driving this development. If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you should be able to guess it: tax-increment financing. Specifically, $24.6 million in infrastructure subsidies and $7.8 million in housing subsidies.

Continue reading →

Houston, Yes!

By | | Urban areas
4 Comments

If I had first visited Houston thirty years ago, I probably would have hated it. And even today, I probably wouldn’t want to live in Houston, simply because I don’t like big cities. But I came to Houston last week prepared to like it, and in fact I loved it.

Probably my brand new Garmin Nuvi GPS helped, as I was able to avoid the frustration I always have of trying to find my way around new cities, or almost any city but Portland, which I know all too well. It didn’t hurt that the American Dream Coalition’s assistant director, Kathleen Calongne, did all the driving. And of course, in two days, I was only able to see a small slice of this giant city.

Continue reading →