Month: June 2014
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Safer Streets Require Less Traffic Engineering, Not More
by James A. Bacon A week or two ago, I lamented the disparity between the high cost of traffic accidents in Virginia and the paltry resources devoted to reducing their number. But to say that insufficient attention is being paid to the issue is not to say that no attention is being paid. According to Virginia’s 2012-2015 Strategic…
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Why Brat Beat Cantor
by James A. Bacon I rarely pontificate about congressional races but I live in the 7th Congressional District, so I believe I have a few insights into how David Brat slew Goliath, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. National media have examined the race through the prism of national issues such as immigration and the Tea Party. While…
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Note to Readers
I have added a new feature designed to block comment spam to the blog. As readers, you don’t see the spam but it fills my inbox and it slows the blog server. The feature requires everyone who registers and submits a comment to prove they are human by typing in a few letters displayed in a box. It’s…
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The Rise of Innovation Districts
by James A. Bacon The landscape of innovation has been dominated in the post-World War II era by places like Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle, suburban corridors of disconnected corporate campuses, accessibly only by car. But a new model — the innovation district — is emerging, contend Bruce Katz and Julie Wagner with the Brookings…
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Behind Cantor’s Big Loss
By Peter Galuszka There’s big political news tonight as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor loses a Republican primary to upstart economics professor David Brat, a Tea Party favorite. While Brat’s challenge was noticed nationally, few expected Cantor to go down. But with more than 80 percent of precincts in the 7th Congressional District reporting, there’s…
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The Smart Transit Revolution
by James A. Bacon Bridj, a Boston start-up, bills itself as “the world’s first smart transit system which uses big data and luxury shuttles to adjust to your individual commuting needs.” The company charges $6 per ride, or three times that of a city bus, but it provides Wi-Fi connectivity and luxury seats, and it saves…
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High School Graduation Rate, Too Good to Be True?
Over on the StatChat blog, Hamilton Lombard draws attention to the steady rise in high school graduation rates across Virginia. The percentage of graduating seniors was significantly higher in 2013 than 2008 for all major ethnic groups, most appreciably for blacks and Hispanics. That’s good news, as Lombard says, because a high school diploma opens…
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Combating Poverty with the Extended Family
by James A. Bacon One of the central debates about poverty in the United States has been the degree to which public policy should promote marriage. Children raised in two-parent families are less likely to grow up in poverty, goes the conservative argument. It’s not the marriage but the higher levels of education and income…
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Nash Nails Neanderthal GOP
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka Imagine Norfolk spending $300 million for light rail only to have it covered in salt water. Or consider that Virginia’s statewide mean temperature has risen 0.46 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1975. Or that, due to carbon dioxide emissions, the sea level on the Virginia coast is expected to rise by two…
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Mobile Homes, Wealth Accumulation and the Poor
by James A. Bacon Manufactured dwellings — mobile homes, trailers, call them what you will — are a major source of affordable housing in the United States. But a few market reforms would make them even more affordable to lower- and middle-income families and make them better vehicles for accumulating wealth. That was the message…
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Brat and Cantor: Two Unsavory Choices
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka The hottest political race coming up is the Republican primary this Tuesday involving the 7th Congressional District now represented by Eric Cantor, a powerful conservative who is House Majority Leader and could possibly one day be Speaker of the House. His opponent, college professor David Brat, has gotten much national attention because…
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What Makes a Resilient Community?
by James A. Bacon During the depths of the Great Recession in 2008, hundreds of cars dropped off the Department of Motor Vehicle rolls in Washington, D.C. As then-director of planning Harriet Tregoning parsed the data, people were dialing back their expenses to make ends meet. Yes, that was a sign of economic hardship but it…
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Deconstructing Duany
by James A. Bacon Never in all the times over the years that I have heard Andres Duany speak, nor in those occasions in which I interviewed him, have I heard him utter a scintilla of partisan political sentiment. If I had to guess, I would say that he disdains both political parties. As he said yesterday of…
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Lean Urbanism: Cheaper, Faster, Smaller
by James A. Bacon Andres Duany, the leading theorist of the New Urbanism movement, has toured Detroit seven or eight times. The first trips consisted of what he calls “ruin porn” — post-apocalyptic landscapes of tumble-down houses, weeded lots and decrepit public buildings. But the most recent trip was very different. His guide conducted him through an…
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Buffalo, N.Y. — More First Impressions
by James A. Bacon Let me say up front that any comments you read in this post about Buffalo, N.Y., are totally superficial and devoid of authority. They are based upon a single stroll through downtown last night without benefit of an informed guide. Upon presentation of evidence to the contrary, I will recant everything! However,…