Author: James A. Bacon
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Feet-to-the-Fire Time for Layne, Kilpatrick
by James A. Bacon Virginia taxpayers will have to suck up a $400 million to $500 million loss if the U.S. 460 upgrade between Petersburg and Suffolk never gets built, Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne told the House Appropriations Committee yesterday. “If everything totally went south, we … may end up with $500 [million] left of the…
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Planners Say Yes to Shockoe Bottom Condo
by James A. Bacon Libbie Hill Park sits on the crest of a hill overlooking the James River. On that spot in 1737 William Byrd II famously looked upon the turn in the river, was struck by its resemblance to Richmond-upon-Thames outside London, and decided to give the new city founded nearby the name of…
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Horse Gone, Search Ensues to Find Out Who Should Have Closed the Door
by James A. Bacon A new question has arisen about the proposed $1.4 billion upgrade to U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk. Once the McDonnell administration ascertained that none of the three public-private partnership proposals on the table were viable and that the state would operate the road instead, why didn’t the Virginia Department of…
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Virginia: a Bastion of Financial Literacy
Virginia is the third most financially literate state in the country, according to a new Wallethub survey that combines metrics of personal financial behavior and public policy indicators. New Hampshire and Utah rank No. 1 and No. 2, while Arkansas and Mississippi rank at the bottom. “Financial literacy ultimately comes down to familiarity with key themes and…
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Smart Growth for Custom-Minded Conservatives
by James A. Bacon As I have endeavored to develop a conservative vision for Smart Growth, I have relied primarily upon conservative principles with a libertarian slant — limited government, fiscal conservatism, free markets and the like. But there is a vast realm of conservative thinking that I have neglected, which William S. Lind, director…
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Re-imagining Sunnyvale
by James A. Bacon Silicon Valley appears to be moving in fits and starts toward more rational land use, creating denser, more mixed-use, better-connected communities appropriate to a region with extraordinarily high land values. As a casual visitor to the region, I don’t pretend to speak with any authority on the trend but I can…
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The Demon in the Machine
By James A. Bacon On Oct. 25, 2013, Chris Urmson, a leader of Google’s autonomous car project, proclaimed that legal and regulatory problems posed no major barrier to the commercialization of Self-Driving Cars (SDCs). When accidents did occur, he told attendees of the RoboBusiness conference in Santa Clara, Calif., data collected by the cars would…
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Silicon Valley Knows Technology, Not Land Use
by James A. Bacon Apple, Google and other collosi of Silicon Valley are re-shaping the world with their technology but you could never imagine them as masters of innovation by viewing their corporate campuses. While the office interiors may be arrayed with java bars and collaborative workplaces to stimulate creativity, the building exteriors are for…
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In Praise of Small Spaces
by James A. Bacon I am fascinated by small urban spaces that normally elude the attention of city planners, star architects and travel magazines. In low-density settings where low value is placed on land, inhabitants pay little heed to the small spaces. But in densely settled cities, residents apply loving creativity to making the most…
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Over Budget, Seven Months Late… and Counting
Phase 1 of the Rail-to-Dulles project was supposed to be the good phase. For quite a while, it appeared to be running on budget and on time, providing reason to be optimistic that the highly controversial Phase 2 of the project might do so as well. But it hasn’t worked out that way. The story…
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The World’s Easiest-to-Predict Slowdown Is Now, In Fact, Occurring
Here it is from the Washington Post, so I guess that makes it official: “The Washington region is in the midst of a striking slowdown in its growth rate as it draws far fewer residents from elsewhere in the country than in previous years.” Although the metropolitan region of 6.7-million continued to grow between July…
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Poverty No Excuse for Lousy Richmond Schools
This communication from reader John Butcher was worth reproducing in full. I publish it here with his permission. — JAB I enjoyed Peter’s piece about “The Richmond Elite’s Bizarre Self Image” and the comments that followed. I want to suggest that the focus there on Richmond poverty is appropriate but misses the main point. Beyond…
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Why San Franciscans Are Thinner than Other Americans
No, it’s not the bean sprouts and tofu. It’s not even the great year-round climate that encourages people to do stuff outdoors. It’s the hills. The Bacon family has hiked and biked a lot of hills over the past three days and we’ve eaten a lot of food, but the hills won. I swear I…
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Bicycling in Paradise
One of California’s greatest assets is its climate, and San Francisco, though foggier than nearby locales, is no exception. Climatically speaking, the city is as close to paradise as any location on the planet, which makes it a great place to spend outdoors and a great place to bicycle. As one would expect, San Francisco…
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The City of Great Places
So, here we are in San Francisco, in the heart of the land of fruits and nuts. We’re planning to do a lot of the usual tourista things — take the boat to Alcatraz, bike to Sausalito, visit the Exploratorium — but your roving correspondent also will be applying a keen eye to the human…