Author: James A. Bacon
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Second Thoughts on the Shockoe Bottom Baseball Plan
by James A. Bacon I should have known: Mayor Dwight Jones’ plan to build a new baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom was too good to be true. Two days ago, I posted a generally up-beat appraisal of the proposal on the grounds that it would generate up to $187 million over 20 years while costing the…
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An Updated Metric for Housing-Transportation Affordability
by James A. Bacon One of the most important insights of the Smart Growth movement is that the household costs of housing and transportation are intertwined. You can buy a less expensive house if you are willing to live far from the urban core with its more desirable location and higher property values. But you…
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Is Obamacare Stifling Insurance Competition in Virginia?
by James A. Bacon Sooner or later, we keep hearing, the technology malfunctions in Obamacare will get worked out and we’ll get to see what the program really offers the American people. The Heritage Foundation has issued a research report arguing that, when the dust settles, the picture won’t be pretty: Half the United States population…
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Nuke the MOOCs
After a rash of enthusiasm about Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), the counter-reaction is setting in. Only a tiny percentage of the hoards of people enrolling in classes actually complete them. Many students drop out because they have competing demands for their time; others get bored by the inability to have meaningful interaction with the…
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An Electrifying Plan for Shockoe Bottom
by James A. Bacon Mayor Dwight C. Jones unveiled this morning a $200 million public-private project to build a new baseball stadium and spark revitalization of a neglected corner of Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom district. The project includes 750 apartments, a Kroger grocery store, a 200-room Hyatt Hotel, a parking deck and a slavery memorial. The…
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Bicycle Wars
by James A. Bacon The bicycle wars are coming to Virginia as cyclists literally fight to take back the streets. For decades the issue was settled — the streets belonged to automobiles, with pedestrians confined to sidewalks as second-class citizens. Bicycles didn’t figure into street design at all. But those days are over as increasingly…
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The Digital Dominion — Not Too Shabby
Virginia cities didn’t exactly shine in the Center for Digital Government’s 2013 Digital Cities survey, but they didn’t do too shabbily either. The CDG lists 10 finalists (more, if you include ties) in four population categories. No Virginia city snagged a top spot but seven deserved mention. A panel of judges rated cities on factors…
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Blue Henrico
by James A. Bacon Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams nailed it this morning when writing about Henrico County’s election results: Once reliably Republican, the suburban county north of Richmond is turning blue — and the strong African-American voting bloc in the eastern precincts has a lot to do with it. “Most certainly, the 4 percent meals…
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Sarvis as Spoiler — for McAuliffe
Rick Sincere makes the case on Bearing Drift that Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate for Virginia governor, cost Democrat Terry McAuliffe more votes than he cost Republican Ken Cuccinelli — contrary to the conventional wisdom and, indeed, contrary to the expectation of the Cuccinelli campaign itself. CNN exit polls suggest that had there been a two-man…
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Whither McAuliffe on the Bi-County Parkway?
Over at the D.C. Streets Blog, Katie Pierce asks whether Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe will give thumbs up or thumbs down to the Bi-County Parkway. The answer: Nobody knows. (She quoted me in the article but I didn’t shed much light.) Still, it’s interesting that D.C. Streets, a pro-smart growth publication with a focus on Washington’s…
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Are Glory Days Over for the American Office Tower?
by James A. Bacon The United States is four to five years into the business cycle but you’d barely know it from the dearth of new commercial office buildings. Construction cranes may dot the city horizons of China, India and even Lebanon but here in the States, outside of a few marquee markets with strong…
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GOP Road Kill
Among the more interesting election results from Wednesday, Democrats trounced three Republican candidates for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. The county split close to even in the gubernatorial and lieutenant governor’s races, indicating that the Democrats sweeping to power in the board of supervisors rode were not riding on Terry McAuliffe’s coattails. The vote was…
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One Battle Ends and Another Begins
by James A. Bacon Goliath won in Henrico County yesterday. The political class got its 4% meals tax yesterday, squeaking by with a two-point margin of victory. With an extra $18 million in revenue, the Board of Supervisors will be able to meet Henrico’s challenges without altering the way the county does business. The status…
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How Will McAuliffe Govern?
by James A. Bacon Terry McAuliffe, the governor-elect of Virginia, has a tough job ahead of him. Democrats picked up only one seat in the House of Delegates, leaving Republicans with 66 seats, or a veto-proof majority. Most likely, he will have to work with a Republican, Mark Obenshain, in the attorney general’s office. He…
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A Savior for the Suburbs?
by James A. Bacon The conventional suburban cul-de-sac is a planning and architectural dead end, maintains Rick Harrison, a Minnesota designer of residential communities. But rather than abandon the traditional suburban development model, as New Urbanists and smart growthers advocate, he proposes to reinvent it. Grid streets, the solution proffered by the New Urbanist movement is not…