Author: James A. Bacon
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So Much to Blog About, So Little Time…
Here are some great stories today that I just won’t have time to do justice to: UVa Board of Visitors lead the way in state political giving The Daily Progress Highlight: Current board members at Virginia’s 10 largest public, four-year institutions have shelled out about $9.5 million in state political contributions over the last 20…
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Kotkin Still Confused about Where People Prefer to Live
by James A. Bacon Joel Kotkin is at it again. The anti-Smart Growth crusader insists that the Burbs are Back. Writing in Forbes, he cites data compiled by his ideological pal Wendell Cox to argue that suburban and exurban counties have made a come-back since the dark days following the 2007-2008 real estate crash and recession.…
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Has College Enrollment Peaked?
The number of Americans enrolled in four-year colleges has increased fairly steadily since 1970 but it took a dive between 2011 and 2012. Nationally, according to the September 2013 edition of American Consumers Newsletter, enrollment at four-year colleges plunged by 580,000, or about 5.3%. Is that drop indicative of a long-term trend? Has enrollment peaked…
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A Vote for Sarvis Not Wasted — If You’d Like to See a Viable Third Party in Virginia
In casual conversations with people over the past few days, I have noticed a widespread disenchantment with the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor this year. Many say they will vote for the Libertarian Party candidate, Robert Sarvis. And some public opinion polls indicate that as much as 10% of the electorate favor him. The…
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Quote of the Day: Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun, co-founder of Udacity, provider of MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) on the eroding monopoly of traditional colleges and universities in credentialing higher education: The common denominator is that there is an interest in finding credentials that don’t require a student to buy the entire degree. Big employers such as AT&T and Google are…
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Leveraging Port Activity for Economic Growth
by James A. Bacon With military spending throttled by sequestration, the Hampton Roads economy needs help. The logical place to turn is the Ports of Virginia, which are well positioned, thanks to their deep channels, to benefit from the widening of the Panama Canal in 2015. How can Virginia and the Hampton Roads region leverage…
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Let the Little Guy Speak!
Virginia’s political-media establishment won’t let Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis participate in the televised debates, relegating an otherwise attractive candidate to the political fringe. I can’t change that. But I can give the guy some space on Bacon’s Rebellion. I encourage you to view his ad. (Don’t take this as an endorsement of Sarvis —…
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Up for Sale
by James A. Bacon Thanks to $50,000 in donations, Jeffrey C. Walker, a wealthy former COO of a New York private-equity firm, apparently has induced gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe to modify his stance regarding appointments to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors. The strong impression created by the revelation, first reported by the Washington…
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There’s No Place Like Home (Owners Associations)
by James A. Bacon Developers hewing to the New Urbanism school of design pay close attention to the arrangement of public spaces, the architectural details of the buildings and the profitability of their projects. Typically, they address the rules for Home Owners Associations (HOAs) as an afterthought. And that can lead to unhappy residents, lawsuits…
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The Debt Vise Tightens
by James A. Bacon Moody’s Investor Service may revise its rules for rating municipal bonds, and the news could be bad for states and local governments with large unfunded pension liabilities. The company is proposing to increase the weighting of pension liabilities and other long-term debts from 10% to 20% in its scorecards for General…
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Reinventing the Research Triangle Park
by James A. Bacon Fifty-five years ago, North Carolina business and government leaders were worried about the Tarheel state’s economic competitiveness. They set aside a tract of land half the size of Manhattan located between three research universities — Duke, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University– and opened up the Research Triangle…
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How to Cut Water Bills by Billions of Dollars
Leaky pipes lose an estimated 2.6 trillions gallons of drinking water every year, or about 17% of all water pumped in the United States. One reason the situation is so bad is that water utilities use corrosion-prone materials. Corrosion represents a $50.7 billion annual drain on the economy. So says a new study by the American…
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Bicycle Commuting up Nine Percent
I was driving through one of Henrico County’s most heavily traveled intersections at Parham Road and Patterson Avenue a few days ago when I encountered a remarkable sight: two bicyclists waiting at the stoplight. They weren’t riding together. One was traveling north on Parham and the other heading east on Patterson. That location is the…
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IG of the Day: Income Equality by Metro Region
This map, published by Richard Morrill in New Geography, shows the GINI coefficient, a measure of income inequality, for the nation’s major metro areas. Regions with low GINI numbers, shown in blue, have the least unequal incomes. Note how the three Virginia metros — including Washington, Richmond and Hampton Roads — create a big patch…
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Dogs and Cats Living Together!
Speaking of “human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria” (see previous post)… Now comes a story that Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson does not believe in creationism. Here’s what he told a viewer on his “The 700 Club” show, according to CNN: “You go back in time, you’ve got radiocarbon dating. You got all…