Author: James A. Bacon
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Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt
Aggregate debt of the 50 state governments totaled $4.17 trillion in 2012, according to a new tally by State Budget Solutions, which includes bonded indebtedness, unemployment trust fund loans, budget gaps, pension liabilities and other unfunded retirement benefits. That compares to roughly $17 trillion owed by the federal government. But it does not include indebtedness…
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How to Correct Corrections
by Sarah Scarbrough The terms jail and prison are used interchangeably and most people don’t realize the difference. Historically, jail has been reserved for a sentence of a year or less and prison for more than a year. Additionally, jails are the holding place for individuals as they await trail, whereas, prisons are for convicted…
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Middle Class Flees New York. Who Needs ‘Em?
by James A. Bacon For decades pundits (including myself) have been predicting the eventual demise of New York City, yet the city continues to defy the prognostications. With its world-class financial, entertainment and advertising sectors and its burgeoning entrepreneurial tech sector, the Big Apple has demonstrated such a capacity for reinventing itself that it remains…
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“The Missing Metric”
by James A. Bacon Here is must reading for anyone interested in the fiscal implications of Smart Growth: the August issue of Government Finance Review. In the lead article Peter Katz (profiled here) elaborates his thoughts on fiscal analytics and growth management. He starts with the argument, which I have embraced, that the fiscal impact…
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Who Will Report the News? Weeklies, Monthlies and Blogs
In the last couple of days, I have come across two instances of excellent reporting on transportation and land use issues from obscure local publications. Both articles deserve exposure beyond their immediate circulation areas. In Chesterfield Monthly, Scott Bass writes about the lack of a walkable city center in Chesterfield County. Chesterfield is largely a…
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How to Squeeze 40,000 More People into Richmond
by James A. Bacon According to growth projections cited by the Urban Land Institute, the population of the Richmond region is expected to grow by roughly 200,000 households (430,000 people) by 2035. Where will that growth go? How much of it can be absorbed by existing urban areas, and how much will end up, by…
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Sarvis a Credible Libertarian Party Candidate
As Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe grapple in a gouge-your-eyes-out campaign of character assassination, an increasing number of Virginians are adopting a Shakespearean philosophy of “a plague on both your houses.” That undoubtedly explains why Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis is climbing dramatically in voter esteem. In a Public Policy Polling survey, 9% of respondents…
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Americans Driving Less. The Question Why Is Still Unsettled.
It is a well-established fact that Americans are driving less today than they were in 2004, the peak year for Vehicle Miles Traveled per capita. The lingering question is what accounts for the change: changing lifestyles and transportation preferences, a dismal economy or something else? A new report by the USPIRG Education Fund concludes that…
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VRS Portfolio Up 12%
The Virginia Retirement System (VRS) achieved an 11.8% return on its investment portfolio in fiscal year 2013, ending the year with $58.3 billion in assets, the VRS reports. The news is not exactly unexpected. The the stock market reached record highs over the past year, allowing the VRS to generate an 18.6% return on its…
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Let the Sun Shine In
by Stephen D. Haner Whether real changes are made next year to Virginia’s disclosure and conflict-of-interest laws will depend largely on public and journalistic interest. The process responds to public pressure. The current situation exists because people haven’t pushed. Understanding fully that one should be careful what one asks for, I’m going to describe some of…
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Quote of the Day: Chuck Marohn
Great minds think alike. From today’s Strong Towns blog: “Any city that wants to be financially strong and healthy needs to stop making investments that cost more over the long term to service and maintain than they generate in wealth. They need to stop accepting grant funding or “donated” infrastructure that they ultimately will not…
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Bubbas and Barbarians
Forget symphonies, ballets and gaudy performing arts centers. If you’re looking for an indicator of how civilized people are, observe how they drive. You can tell much about peoples’ manners and impulse control by their behavior on the road. Do motorists courteously wait their turn as alternating cars merge into a single lane… or do…
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Will Broad Street BRT Pay Its Own Way?
by James A. Bacon A proposed rapid transit bus line between Willow Lawn and Rocketts Landing would serve as a catalyst for development along the Broad Street corridor and boost property values by 11%, according to an impact study just released by the GRTC Transit System, the Richmond regional transit enterprise. The 7.6-mile route would…
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Auto Revolution Update: Nissan
Japanese auto maker Nissan has joined Google in publicly pledging to develop self-driving cars over the next few years. Nissan will build a proving ground by 2014 to test its autonomous vehicle systems and aims to bring “multiple affordable, energy efficient, fully autonomous-driving vehicles to the market by 2020,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Most…
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Transportation Tumult
by James A. Bacon There is an extraordinary level of hubris in the world of transportation and land use planning. Planners in state transportation departments, including Virginia’s, advance mega-highway projects based upon forecasts of what transportation demand will be two or three decades from now. My friends in the Smart Growth camp rightly reject many…