Author: James A. Bacon
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The Fiscal Cliff Is Dead! Long Live the Fiscal Canyon!
by James A. Bacon Rejoice! The fiscal cliff has been averted. Fret! There is more political turmoil to come as Washington mud wrestles with sequestration spending cuts and the cap on federal borrowing in the next two months. Despair! Washington’s inability to enact serious budget reform means that Boomergeddon, once only a strong probability, is…
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Accreditor Meddling Draws Rebuke
Some readers may have wondered if I had lost my marbles by hosting a series of posts by contributor Reed Fawell questioning a decision of regional accrediting agency to inject itself into a governance controversy between the University of Virginia’s president and its Board of Trustees. (See here, here and here.) Now comes news that…
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The Beltway’s Brain
To get a taste of Virginia’s transportation future, take a spin on the 495 Express Lanes project where sensors, artificial intelligence and dynamic pricing combine to optimize scarce capacity on the Capital Beltway.
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The New Geography of Jobs
by James A. Bacon “The New Geography of Jobs” is arguably the most important book about urban economics published in 2012. Author Enrico Moretti, an Italian-born economics professor at Berkeley, analyzes the great divergence occurring between metropolitan regions in the United States. While much of his narrative about the “innovation” sector as the key driver…
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Taxes and the Urban Mobility Revolution
by James A. Bacon Et tu, Hugo? Del. Tim Hugo, R-Centreville, has proposed eliminating Virginia’s motor fuels tax and replacing it with a 0.9% increase in the state sales tax, the Times-Dispatch reports today. That measure, combined with the allocation of an additional 0.5% of the sales tax to the Commonwealth Transportation Fund, would raise…
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Addressing the E-tail Sales Tax Dilemma
Small online retailers are under threat by a Congressional initiative that would force them to collect sales taxes for their customers’ home states. “If that happens,” writes Phil Bond, executive director of WE R HERE, “a small online retailer operating from a longtime street-front location, a modest warehouse space or even the owner’s kitchen table…
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In Quest of the Historical Baby Jesus
by James A. Bacon The Christmas story has been retold so many times in sermons and hymns, in school plays and storybooks, that it has become a part of the national psyche. Every schoolchild knows that Mary and Joseph traveled to the little town of Bethlehem where there was no room at the inn. They…
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Suburban Redevelopment in Merrifield Wins NYTimes Nod
Taking notice of redevelopment in the Merrifield area of Fairfax County, The New York Times has suggested that this “suburban wasteland in Virginia” is at last getting an urban feel. The centerpiece of the suburban makeover is the 31-acre Mosaic district, a project of Columbia, S.C.-based Edens, a private retail developer. When fully built out,…
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The IT Revolution Cometh. Will It Passeth Virginia Transportation By?
by James A. Bacon The spread of smart phones and car navigators equipped with GPS technology is making it easier than ever to measure automobile traffic, and some transportation planners are putting the data to good use. In northern Spain, for instance, the Basque Traffic Control Centre is using GPS data from TomTom navigation systems…
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Dem Congressmen Urge Delay of U.S. 460
In a letter dated yesterday, one day before the McDonnell administration announced the closing of the $1.4 billion U.S. 460 upgrade, Virginia’s three Democratic congressmen urged state and local officials to delay implementation of the project to make sure it is “properly viewed and analyzed.” The tolled highway between Suffolk and Petersburg would carry only…
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U.S. 460 Upgrade a Done Deal
The McDonnell administration has closed on a deal to finance, design and build a new U.S. 460 between Suffolk and Petersburg, providing the Hampton Roads region an interstate-quality alternative to Interstate 64 to connect with the interstate highway system. The $1.4 billion project has been justified as a cost-effective way to promote the competitiveness of…
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Another Reason Why It Sucks to Be A Foster Child: Identity Theft
As if foster children didn’t have enough problems in their lives, it turns out that they are disproportionately likely — as many as one in 30 — to be victims of identity theft. A wide variety of individuals, including parents, extended family members, social workers, foster parent and others, have access to their social security…
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IG of the Day: Disability Rates in Virginia
This map, produced by the Weldon Cooper Center’s Demographics & Workforce Group, shows 2011 disability rates in Virginia’s working-age population by public use microdata area (PUMA). According to the analysis of Rebecca M. Tippett in “Working-Age Virginians with Disabilities,” working-age Virginians with a disability are (1) significantly older and more likely to be black, (2)…
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New Life for Broken Streams
Rather than make developers install stormwater-control projects of marginal value, Henrico County pools resources to fund high-impact stream reclamations.
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Coming Up: Smart Parking
Here’s a new wrinkle in the digital cities world: a smart phone application that tells you where the empty parking spaces are and how much they cost. Santa Monica, Calif.-based ParkMe has introduced an app that lets users find the the best bets for parking on a block-by-block basis, throwing in a rate calculator, “in-app”…