Category: Housing
-
The Ironies of Tom Clancy
—
by
in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The timing is extremely odd, but the death of techno-thriller author Tom Clancy came this week just when federal workers were being furloughed by the hundreds of thousands through Capitol Hill gridlock. Clancy, who died in Baltimore at 66, did much in the 1980s to makes heroes of the men and women…
-
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…
-
Working Still Beats Welfare in Virginia
Despite the highly controversial reform of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program in 1996, welfare benefits actually have increased in generosity over the past 17 years. Social-services benefits for the poor pay more than minimum-wage jobs in 35 states, even after accounting for the Earned Income Tax Credit, and in 13 states they…
-
Henrico’s Imploding Case for the Meals Tax
by James A. Bacon Henrico County’s governing class justifies a proposed 4% meals tax, expected to raise $18 million a year, as necessary to ward off calamitous budget cuts. The revenues are needed, county officials say, because stagnant tax revenues aren’t sufficient to pay for rising pension liabilities and environmental mandates. There may have been…
-
The Rise of the Aspirational City
by James A. Bacon Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox have introduced the concept of the “aspirational” city — cities to which people move “to change their circumstances and improve their lives.” These are cities on the rise — restless, growing and entrepreneurial magnets of opportunity. I was pleasantly surprised to find Richmond ranking No. 7…
-
How to Help Renters, First-time Home Buyers and the Budget Deficit
by James A. Bacon Between loan guarantees, tax breaks and outright subsidies, the federal government exerts a $450 billion-a-year influence over American real estate markets. Smart Growth America proposes eliminating about $40 billion in federal largesse, reinvesting $7 billion a year in targeted programs to help renters, first-time home buyers and infrastructure investment, and… get…
-
The Cooch’s Freak Show Dream Team
—
by
in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Ken Cuccinelli just can’t keep away from the bizarre, but perhaps that’s what makes him what he is. He stages a convention instead of a primary to neuter Bill Bolling. And since a convention is smaller, it draws more GOP hard-righters than June bugs on a humid night and they succeed in…
-
McAuliffe: Can a Schmoozer Transform?
—
by
in Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka On Easter Sunday, I was driving in a cold rain to Charlottesville for a family event. My cell phone started beeping with messages from Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe. He said he was on his way to his own family brunch but wanted to tap me for $5. I got similar messages…
-
The “New” Mind of the South
By Peter Galuszka What is “the South” all about? It’s a great question about what could fairly be described the most unique, tortured and remote region of the United States. Being “Southern” requires not only a special state of mind, but a special spirit that is, by turns, as alluring as it is odious. It…
-
Surprise! Latinos Not a Monolithic Bloc!
A week ago, I asked whether the high concentration of Latinos in certain Northern Virginia neighborhoods was best described as “segregation” or “self separation.” Are Latinos the victims of residential discrimination, or do they voluntarily cluster together for reasons of income (they can afford to live only in certain neighborhoods) or culture (they like being…
-
Haven’t We Seen this Show Before?
Item One, from WSJ article, “Bernanke Affirms Bond Buying” (my emphasis): “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke came down firmly in favor of continuing the central bank’s bond-buying programs, even as he acknowledged concerns that the efforts might encourage risk-taking that could someday destabilize markets or the economy.” Item Two, from WSJ article, “Builders Fuel Home…
-
The Lessons of the 2013 General Assembly
—
by
in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Health Care, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka If there’s any good news from the 2013 General Assembly session, it is that the hard right’s strange hold on taxation has been broken. Republicans can start acting like responsible adults once again instead of dogmatic shills or spoiled children. Gov. Robert F. Donnell and legislators found a way to raise badly…
-
The Blessings of Old Housing Stock
by James A. Bacon Among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, Richmond and Washington have relatively large stocks of pre-1940 housing, while Hampton Roads has relatively little, according to data published by Wendell Cox at the NewGeography.org blog. As a rule, regions with the youngest housing stock are Sun Belt metros like Las Vegas, Phoenix…
-
Documenting the Federal Distortion of Real Estate Markets
by James A. Bacon Between zoning codes, parking regulations, development fees, tax abatements, transportation and infrastructure spending, caps on building permits and other local government intrusions into real estate markets, the surprisingly widespread notion that dysfunctional human settlement patterns can be blamed on unchecked capitalism has always been a ludicrous one. Now Smart Growth America…
-
Here Comes Cooch-ageddon!
—
by
in Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Water-waste waterHard right conservative Kenneth T. Cuccinelli has a very good chance of becoming the next governor. At least that’s my view 11 months out. I disagree with Cuccinelli on almost everything and will spare my readers the list. But I do agree on one thing: he has proved to be a wily politician. He’s turned…