Category: Infrastructure
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Ukraine and Russia: Even Scarier
By Peter Galuszka The news from Ukraine grows progressively more disturbing with dozens of deaths in recent days in the seaport of Odessa and in some Ukrainian cities near the Russian border. Meanwhile, Russians forces, some at involving brigade-strength units of tank, motor-rifle and airborne troops, plus Spetnaz special forces, are taking up positions on…
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Fracking’s Strange Winners and Losers
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil is creating a new and confusing class of corporate winners and losers in Virginia and elsewhere. Analysts believe that environmental opposition to expanded pipelines such as Keystone helps railroads by putting more tank cars on rail lines. That could further tax a stressed-out rail system…
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Fracking’s New Threats
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Property rights, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The derailment of 14 oil-laden CSX tank cars and subsequent huge fire caused by three of them Wednesday in downtown Lynchburg underscores a number of environmental threats brought on by America’s fast-changing energy markets. Three tank cars carrying crude oil from North Dakota Bakken Field that involves hydraulic fracking drilling methods shot…
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The Perils of Gas Fracking
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka More media accounts are showing up now that 84,000 acres of lands south and east of Fredericksburg have been leased for possible hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas. This Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch published a map showing the leased area covering big swaths of land from the Fort A.P. Hill military area east across the…
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Over Budget, Seven Months Late… and Counting
Phase 1 of the Rail-to-Dulles project was supposed to be the good phase. For quite a while, it appeared to be running on budget and on time, providing reason to be optimistic that the highly controversial Phase 2 of the project might do so as well. But it hasn’t worked out that way. The story…
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April Is The Cruelest Month
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka April is the cruelest month, especially for brutal energy disasters. This Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling blowout that killed 11 and caused one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. April 5 was the fourth anniversary of the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in West Virginia…
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The Richmond Elite’s Bizarre Self Image
By Peter Galuszka If one wants to know one source of Richmond’s malaise, she or he need look no further than the pages of the Richmond Times Dispatch, the mouthpiece of the city’s elite. This is especially true when one reads this morning’s edition. The inadvertent revelations about the city and what is wrong with…
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“Where Is the Closest Tiki Bar?”
By Peter Galuszka Often times, blog commenters really hit the nail on the head. This is the case with “Virginiagal2” who responded to my blog post earlier this week that Richmond’s schools are decrepit and crumbling, as Style Weekly detailed in a recent cover story. They note that Richmond’s elite has done little for its public…
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Can Virginia Reverse the Stroadification of Rt. 1?
by James A. Bacon People living along the U.S. Route 1 corridor in Northern Virginia seemingly desire contradictory things. They want better pedestrian and bicycle safety, they want mass transit. … and they want automobile traffic to flow faster. Alas, designing the corridor to move automobiles faster makes roads less safe, and it discourages the…
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Richmond’s Huge and Hidden Problem
By Peter Galuszka There’s been plenty of image-building on this blog site in favor of what is perceived to be a “new” Richmond. In this view, the former Capital of the Confederacy famous for its gentile white elite and, unfortunately, race politics, is being transformed to a major draw for talented young people and active…
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Tech Insurrection
Smart cities, says Anthony Townsend, will be forged by geeks, activists and civic hackers through bottom-up technological innovation.
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Columbia Pike Streetcars: Delving Deeper into the Value-Capture Scenario
by James A. Bacon Last week, I made the case that the best way to finance construction of the proposed Columbia Pike street car line in Arlington was to set up an improvement district along the route and impose a real estate tax surcharge on property owners to pay off the bonds. (See “A Second…
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The New West: Leaving Richmond Behind
By Peter Galuszka This story may seem a contrarian piece when it comes to smart growth and exurban sprawl but so be it. Back in 1969, road planners in Richmond came up with an idea for a superhighway, Route 288, that would span the iconic James River and connect the far western suburban areas of…
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How North Carolina Halted a Bridge Boondoggle
by James A. Bacon Many Virginians know the agony of driving to vacation in the Outer Banks at the peak of the summer season. Heading south between Chesapeake and Kitty Hawk, you follow four-lane roads jammed with as many as 50,000 cars on Saturdays. Then, if you’re staying in Duck, Whalehead or Corolla, you have…
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Why Five Ex-Attorneys General Are So Wrong
By Peter Galuszka The practice of law in Virginia is supposed to be an honorable profession. The state, which produced such orators as Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, loves its lawyers perhaps much more than individuals who actually create or do something of value. It could be why the state has so many of them.…