Category: Infrastructure
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Journalism’s Death Is Greatly Exaggerated
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in Business and Economy, 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, 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 waterBy Peter Galuszka “Investigative reporting, R.I.P. In-depth reporting is dead. If not dead, it’s comatose. Reeling from declining revenue and eroding profit margins, print media enterprises continue to lay off staff and shrink column inches.” Err, maybe not. James A. Bacon Jr., meet Rachel Maddow. The quote comes from advertised “sponsorships” in which an outside…
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The Statewide Importance of the 495 Express Lanes
by James A. Bacon Traffic and revenues on Northern Virginia’s 495 Express Lanes increased steadily in 2013, generating a record 47,000 trips and toll revenue of $124,000 on December 19, according to data the company released yesterday. Whether that’s enough to meet expectations of parent company Transurban Holdings Ltd., headquartered in Australia, or to encourage…
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Biophilia, Happiness and Place Making
by James A. Bacon Biologist and philosopher E.O. Wilson coined the term “biophilia” to describe humans’ deeply rooted love of life and nature — a sentiment that may be a product of man’s biological evolution. It is human nature to take delight in the presence of wildlife (at least the kind that doesn’t eat you),…
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Drinking Water and the “War on Coal”
By Peter Galuszka It’s curious against whom the “War on Coal” really is. You might ask the 300,000 residents of Charleston, W.Va. who are being trucked emergency bottles of water because the spill of a toxic chemical used to help prepare coal has polluted their drinking water. As many as 5,000 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol…
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Where the Poor Are
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka With expanding Medicaid about to become a major issue with the incoming Terry McAuliffe administration, it is curious to see exactly where the poor people in Virginia live. An intriguing New York Times interactive graph provides clues and allows one to draw some rather disturbing conclusions. The single worst pocket of poverty…
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The McDonnell Track Record: Incremental Improvement
by James A. Bacon Governor Bob McDonnell’s four-year term in office is drawing to a close. Sadly, it appears that the governor will be remembered mainly for his atrocious judgment in accepting more than $150,000 in gifts and loans from a Richmond businessman. While the Giftgate scandal deservedly dominated the headlines in his last year…
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Fiscal Analytics and the Next Municipal Revolution
by James A. Bacon It is the best of times for local government, it is the worst of times. It is the worst in the sense that local governments across America are experiencing unrelieved fiscal stress from pension obligations, mounting infrastructure backlogs and lagging revenues. Yet it is the best in the sense that rarely…
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Behind a Massey Energy Lawsuit Settlement
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka It might have otherwise gone unnoticed, but Bristol-based Alpha Natural Resources, one of the country’s largest coal companies, has agreed to settle a leftover securities fraud lawsuit for $265 million involving Massey Energy Co., the notorious, formerly Richmond-based firm that Alpha bought in 2011. The settlement with the Pension Reserves Investment Management…
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Time for Some Tactical Suburbanism
by James A. Bacon Tactical urbanism is the term used to describe small, inexpensive, often temporary, urban improvements that make life more colorful, fun or livable. They include such things as guerilla gardening, parklets, pavement to parks, pop-up retail, pavement-to-plaza, de-paving and chair bombing (the latter would be the creation of public seating, not the…
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Can McAuliffe Thread the U.S. 460 Needle?
Will Gov.-elect Terry McAuliffe reverse one of the biggest legacies of the McDonnell administration, construction of the new U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk? The $1.4-billion, Interstate-grade highway, upon which the McDonnell administration has already lavished $200 million, has cleared all significant hurdles but one: approval by the Army Corps of Engineers. But the project…
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Investors Take their Licks from Toll Road Projects
by James A. Bacon Private investors have pumped about $27 billion into toll-road deals in the United States since 2003, estimates the Wall Street Journal in an article today. Many of them have gone bust. The root problem: Not enough drivers. During the go-go years of the 2000s when traffic counts were soaring and real estate…
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Brace Yourself for the Internet of Things
by James A. Bacon The “Internet of Things” is one of the hottest buzz words in the global technology sector today. The phrase refers to a phenomenon, the mass proliferation of Internet-connected devices, that is as world-altering as the invention of the personal computer and the rise of the World Wide Web. Economy and society…
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Smart Cities around the World Are Saving Money Now. How about Your Home Town?
by James A. Bacon Suggested reading for every elected official, senior administrator and department head in Virginia government: “Smart Cities Readiness Guide” published by the Smart Cities Council. This easy-to-read document walks government practitioners (and interested citizens) through the process of using sensor, communications and analytic technologies to collect, communicate and crunch data. Proven smart…
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Bicycle Wars
by James A. Bacon The bicycle wars are coming to Virginia as cyclists literally fight to take back the streets. For decades the issue was settled — the streets belonged to automobiles, with pedestrians confined to sidewalks as second-class citizens. Bicycles didn’t figure into street design at all. But those days are over as increasingly…
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Thank God It’s Over: Seven Election Takeaways
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, LGBQT, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The awful Virginia gubernatorial contest is over. Utter disaster has been averted with the defeat of strident rightwinger Kenneth Cuccinelli. Here are seven takeaways from Election Day: 1. Winner Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, now gets to deal with a contentious General Assembly where the GOP maintains firm control on the House of…