Once again we head for the parallel universe! The Tea Party Express Tour, starring Sarah Palin, is heading for downtown Richmond tonight. From 6:30 to 8 p.m., the “Taxed Enough Already” crowd will sling their bile at Big Government, Liberals and Big Taxes. They will flap their rattlesnake “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and call…

Here’s a “top ranking” list you don’t want to be on: Business Insider‘s list of “America’s Most Bankrupt Cities.” Unfortunately, the fair city of Norfolk appears there with a $26 million deficit. I have not been following developments through the Virginian-Pilot, but the Business Insider‘s description is pretty scary: City Manager Regina Williams has whittled…

One wonders after nearly three months in office, just what is going on in the head of Gov. Bob McDonnell. After about a decade of steadily building a reputation for reason and fair-mindedness, suddenly Virginia is the Butt of All Jokes. We’ve made Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” on the Comedy Channel, Gail Collins in the…

The massive underground coal mine blast that killed at least 25 miners on the afternoon of April 5 in Naoma, W.Va. brought back some doleful memories. Exactly one year ago, I was in Naoma cruising up and down the Coal River Valley working on a story for Richmond’s Style Weekly on Richmond-based Massey Energy Co.’s…

The United States, and Virginia along with it, is entering a new era of budgetary constraints. The economic expansion we’re now entering will be weaker and frailer than in previous business cycles, with lamentable consequences for the productive, tax-paying economy of businesses and workers — and for the government that feeds off them. Two weeks…

Gov. Bob McDonnell may be dancing for joy, if not perhaps for feeling a little upstaged, by President Barack Obama’s reversal of a stand against drilling for oil offshore of Virginia. Exploration could begin in 2012 for a Delaware-sized area of 2.9 million acres about 50 miles off of Cape Charles. The plan is for…

SORTING WHEAT FROM CHAFF CONCERNING THE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE SKETCH EMR will move on from THE SKETCH soon but several key points were raised by Larry, Groveton and others in comments following ONE MORE NOTE ON SKETCH COMMENTS that may be lost without special attention. This is the last post from which EMR will NOT delete…

Is it March Madness or the start of one of the ugliest periods in Virginia’s history? The Old Dominion is fast getting a reputation for the kind of politics of disenfranchisement, stubborn states’ rights-ism and glib constitutional arguments designed to attack the “enemy” a stone’s throw on the other side of the Potomac River that…

It is nearly inconceivable to EMR why otherwise intelligent humans continue to intentionally confuse themselves about the basics of human settlement patterns. In comments on TWO NOTES ON SKETCH COMMENTS Groveton says “facts are stubborn things.” Facts ARE stubborn things and the facts Groveton presents appear to be correct. However, as applied these fact are…

The “historic health care reform” is NOT health care ‘reform.’ It is no more ‘health care reform’ than it is a replacement for cheap energy, a reversal of the decline of marine resources or a filter for polluted ground water. It is not a cure for the loss of biodiversity, continuing trade deficits, religious bigotry,…

Excuse the new post but there are two very important points raised by the comments on the Sketch Comments post: In the first comment, Not Ed Risse (welcome back!) said: “Henry George is irrelevant when exclusionary zoning prevents higher density housing that an otherwise free market would support and build. “Most of the dysfunction you…

The ‘Sketch’ posted 15 March 2010 generated over 40 comments to date. As a former student Emailed: “I hope they are having fun because they have not added much to the prospect of evolving sustainable human settlement patterns.” At the urging of several who responded directly, EMR provides these additional observations on the topic: The…

As documented in The Shape of the Future Vol I – and reinforced by TRILO-G – achieving economic prosperity, social stability and environmental sustainability depends on evolving functional human settlement patterns. Citizens of Virginia the question is: How do citizens of the Commonwealth implement something like the six overarching strategies to achieve functional human settlement…

Building on EMR’s previous post, I bring to the attention of Bacon’s Rebellion readers a Congressional Oversight Report, published February, “Commercial Real Estate Losses and the Risk to Financial Stability.” The executive summary states the problem so pithily that I quote from it directly: Between 2010 and 2014, about $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate…

The 12 March front page headline in WaPo says it all: “Foreclosure wave threatens stability of housing market.” Do not wait for a journalist to package the contemporary condition of the housing market for you. Go to Realtor.com and check out what has happened this week in your Village, your Neighborhood, your Cluster or even…