Peter G. wonders how EMR can stand to read WaPo, the flagship of Enterprise-owned MainStream Media in the Washington-Baltimore NUR.
Well, today’s edition provides plenty of reasons. Start with the front page:
“Federal oversight of subways proposed, Federal safety oversight of subways, light-rial systems proposed, METRO CRASH HELPED SPUR SAFETY PLAN, Obama administration to push for Congress to change law.”
This story documents that the current administration is light years from understanding the path to a sustainable future which includes Fundamental Transformation of governance structure.
No one thinks shared-vehicle systems should be unsafe. Few question the fact that METRO could be more safe and more efficient.
The major governance Agencies in the National Capital SubRegion – the federal district, Virginia, Maryland and their political subdivisions (aka, municipalities) – have done a shoddy job of insuring safe efficient operation or of providing a stable source of revenue.
Credit where credit is due – WaPo has done its share to make those shortcomings clear.
But what is the nation-state role in Regional and SubRegional shared-vehicle system safety?
Given the continental and intercontinental impact of aircraft operation it makes sense to have a strong federal role in the air. The same in true, but to a lesser extent, for interRegional and interMegaRegional rail.
Putting the federal government in the middle of safety on Regional and SubRegional shared-vehicle systems is short and long term foolishness. Beyond a requirement to keep statistics and some performance guidelines a strong federal role just removes another of the ‘sticks’ that could constitute the ‘bundle of sticks’ (aka, Critical Mass) of responsibilities that are needed to make Regional governance relevant.
Level of control at level of impact.
Fundamental Transformation of governance.
Also in today’s WaPo:
Neil Irwin does a wonderful job of identifying the real ‘freak’ in SuperFreakonomics – write books that sell Business-As-Usual because that is what uninformed citizens what to believe.
Also right on target in the Outlook section is the latest in the WaPo Five Myths series: “Myths about home sweet homeowership.” The Affordable and Accessible Shelter Crisis – and to a large part The Great Recession – is driven by these Myths and the misguided role of federal Agencies in promoting home ownership.
In the pre-canned Business section the front page has two nice items. One on the worlds largest gambling venue – “That upward stock market …” Did everyone notice the latest jump is based on the promise by The Fed to keep interest low and pump more cheap money into the economy to prolong the new bubble?
The second is a tongue-in-cheek guide to selecting a broker. Ask those 8 questions and THAT broker will not be YOUR broker.
Finally on the back page of Business, Warren Brown, does a nice job of comparing the new Mercedes S400 Hybrid ($87,950) with the Mercedes Smart Fortwo ($11,900).
And on that topic, anyone have a guess as to how many negative comments at ‘advertiser appreciation dinners and seminars’ it took to kill Warren’s (or someone with his knowledge) column on the Autonomobile industry?
Happy reading.
EMR