Tag: smart growth
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Sarles Makes Pitch for Metro Subsidies
by James A. Bacon Last Wednesday Richard Sarles, chief executive officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), appeared in Richmond to brief the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) on the transit authority’s plans to meet the transportation needs of the fast-growing Washington region, including Northern Virginia, through 2025. Sarles did not provide a specific…
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Virginia’s Behind-the-Scenes Transportation Planning Revolution
by James A. Bacon The McAuliffe administration is generating big headlines by re-thinking mega-projects like the Charlottesville Bypass and the U.S. 460 Connector favored by the previous administration. Those projects came to the fore because federal regulatory authorities made it clear they had major problems with them, leaving Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne scrambling to keep…
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If Not for Government, Who Would Build the Roads?
A couple of blog posts over on Smart Growth for Conservatives shed light on some of the controversies raging within the comments section of Bacon’s Rebellion… Emily Washington asks in “Urbanism without Government,” if not for the government, who would build the roads? She points to the example of Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia, built around…
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Great Scott!! Look What’s Happening to Your Addition!
by James A. Bacon The Scott’s Addition area of Richmond, Va., is the last place most people would want to live. It’s a gritty neighborhood of warehouses and light industry comprised mostly of boxy and unadorned brick buildings, grungy gravel parking lots and a few stunted trees. Indeed, it’s the kind of place normally zoned…
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Lean Urbanism, Better Blocks
by James A. Bacon Andres Duany, a prime force behind the New Urbanism movement, dresses impeccably, exudes Old World sophistication and speaks eloquently in a restrained and understated manner. Jason Roberts, founder of The Better Block organization, wears dorky clothes, laughs like the goofy but affable guy next door and gesticulates excitedly when he speaks.…
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U.S. 460 Project Implodes: State Suspends Spending
by James A. Bacon Having spent $300 million on the U.S. 460 upgrade between Petersburg and Suffolk, the state is suspending contract and permit work on the project until a critical environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers can be completed. Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne made the announcement yesterday. The Corps has given…
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Uh, oh, McAuliffe Might Help Fund Light Rail for the Beach
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe has committed to provide state support for a proposed $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion project to extend Norfolk’s light rail line, the Tide, to the Virginia Beach ocean front, according to Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms. During his state of the city address, Sessoms claimed that the McAuliffe…
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Smart Growth: A Good Idea even without Climate Change
by James A. Bacon To a large degree, the Smart Growth movement in the United States has hitched its wagon to catastrophic human-caused climate change as the primary justification for building walkable, mixed-use, transit-friendly human settlement patterns. Off and on, I have warned that the emphasis on global warming could be a political mistake. If…
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Bacon Bits: Madison… Saslaw… Embrey Mill
About darn time.Writing in City Journal, Myron Magnet writes about the restoration of James Madison’s home, Montpelier. It may be the most unsung historical restoration of the 21st century. A team led by Kat Imhoff has peeled back the 19th-century shell added by DuPont family members to reveal Madison’s original building. Many of Madison’s original pieces,…
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America’s (and Virginia’s) Road-Maintenance Deficit
by James A. Bacon State transportation departments across the country are spending billions of dollars to build new roads and highways even as they fail to maintain the road networks they already have, according to a new report by Smart Growth America and Taxpayers for Common Sense. Between 2009 and 2011, the most recent years…
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How to Cut Auto Usage without Social Engineering
Emily Badger, a perceptive writer for the Atlantic Cities blog, makes a number of excellent points in a commentary published today but manages to confirm conservatives’ worst fears that liberals and progressives are engaged in a war against cars. The libs may say they are “pro-transit,” “pro-bicycle” and “pro-transportation choice,” but when you scratch the surface, their…
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Fixing Our Compromised Interstates and Highways
Over on Strong Towns Chuck Marohn is running a five-part series on how to restructure transportation policy in his home state of Minnesota. Despite a different state/local government structure and different spheres of authority for the two states’ transportation departments, many of his proposals carry over to Virginia. In today’s missive, he tackles three issues…
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Bacon Bits: Bicycles and Baseball Stadiums
The Easy Out. Writing in Henrico Monthly John Gerner, a Richmond-based leisure industry consultant, takes Richmond City Hall’s assumption that building a new baseball stadium requires public funding. Ballparks are often built with little or no public funding, he writes: Greensboro’s privately financed ballpark that was built to accommodate a AA minor league baseball team,…
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The Acid Test for Richmond BRT: Will Property Owners Tax Themselves?
by James A. Bacon Momentum is building in the Richmond region to build a 7.4-mile Bus Rapid Transit system along the Broad Street corridor. Transit lovers tout the many blessings that a BRT system would bring, and they discuss the projected costs, but there are two things you never hear them talk about: Risk and…
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Don’t Expect Increased Real Estate Assessments to Bail out Local Government
There’s bad news for local governments in Virginia that rely upon property tax revenues to support schools, public safety and other priorities. Property values for single-family homes, which account for a large majority of most jurisdictions’ total assessed value, will not increase much over the next few years, according to a new study by the…