We’ve been preaching energy-efficient growth and development for years now, and we’ve remained stuck on the margins of public opinion. But now, with gasoline prices zooming past $4 per gallon, people are waking up. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, they are. When the Wall Street Journal runs a story on the front page, “With Gas Over $4, Cities Explore, Whether It’s Smart to Be Dense,” highlighting San Diego’s move to smart growth, you know the idea has gone mainstream. (Hat tips: Gay Leahy and Gregory Pimentel.)
So, whatta you going to do? Read a Johnny Come Lately like the Journal and think you’ve got it all figured out? Or read the latest edition of Bacon’s Rebellion, where we’ve been wrestling with these issues in a Virginia context, practically since the first cave men decided that cave life was too confining, camped in the plains, and got eaten by a saber-tooth tiger?
Here’s what we have to offer in the July 7, 2008, edition:
The City of Squares
The historical core of Savannah, Ga., is one of the great urban places in the United States. Modern-day Virginia could learn a few lessons from James Ogilthorpe’s unique experiment.
by James A. Bacon
The Wealth Gap
Sooner or later, an economy built on wildly unequal incomes, cheap energy and debt-fueled mass over-consumption will collapse. Mass denial will not change this reality.
by EM Risse
Let the People Decide
It’s time to fish or cut bait on the gas tax. Either pass a tax increase to pay for transportation projects or take it off the table so we can pursue other options.
by Michael Thompson
Bread and Circuses
Governments dispense money for ends that the Constitution never envisioned. One way or another, we’re all on the dole now.
by Norman Leahy
Bubba Believes in Religion
(and other true facts)
by Barnie Day
Nice & Curious Questions
Running in Virginia: Triathlons, Duathlons, Adventure Races and More
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs