Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Wreaking Havoc upon Complacency and Torpor

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by

James A. Bacon
in

The Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine publishes again. The April 7, 2008, edition skewers the forces of ignorance and lethargy. Check it out at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com. Don’t miss a single issue — sign up for your free subscription here.

We’ve got a great line-up this week:

First, Shoot All The Cars

While Virginians seem hell bent upon raising taxes and building roads, Ameri-kiwi Claude Lewenz envisions a different path to a superior quality of life: Auto-free villages.

by James A. Bacon


Newseum
The D.C. attraction opening this week celebrates freedom of the press, the rise of the news and the decline of the newspaper.

by Doug Koelemay


Space to Drive and Park

Cars consume huge amounts of space for roads and parking, which disaggregates human settlement patterns, co-opts transportation alternatives, and… increases dependence upon cars.

by EM Risse


Two Spheres of Fraud

While the media salivates over the subprime lending fiasco, journalists are overlooking the main reason why Americans can’t afford housing: the building of the wrong kind of housing in the wrong places.

by EM Risse


How to Save $1 Billion Without Even Trying

Think Virginia lawmakers are serious about restraining state government spending? Consider this: Simply freezing 7,627 vacant positions could have saved $1 billion in the next two-year budget!

by Mike Thompson


You Call This Conservative?

A self-proclaimed “conservative” transportation plan appears to be animated by the conviction that Virginians really don’t know what’s good for them. When did conservatives become central planners?

by Norm Leahy


Creating a New Segregation

When Richmond combined Jim Crow with urban planning in the 1940s, the result was expressways, the destruction of African-American neighborhoods and white flight.

by Peter Galuszka


Reaching the Promised Land

In his lifetime, Martin Luther King empowered African-Americans. By his death, he stimulated Southern, evangelical whites to search their hearts and embrace all children of God.

by James Atticus Bowden


Nice & Curious Questions

Bottled Poetry: Wine Trails of Virginia

by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

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Comments

  1. Accurate Avatar
    Accurate

    Okay, I checked out the article – ‘First, shoot all cars’ – Lewenz obviously hates cars (don’t know why exactly) and evidently doesn’t like the capitalist system. As when he says, “…smaller housing units that can be sold only to buyers meeting certain age and income criteria — as a way to preserve affordable, workforce housing.”

    I certainly understand the idea and concept, but it smacks mightly of Big Brother telling you where you can live, how large your living space must be and with his next suggestion – “…residents of diverse cultures, incomes and political proclivities rub elbows” He is obviously a socialist, where we all share in everything. While certain aspects of socialism have certain ideals attached to it, by no means (in my opinion) is it a socio-economic model that I care to live in.

    His ideas harken back to how Italian and Greek villages use to be. They grew that way because it made sense to grow that way back then, we’ve evolved. The automobile has done more to free up time, mobility and the ability to increase one’s earnings than any other machine in the last 100 years, maybe longer.

    If you wish to live the way Lewenz sees things, then don’t build a new, unworkable village as per his ideas. Just go find some semi-isolated village in Italy and start herding goats. Get rid of your car once you arrive and you have achieved Lewnz’s vision of the world.

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    re: “You call this Conservative”

    I tend to agree with the use of the “sprawl” word as the swiss army knife equivalent of whatever kind of development nearby folks don’t want.

    And I agree that the right question to the Conservatives is: “What are the Transportation needs of Virginia and by what financial means should we meet those needs”.

    and I think the paper is seriously tainted by NOT using inflation-adjusted data…

    but I would ask this question – which I often ask -which is –

    if someone chooses to live 50 miles from where they work and they want to drive SOLO everyday at rush hour – WHO should pay for the infrastructure that they need?

    Bonus Question:

    Is the “Conservative” answer to the above question different from the “tax & spend” folks and if so – in what ways?

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    James Atticus Bowden has a lot of good insights in his column this week reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
    On a personal note, I was struck by his remembrances of the riots in DC. The day after King was killed, I was flying out of National to to meet with relatives for the Easter Holiday. I will never forget looking out of the plane as it ascended and seeing big swaths of 14th Street on fire. I was a 15-year-old high school student at the time.

    Peter Galuszka

  4. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Accurate, Lewenz does not hate cars. He sees them as necessary for transport outside the villege. He just doesn’t want them *inside* the village. That’s a quality of life issue — how does that make him an enemy of capitalism?

    As for his idea about parallel real estate markets, that’s a *market-based* solution to the endemic problem of workforce housing. There’s nothing “big brother” about it. The parallel market restrictions are written into the deed covenants of anyone buying property in the village development. People are free to choose or not to choose to live in the village under those conditions.

    As for your statement that “he’s obviously a socialist, where we all share in everything,” that is a simplistic reading of his thinking. “How to Build a Village” is not about redistributing wealth. But it does recognize that a functional society needs to be able to accommodate individuals from a wide range of incomes. Who wants to live in a community where teachers, policemen, clerks, waiters, garbagemen, carpenters and artisans all have to drive in from miles and miles away? What kind of place is that?

    Accurate, free-market capitalism is dynamic. It changes to meet the demands of the times. Your negative reaction to Lewenz’s ideas make you sound like a defender of the status quo, which is anything *but* free-market capitalism.

  5. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    I remember the Martin Luther King riots as well. My family lived in the city near the Washington Cathedral. I sat on the crest of Mount Saint Alban with a panoramic view of the city and watched as plumes of smoke arose all over the city. The city was shut down at night by curfews. White people were terrified. White flight gained a lot of momentum that week.

  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Regarding the Newseum, is there any reference anywhere in the displays for “MSM” (Main Stream Media)or the “Estates Matrix.”

    Just tryingto see what ideas have caught on.

    Peter Galuszka

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Cars use parking spaces, but they don’t use any energy while parked.

    That’s the tradeoff you make for not driving them around all day using energy and other resources when they are not needed or used – like buses and trains do.

    RH

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I don’t have any problem with auto free villages. But, they are going to have to be small, because people wont walk very far.

    That means you need a lot of them: More Places.

    And, they will be surrounded by parking lots. A good sized village is going to start to look a lot like a shopping mall. As one African visitor said the first time he entered a Wal Mart, “It is bigger than my village.”

    Because of their size, these small villages will probably specialize in different things. That will mean they will need to be connected by first class transportation capabable of serving multiple nodes.

    Our present means of heroic radial transportation sytems serving giant and expensive central nodes will have to be rethought ot serve these many villages.

    RH

  9. Accurate Avatar
    Accurate

    ‘Lewenz does not hate cars … He just doesn’t want them *inside* the village. That’s a quality of life issue.’ And as for me, I guess I would agree, my quality of life would greatly diminish without a car.

    ‘how does that make him an enemy of capitalism?’ – I picked up that bit of information reading his article. In a capitalistic system, based on my earnings I can buy what I want to live in, where I want to live and how big I wish my quarters to be. In his world none of those factors seem to mean much of anything. He wants us to live in “… smaller housing units that can be sold only to buyers meeting certain age and income criteria.”

    Does THAT sound like capitalism to you? Combine that with his next statement, “… when residents of diverse cultures, incomes and political proclivities rub elbows.” So not only can I not live in an abode the size of which I can choose, but if my “culture, income and political proclivity” is already too well … represented, then I would be forbidden to live there.

    Jim Bacon says, “But it does recognize that a functional society needs to be able to accommodate individuals from a wide range of incomes. Who wants to live in a community where teachers, policemen, clerks, waiters, garbagemen, carpenters and artisans all have to drive in from miles and miles away? What kind of place is that?” It is a community that will live or die on it’s own merits Jim. If I’m an individual who has done whatever it takes (doctors, lawyers, etc.) to boost my income to a higher level do you think I really want to live in a dwelling that is similar/typical of what a student or clerk would live in? One of the incentives that I had as a student was the dream of getting to a point that my living conditions were BETTER than I was living in as a student.

    Jim says, “The parallel market restrictions are written into the deed covenants of anyone buying property in the village development. People are free to choose or not to choose to live in the village under those conditions.” You are correct, however, my fear is there won’t be too many people who earn higher incomes living there. Look, one of the many reasons we buy homes is the hope of appreciation. In this fantasy land, your home will essentially never appreciate – conversely it shouldn’t depreciate either – but is that a deal you would want to take? 20 years from now when you get tired of this painfully small village with captive prices (and possibly predatory pricing), you decide you want to move back into the real world and you can’t get more than you paid for your abode 20 years ago?

    “…free-market capitalism is dynamic. It changes to meet the demands of the times.” True, and talking about the way the future might play out is always an interesting topic. I watch the free-market function, I see it everyday. I’ve seen it over the course of my 50+ years in this country. Thankfully, I’ve never seen this man’s vision or that of EMR come close to fruition – and if I’m really lucky, I won’t be around if either vision ever does come around. All I am is a defender of the free-market place. If EMR and or Lewenz’s visions ever come to pass then good for them. We will see who buys into it. The earth’s population is large enough that there is a good chance that enough people will agree with those ‘visions’ that they might exist. I have strong doubts that they will become the ‘norm’.

  10. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Accurate:

    See comments on the Blog posting re this book.

    EMR

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