Remember my response yesterday to Randal O'Toole's Cato article on parking, when I said that I could easily write a three-part series? Not a joke! (Though I might spare you and leave the trilogy unfinished. Maybe.)Today, I'd like to take on O'Toole's comments on California, which he argues is … [Read more...]
Links
1. Maps of sprawl and gentrification in Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, and Boston. At first the picture looks bleak for cities, but Jesus – even downtown Detroit is growing! (More here.)2. A real, live Texan (just kidding – he lives in Austin) replies to O'Toole on parking.3. Why aren't (more) … [Read more...]
Links
1. Systemic Failure praises Gov. (again) Jerry Brown's efforts to do away with California's redevelopment agencies and "enterprise zones" (there's a euphemism if I've ever heard one), which the author claims promote autocentric development with public funds. He then cites a few examples of … [Read more...]
Long weekend links
1. The NYT utterly humiliates itself with a story on how difficult it is for a kid straight outta college from "a prominent Portuguese banking family" to rent a $2,500/mo. studio in a Chelsea coop for less than 12 months. Sounds like the perfect posterchild for Sheldon Silver's rent control … [Read more...]
LaHood’s revealingly stupid reply to the WaPo’s HSR criticism
The WaPo earlier this week ran an editorial against California high-speed rail, and on Friday ran a response from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. As the dedicated anti-California HSR blog High-Speed Train Talk says, the letter does a pretty good job of summing up everything that's wrong with … [Read more...]
California’s Water Resources vs Development
There are some good articles out there this morning, I want to share them with you...Rationalitate - California developments halted over waterWhile the knee-jerk libertarian reaction might be disgust, I think the markets are probably ruined by the government, and current pricing isn't what … [Read more...]
Somin: Causes of the Defeat of Prop 98
Ilya Somin at Volokh - Causes of the Defeat of Proposition 98There were two major causes of Prop 98's defeat. One was the sponsors' mistake in combining the popular cause of restricting eminent domain with a far less popular phaseout of rent control. The second and more unusual cause of 98's … [Read more...]
Somin: Prop 99 Worse Than Nothing
Ilya Somin at Volokh: Why California's Proposition 99 is a Lot Worse than NothingYesterday's California returns show that Proposition 98 - the referendum initiative that would have imposed real restrictions on eminent domain and also phased out rent control - has been overwhelmingly defeated by … [Read more...]