Bacon's Rebellion

  • Electric Conservation On a Roll Everywhere — Except Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    As the State Corporation Commission oversees the process of setting achievable conservation goals for Virginia — it is possible to cost-effectively cut 2006 levels of electricity consumption levels by 10 percent over the next 15 years? — will anyone be calling upon Commonwealth Edison, Progress Energy, Southern California Edison or FPL Group to testify?

    Those are only some of the electric power companies, according to today’s Wall Street Journal, that are experimenting with programs to help customers conserve electricity. Notably, none of the companies mentioned serve Virginia markets. Nor, outside a handful of blogs and environmental groups, does anyone in Virginia seem to be raising the conservation issue.

    Just so you know how increasingly out of step Virginia is, let me quote the first two paragraphs of the WSJ article:

    Utilities are rolling out more programs than ever to help consumers cut their energy use, motivated by cost considerations, pressure from regulators and increased consumer acceptance. In doing so, they hope to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, forestall the need for building new plants and put a brake on rising electricity costs.

    Moving beyond traditional rebate programs, utilities are putting sophisticated tools in consumers’ hands, such as online calculators, advanced electric meters, in-home displays, remote-control devices and innovative pricing plans. Some consumers say they’re changing their energy habits as a result, a task that can be time-consuming but which many people say they find rewarding.

    In a voluntary program, Commonwealth Edison in Illinois charges consumers variable prices for electricity. Carolinas-based Progress Energy has set the goal of conserving 2,000 megawatts on electricity in the new few years, the equivalent to four big power plants. Southern California Edison has signed up a thousand technicians to offer air-conditioning tune-ups. FPL Group in Florida is unveiling an Internet tool that lets small business owners calculate how much energy different processes and equipment use.

    Virginia has just signed into law legislation that will encourage electric utilities to meet growing demand for electricity mainly by building more power plants and transmission lines, with barely a nod to conservation and renewable energy. A goal of 10 percent conservation over 15 years is purely nominal. What a shame.

  • Shearing the Sheep: Fairfax County Tax Burden Surges

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    James A. Bacon

    The decade of the 2000s has witnessed an extraordinary growth in spending and taxation at the local level in Virginia. Nowhere does this point emerge more clearly than a chart prepared by the Fairfax County Taxpayers Association that shows inflation-adjusted real estate taxes per household in Fairfax County. Comparable charts for neighboring jurisdictions, I am quite confident, would show similar spikes over the past few years.

    Where’s the tax revolt? Nowhere in sight, from what I can tell. Maybe there are so many refugees from New York and New Jersey now living in Northern Virginia that many voters feel the tax burden is nothing to complain about.

  • Downtown Plans and Balanced Communities

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    James A. Bacon

    John Sarvay has published Part II of his series about Richmond’s downtown master plan: “What’s a Downtown Plan?” The plan, as it turns out, is not a tool for control freaks and social engineers. It is a guide. As Sarvay quotes from the plan itself:

    Its purpose is to serve as a guide to assist in public and private decision-making relative to a wide variety of issues affecting the future of Downtown Richmond. It is intended to be used by the City as a guide for making public capital investment decisions and establishing land use policies and regulations. Of equal importance is the role of the Plan as a tool providing guidance to Downtown stakeholders and potential investors in making decisions affecting Downtown’s future.

    That seems entirely appropriate. The plan provides a roadmap for local government to use in planning its public capital investments. It also provides the private sector guidance in what kind of re-zoning requests the locality is likely to approve and where it will be most willing to make public capital investment. Actual execution of the plan is another issue entirely. Circumstances change. Unexpected opportunities arise. Politics intervenes. Nothing is carved in stone — but the plan, which represents a consensus of opinion, carries a certain moral force. It is not deviated from lightly.

    Which brings us to an issue of much contention in the comments sections of this blog: Ed Risse’s concept of the “Balanced Community” and how it might be achieved. EMR is in the process of developing his thoughts fully, which he will publish in book form in the near future. Until then, we have to rely upon the fragmentary hints he provides on this blog. The controversy to this point revolves around the suspicion that “planning” for a Balanced Community will be some kind of top-down process imposed by social engineers upon an unwilling public.

    Here’s how I see it: “Planning” for a Balanced Community — a community with a balance of jobs, housing, retail and amenities and a transportation system to fit — needs be no more top-down than the process of creating Richmond’s downtown plan. The idea is to provide a roadmap (1) for future public capital improvements, and (2) for future rezoning decisions. Where the process would differ is in recognizing that the organic components of Balanced Communities often overlap political jurisdictions, thus planning is not something that can be undertaken by a single locality. Some Balanced Communities might overlap two or even three jurisdictions, thus requiring genuine coordination and cooperation between local governments, or more logically (and politically difficult) a rewriting of local government boundaries to reflect the economic-social realities on the ground.

  • The Emerging Conservationist Majority

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    James A. Bacon

    Environmentalism isn’t just for Democrats anymore. Strong support of environmental priorities cuts across party lines, according to a statewide public opinion survey sponsored by the Virginia League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the Piedmont Environmental Council.

    The conservation coalition that emerges is as diverse as the electorate itself, ranging from Republican-leaning audiences, such as conservatives who attend church at least weekly, to liberal secular voters. Voters support a conservation agenda and conservation candidates, contend the survey’s sponsors. Says Lisa Guthrie, Executive Director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters Education Fund: “There is a clear and growing “Conservation Majority” of voters that is demanding that our Commonwealth take further actions to preserve and enhance our communities.”

    Some of the findings:

    • 61 percent of voters believe the State must have a large role in solving the issue of global warming.
    • 61 percent say cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay is a top concern in deciding their vote for candidate for public office.
    • 68 percent prefer a candidate for public office who supports more transportation options for Virginia, such as more commuter rail and expanded bus services to reduce traffic.
    • 65 percent say that a candidate’s view on land use, growth and curbing sprawl will be the most important or an important factor in their voting decision

    To see details of the survey, click here.

    Republicans, take note. Environmental issues have traditionally been Democratic issues. As a rule, Democrats have an affinity for government- and rules-oriented public policy solutions. That’s why solutions to environmental issues tend to augment the power of government at the expense of free markets and property rights. If you don’t like an expanding role for government, you’d better embrace the environmental ethos as your own and devise market-based solutions.

  • More Roads, Worse Congestion. Could There Be a Connection?

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    James A. Bacon

    Chesterfield County has 4,000 miles of roads and streets, and it’s adding new roads at the rate of 35 miles per year — more than any other locality in Virginia. Despite a massive gift of state General Fund dollars to pay for construction of the Rt. 288 circumferential highway, Chesterfield officials worry that they need hundreds of millions of dollars more. About $1 billion more.

    Under the new transportation funding legislation, Chesterfield will get a little more money for new construction but not much: only $45 million over the next six years for secondary roads. According to Julian Walker with the Times-Dispatch, Chesterfield officials are considering raising some $300 million in local funds to play catch-up.

    Some of the options: higher impact fees, issuing bonds through Community Development Authorities to be repaid through special tax districts, and issuing county-backed bonds to be repaid.

    Here’s what’s not being considered, assuming that Walker’s article is fairly comprehensive in covering the spectrum of debate: Reforming land use patterns. Although the county has approved, or is in the processing of approving, a handful of major mixed-use, New Urbanism-style developments, it is responding to the initiatives of the development community, not making the changes proactively. There is no discussion of creating Balanced Communities. There are no moves, above and beyond the current modest initiatives, to aggressively re-develop aging districts of the county already served by roads. There is no discussion of Transit Oriented Development served by rail.

    You’d think someone among Chesterfield’s leaders would ask: If we’re building more roads than anyone else, why are traffic conditions deteriorating faster? Could we be building roads in the wrong places? (Is Rt. 288 accelerating the pattern of leapfrog, disconnected, low-density development at the root of congestion?) Is building more roads really the remedy? How about making better use of the roads we already have? How about building communities where people can drive fewer, shorter trips in their cars?

    Unless there is a breakthrough in thinking, traffic congestion in Chesterfield County will continue to get worse, not better, no matter how much money the County raises for new construction.

  • New Urbanism Comes to an Old Downtown

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    James A. Bacon

    Once again, John Sarvay, author of the Buttermilk and Molasses blog, has demonstrated that he is a “must read” for land use issues in the Richmond region. In his latest post, he sets the scene for the update of the city’s Downtown Master Plan, with particular attention to the urban design firm, Dover Kohl & Partners, that will lead the effort.

    One of the most important decisions in updating the Master Plan is deciding which firm to engage to run the charrette. Very appropriately, in a recent post, “The Downtown Master Plan Revisited: Part One: Huh?”, Sarvay asks, just who is Dover Kohl & Partners?

    Dover Kohl, though based in Florida, has Virginia roots: The principals graduated from Virginia Tech. Then they studied under New Urbanism gurus Andres Duany and his wife Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk at the University of Miami. Among many projects, they have worked with the City of Fairfax on a master plan to re-develop Fairfax Boulevard (Rt. 50).

    To get a flavor of the kind of thinking that Dover Kohl might apply to downtown Richmond, I refer you to the article by the Fairfax Times about the Rt. 50 plan. The vision there is to transform the suburban arterial into “a tree-lined, multi-lane roadway.” Three major nodes along the boulevard would offer a classic New Urbanist mix of residential, commercial and retail. The plan would give special emphasis to walkability.

    The challenges for the City of Richmond are very different. The “old” urbanism of Downtown already provides high densities, minimal setbacks, a gridded street pattern and highly walkable streetscapes. The only obvious challenge that strikes me is figuring out how to accelerate the revival of downtown residential.

    The City of Richmond and its civic boosters have fallen prey in the past to the allure of the “mega project” that will magically stimulate downtown revival. The 6th Street Marketplace, the Convention Center and the Performing Arts Center are the most notable fiascos, although there have been others. The good news about Dover Kohl, suggests Sarvay based on his Internet readings, is that New Urbanists like Dover Kohl appear to be nudging the market away from mega-projects. Their goal, if I might interject an editorial observation, is to create a zoning and conceptual framework that enables market forces to engage in smaller-scale projects that function effectively together, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    My sense is that dowtown Richmond actually works remarkably well and, left to its own devices, will flourish. The most important thing is not to screw things up, and not to induce the community into backing more foolish projects. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to attend the Downtown Master Plan charrette. If Sarvay does, I will relay his observations to you.

  • Transit Sustainability

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    James A. Bacon

    As much as he is a fan of passenger rail, Kevin Page, Virginia’s director of rail transportation, is realistic: He understands that passenger rail in the Old Dominion is not everyone’s preferred mode of travel, and he knows that it can be difficult to justify economically.

    Page espouses “transit sustainability.” Even if a local government or regional authority can cobble together the funds to launch passenger rail, someone needs to fund ongoing operations, he explained to me in a recent interview. Under Page’s doctrine, any mode of mass transit must be able to recover a significant proportion of its costs through passenger fares. The idea is to start with the most cost-effective method of mass transit — that which loses the least money — and test the market. Only if ridership increases does it make sense to upgrade to more expensive, higher-volume systems.

    Thus, Page envisions mass transit routes starting, say, with city buses in city streets. They might be supplanted by Bus Rapid Transit, a higher-volume system that relies upon dedicated bus lanes. A BRT system, if supported by the market, might evolve to a light rail system, and then to a heavy rail system. The idea is to “get people more connected with transit” and move to more ambitious systems upgrades as the market materializes.

    “Transit sustainability” is an interesting way of appraising the practicality of competing projects. It certainly makes more sense than doling out Virginia’s rail and transit dollars to whomever has the most political clout. I’m still not totally convinced, however. As I argued in “Midlothian Leviathan,” a private-sector, developer-driven approach to mass transit might make more sense.

  • Preserving the Routes of Abandoned Railroad Lines

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    James A. Bacon

    One of the most torturous aspects of building a new road or rail line, especially in urbanized areas, is acquiring the right of way. Urban land is expensive, and the acquisition process can be lengthy when landowners resist selling. It is difficult to imagine a replay of the 1950s-era acquisition of rights of way for interstate highways, which were routed through neighborhoods of the poor and politically powerless.

    That’s why it’s so urgent, when we have rights of way for potential transportation corridors, that we protect them. But it seems that rights of way for old, abandoned railroad lines around Virginia are being allowed to lapse. Indeed, it doesn’t appear that anyone in Virginia even maintains a master list of abandoned railroad lines.

    That’s what I found out in an interview with Kevin Page, Virginia’s director of rail transportation, during the course of researching my recent column, “Midlothian Leviathan.” I didn’t use any material from the interview in that column, but Page made a number of observations that are worth recounting in the blog.

    One of the questions I asked: Has anyone conducted a survey of deactivated or under-utilized rail lines in Virginia? Such lines, it seemed to me, could serve as potential routes for local passenger rail service. No one conducts a statewide survey, said Page, although local Metropolitan Planning Organization officials may undertake local studies of their own.

    The subject is more complicated than it might seem. “Sometimes abandoned rail lines can be difficult to resurrect,” Page says. It depends on the terms of the abandonment. Sometimes the land can revert to the owner of the land before the railroad acquired it.

    During a period of downsizing and restructuring a quarter century ago, freight railroad companies abandoned a lot of unprofitable routes. A handful have been converted to jogging/bicycle lanes. Many lie fallow. It would seem to be a horrendous waste to allow them to revert to former owners — or, more likely, the descendents of former owners — who can’t do anything economically useful with their fragments. Even if passenger rail doesn’t look profitable today, you never know when circumstances might change. We could well be kicking ourselves ten or twenty years from now for having let the rights of way lapse.

  • Abuser Fees and Unintended Consequences

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    James A. Bacon

    Peter Galuszka has tackled the issue of abuser fees for the Road to Ruin project in his article, “Abuser Fees or Abusive Fees?” While he covers some of the same ground as the Mainstream Media — primarily the fact that the fees don’t apply to out-of-state drivers — he also hones in on an aspect of the unfolding debate that continues to go under-reported: The unintended consequences.

    We know the intended consequences. Abuser fees for dangerous driving is supposed to raise about $50 million for transportation funding. It is also supposed to make drivers think twice before engaging in reckless behavior, with the hoped-for benefit of reducing the number of traffic accidents. Because traffic accidents are a major contributor to traffic congestion, the abuser fees should reduce congestion.

    Fortunately, it should be easy to find out if the intended consequences transpire or not. Will the incidence of speeding, DUI and other forms of reckless driving decline? Will the number of traffic accidents fall? The numbers are readily available.

    But it’s the unintended consequences that concern me. Will more motorists decide to contest their tickets in traffic court? Will traffic courts get more crowded? Will more drivers fail to pay their out-sized fines? Will more Virginians be driving on suspended licenses? Will more of those drivers get arrested and thrown in jail? I suspect that those numbers may be difficult to come by.

    Let’s assume that the abuser fees raise the full $50 million they are postulated to raise. How much will it cost in additional court costs and state trooper time to process an increased number of disputed tickets? How much will it cost to house people in jail when they’ve been arrested for driving on a suspended license? And, assuming that many of those people are not like Paris Hilton with rich daddies to fall back upon, who will support their families? How much money will the state spend on welfare?

    Add up all those ancillary costs, and how much will abuser fees cost the state in ways that nobody’s counting? Will the sum amount to more than the $50 million raised for transportation? Will the Commonwealth, in effect, be robbing Peter to pay Paul — mugging Virginia motorists along the way? We’ll never know because no one is tracking the data.

  • CHESTERFIELD MOBILITY MARGINAL NOTES

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    James A. Bacon

    Jim Bacon sketched out a menu of potential actions for the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County in “Midlothian Leviathan” the column and Bacons News Service release he previewed in the Blog post “Challenged in Chesterfield” of 28 June.

    It is too bad that the loooooong Fourth of July weekend(s) seems to have sapped interest in discussion of the topic. Hopefully, governance practitioners will give attention to Jim’s ideas.

    Here are some marginal notes upon a first reading of Jim’s column:

    HOW IMPORTANT IS A NAME?

    Commuter Rail is commuter rail. The heyday of commuter rail was from 1890 to the 1920s and for good reason. Commuter rail is 19th century technology that fleetingly served a need to serve transitioning late Industrial Agglomeration settlement pattern. It was not just 19th century technology it best served 19th century settlement patterns.

    Even if one uses the old track in the old alignment this is 2007. Why not use new technology? How about light weight, quiet “hybrid” diesel / electric self-propelled cars?

    Rebuilt locos and rebuilt coach cars are the way VA Express started. As we all know ridership is stagnate even with terrible roadway alternatives. The new section of I-66 that opened recently and the Springfield interchange completion removes incentives on both lines to put up with bad service that is in part a product of old technology.

    Loco and coaches are slow to start, slow to stop and noisy going past. The reality of “commuter rail” will bring out the NYMBYs to oppose change. To generate ridership and spur quality development in the station areas, the service needs to be frequent, two way (bringing workers out as well as in), etc…

    BALANCED COMMUNITIES

    An even bigger problem than technology is the problem of a goal to serve “commuters.” Greater South Richmond / Chesterfield does not need commuter bergs. It needs Village-scale components of Balanced Communities focused at each station. Places like Andrea Epps suggested that Brandermill almost was for her in the earlier Blog comment.

    GETTING IT DONE

    Community Development Authorities are a nice idea but they probably cannot carry the load, even with major changes in the Comprehensive Plans, new regulations and incentives.

    How about some new thinking on the taxation of property owners enriched by the improvements both private and public.

    OK, we are talking Henry George at every station. OK, Henry was a mid-19th century guy. Not all 19th century ideas are bad, especially when the property tax is a realistic approach in an 18th century agrarian society. The property tax should reflect public and private investment and the increase in land value, not the buildings or worse vacant land.

    More on these three issues in “The Commuting Problem” 17 Jan 2005, “The Problem with Mass Transit” 15 May 2006 and “Solving the Commuting Problem” 5 February 2007.

    Oh yes, In 2004 (16 February) we wrote the “Shape of Richmond’s Future” based on two reports on the future of the Richmond New Urban Region. An idea like the one Jim sketches out might be a way to jump start the sort of real Regional rethinking that we advocated in that column. To work Mobility and Access solutions need to be Regional in scope, not just one or two corridors.

    EMR

  • Calling All Energy-Conservation Entrepreneurs

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    James A. Bacon

    As required by newly enacted state law, the State Corporation Commission is holding a “proceeding” to determine if state electricity conservation goals — cutting electricity consumption, based on 2006 levels, by 10 percent by 2022 — can be achieved cost effectively.

    The SCC staff will invite all the usual suspects: electric and gas utilities, independent power producers, consumer groups, environmental groups and the others whose lobbyists make themselves known. The SCC, in all likelihood, will not go out of its way to notify entrepreneurial companies in the business of electricity conservation who aren’t large enough to hire lobbyists and whose business model is not predicated on rent-seeking behavior.

    One prospect comes immediately to mind. Richmond-based Tridium, where my wife works, specializes in creating software platforms that allow proprietary softwares controlling a wide variety of devices to communicate with one another. One of Tridium’s primary markets is building automation, and one of the driving forces behind building automation is energy conservation. Tridium is not a little jinky start-up. It was acquired last year by Honeywell, a major manufacturer of automated controls, and it does business globally. My wife recently returned from a business trip to Dubai and the Netherlands.

    Tridium knows electric conservation. Tridium knows how to reduce electric consumption on a large scale in commercial and industrial settings. Tridium should have a seat at the table. Whether the company, which is in fast-growth mode, will be able to spare an employee to engage in months of jaw-jaw with professional lobbyists is another question entirely.

    How many other businesses are out there whose business models are built on saving money by reducing electric consumption? How many vendors of energy-saving appliances and gadgets are out there? How many of them will offer any input into the achievability of reducing electric consumption by a modest 2/3 of one percent per year? How will their absence affect the goals set by the SCC?

    If you work for a company in the business of electric conservation, you need to be part of the process. Click here to find out more information.

  • Tim Kaine’s Urban Policy: Spend Mo’ Money

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    James A. Bacon

    The Kaine administration has quietly made public its “Urban Policy Report” by posting it on the website of the Secretariat of Commerce and Trade. The report, which results from the labors of a task force appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine a year ago, never got much publicity. I don’t recall any articles written about in the Mainstream Media, and I couldn’t even find a notice of it among the Governor’s press releases for the past three months. Furthermore, no one seems willing to claim the report: Although the task force participants are listed, the authorship is anonymous.

    The purpose of the report was to outline achievable goals, actions and measurable benchmarks to track the progress of Virginia’s “urban” areas, defined as areas with population over 50,000 and density exceeding 1,000 per square mile. It encompasses both older cities and urbanizing counties.

    The report cites five broad goals:

    1. Promote economic integration in urban jurisdications and surrounding region (as a means of combatting inner city poverty).

    2. Improve the educational attainment and workforce readiness of urban populations.

    3. Strengthen the economic competitiveness of urban jurisdictions and surrounding areas.

    4. Ensure a high quality of life in urban areas.

    5. Ensure that urban infrastructure, transportation systems and the environment will support a prosperous future for current citizens.

    All worthy goals, to be sure. But in recommendation after recommendation, the report calls for more vigorous action by state and local government. The common theme can be summarized succinctly: Spend mo’ money. By contrast, nowhere does the report hint that perhaps reducing taxes to stimulate economic activity might exercise a palliative effect.

    Unfortunately for the Kaniacs, with state economic growth slowing, two rounds of tax increases since 2004, and the end of double-digit increases in state revenues, “mo’ money” is not likely to materialize. Just guessing: Budgetary realities may explain why the Governor never cranked up his spin machine for this report.

  • On Track for 400,000 Acres Conserved

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    James A. Bacon

    Gov. Timothy M. Kaine isn’t waiting for others to act in order to meet his goal of conserving 400,000 acres of open space in the Commonwealth by the end of his four-year term. Meeting with local leaders to celebrate the easement of 4,000 acres along the Rappahannock River recently, he told the following story, according to the Free Lance-Star:

    Instead of waiting for landowners to start talking to state agencies about using easements and other tools to protect their land, Kaine said state officials — and sometimes the governor himself–are now trying to start those talks.

    He told a story about canoeing on the James River in Botetourt County last July 3 and taking out at a farm. Kaine asked the landowner if the farm was under conservation easement. It wasn’t, but the owner seemed interested. So Kaine had Secretary of Natural Resources Preston Bryant call him on July 4, and the 700-acre property is now preserved forever under a conservation easement.

    In 2006, Kaine’s first term, 95,000 acres of Virginia land were preserved — about double the rate before then. But Kaine said he would have to step up his efforts to meet his goal. State officials are going after big chunks of land — 10,000-20,000 acres per shot. As a result, the Governor has been talking to paper companies with huge holdings of forest land.

  • Midlothian Leviathan

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    James A. Bacon

    Chesterfield County is the last place on the planet you’d expect to see commuter rail. Characterized by scattered, disconnected, low-density development and communities designed around the movement of automobiles, Richmond’s southern suburb epitomizes the autocentric society that destroyed mass transit in the 20th century.

    Ironically, Chesterfield enjoyed a vibrant commuter rail scene at the turn of the 20th century — before local government mandated “suburban” style zoning and state government began subsidizing leapfrog development. Some 100 years after commuter rail’s hey-day, developers are trying to revive the idea. Two large planned communities, Roseland and Watkins Centre, would like to see commuter rail running along an underutilized Norfolk Southern railway track from downtown Richmond out to their projects near the Rt. 288 circumferential highway.

    The Richmond Metropolitan Planning Organization sketched the outlines of Midlothian commuter rail project in a 2003 study, which should be updated this fall. But the study was none too optimistic: An up-front capital investment of $81 million plus ongoing operating deficit of $1 million annually would take only 170 passengers per workday off the roads. Not a very good return on investment. Judged by the study’s ridership metrics, Midlothian commuter rail is a poor candidate for state and federal funding.

    But, as I outline in today’s column, “Midlothian Leviathan,” there may be a way to establish commuter rail as a profit-driven enterprise. Readers of this blog will find the key concepts familiar: (1) Set up Community Development Authorities around the rail stations, (2) pay for the capital improvements by issuing CDA bonds, (3) pay back the bonds through tax-increment financing on property owners in the CDA, (4) overlay the CDA districts with Transit Oriented Development districts, (5) incentivize property owners to re-develop their properties by increasing densities around the stations, and (6) require developers to set up Transportation Demand Management programs to mitigate the impact of localized congestion on nearby residential neighborhoods.

    Under the Bacon schema, Midlothian commuter rail would require no government funding whatsoever. It would require no government coercion, no exercise of eminent domain to strong-arm anyone into participating. It would put into place measures to offset negative impacts on neighbors. And the rail line would fly, so to speak, only if it constituted a win-win-win for Chesterfield County, the City of Richmond, property owners, neighbors and commuters.

    Sound like a tall order? You bet. I fully acknowledge that I may have set the bar so high that the project would never work. But I lay out a developer-driven strategy that has never been tried before, at least not in Virginia, and not in recent history. Please check it out and point out any flaws you might see — or any possibilities that I might have overlooked.

  • Rabble Rousing at Its Best: Bacon’s Rebellion

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    James A. Bacon

    Aesthetes of the world, why trouble yourself with those mangey, lesser blogs when you can indulge in the very finest of social agitation and political perturbations at the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine? You can view the July 2, 2007 edition right here.

    Don’t miss a single malcontented issue — sign up for a free subscription here.

    Here are this week’s offerings:

    Midlothian Leviathan
    The impact of a Midlothian commuter rail project on the Richmond region could be enormous — if Chesterfield County puts into place the necessary zoning and special tax districts.
    by James A. Bacon

    Double Shot
    Virginians are finally debating the convoluted new law that punishes “abusive drivers” twice: with fines and fees. A little late, but better than never.
    by Doug Koelemay

    Still No Exit
    Earth is the only biosphere we’ve got. Gliese 581-C-A, the closest potentially earth-like planet yet discovered, is 20 light-years away. We must build a sustainable civilization here at home.
    by EM Risse

    Slow and Unsteady
    Economic growth will slow in Virginia next year. Short-term, we must restrain state government spending to match. Long-term, we need to devise a fix for boom-bust budgeting.
    by Michael Thompson

    A Party Divided Shall Stand
    Discord in the Republican Party is a sign of healthy struggle between the People and politicians who have been co-opted by the political system.
    by James Atticus Bowden

    Annoy a Politician
    Bypass the political establishment: Support an Initiative & Referendum amendment to the state constitution.
    By Norman Leahy

    Nice & Curious Questions
    The Tribes of Virginia: American Indians in the Commonwealth
    by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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