Bacon's Rebellion

  • Time for Golf Carts to Command Some Respect!

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    James A. Bacon

    Jerry Deem may be the only golf cart owner legally driving on public roads in Fairview Beach. That’s because, technically, his golf cart is not a golf cart. It’s defined under state law as a “low speed vehicle.” The critical differentiator: The golf cart abides by state safety requirements to be equipped with “head lights, brake lights, tail lights, reflex reflectors, an emergency brake, an externally mounted rearview mirror, an internally mounted rearview mirror, a windshield, one or more windshield wipers, a speedometer, an odometer, braking for each wheel, a safety belt system, and a vehicle identification number.”

    Like most golf carts, reports Phyllis Cook with the Journal Press, Deem’s four-seat vehicle is battery-operated. Recharged with household current, the vehicle can run about 30 miles — more than Deem needs to putter around Fairview Beach.

    All that safety equipment adds significant cost to golf carts, prices of which typically run between $2,000 and $7,000, depending on size and features. The safety requirements strike me as overkill for a vehicle with a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. Shouldn’t it be state policy to encourage the use of low-polluting electric buggies for use on local roads?

    Some readers probably think I’m off my rocker for publishing so many posts on the topic of electric golf carts. I haven’t researched this yet, so I’m willing to stand open to correction, but I’ll wager that electric buggies are the fastest growing transportation mode in the country right now. They’re increasingly popular in resort areas like Fairview Beach, and it won’t be long before they enter the mainstream.

    I was chatting yesterday with Casey Sowers and Dave Anderson, developers of the proposed Roseland project in Chesterfield County. They would like to create a New Urbanism community where so many needs — jobs, housing, retail, services, amenities, etc. — are met within the bounds of the project that many families would feel comfortable trading in a regular car for an electric vehicle. So enamored are they with the idea of electric vehicles, that they’re playing with the idea of creating parking spaces with free electric recharge.

    Think of the advantages: Roseland residents would save money because buggies are cheaper than cars, giving them more disposable income. Buggies pollute less, and they require smaller parking spaces. And, darn it, they’re just more fun — they come in a mind-bending assortment of designs and color schemes. Just look at the custom paint job on the photo above!

    As golf carts/buggies take off in popularity, we’ll see major project developers designing communities from the ground up to accommodate them, just like pedestrians and bicycles. At some point, the Commonwealth of Virginia will have to take them seriously.
    (Photo credit: Lifted Golf Carts.)

  • Loudoun: Planning for the Creative Class, or Repelling It?

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    James A. Bacon

    Loudoun County’s economic success depends upon its ability to attract members of the so-called creative class, County Administrator Kirby Bowers said during his State of the County speech yesterday. Accordingly, the county needs to address quality-of-life issues that appeal to these knowledge workers. Writes Megan Kuhn in Leesburg2Day:

    Persuading knowledge workers to live in Loudoun is not just about the price of housing, Bowers said. It’s about, “Is Loudoun a cool place?” he said. The development of mixed-use centers with entertainment and nightlife is essential to attracting such coveted workers.

    There are “cool” places in Loudoun County, but they are very small communities — Leesburg, Middleburg, Waterford, Purcellville — and they can’t absorb the thousands of knowledge workers flocking to the county. Indeed, the urbanized newcomers threaten to swamp and destroy the village-scale coolness exists in the county. Meanwhile, new development takes the form of scattered, disconnected, low-density development that is the antithesis of “cool.”

    As creative-class guru Richard Florida explained it, creative workers value places with diversity and authenticity. Demographic monocultures — subdivisions of houses inhabited by nuclear families in the same income range and age range — do not provide diversity. Disconnected pods of houses and shopping centers, accessible only by car, do not lend themselves to the kind of spontaneous street art and personal interaction that Florida celebrates. Sterile office complexes set in isolated parks — what Florida labels “nerdistans” — are not the kinds of places where creative young people want to work.

    Virtually everything that I’ve seen built in Loudoun County in recent years is calculated to repel the creative class. People may continue to move into the county because so little housing is being built anywhere else in the Washington metropolitan area, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t move somewhere else if they had half a chance.

  • Is This Where the Term “Railroaded” Comes From?

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    James A. Bacon

    The Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project looks like it is careening toward disaster. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote June 18 on committing to the first installment of the county’s $900 million share of the project — but it has yet to see a copy of the $2.65 billion construction contract! Worse, the price of the contract is good only through June 19, so the supervisors are under intense pressure not to delay their approval.

    A number of the supervisors have said they must see a copy of the contract negotiated between the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) and Dulles Transit Partners, the construction entity, before committing county funds. MWAA representatives insist that they will be able to share the contract before June 18. According to Examiner.com:

    “If you want this board to move, we’re going to have access to documents or we’re not going to move,” Connolly told Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority General Counsel Ed Faggen.

    But even if the MWAA courier delivers a copy this afternooon, Fairfax supervisors will have less than two weeks to read, digest and debate the merits of what assuredly will be a highly complex document.

    Especially outraged are supporters of the underground option: running the heavy rail underneath the Tysons Corner segment instead of down the median of Route 7 (Leesburg Pike), as envisioned in the MWAA contract. Tunnel backers believe an aerial route will destroy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-develop Tysons into a walkable, transit-oriented mixed-use district. A June 18 decision would allow no time to reconsider.

    Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, attended a board hearing yesterday along with hundreds of other citizens to press their case. Said Schwartz: “I am astounded that Fairfax County’s elected officials have not seen the contract yet and that a gun is being held to their heads to vote on June 18th.”

    Toot! Toot! Can you hear the sound of citizens getting railroaded?

  • Like Broadband? Thank a Smoker.

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    James A. Bacon

    Southwest Virginia’s most important infrastructure project — a 200-mile, high-speed OC48 fiber-optic backbone — is nearly complete. Final connections are expected to be made late this summer. According to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the line provides service to Bluefield, Wytheville, Abingdon, Lebanon, Claypool Hill, Richlands and points in between.

    A proposed third phase of the project would extend the broadband line from Vansant to Clintwood for an additional 47 miles. The project is being funded largely by the Virginia Tobacco Commission and Community Revitalization Commission, which gets its money from Virginia’s share of the national tobacco settlement negotiated nearly a decade ago.

    One of the best things that Virginia ever did for Southwest Virginia — and the Gilmore administration deserves credit for this — is to use the proceeds from the tobacco settlement to underwrite economic development initiatives for the tobacco-growing regions that would be hardest hit by the decline in tobacco cultivation. While some of the projects financed by the Commission are of dubious value, the decision to extend a fiber-optic trunk line into isolated counties ignored by the major telecommunications companies was indubitably a good one. High-speed Internet access is a prerequisite for almost every business today. No longer is the lack of such access a stumbling block for doing business in Southwest Virginia.

  • Mapping Crime in Vinton

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    James A. Bacon

    The town of Vinton in Roanoke County has become one of roughly 20 jurisdictions nationally to provide an interactive crime-mapping service for its citizens. The town takes computerized crime mapping data, which police use to identify hot spots and trouble areas, and puts it on the World Wide Web. Writes Joe Kendal with the Roanoke Times:

    Vinton residents can go online and access CrimeView Community, a Web tool that makes crime mapping a public resource. Users can specify which crimes to search for, set a date range and center in on a specific address or on landmarks throughout the town. The result is an interactive map displaying crime locations, dates and current status.

    Neighborhood watch programs use the Web map; landlords use it to monitor crime rates around their properties.

    Of all the jurisdictions using the Omega Group software, including San Francisco, Chicago, Memphis and Las Vegas, Vinton, with a population of 8,000, is the smallest.

  • In Praise of Granny Flats

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    James A. Bacon

    Northwest Lower Michigan is gaining population overall, but its numerous small towns are losing people as the average household size shrinks. Average household size in the 10-county region plunged from 3.28 people per dwelling in 1970 to 2.48 in 2000. About two-thirds of the region’s households consist of only one or two people.

    Some local officials are trying to revive the local tradition of “granny flats,” “carriage houses,” or “mortgage helpers,” in which homeowners rented out small backyard or upstairs units. Common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the practice offered significant benefits to the homeowner, who earned a supplementary source of income, and to the renter, who paid a modest rent to live in a neighborhood he otherwise could not afford.

    As Carolyn Kelly observes in an article published by the Michigan Land Use Institute, however, special interests agitated against the granny flats. In Traverse City:

    Some residents, landlords, and realtors — including several with an interest in keeping rental markets tight — raise fears about crime and blight to make their case. Some say that granny flats will bring more renters into their neighborhoods; others that the flats will change the character of the community, lead to all sorts of parking problems, and bring more single people to neighborhoods that are zoned for single families.

    But the accessory building units are enjoying a revival. The logic is compelling:

    Cities and towns have a shortage of quality, right-sized housing for people who live alone or in pairs. With America’s average household size falling, more singles and couples are forced to move into homes that have too much room. This not only wastes some of their rent or mortgage money, it also leaves lots of unused bedroom space, which effectively pushes down that community’s population.

    Virginia, too, once had a strong tradition of granny flats, carriage houses and basement apartments. Those types of rentals are much rarer now, and almost unknown in the suburbs. I’m not sure exactly why, but I suspect it has a lot to do with zoning codes and subdivision covenants. Virginians need to revisit the idea. Households are shrinking in size her as well, and there is a paucity of economical dwelling space for many.

    Aside from addressing the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis, a major plus, permitting more flexibility in residential rentals would help build stronger, tighter-knit communities. A revival of granny flats would help dissolve the demographic monocultures in suburban areas that segregate households by age, income and family type. Finally, I would add a moral/ethical argument: As long as they’re not inconveniencing their neighbors, people should have the right to share their houses with whomever they want, under whatever economic arrangement they want.

  • Private Sector to the Rescue

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    James A. Bacon

    The United States needs to invest between $132 billion and $155.5 billion a year to improve transportation conditions, contends BusinessWeek magazine, but motorists pay only $54 billion a year for road repairs and maintenance. Another $11 billion a year will be needed over the next 20 years to replace aging water treatment facilities and comply with safe-drinking-water regulations; federal funding is less than 10 percent of the total national requirement. Tens of billions of dollars more are needed to repair dams, wastewater treatment plants and waterways.

    Who’s going to pay for it all? It looks like the private sector will play a major role. Private investment companies are raising hundreds of billions of dollars to take over aging infrastructure. The good news is, government won’ t have to raise taxes. The bad news is, the private sector will have to raise tolls and fees.

    That raises a great debate: What latitude should private investors be given in raising tolls and fees? What return on investment is reasonable? Could government do the job better for less money? BusinessWeek explores the issues here.

    My criteria for Virginia are very simple:

    (1) Pay now or pay later — pay much more later. The more government delays maintenance of infrastructure, the more it will cost to fix it down the road. Whether state government, local government or a private operator is in charge, hewing to higher maintenance standards generally pays off.

    (2) User/beneficiary pays. Politicians will resort to all sorts of trickery to disguise who’s paying the taxes, levies, penalties and fees that fund infrastructure maintenance and improvemetns. Infrastructure should be paid for by those who use the infrastructure, or those, such as landowners whose property gains value, who benefit from it. Furthermore, the payments should be totally transparent so people can seek alternatives. (Virginia’s recent transportation legislation is a case study in indirect subsidy and opacity. We need to go back and fix it.)

    (Hat tip to Jonathan Mallard for pointing me to the article.)

  • $172 Million in Historic Rehabilitation Projects

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    James A. Bacon

    The National Park Service has ranked Virginia second among the 50 states for a second consecutive year in the use of federal tax incentives to rehabilitate historic buildings. The National Park Service’s annual report on fiscal year 2006 lists Virginia with 114 proposed federal tax-credit projects, second only to Missouri, and 109 completed projects, behind Ohio.

    Total private investment in Virginia leveraged through rehabilitation projects completed and certified by the Park Service during fiscal year 2006 was more than $172 million. That is $43 million more than the previous year, and places Virginia fifth in the nation among states for dollars leveraged, according to a statement released by the Governor’s office.

    Said Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, Director of the Department of Historic Resources: “Reusing historic buildings is good preservation, good economic opportunity.”

  • Buggy Power! Yee-ha!

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    James A. Bacon

    In our never-ending quest to promote novel transportation modes, Bacon’s Rebellion has touted the virtues of electric buggies, commonly used as golf carts but often modified in highly creative ways to suit the owner’s tastes.

    In the Fairview Beach community of King George County, citizens are agitating to legalize the use of golf carts on public roads. There are at least 80 such carts in the community of some 200 homes, reports the Journal Press, and there likely would be more if the Board of Supervisors would legalize them.

    Safety appears to be the foremost consideration: It’s dangerous driving golf carts on roads where far heavier, more powerful cars can drive three or four times faster (unless Fairview residents start driving carts like the Electric Ezgo High-Speed Golf Cart pictured above, in which case the automobiles might get run off the road).

    But I see no reason why the carts can’t be ridden on Fairview’s residential streets with 25-miles-per-hour speed limits, which are frequented already by pedestrians and bicyclists. Furthermore, there are the energy/environmental considerations: Electric buggies, which run on electricity, don’t push up demand for imported oil, and they’re cleaner than gasoline-powered cars.

    Supervisors will study the issue next week.

    (Photo credit: Ringgold Power Sport.)

  • Conservation Could Save 10 Percent

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia could curtail electricity consumption by 10 percent with techniques used routinely in other states, reducing the need for new power plants and transmission lines, according to a report by Summit Blue Inc. for the Piedmont Environmental Council. (The Washington Post story is here. The study itself has not yet been posted on the PEC website.)

    The report recommends creating financial incentives for installation of energy-efficient lighting, air conditioners and heaters, and incorporation of efficient design into buildings. The study also suggests investing in technology that allows consumers to automatically reduce their electricity use when demand, and cost, are highest. Virginia ranks among the bottom of states that utilize such technology.

    Said PEC spokesman Robert W. Lazaro Jr.: “This report demonstrates that there’s enough [low]hanging fruit in terms of best practices by the industry to save a considerable amount of energy over the next 10 years.”

    Currently, Virginia pursues a Big Grid energy policy, having enacted legislation this year that will encourage Dominion and other electric utilities to meet growing demand by building new power plants and transmission lines while offering only modest incentives for conservation, energy efficiency and renewable fuels.

  • Wetlands Controversy in Virginia Beach

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    James A. Bacon

    In Virginia Beach, developers Steve and Art Sandler want to build 1,063 homes on a large stretch of waterfront property. Although their Indigo Dunes project would destroy 1.5 acres of wetlands, the Sandlers would create 6.09 acres of wetlands on site and treat some of the stormwater runoff from the nearby Ocean Park neighborhood as compensation.

    However, the Virginia Beach Wetlands Board denied the request. Unfortunately, the article in today’s Virginian-Pilot doesn’t explore the pros and cons of the decision, so there is no way for an outside reader to decide whether it was reasonable or not.

    The concept of wetlands offsets strikes me as a legitimate compromise between peoples’ desire to live on waterfront and the necessity of preserving wetlands as wildlife habitat, storm water run-off filter, and buffer against severe storms. The Sandlers were willing to create four acres of wetlands for every acre they destroyed. I’d like to know why the wetlands board deemed the offer inadequate. The Virginian-Pilot should follow up.

  • Will Six Nix the H.R. Transportation Fix?

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    James A. Bacon

    Once seen as a sure thing, approval of a regional transportation authority for Hampton Roads is now uncertain. Seven of the region’s 12 localities representing more than half the population must vote to create the authority, which would be empowered to impose roughly $170 million a year in new levies. Rejection by six localities could scuttle the entire enterprise.

    Earlier this week, the tiny city of Poquoson voted no. Mayor Gordon Helsel called the proposal “sheer arrogance” by members of the General Assembly, noting that Hampton Roads voters had decisively defeated a similar plan five years ago. (Read the account in the Daily Press.)

    Poquoson’s action follows a similar “no” vote by York County. According to the editorial pundits at the Daily Press, no one should be surprised if the City of Hampton votes “no” next month. Meanwhile, Isle of Wight and James City counties have delayed their votes, reflecting reservations on the part of local officials. Likewise, according to accounts in the Virginian-Pilot, local leaders in the City of Chesapeake have major concerns. I haven’t seen anything reflecting the temperament in Suffolk, but the fact that it has taken no action yet hints at a lack of enthusiasm. If all six localities rebuff the regional authority, the idea dies.

    (The five cities that have voted to create the authority include Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News and Williamsburg.)

    I took it for granted that the measure would win approval, so I haven’t followed developments as closely as I should have. Bacon’s Rebellion columnist Jim Bowden, by contrast, has been riding the issue hard. His latest column, “Speak to the Camera,” raises issues for which the Axis of Taxes has no good answers.

    Now that it’s clear that the approval of the H.R. transportation authority is, in fact, in play, I will start paying closer attention to developments.

    Update: The fate of the transportation authority hinges upon the votes of a handful of undecided local elected officials, reports Tom Holden with the Virginian-Pilot. There is a widespread sentiment that the enabling legislation is bad. If people had a clear idea what might replace it, they might reject it more decisively.

    Said John J. McGlennon, chairman of the James City County Board: “Everyone understands that this is pretty terrible legislation. The real question is whether anything better will emerge if we reject it.”

  • Uh, Oh, Euroweenies Are Getting Fat, Too

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    James A. Bacon

    So much for the theory that suburban sprawl (or, more properly speaking, dysfunctional human settlement patterns) is responsible for the fattening (or, more accurately, the obesitizing) of America. The Associated Press reports that half of all adults in the sprawl-free European Union are either overweight or obese. I’m sure the Euroweenies have some catching up to do before they match the girth of Americans, but they’re closing the “fat gap” rapidly.

    Experts cited the usual two factors: eating too much and exercising too little. Around the Mediterranean the healthy fish/olive oil diet is on the wane. Instead of playing basketball outdoors, kids are sitting in front of the tube and playing basketball on Nintendo. The article did not cite the spread of dysfunctional human settlement patterns as a contributing cause.

    Despite the trend in Europe, I think it still might be possible to save the hypothesis that cultures less dependent upon cars and more reliant upon walking and bicycles have healthier lifestyles and fewer overweight people. For instance, as noted previously on this blog, the Dutch and Danes are remarkable bicycle enthusiasts. If they lag their Euro neighbors in gross tonnage per capita, it would support our hypothesis.
    (Image credit: Short Fat Guy Online.)

  • $5.15 Billion and Counting

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    James A. Bacon

    The Rail-to-Dulles project will cost about $5.15 billion, according to a presentation given earlier in May to the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, reports the Times Community Newspapers. The highest official figure yet, the number is about 25 percent higher than preliminary estimates bandied about as recently as a year ago.

    While the federal contribution will remained capped at $900 million and the state donation at $75 million, other costs are determined by fixed percentages. Under the latest scenario, Dulles Toll Road users are expected to fund 56 percent of the total cost, or $2.89 billion. (Fairfax County, Loudoun County and the MWAA will chip in the balance, about 25 percent of the total.)

    What happens if the price tag escalates yet again? Everyone but the state and feds will have to pony up a larger share. Bottom line: Commuters using the Dulles Toll Road constitute the deep pockets that will cover 2/3 of any cost overruns. Fairfax County land-owners whose properties will soar in value will pay only a small fraction through a special tax district.

    Let’s add up the pieces… The heavy rail construction project will be managed by the airports authority, which regards the Metro extension to Dulles International Airport as vital to its long-term interests but pays only 4.1 percent of the project cost… The MWAA board is stacked with a majority of non-Virginians who feel no pain if Virginia commuters get hosed… Commuters have absolutely no say-so in how the project is administered… A negotiated contract is likely to be granted to Bechtel, the company who brought Boston the Big Dig project…

    I’m going way out on a limb here, but it looks like Dulles Toll Road commuters are going to get royally hosed. I’m glad I live in Richmond, not Northern Virginia.

  • The High Cost of Irrationality

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    James A. Bacon

    George Mason University’s Don Boudreaux offers some topical examples of irrational economic and political thinking, one related to this Wall Street Journal op-ed on environmental Catch-22s in Washington state, and the other, a Robert Samuelson column on price gouging and global warming. His general thesis:

    When the personal material cost, at the time of individual action, of expressing one’s fantasies is near-zero, very little exists to check the expression of those fantasies. No matter how bizarre, inconsistent, or dangerous they might be if real-world attempts are made to act upon them, if a holder of such fantasies suffers no personal cost from advocating his or her crazy idea, lots of crazy ideas will be advocated. This fact is especially true for those crazy ideas that, when held and advocated publicly by certain people, fill those certain people with a personal sense of distinction, heroism, or self-satisfaction.

    In the next issue of the Bacon’s e-zine, I’ll have an interview with Bryan Caplan, whose new book, The Myth of the Rational Voter, discusses how and why democracies find themselves in such pickles (hint: it’s all our fault).

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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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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