Bacon's Rebellion

Jim Patrick, a Shenandoah County blogger who happens to serve on the board of supervisors, has weighed in with a lengthy analysis of l’affaire Vehrs. Patrick makes a number of valuable points, but one that deserves continued scrutiny is what he terms the “old economy meets the new economy.”

In the old assembly line and sweatshop models, the type of factories in [Martinsville/Henry County] previously flourished on, workers stay at their stations and keep moving ‘working’. MHC’s prosperity was founded on large corporations, typified in the 1956 classic The Organization Man, where corporate values engulfed personal beliefs.

The new economy’s growth has paralleled the growth of personal computers. Production is judged by outputs “…how well people are doing their jobs — rather than simply trying to make sure that employees look busy.” U.S. economic performance and individual productivity has boomed at the same time as computer and Internet usage has boomed.

Vehrs’ job is to answer calls and dispense information; absent from debate was what he should do during non-productive time. None of the commenters gave a clue as to what employees should do when the assembly line runs in fits and starts; the time between calls.

I’m not rehashing the merits of Vehrs’ punishment — Vehrs has atoned and found forgiveness, and everyone should move on — but I, like Patrick, worry what kind of precedent has been set for state employees. If strategies such as teleworking and hoteling are ever to be viable (See “Telecommuting May Be Coming to a State Agency Near You“), state government needs to evolve towards a “knowledge economy” organizational model that allows employees to work more autonomously. I fear that state government may have taken a big step backward.

Reader and blogger Ben Martin submits the following data point: The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, the third largest auto insurer in the country, offers an insurance discount up to 15 percent for low-mileage drivers. (See Progressive’s Virginia promotion here.)

The underwriting logic seems obvious: If you drive fewer miles, you’re less likely to be involved in an automobile accident.

The private sector gets it. Why doesn’t the government? Why can’t the Commonwealth of Virginia come up with a transportation financing scheme — for road maintenance, at least — as logical as Progressive’s? The fewer miles you drive… the less the wear and tear you put on state roads… the less you pay to maintain those roads. Conversely, the more you drive, the more you pay.

Just as an insurance company might adjust your insurance rates depending upon the type of car you drive — certain models are more likely to suffer extensive damage in an accident; certain models do a better job of protecting their occupants than others — why can’t the Commonwealth charge more for vehicles, such as tractor trailers, that cause more damage to our roads than, say, a Volkswagen Beetle or a Ford Focus?

If the insurance industry can do it, why can’t the state of Virginia? Why do our lawmakers devise Rube Goldberg financing schemes that sever the connection between taxes paid and Vehicle Miles Driven? Why is it so hard to sell the entirely reasonable proposition that the more you drive, the more you pay?

Is anyone outside the blogosphere paying attention to the contest between Harris Miller and James Webb for the right to run against U.S. Sen. George Allen? I read next to nothing about the race in my home-town paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The race never comes up in conversation — and that’s saying something because most of my friends are politically opinionated, and many of them are Democrats.

An article in the Washington Post today says that no more than two or three percent of registered votes is expected to participate in the nomination election this month. That would be disgracefully low. Whatever their imperfections, both candidates are men of substance, and they have engaged in a lively debate.

Perhaps there is no excitement here in Richmond because both Miller and Webb are perceived as remote — Northern Virginians and Beltway insiders. Whatever the reason, the lack of enthusiasm doesn’t augur well for the eventual winner in his race against Allen.

Jim Bacon commented in response to our post “ENERGY INDEPENDENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY:”

“The prospect of Brazilians achieving “energy independence” at the expense of accelerating the clear cutting of the Amazonian rain forest is something that should chill us all.”

He is right of course, but if that is chilling, how about today’s WaPo?

On the front page:

“Canada Pays Environmentally for U.S. Oil Thirst.”

“N.Va Delegates Plan Hail Mary to Fix Roads”

And in Metro Section:

“Intercounty Connector Get Final Approval”

More roads so more people can drive more cars farther and faster and nothing about Fundamental Change is human settlement pattern to make transport more efficient or cut the number of vehicle trips necessary to secure a quality life.

Public transport policy is something that should really chill us all.

EMR

The Wall Street Journal editorial page this morning has praised “a gang of conservative GOP members in the general assembly” for foiling Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s taxes-for-transportation plan. “This was a victory against long odds, because the renegade house members were lined up against the Governor, powerful Republicans in the state senate, elements of the business community and the state’s largely pro-tax media.”

The Journal cited the state’s revenue surplus as a major reason why voters never warmed to the tax-hike idea, and noted that it didn’t help that Kaine was trying to raise gasoline taxes amidst soaring retail prices at the pump.

I wonder how the Journal would interpret news from the Washington Post today that Del. David B. Albo, R-Springfield and a number of other GOP delegates would like to raise an estimated $400 million a year from Northern Virginia to spend on local road and rail projects. “Roads cost money,” the Post quotes Albo as saying. “I’d love to find a way to pay for the things we need by not raising taxes and using existing revenue, but I’m a realist.”

While most GOP delegates were willing to hang together to oppose a statewide tax increase, there seems to be little appreciation of the root causes of transportation dysfunction in Virginia. Oh, sure, you’ve got yer Bill Howell talking about tolls and privatization, and you’ve got yer Tim Hugo backing telework, and the House did pass some marginally useful legislation dealing with VDOT and land use, but deep down inside, in their heart of hearts, most delegates share the assumption of their counterparts in the state Senate that the cause of traffic congestion is insufficient transportation capacity. The disagreement is over how much money the state can afford to raise to pay for improvements.

Personally, I think it’s a bit too early for anyone to proclaim a “victory.” Yes, the House has temporarily beat back proposals for some $1 billion in tax increases. But simply starving the current, broken transportation system of funds isn’t going to solve anything. The House, along with everyone else, needs to get on with the business of re-thinking transportation fundamentals. Otherwise, they’ll end up like Dave Albo, promoting tax increases through the back door.

The Manassas Journal-Messenger has an odd, somewhat worrisome, story about a lawsuit filed by would-be GOP House of Delegates candidate Steve Chapman against the blogger who goes by the name Black Velvet Bruce Lee.

Chapman’s spokesman, Faisal Gill, is blaming a lawsuit against the blogger for distracting Chapman from filing in time to run as the GOP candidate for the 50th House district in Manassas, where he had garnered 45 percent of the vote last fall in his race against incumbent Harry Parrish, now deceased.

If Chapman’s campaign team failed to meet the filing deadline, Chapman has every reason to be irked — at his campaign team. But that’s an issue between them.

Of greater concern is the behavior of Black Velvet Bruce Lee. The Chapman campaign accuses the pseudonymous blogger of making numerous defamatory comments — charging that Chapman dropped out of high school, lied about his pressure-washing business having contracts with Arlington National Cemetery, that sort of thing — that Chapman’s people insist are untrue. At some point — the article isn’t clear — either Chapman or the campaign filed suit against the blogger.

But Black Velvet Bruce Lee melted into cyberspace. Says the Journal Messenger:

Recently, Black Velvet Bruce Lee took the blog Web site down, eliminating all of the former Web postings. He also discontinued his e-mail address and essentially disappeared into cyberspace. “Either he feels like he accomplished his mission and he took the site down. Or he’s afraid of the lawsuit and doesn’t want the evidence to be out there, so he got rid of the evidence,” Chapman said.

While Black Velvet Bruce Lee may be gone, one of his compatriots, Manassas resident Greg Letiecq, has resurrected the blog. Letieq says Chapman’s lawsuit is baseless.

I have know idea who is telling the truth, and I have no interest in sorting through the claims and counter-claims. That’s a job for the courts. What’s disturbing is that a blogger can create a visible public forum, make accusations and then evade legal accountability for those accusations. This kind of behavior could lead to punitive legislation against the blogosphere.

The May 31, 2006, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion has been published. You can read it here. Columns this week include:

Don’t Worry, Be Happy
We Virginians grumble a lot, nothing ever quite suits us. But the best single measurement of well being — growth in per capita income — indicates that we’re progressing far better than the nation as a whole.
by James A. Bacon

Reinventing Springfield
There is more to Springfield than the massive interchange at Interstate 95 and the Beltway. A wave of development opens possibilities for creating a very different community.
by Doug Koelemay

Time for Genuine Leadership
Raising taxes is not a serious transportation policy — it’s a substitute for the creative thinking that the General Assembly desperately needs to engage in.
by Patrick McSweeney

Preschool Plan Doesn’t Add Up
Tim Kaine’s proposed pre-school plan may make sense for Virginia’s most disadvantaged children but there’s no justification for making it universal.
by Chris Braunlich

Political Landscaping
A lawsuit filed by GOP conservatives stands to change the political landscape in Virginia. Remarkably, the case has yet to receive much attention.
by Philip Rodokanakis

Can You Say “President” Allen?
After voting against the illegal-alien “Shamnesty” bill, George Allen is all but guaranteed the GOP presidential nomination. He stands with 60 percent of the electorate on all the big issues.
by James Atticus Bowden

Nice & Curious Questions
The Humpback Bridge and Other Virginia Crossings
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Brazil is known for land exploitation, urbane beach-life, slums, traffic jams and, recently, gang violence. In our columns “Spinning Data, Spinning Wheels,” 20 Sept 2004 and “Regional Rigor Mortis,” 6 June 2005 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com we summarized the state of traffic congestion in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest urban agglomeration this way:

In the Brazilian New Urban Region of Sao Paulo:

The extremely rich travel by helicopter
Daredevils ride motorbikes
The very poor walk
The vast majority of the region’s 20-million citizens who attempt to travel in buses, jitneys or cars are stuck in traffic jams that stretch for 60 miles.

Now comes news of ironic twists with respect to energy and mobility that should concern those who are contemplating the future of transport in the Commonwealth.

Because Brazil is petrochemical-poor it has worked to achieve “energy independence” by generating ethanol from sugar cane. Warren Brown opens his WaPo “On Wheels” column (page G 1 28 May 2006) with a summary of why he found it hard to favorably review the Audi Q7, a $60,000 SUV that gets 19 mpg highway.

Brown has just been to Brazil and he witnessed the social and economic impact of managing a nation-state to make the rich more rich and achieve energy independence. He noted “the debilitating poverty of much of the Brazilian population, including families sleeping along roadsides on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.” His column is worth reading for the irony of his take on the “free” market.

There has been a lot of coverage recent in MainStream Media on the economic, environmental and social impacts of converting the Mid-West (and Virginia) into an ethanol factory. Brazil with lots of sun, water and cheap land has found a way to raise cane sufficient to fuel Autonomobiles for those who can afford them.

This form of energy independence is not a victory for sustainability.

The problem is the same one that makes throwing money at traffic congestion in Virginia a lose / lose proposition.

It is the human settlement pattern that generates huge private-vehicle travel demand, stupid!

Irony of irony’s. Also in WaPo today, the Metro section has an item on Roger and Victoria Sant donating $20 Million to the World Wildlife Fund for conservation. The Sant’s (who make their money from energy production–coal, nuke, hydro) are donating the money to help prevent Brazil from deforesting land. In general, that is a good thing for lots of reasons.

The irony is that the Sant’s money is going to keep the Brazilians from clearing land. What will they do on the deforested land? They will raise more sugar cane and become more energy independent. They can also raise soy beans and cattle and other products so those at the top of the economic food chain can pay for big cars like the Audi Q7 and cover the cost of helicopters.

One might tut-tut and suggest something more sustainable for Autonomobiles like hydrogen. As we will point out in future column the “hydrogen economy” and hydrogen to burn in Autonomobiles requires energy to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen does not grow on trees and cannot be pumped out of places where it has been stored for 2 or 3 billion years. It has to be produced with current, real-time energy.

Most of the energy consumed in the Untied States is used directly or indirectly for mobility and access and to heat and cool dysfunctionally located and designed buildings. Shifting to alternative energy sources means cutting down jungle to grow sugar cane, over fertilizing and dewatering the aquifers of Middle America to produce corn or putting up miles of wind farms.

Energy is not free and not without environmental impact.

Sustainability will depend on fewer people (See our post POPULATION AND SUSTAINABILITY of 25 May) and less energy consumption. That means Balanced Communities not alternative ways to produce energy that is wasted on dysfunctional settlement patterns.

EMR

The imminent completion of the Springfield “mixing bowl” — the notorious junction of Interstate 95/395 and the Washington Beltway — is stimulating interest in redevelopment of the Springfield area. As described today by Washington Post reporter Alec MacGillis, local developer KSI and New Jersey-based Vornado Realty Trust are proposing major makeovers that could spark follow-on redevelopment by neighboring property owners.

(For a similar, up-beat take on Springfield, “Reinventing Springfield,” read Doug Koelemay’s column in Bacon’s Rebellion, to be published Tuesday. Blog readers get an advance peak.)

In nine acres now occupied by a motel, discount wine store, near-vacant office tower, veterinary clinic and two restaurants, KSI would build three towers of 21 to 25 stories with 800 apartments and condominiums, a 160-room hotel, 40,000 square feet of offices and up to 100,000 square feet of retail space, all surrounding a central public plaza and gallery or auditorium. Parking garages and landscaping would buffer the buildings from I-95 and the huge flyover ramp that looms behind the site.

Vornado would retain an aging mall on an existing 80-acre site, but it would turn the structure” inside out” by adding outward-facing stores, in cluding a grocery store. And it would add a hotl, housing and offices on the mall’s expansive parking lots.

The Post article points out a number of challenges to redevelopment. As MacGillis quotes Daniel Brents, a Houstong planner who participated in a recent Urban Land Institute study:
Springfield is “not a place,” because it has “no boundaries,” “no history or authenticity,” “no meaningful skyline,” “no natural amenities” and is a “civic vacuum” with “a freeway identity” and “architectural disharmony.”

People abandon such places, which never had anything to offer but the newness of their original construction. When the sheen is gone, they evolve into suburban slums because the buildings are not worth saving. Only redevelopment can save a place like Springfield. The devil, of course, is in the details. The projects need to complement one another, creating a balanced mix of uses. They need to connect to one another — no pods! And they need avail themselves of mass transit opportunities. Fortunately, as Koelemay observes, the County, developers and local citizens seem to agree upon the necessity of creating a “market-driven master plan.”

(Image credit: Springfield Metro Center.)

As the 2006 Congressional races have kicked into full gear, Democrats have been salivating at the prospect of running against the so-called “culture of corruption” of GOP-dominated Washington. However, three recent controversies – inside and outside the Beltway – involving Southern and Mid-Atlantic Democrats, could nullify the efficacy of this strategy altogether.First, West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan (D) came under investigation for directing contributions to nonprofit organizations linked to his campaign contributors. Next, Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson (D) had his Capitol Hill office raided by the FBI. Now, the Washington Post is reporting that Doug Duncan, the chief executive of Maryland’s largest locality – Montgomery County – and one of the two high-profile candidates for the Democratic nomination for that state’s governorship, is returning campaign contributions that are “related to or affiliated with” disgraced DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Though each situation presents a different set of facts, and likely different outcomes, they all point to the fact that no political party has a monopoly on virtue or vice. Given the rules of the game, impropriety or the appearance thereof is merely a matter of degrees and who is in power. In a region like the South and a state like Virginia, where Republicans and conservatives are the dominant forces and “running against Washington” is commonplace, the corruption angle is probably not a ballot-box winner outside of a few specific districts.

In light of these emerging scandals, real or imagined, it would seem like a good opportunity for Democratic and progressive politicians, to actually offer alternative policy solutions and ideas that appeal to voters and to not simply cast themselves as more ethically sound than Republicans and conservatives. As the 2004 presidential race showed, merely presenting your party and candidates as the opposite of others is not enough; standing for something substantive is much more important.

Today’s DP describes the unhealthy grass beds in The Bay (Underwater grass at risk, May 26, 2006). Total acreage of underwater grasses increased (good) by 7 % to 80,000 acres in 2005. The Government goal (Feds?) is 185,000 acres by 2010.

The biggest damage to underwater grasses was Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Last year’s hot summer did some damage. Interesting that Mother Nature is the worst culprit.

Regardless, the eelgrass traps nitrogen and phosporus and produces oxygen (good). So, more eelgrass would be a good thing – I’d think. But, I have science questions with policy implications.

What pollution – name the chemical and culprit – hurts the eelgrass? Or, is it that the eelgrass can’t take too much nitrogen or phosphorus (if so much, how much is too much?).

Does the VMRC or anyone else have stocks of eelgrass seed for 100,000 acres more?

I’m looking for hard evidence for cause and effect to see what is needed to fix the problem.

Also, there was an article this week about rays coming in early and eating most of the baby oysters set out to re-populate beds. More Mother Nature interfering with nature.

Last item. 655 or so acres were given to the Nature Conservancy near the Yorktown oil refinery. Most of it is designated wetlands. I applaud it. But, in the dust up on land use, is this a problem or a good thing?

For all the sturm and drang over the taxes-and-transportation deadlock, Virginia lawmakers did manage to get a few useful bills passed this year. One of those is a measure, championed by Del. Timothy D. Hugo, R-Centreville, and passed unanimously by the House of Delegates and the Senate, that will encourage telecommuting in the state workforce.

The secretaries of administration and technology are ordered to establish a policy for statewide telecommuting and alternative work schedules. The legislation sets the following goal: “By July 1, 2009, each state agency shall have a goal of not less than 25 percent of its eligible workforce participating in alternative work schedules.”

That’s barely three years away. Pretty ambitious.

Potentially, there are two immediate payoffs. The first is obvious: Telecommuting/alternate workplaces will take state employees off the road during rush hour, providing a modicum of relief for traffic congestion.

The second benefit is less obvious and may require follow-up legislation: More state employees working out of home or in the field translates into fewer employees taking up space in state office buildings. The state needs to follow the lead of the federal government in shifting appropriate sectors of its workforce to “hoteling” accommodations. Hoteling eliminates permanent, personal desks for mobile employees. Instead, laptop- and cellphone-equipped employees reserve desk space only on days they need to be in the office. Some organizations have found they can cut their real estate space requirements by 50 percent or more. That may not be achievable for a largely desk-bound state bureaucracy, but the state clearly stands to save something by integrating hoteling into its plans for optimizing the size of its real estate portfolio.

There is a third benefit, although it is more difficult to quantify: Experience shows that enabling employees to work at home and in the field can lead to higher productivity and job satisfaction. But for now, the first two reasons — taking commuters off roads and reducing the size of state real estate holdings — should provide more than ample justification.

Deena Flinchum raised an important point concerning population in the comment on “Lessons From PRT and “Mass” Transit” posted on 22 May.

Sustainability is not a simple or easy to achieve objective. Sustainability is beyond contemplation without Fundamental Change in the current population trajectories at the regional, continental and global scales.

As noted in “The Shape of the Future,” any consideration of sustainability must address the overlapping spheres of Economic, Social and Physical reality.

In the Social sphere, social stability must address three overarching areas of concern:

Making all humans citizens (democracy)

The number of citizens (population)

The way citizens treat one another (genocide, slavery / subjugation, bigotry / discrimination / xenophobia / the equitable distribution of resources)

Population is obviously key to any discussion of sustainability.

We also argue that achieving a sustainable trajectory for civilization is not possible as a direct goal.

There is an interim launch pad and that platform is functional human settlement patterns. Until citizens understand how to create functional settlement patterns they will not have to tools necessary to address the far more complex issue of sustainability.

It is in this context that we link human settlement patterns and sustainability together.

Without this linkage fantasies like:

The religion with the most souls wins, or

The nation-state with the biggest guns wins are rampant.

These myths are almost as silly as the assertion of Anonymous 8:10 PM who said:

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, they (illegal immigrants) are welcome. After all, most of them will vote Republican, if we let them.

“Would you rather have them here working for us, or over there competing against us?”

Competing for what? The nicest lawns? The cleanest windows?

If potential immigrants become key contributors to Balanced Communities in El Salvador or Ivory Coast that is much better than their contributing to unbalance and over-consumption in Greater Houston or Washington-Baltimore New Urban Regions.

EMR

As the more devoted of our readers may recall, a comment thread on a recent post about roundabouts led to a perplexing question: Who has the right of way inside a two-lane roundabout?

It’s very clear who yields to whom in a normal roundabout — drivers entering the roundabout must always yield to drivers inside the roundabout. But what happens in those rare locations, such as the Lee Circle on Richmond’s Monument Ave., when there are two lanes of traffic around the circle? In particular, who has the right of way (this question will be obscure to non-Richmonders, but please bear with us) when a car in the left lane wants to exit onto Monument/West Franklin and a car in the right lane wants to continue in the circle to Allen?

Becky Dale took it upon herself to find out. Diligently, she worked her way through ranks of state and local officials who, shockingly, did not know the answer to this elementary question. But at last she identified a certain Sergeant John E. Bowman, of the Richmond Police, who seems to speak with authority. Bowman, she reports, pronounces as follows:

The car in the right-hand lane must yield to the car in the left lane because it would have to cross over the center divided line of the lanes in order to continue in the traffic circle. Because it is changing lanes, it must yield. If the lines were painted differently, if the center divided line went around in a circle too, there would be a different answer: the car in the left lane would be crossing the center divided line and would have to yield. The car changing lanes must yield to the car staying in its lane.

Got it? I think we can all be thankful that there are not more accidents at the Lee Monument.

As a final note, Becky adds for the general edification of the roundabout-phobes among you: “As you enter a roundabout, yield to any traffic in it. Once you’re in it, yield to traffic if you have to cross a lane divider. And keep your eyes open for drivers who don’t know what they’re supposed to do!”

(Photo credit: Americatravelling.net.)

With major input from the public, Albemarle County planners have submitted three alternatives for taking back control of its horrendous U.S. 29 corridor north of Charlottesville. The best-received options sketched out ideas to focus growth and redevelopment around one of two higher-density nodes — one, a “midtown” around the Rio Road intersection, the other an “uptown” near the airport.

Major public investments in the corridor would include enhancement of a parallel road network, Bus Rapid Transit connecting employment centers along the corridor, and possibly a streetcar running circuits within the uptown and midtown centers. (A word of unsolicited advice: While you’re still in the conceptual stages, take a look at Personal Rapid Transit, too.) Read more details about the Places29 master plan in this article by Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Albemarle, a jurisdiction known for its strict growth controls, has bowed to the inevitable. Neighboring Charlottesville and the University of Virginia are reinventing the regional economy, spitting out a growing cluster of knowledge-intensive businesses. The region is going to grow, and growth is going to spill into Albemarle. The county can smear the growth over the landscape in the scattered, disconnected, low-density development pattern that has ruined countless other counties, or it can shape growth — through public investment, alternative zoning codes and an updated comprehensive plan — so that it creates real places that function where people enjoy living, working and playing.

Whatever Albemarle was doing before, it wasn’t working. U.S. 29 is an abomination, identical to countless other horror corridors across Virginia, and it detracts from Albemarle’s identity as a uniquely desirable place to be. It has been a slow process, but county officials are reconceptualizing an alternative vision for development and they’re gaining the buy-in of local citizens.

The U.S. 29 Corridor redevelopment is more ambitious than anything conceived for the Richmond region and anywhere that I know of in Virginia — outside of Columbia Pike in Arlington County. This project bears watching.