Bacon's Rebellion

Today’s Washington Post online chat with columnist Marc Fisher has some commentary on Jim’s water ferry post that’s immediately below this one.

There was one exchange in the chat that reminded me of a comment someone made here some time ago–there are still dirt roads in Virgnia:

Chantilly, Va.: Hi Marc: I don’t know how closely you pay attention to goings-on in lovely Loudoun County, but you might find it amusing that homes costing close to a million bucks a pop are going up just west of South Riding, and the only access to those developments is Braddock Road, which is STILL UNPAVED out there!

Most people probably think of Braddock Road as a major, multi-lane highway, but it gets narrower and narrower as you move west, and by the time it ends at Route 15 it probably looks just like it did when British General Braddock used it to fight Indians back in the mid-1700s.

You will soon be hearing frenzied traffic reports from such heretofore obscure intersections as Braddock Road at Pleasant Valley Road. This county is nuts.

Marc Fisher: And there’s a lot more coming through the pipeline. If the Loudoun board gets its way, the county will maintain its position as America’s fastest growing for quite some time to come.

I’m wondering if it’s the county that’s nuts for allowing developments off a dirt road like this or if it’s the buyers who are nuts.

I’ve been harping on the theme that there are abundant alternatives to the tax-and-build approach to solving Virginia’s traffic congestion woes. No one alternative constitutes a silver bullet. But maybe 10, 20 or 30 small alternatives, each serving a distinct niche, could add up to a system-wide solution. The latest idea, which may or may not be financially practicable, comes from the District of Columbia: Water ferries.

According to today’s Washington Post, “D.C. Plans River Ferry Experiment,” our neighbors across the Potomac River are exploring plans to put a ferry service into effect by next year for destinations on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Writes the Post: “At least four companies have expressed interest in securing the $500,000 contract for an 18-month pilot program that would run a water coach or ferry serving commuters in the mornings and evenings and tourists during the day.”

The obvious advantage of a ferry service: It does not require building roads or building rail lines, just ferry docks. It’s encouraging that other cities — New York, San Francisco, Seattle — operate what the Post describes as “thriving” ferry systems for commuters. So do cities in other parts of the world. Why doesn’t Virginia? The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries offer miles and miles of nearly cost-free right of way.

A 1999 Virginia Department of Transportation study concluded that a commuter service from Woodbridge to the Navy Yard in D.C. would cost about as much as a commuter rail trip. Unofrtunately, that’s not much of an endorsement — commuter rail, to my way of thinking, is not always a good investment of public dollars. To be a viable alternative for Virginia, ferries would have to provide a better financial pay-off than that. We’re going to need some creative thinking if the ferry idea is to prove feasible.

I’m thinking of writing a column on this topic for the next edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine. Any observations on the “water ferry” transportation alternative, and how a ferry service could be made financially viable, would be most welcome.

Republican Attorney General Candidate Steve Baril is pulling no punches in his duel with Del. Bob McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach. In today’s campaign missive, he accused McDonnell of “wielding his influence in the General Assembly to make money and intimidate state agencies.” Stated the press release:

Over the last six years alone, McDonnell has represented dozens of clients before 17 different state boards and agencies. He has made between $150,000 and $700,000 as a result of the unethical practice. This was brought to light in a Virginian-Pilot editorial in 2003, which stated, “McDonnell led the pack far-and-away” of representing clients before state agencies. The Pilot added that McDonnell routinely fails to “identify his clients by name,” and “Republican McDonnell is repeating the mistakes of prominent Democrats when their party was in power.” …

“How can an ordinary citizen expect to get a fair shake in a dispute before state boards or agencies when wealthy corporations and special interest groups hire the powerful Chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee to plead their side?” Baril asked. “The obvious answer is, they don’t.” Baril called on McDonnell to disclose every case and every client, because “the voters have a right to know.”

If elected, Baril promised, he would ill re-introduce the same bill Jerry Kilgore proposed in 2001 to prohibit legislators from representing clients before state agencies. Of course, if McDonnell is guilty of what Baril accuses him of, so are a lot of other state senators and delegates. Baril’s statement didn’t note why Kilgore’s bill never became law. My guess is that Baril’s bill wouldn’t be any more likely to win the approval of…. who? legislators who represent clients before state agencies?

George Fitch understands the connection between transportation and land use, and he’s the only one willing to talk about it. Unfortunately, he’s addressing small audiences and getting coverage only from the suburban weeklies, so there’ s no one to hear him. This comes from the Fauquier Times-Democrat:

Traffic congestion could best be eased, Fitch said, using political restraint and common-sense development.”First, we need to lock up the transportation trust fund and stop raiding it,” he said. “Then, we need to stop the bleeding once and for all that is causing a lot of traffic gridlock. We need to coordinate land-use with developments.”

That means, he explained in more detail, that construction plans should be tied at the hip to transportation improvements or developments, and that without the latter, the former should not commence. It also means, he added a few minutes later, demanding more accountability and cooperation from existing transportation officials.”I have a plan,” Fitch said, “(that says) VDOT, you’re going to be evaluated on how well you relive traffic congestion. Nothing else.”

No, Ray Hyde, reforming land use won’t cure all of our transportation woes. But building a bunch of roads and extending METRO rail without reforming the prevailing scattered, low-density pattern of development won’t cure any of our transportation woes. And it’ll cost us a lot in taxes to boot.

Too bad we’re not reading Fitch’s analysis in the Washington Post or Richmond Times-Dispatch. Until the Mainstream Media stop conducting he-said, she-said journalism, there’s no hope that voters will develop a more profound understanding of the issues.

The Family Foundation latest email alert, ‘Watching to Governor’s Education Initiative’ warns of Governor Warner, the NEA and VEA’s hidden agendas behind ‘pre-kindergarten education.’

“While at first glance the proposal seems innocuous, the push for government based early childhood education programs can be traced to organizations on the far left such as Children’s Defense Fund and the National Education Association (NEA). And anytime those organizations are behind something, there is more than meets the eye. It usually means that parents lose more of their rights to make decisions in the lives of their children, and government is going to spend a lot of taxpayer money.”

The Family Foundation went on to say…

“For several years The Family Foundation and other pro-family groups have fought changes to Virginia’s day care regulations supported by the Warner administration. These changes would be damaging for several reasons, including the fact that the new regulations would drive up the cost of day care already barely affordable for many families, and many faith-based day care centers would not be able to afford the changes and would be forced to close. Such a loss would be devastating to many families. Already we hear of the day care ‘crisis,’ or lack of affordable day care for many. The new regulations would add to the problem, and would likely lead to the government stepping in to provide day care, at taxpayer expense, expanding public education to the years prior to kindergarten.”

“And that’s exactly what Governor Warner, the NEA, and its Virginia counterpart, the Virginia Education Association (VEA), want. Not only will it be a gigantic money grab for government run schools, but it will also give more opportunity to the VEA to ‘educate’ children with its political agenda starting at even younger ages.”

Holy Moses and pass the cornbread — Day-care ‘Reeducation’ camps! Who’da thunk it… Hmm, hows ’bout dem ‘Educrat’ apple polishers?

~ the blue dog

It’s unscientific. It’s shameless. It’s a USA Today online poll where you can vote your favorite site for the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Today’s Daily Press has another scathing editorial on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries scandal. It seems that everyone who is anyone has commented on the state auditor’s findings.

Except the Governor. Except the three gubernatorial candidates. Except the six Lt. Gov. candidates. Except the three Attorney General candidates. I suppose the current Attorney General has commented, according to the editorial: “A spokesman for the attorney general says she plans no action.”

If anyone has seen comments from the group I mentioned, let me know and I will correct the record. Are they saying “no comment” or have they even been asked? I know the opinions of candidates on a host of issues where as officeholders they would have only marginal influence; I’d like to know their opinions on something that they would confront directly if they were elected.

The resignation of Phil Shucet as VDOT Commissioner, announced today, has to count as disappointing news. He was a breath of fresh air in the Virginia bureaucracy.

Our gubernatorial candidates ought to be asked things like, “Who in Gov. Warner’s cabinet would you like to see stay on?”

Since he was hired at the end of a half-year national search, Shucet has avoided partisan entanglements and has won respect and praise from Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly.

Warner said he felt Shucet may have stayed longer if Virginia were not the only state in the nation not to allow governors to serve successive terms.

“Part of the struggle is to get people to stay on to the end of your term,” the governor said.

If Shucet had bi-partisan support, Warner’s would-be successors should have mentioned it. Shucet said he resigned for personal reasons; it would be a shame if he resigned, as Warner hints, because he didn’t think the next governor would keep him in place.

I’d say the weekend endorcements were only the beginning. Potts will find alignments with centrist House members, too–mostly because the RPVA keeps getting out-flanked, not by the Democrats, but by its own ‘flat-earth’ wing. (All the Dems have to do at the moment is just stay out of the way while this army turns in on itself.) Time is against Mr. Reciprocal. Bolling has gotten into a weird–as campaigns go–sort of reverse-publicity warp, wherein the more he spends, the more folks hear about him, the worse he will do. His best strategy would be to pull his ads and go into hiding until June 15. But, of course, he won’t do that. So let’s go ahead and call this one. Connoughton beats him. Main Street (read ‘Mark Warner’) Republicans–those who understand that it takes money to build the roads and schools that build the businesses that build the state–are with Baril because Steve talks that business language, and because McDonnell, though smart he may be, has inexplicably allowed himself to become–in lots of minds–Pat Robertson’s poster boy, and the darling of those glassy-eyed Kool-Aid drinkers of the hard right.

Today’s Washington Post, “A Bane Amid the Housing Boom: Rising Foreclosures,” describes the rising number of mortgage foreclosures nationally. Sayeth the Post: “Foreclosure rates rose in 47 states in March, according to Foreclosure.com, an online foreclosure listing service. The rates in Florida, Texas and Colorado are more than twice the national average. Even in New York City and Boston, where real estate markets are white-hot, foreclosures are rising in working-class neighborhoods.

“Virginia, Maryland and the District have relatively low foreclosure rates — analysts say troubled owners in those booming markets can still sell their homes before facing foreclosure. Should the nation’s housing bubbles deflate, as many economists and federal officials expect, the foreclosures could prefigure a national crisis. Americans now shoulder record levels of housing debt — more than 8 percent of homeowners spend at least half their income on their mortgage.”

Regulators blame mortgage brokers and bankers who, while promoting the dream of home ownership, have crafted ever-riskier ways for Americans with poor credit to buy homes. Interest-only and adjustable-rate mortgages account for 63 percent of new mortgages. Now policymakers are wondering if the crusade to boost home ownership is backfiring. As debt levels rise, home ownership is destroying wealth for millions of working class Americans rather than creating it.

Courtesy of The Roanoke Times. It’s interesting that both Connaughton and Baril are trying to run as conservatives. Someone ought to tell these guys that “I will reinstate the car tax” Russ Potts–who’s running to the left of Tim Kaine–has got their number…

Today’s Washington Post covers the 67th District race in the Republican primary, between RINO-incumbent Gary Reese and the challenger, Chris Craddock.

What struck me in this story is that Reese says that taxes are not on the minds of the voters. He claims that in going door-to-door people talk to him about transportation, education, and maybe property taxes–but certainly no state tax issues.

That’s interesting because all the door-to-door experiences of the challengers point to a great voter frustration with the overall tax situation.

So is Reese downplaying the issue to justify his John Kerry like vote? — he actually voted for the tax increase before voting against it!

Or is it possible that Reese is partially right? Are voters primarily frustrated with property taxes going through the roof? If so, will they differentiate between state and local tax issues or will they go to the polls on June 14 and vote the rascals out of office?

“Liberal Democrats famously fancy themselves champions of tolerance, sensitivity, and diversity, yet they embrace an intolerant orthodoxy that manifests some fundamentally racist attitudes and assumptions. There is no more racist assumption than one that imputes particular beliefs to a variety of men and women in a variety of places with many different interests, values, and backgrounds simply on the basis of race. The great novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston didn’t just speak to me, she spoke for me: “I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, or lurking behind my eyes….I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that Nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt by it….No, I do not weep at the world―I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” –Former Delegate Paul Harris

From ‘Notes from the sausage factory,’ Barnie Day, Becky Dale editors, publishing mid-July, 450 pages, Brunswick Books

Okay, fellow Dems, listen up. In the best spirit of bipartisanship, it falls our duty to help our addled Republican friends choose who will be their candidate for Governor in November by voting in the June 14 Republican Primary. That’s right, as a Democrat you can vote in the Republican Primary. We’re having two that day, simultaneously–one for the Ds and one for the Rs. (And, no, this doesn’t threaten the Sage of the Shenandoah–Russ Potts will be on the ballot either way.) It doesn’t change your registration. You don’t have to swear to anything. Just tell the folks at your polling place you want the Republican ballot. They have to let you vote in the Republican Primary if you want to. Hey, our ticket is largely set, with Kaine and Deeds. (That middle one will sort out.) This time around, we need to be helping our Republican friends out. There will be two names in the Republican ballot for Governor–Jerry Kilgore and George Fitch. Lord, have mercy! What must we do?