Bacon's Rebellion

As usual, The Washington Post misses the important story while focusing on the effluvia of the gubernatorial campaign. In today’s article, “Chichester Faults Road Funding Idea,” Michael D. Shear focuses on Senate Finance Chair John Chichester’s implicit criticism of Jerry Kilgore’s transportation plan, while burying in the last three paragraphs the fact that Chichester launched a senate study commission that will “spend the next several months developing an action plan to improve the state’s transportation system.”

Forget the drivel coming out of the Kaine and Kilgore campaigns regarding transportation. John Chichester, backed by his senate allies and a well-funded business lobby, is driving the agenda on transportation policy in Virginia. Chichester, not Kaine or Kilgore, will develop the transportation proposals that get considered in the 2006 General Assembly session, at least on the senate side. While Kaine and Kilgore spend the next six months just trying to get elected, Chichester will be laying the groundwork for his transportation solution. Chichester is the man to watch.

The commission, which Chichester announced Thursday, is called START (Statewide Transportation Analysis and Recommendation Task Force). It will meet four times before the General Assembly session begins next year. The deliberations of this group, consisting of 10 state senators and 15 citizen members, are far more important than anything Kaine and Kilgore have to say about transportation during the gubernatorial campaign.

I thought Tyler Whitley of the Richmond Times-Dispatch came up with the description of the week this morning when he called Russ Potts’ appearance at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting “bagels and bluster.”

What fascinated me was a new (at least to me) idea that Potts’ “Blue Ribbon Commission” would put on the table to address transportation: double-decking. I’ve got to admit, there’s plenty of open space available above Virginia’s highways. We’ve developed everything else; why not reach for the sky?

Russ, tell us more.

As I usually do on Thursday, I threw a few questions out to Marc Fisher’s online chat at the Washington Post today. Since our most popular post this week was Phil’s open letter, I asked Fisher about that. He posted a link to Phil’s piece! Here’s my question and Marc’s reply:

Fairfax, Va.: Toll are going up on the Dulles Road to support extending Metro. What’s your take? Here’s what the President of the Virginia Club for Growth had to say:

Bacon’s Rebellion

Marc Fisher: At the very least, I like the fact that the PR campaign surrounding the toll hike is up front about the fact that the money is for Metro to Dulles. And even those who are wedded to their cars should welcome that, because it’s the only hope of holding down the rate of increase in congestion on the roads. Nothing will ease the traffic–only politicians pretend that that’s ever going to happen–but we do have some control over how much worse it will get and how quickly that happens.

Additionally, I found this exchange interesting:

McLean, Va.: Mark,

What’s the point of routing Metrorail to Dulles? There’s no long-term parking in Metro garages, and it’s just about impossible to get a cab to take you to-from suburban Metro stations.

Metro SHOULD be run through the Reston-Herdon business districts, focusing on Eldon Street and Monroe Avenus. Locating Metro stations at Interestate exits is a proven non-starter for smart growth. Look at the areas where Metro has stimulated urbanization, and you’ll find that the line and stations were placed along existing commercial strips. Runing Mero down the middle of a limited access highway with stations at the exists is not smart growth. It’s DUMB growth.

Marc Fisher: Agreed–superhighways do not mix well with pedestrian-oriented development or with mass transit. They’re doing it that way because the right of way exists and it’s therefore cheaper. But the Metro stops along 66 work reasonably well, so it’s all in the execution. The trick will be to build over the highways and create little villages around those stations. In Florence, they did this and called it the Ponte Vecchio.

McLean, Va. sounds like our kind of reader.

Stateline.org is reporting that an Ohio case challenging the practice of offering state and local tax incentives to lure or keep businesses may soon go to the Supreme Court. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out Ohio’s tax credit program. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, has introduced legislation in Congress to allow incentives. Gov. Mark Warner, in his role as Chairman of the National Governors Association, has written in support of Voinovich’s proposal.

This could be big, affecting 40 states, including Virginia.

If skeptics are looking for examples of how building roads and highways “induces” more traffic, they need look no farther than Rt. 288, the four-lane circumferential highway serving the southwest quadrant of metropolitan Richmond. As luck (or politics) would have it, the highway runs through the property of Sen. John C. Watkins, R-Powhatan. According to Style magazine, Watkins and four partners are planning a 655-acre, mixed use development complex at the highway’s intersection with Rt. 60 in Chesterfield County.

On the positive side, reading between the lines of Style’s description, the Watkins project appears to be inspired by Neourbanism design principles, creating a mix of office, residential and retail uses in a pedestrian friendly environment–a development pattern that generates fewer and shorter car trips than conventional “sprawl” style development. Though traffic inducing from a regional perspective, this project is less deliterious than typical development. Sayeth Style:

All of the development groups … are working together to ensure that the architectural design and development of each portion of Watkins Centre is consistent. Apartments and condos would be built on top of retail shops and offices, mimicking an urban streetscape. The office development would meld architecturally with the new lifestyle center, and vice versa.

Still, the regional impact cannot be ignored. Right now, there are relatively few cars using Rt. 288 because the highway doesn’t serve existing development. The highway was built to accommodate commercial development anticipated in the West Creek office park north of the James River in Goochland County. By giving rise to the Watkins project, which would not be developed at this time were it not for the existence of the highway, 288 promises to pull a significant amount of development to the metropolitan fringe.

Thanks to the mixed-use nature of the project, some homeowners may work and shop locally. But it’s a good bet that many of them will commute very long distances to West Creek. Others will commute long distances back toward the metropolitan core. Others will drive long distances to the newest shopping malls in Short Pump and Stony Point. In sum, from a regional perspective, 288 and the Watkins project may well induce Chesterfield County residents, in the aggregate, to drive greater distances than ever before.

To a large extent, 288 will be creating its own demand. Meanwhile, because it was so expensive to build, the funding has been exhausted for congestion-mitigation projects closer to the urban core.

My open letter to Gov. Warner regarding the discriminatory tax increase on the users of the Dulles Toll Road. For more on this matter, please read my earlier column: “Railroaded Again“.

Dear Gov. Warner:

For a governor who campaigned on not raising our taxes, you surely have gone out of your way to get into our wallets. Now you’re supporting this discriminatory tax against the users of the Dulles Toll Road, who will never benefit from the rail to Dulles boondoggle, yet they are being asked to pay for its construction. What can we expect next from the Warner Administration, special discriminatory taxes by gender or race? Or better yet, why not set up toll booths along the Washington Beltway and collect taxes to end world hunger?

Your financing scheme for getting rail to Dulles by taxing the users of the Toll Road is nothing short of highway robbery, reminiscent of the times of Robin Hood. But at least Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. You’re stealing from a few select, hard-working Virginian’s and giving it to the special interests that stand to make millions from this boondoggle—a boondoggle that will do nothing to alleviate the traffic congestion in the Dulles corridor.

You have the power to delay or stop this injustice. Please act now.

Yesterday Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press led with this story: “Transportation issue at top of candidates’s agenda.” Graham wrote,

Former attorney general and Republican Party gubernatorial-nomination race frontrunner Jerry Kilgore has been carrying the transportation ball forward in recent weeks with his plan to address the state’s roads problems through the creation of regional authorities that would have the power to issue bonds and hold referendums to involve taxpayers in financing decisions.

The article mentioned some of Lt. Gov. candidate Leslie Byrne’s ideas, but conspicuously absent was any discussion of Tim Kaine’s ideas. Does he have any, or is he just the anti-Kilgore?

This criticism was offered of Kilgore’s plan:

Dick Daugherity, the executive vice president of the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance, is concerned that “regional transportation planning is not going to be as easy a thing to accomplish” as some people might think that it will be.

“The problem will come when you ask a regional transportation authority to prioritize the projects that need to be done,” Daugherity told the AFP.

“They’ll be able to agree on a list of projects that are high priorities, but getting them to agree on what the most important project is going to be extremely difficult to do,” Daugherity said.

Hmmm. I don’t know of anyone who is saying regional transportation planning is “easy.” Centralized planning has proven to be no picnic and the state’s project prioritization seems to be one of the chief bones of contention in the whole transportation debate.

Kilgore’s plan is the most specific plan out there right now. Kaine and others are free to pick it to death, but eventually they need to offer some specifics and put their plans out for public comment as Kilgore has done.

View Tim Kaine’s current television ads. One touts his tax-cuts-for-homeowners plan. The other stars Kaine’s kids talking about what a great dad they have. It’s very appealing — bouncy music, spunky kids, funny lines. It makes Kaine look like the kind of guy you’d love to have as your next door neighbor.

Both ads are accessible through the home page of the Kaine for Governor home page.

In today’s e-mail blast, the Tim Kaine for Governor campaign is launching a petition drive endorsing a bid to bring the NASCAR Hall of Fame to the Commonwealth. Talk about a two-fer! First benefit: Kaine can position himself as in favor of economic development. He quotes published accounts as saying the hall of fame could pump $100 million a year into Virginia’s economy.

Second benefit: NASCAR is very, very big in Jerry Kilgore’s rural strongholds. Who cares what Jerry says Tim said about his accent? If Time likes NASCAR, he’s got to be all right!

The Boss Man, Jim Bacon, extended something of an invitation to John Behan of Commonwealth Conservative in the comments section of my “Carnival” post. Basically, Jim rekindled the idea of a Virginia blogger conference and expressed interest in possible, but unspecified, cooperative efforts.

I’d like to suggest two interconnected things. First, I think there is a wonderful opportunity right now for Virginia blogs to lead the way in adopting, for lack of a better term, a “Code of Ethics.” Jim has done some good legwork on a couple of the things that would go into such a “code”: disclosure of potential conflicts of interest and civility guidelines. Other VA bloggers have also done some of this. Other items for this “code,” which I would envision as 10 or less bullet points, would deal with anonymous blogging, identification of sources, and corrections.

Secondly, I think there is also an opportunity for VA bloggers, perhaps through the mechanism of this “code,” to reach out to the mainstream media. Bloggers rely on mainstream media for a good bit of their commentary and also act as critics. Bloggers need to demolish the myth, fueled by many mainstream media types, that they are anarchists in pajamas. Adherence to a “code” might defuse some of the skepticism. And, while we’re at it, let’s invite some mainstream media types to at least the 2nd VA blogger conference.

I haven’t thought this all the way through, but I toss it out to Jim, John Behan, and other blog leaders for what it’s worth.

Today’s Wall Street Journal ran an article, “Colleges Get Building Fever,” exploring the connection between tuition hikes and the proliferation of grandiose college/university building projects, including ever more luxurious student unions and other facilities not central to learning. Sayeth the WSJ:

Why is the price of college going up? There are a lot [of] reasons, including declines in state budget support, the ballooning of college bureaucracies and the competition for superstar professors. But also high on the list is what Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, calls the “country clubization” of universities, as competition for students heats up….

“The reason it’s happening is that we can get away with it,” says the university’s Dr. Vedder. Instead of competing by lowering their prices, he says, universities are competing with “Cadillac facilities because someone else is paying for them.” In Congressional testimony that caught the ear of Republican leaders last month, he cautioned lawmakers against boosting the size of federally funded student grants and loans, arguing that schools would see the increases as an invitation to raise their prices.

The Salt Lick has a response today to a post last week by his guest blogger, “City Slicker.” “City Slicker” asked, “What do Rural Voters Want?”

Salt Lick offers a good answer and an insightful peek into rural Virginia thinking. He plays off an editorial by the Roanoke Times that also answered the “City Slicker” question. I guess Salt Lick is so jaded by the Times that he didn’t notice what I just did: they have already endorsed Tim Kaine (I know, big surprise). After saying both Kaine and Kilgore have staked out the same conservative turf, they conclude:

The expected Democratic and Republican nominees have both pledged to push rural economic development and support education and transportation. But Kilgore especially promises to spend money one minute and cut taxes the next.

Would he or Kaine be more likely to support and fund the entire package – improved roads and other infrastructure, a better-educated work force and development incentives- that rural Virginia needs to attract companies and prosper?

It falls to voters to determine who is more likely to come through, but here’s a clue: Nothing will happen without the money.

The inference is pretty clear. Their man Kaine will make “the entire package” happen with “the money.”

I don’t know that Kaine has said he will raise taxes and fund everything; he probably hasn’t and he probably won’t because he’s running a “wink and nod” campaign. He just winked at the Roanoke Times editorial board and they nodded.

Commonwealth Conservative is hosting “Carnival of the Vanities,” a rotating blog spotlight that has been running for over two years. If you’re interested in the breadth and depth of the national blogosphere, this is a great place to browse.

Hosting the Carnival is quite a coup for John Behan and he uses his role of master of ceremonies to provide visitors with a very nice introduction to Virginia bloggers.

Edward L. Ayers, dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia, is wrestling with the same questions raised recently on this blog regarding the cost and accessibility of higher education. (See his essay, “Flagship universities must pursue excellence and access.”)

The money graph: “We face a dilemma. Because they are so good, public flagship universities are attractive to students; that has enabled them to be highly selective, which in turn has raised them in national college rankings. The more good students who want to come, the better those rankings; the more good students who are turned away, the better still. Public universities brag about the median SAT scores, high-school standing, and GPA’s of their students, just as private colleges do. They have built impressive graduation and retention rates by bringing in students who are likely to stay and to graduate.”

The solution? “The University of Virginia has begun AccessUVa, a program that makes our university free for any qualified applicant whose family’s income is up to 200 percent of the poverty level (or, right now, $37,700 for a family of four). We have also promised that no one will leave U.Va. owing more than a quarter of the four-year cost of attendance for in-state students.”

Few appreciate more than we, the humor, wit and perspective of The Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles.

Imagine our shock to see him demonstrate a bad case of Geographic Illiteracy on today’s editorial page. As luck would have it, we were in our doctors office for an early AM physical when we saw the cartoon and so medical aide was close at hand for us. No word on Toles location or condition. We know Tole’s heart is in the right place but spreading Geographic Illiteracy in cartoons is serious, very serious.

For the record when we look at the “Military Moves” map in Monday’s Business section this is what we see: The four locations with three or more buildings to be “possibly effected” are all in Beta Villages which have too many jobs and too few houses, services, recreation and amenity to make a balanced contribution to their communities. (Ballston and Rosslyn in Greater North Arlington, Crystal City in Greater South Arlington, Carlyle/West End in Greater Alexandria and Mark Center in Greater Baileys Crossroads.)

When we look at the map of the primary potential relocation site in Virginia we see Fort Belvoir in Greater Lorton at R=17 Miles from the centroid of the Subregion. If you look at a 1958 (sic) Comprehensive Plan for Fairfax County you will find Greater Lorton is designated a Planned New Community (aka, a Balanced Community). Almost 50 years of unintelligent planning, implementation and investment (public and private) has nearly buried the potential but it is still there.

Municipal, state and federal governance practitioners who are calling for a federal contribution to make Greater Lorton into a Balanced Community if there is a relocation of federal jobs to Fort Belvoir are right on target. It is a shame there are not regional and subregional strategies and plans in place for this rational relocation.

The Fundamental Change necessary to create the Fuller/Florida prosperous future outlined in the discussion of Fairfax County in our “Antidotes” column requires these regional and subregional strategies/plans, not unilateral military realignment.

We also need to be sure Tom Toles gets an antidote for that virus before it spreads.

EMR