ADC Blog

Ramesh Ponnuru has an important op-ed in Bloomberg on the federal government’s continuing auto-mobility: Don’t Let Washington Ban Cellphones in Your Car.

[Transportation Secretary] LaHood has said he is considering a ban on the use of mobile phones, even hands-free ones, in cars. He says, “We should set the standard at the safest place to be.” He has also said, “You can’t drive safely when you are trying to adjust your GPS system or the radio.” He has announced as well that the government is looking into technology that would disable phones in cars.

One does not have to be in favor of distracted driving to realize this is, potentially, a grotesque overreach of federal power.

Writing in New Geography, Wendell Cox has another great piece about the export business in California – it’s people and jobs. 

“Between 2000 and 2009 (Note), a net 1.5 million Californians left for other states. Only New York lost more of its residents (1.6 million). California’s loss was greater than the population of its second largest municipality, San Diego. More Californians moved away than lived in 12 states at the beginning of the decade. Among the net 6.3 million interstate domestic migrants in the nation, nearly one-quarter fled California for somewhere else.”

It’s not complete to say California is a progressive utopia.  When it comes to land use and transportation policy, California is a Smart Growth state and has pioneered many of the extreme regulations that other states (e.g., Maryland and Oregon) want to emulate.  Steven Greenhut observes that California’s problem is decline by design.  Many California leaders point to planning efforts as something that was supposed to have a positive effect on the state:

“California’s elected officials have been doing as little planning as possible, unless one counts planning to spend tens of billions of dollars the state doesn’t have on a high-speed rail line that will partially replicate what the airlines already do now. Our leaders are battling new water-storage facilities and punishing farmers with absurd water restrictions. They impose roadblocks toward building new highway systems and land-use regulations make it nearly impossible to build the homes and businesses necessary to meet the needs of a growing population. One can hardly call that planning.”

Californians chose mandates over markets, and they’re paying the price.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, President Obama seems to like the California model so we may end up getting a dose of what ails California in our own states.

… in a down economy.

A New York town struggling under the weight of its pension obligations and facing plummeting tax revenue will be forced to cancel three holidays — unless private donors step in and plug its budget holes.

More here.

Blogging on the Instapundit site, Sarah Hoyt links to brilliant summation of the threat to liberty at the local level by Patrick Richardson.

Statism begins at home.

It begins with small things, often at the city or county level.

It begins with well meaning regulations on things like when you can take your trash to the curb for pick up — and regulations which can order you to return the cans to your house within a specified time frame.

Regulations which will force you to sell an old car you’re fixing up in your driveway — simply because the neighbors think it an eyesore — regardless of current insurance and tags.

For the most part we accept these little annoyances, perhaps with some muttering under our breaths or a bit of table banging blustering down at the local coffee shop after we get a ticket.

A few of the most vocal of us might actually call our city councilman and blister his ear with little or no expectation anything will change.

And year by year the regulations mount in towns across the country, becoming just as stifling as the myriad federal regulations which intrude into our daily lives.

Little by little, bit by bit we become habituated. We learn to allow the intrusions.

We get broken to the harness.

Back at Instapundit, Hoyt says, “Statism starts with the words ‘there ought to be a law’ for every small, pesky annoyance.  Statism begins at home, and the fight to roll it back must begin in every town and city council.”

The Wall Street Journal is the latest in a new narrative developing that questions the value of homeownership.

“But the new realities of our increasingly mobile economy make it more likely that this transition from an Ownership Society to what might be called a Rentership Society, far from being a drag, will unleash a wave of economic efficiency that could fuel the next boom.”

It reads like the author was channeling by Richard Florida’s suspect views.

Forbes is out with it’s list of the best cities for raising a family. 

1. Grand Rapids, Michigan
2. Boise, Idaho
3. Provo, Utah
4. Youngstown, Ohio
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. Poughkeepsie, New York
7. Omaha, Nebraska
8. Ogden, Utah
9. Cincinnati, Ohio
10. Worcester, Massachusetts

Where’s Portland?  Where’s Charlotte?  Where’s Seattle?  And all of the other hip, Smart Growth Cities?

The writers at Forbes thought that measures such as median income, cost of living, housing affordability, crime rate, education quality, commuting delays and percentage of families owning homes matter in determining if an urban area is hospitable to people trying to raise children.  As Wendell Cox has said, “Families want to raise children in backyards, not condo balconies.”

“A lot of people live in the suburbs and they have a few cars and they live in houses that they probably bought in the 1980s.  We need to morally exclude those who don’t recognize the problem, and let them know that they have no place in a future America.”

Scenes from the Madison Square Park rally by Occupiers on May Day.

. . . city center pollution doubles risk of calcium build-up in arteries.

Bay News 9 in Pinellas County reported on the Rail Forum that I participated in.  Joining me was Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute, who is also known as the Antiplanner.

Sponsored by the Tea Party group South Pinellas 912, major kudos go to Barbara Haselden for organizing the event.  They have a great website – Rail Tax Facts - that is worth checking out.  Hopefully, the citizens will be well armed with the pro-rail PR kicks into overdrive.

… on the level of Smart Growthers.