Is the party over?

Today I heard that progressive talk radio station AM 760 out of Boulder, Colorado, is sponsoring a discussion with two of my favorite hosts, David Sirota and Thom Hartmann, entitled "Is It Time to Abandon the Democratic Party?"  

Being completely honest, this is a question that I have been personally kicking around even before Scott Brown nabbed Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.  The results of that special election really pushed over the edge.  To illustrate, I give you two unedited emails I sent to friends on January 20, 2010.

I've been thinking for a while - LONG before this election clusterf*ck in mass. - what the heck is any different than it was in January of 2007?  I'm not sure.  Sure maybe the goals are different, the ultimate aims.  Take a look at the health care bill.  The insurance mandate with no public option or no additional opportunities to get Medicare just means more $$ straight to the insurance companies.  Its the same corporatist bullcrap that the dems campaigned against.  I mean, you can only campaign on hope and change for so long before voters figure out that nothing's actually going to change.  which is really really disappointing for an administration who won people over with a promise to change the tone and the culture and DC. 

They had a chance to do basically whatever they wanted, and couldn't get their own shit together enough to do it.  that's really disappointing.  find a message that you really believe in that you'll stand up for.  until, I'm done calling myself my democrat.  i'll stay registered so I can vote in the primaries because I do generally think the better INDIVIDUAL candidates come from the left of center.  but, ideologically, I feel pretty abandoned after this past year.

Then I analogized my relationship with the Democratic Party to two lovers that have fallen out of favor:

I really can't get over the hurt, now that I'm giving it some thought. I feel like I've been cheated on. This term was supposed to produce results for people. But the biggest populist, liberal reform - if it survives - will feed the PIG just as much as any cheney defense contract or bush oil bill.

So that, washington democracts, is why we need a break. I'm not ready to say its over. I probably won't see anyone else. But while I'm gone, you need to prove to me you're actually still committed to the ideals that brought us together so many years ago.

And those words pretty accurately reflect where I stand today, over a month later.  I would qualify that statement, though, with the fact that my frustration is not obviously directed just at Democrats.  It is equally spread over both parties in DC.  I suppose I allowed ideological agreement to quell my growing frustration with the Left.  But my frustrations grows from attributes that are not exclusive to one party - corporate favoritism, intra-party bickering and vacillation, and career-minded selfishness.  Granted, that does not describe every politician in Washington.  But it describes enough  of them to generate a public stereotype.  And those who exhibit such characteristics are the obstacles to improving life in the United States.  To those persons I would say: Move one way or the other, but whatever you do, get the hell out of the way.

 

The Democrats ran the 2008 campaigns on populist rhetoric, with promises to restore Main Street over Wall Street and to institute reform in the name of the people.  I have yet to see those promises materialize in any appreciable way.  And until I see otherwise, I will continue to believe to the few persons who are accurately described by the despicable characteristics I listed above are truly obstructing the well being of folks like and I. 

Consider this a plug . . .

As you may remember, I received a wonderful holiday gift of David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries.  I finally finished the book yesterday.  Such is the life of a young child's parent, I suppose.

The bulk of the book is a compilation of Byrne's diary-style musings, founded on his adventures in cities around the globe.  As an internationally recognized musician and artist, Byrne has traveled extensively across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.  When he travels, he packs a folding bicycle (such as this one) that he uses as a primary source of getting around his destination cities.  With this mode of transportation as a unifying theme, Byrne's writings delve into a diverse variety of subjects - art, music, politics, sociology, psychology, urban planning.  I described the book to one friend as both "geographically and substantively all over the place."  

While I very much enjoyed the diary aspects of the book and found Byrne's perspectives on his multifarious topics quite interesting, the epilogue continues to resonate in my mind.  In ten pages or so, Byrne managed to capture the essence of modern urban planning theory, a subject that I once spent an entire semester trying to grasp through the writings of the field's well-known theorists, activists, and policymakers.  But even more enlightening was how he found that essence.  Byrne admits that he sort of fell into his perspective and ideology about urban planning; he did not come to it through academic or philosophical study.  Rather, he developed it by living his daily life in urban America.  (New York City, to be exact.)  He's found that the aspects of urban planning that modern thought espouses - mixed use, reasonable densities, and choice in transportation - really do make life engaging and make it interesting to get out of bed everyday and see what's going on outside our doors.  Its a philosophy of incorporation rather than isolation.  It's about puttin' the "social" back in "society," y'all.  

So, in sum, I highly recommend Bicycle Diaries.  Pick it up, or at least go to the bookstore, sit down with a cup of coffee, and read the epilogue.  It will be time well spent.

"Slumburbia"

A very interesting read from Wednesday's Opinionator Blog.  

The final few paragraphs relate Californian cities' land use regulation to the current status of their respective real estate markets.  Cities that did not permit or encourage [relatively] unchecked urban growth are not feeling the pain of empty homes and foreclosed properties.  That makes sense.

I suppose one aspect of this piece really troubles me, though, and it is going to put the U.S. in quite a catch-22.  Maybe this comment was made tongue-in-cheek, and I just missed that.  The author, rightly so, suggests that the ever increasing U.S. population will, assuming the homes are affordable, eventually even out this empty home mess.  But that solution comes with some complications.  Can areas such as the San Joaquin Valley actually support the population required to fill those homes?  When the residential real estate market recovers, won't more new homes be constructed, only perpetuating the problem?  Is there something other than a more-home-for-less-money appeal that is going to attract buyers to exurban communities?

I don't have any answers to those questions.  But I think they are evidence of how long we as a country might be dealing with the fallout of this Great Recession. 

Top Obama Administration Officials to Promote Sustainable Communities, Environmental Justice at Smart Growth Conference

From the Obama administration:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2010


THURSDAY: Top Obama Administration Officials to Promote Sustainable Communities, Environmental Justice at Smart Growth Conference

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will visit Seattle on Thursday, February 4, to address the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. They will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus.

Speaking before an audience of more than 1,500 key planners, public health professionals, developers, government staff and elected officials Secretaries Donovan and LaHood and Assistant Administrator Stanislaus will discuss the ways their agencies are working together through the Obama Administration’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities to improve access to affordable housing, provide better transportation options, and protect public health and the environment.

“EPA, HUD and DOT are working together to rebuild our foundations for prosperity, a process that starts with rethinking the ways our communities grow,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “The interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities is working to give our communities what they need to grow and thrive with economic resilience and environmental sustainability.”

“I am proud to announce HUD’s brand new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities today,” said Donovan. “Working with our partners at DOT and EPA, this new office will help us streamline our efforts to create stronger, more sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation and building a clean energy economy.”

“Our Partnership really is a new way of doing business in Washington, to help our nation meet 21st century challenges,” said LaHood. “Working together, we’re creating jobs to revitalize our economy, while helping state and local transportation agencies to build the capacity they need to promote livable, walkable, sustainable communities.”

The President proposed $527 million in his budget for an ambitious new livability initiative at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its Office of Livable Communities will be a focal point for initiatives such as expanding transit in low-income neighborhoods. It will fund a grant program to help state and local transportation agencies provide more transportation choices that spur economic development.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, taking place Feb. 4-6, is the premier national smart growth conference, bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines to discuss transportation, housing and urban development, public health, equitable development, environmental protection, and other topics. The partnership agencies are working together more closely than ever before to meet the president’s challenge to coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas build more sustainable communities.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is managed by the Local Government Commission, in partnership with EPA, DOT, and other public and private sponsors.

More about the Partnership for Sustainable Communities:
http:/www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership

More on EPA’s Smart Growth Program:
http:www.epa.gov/smartgrowth

More information on HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities:
www.hud.gov/sustainability

Election season '10 is revving up

Yes, its true.  The special election in Massachusetts.  Several states are beginning to hold primary elections for Congressional seats.  

We all know that elections are, or at should be, about issues, not about candidates themselves.  For those of us who live in states that permit voter initiated measures, referendums, or both, each election does force us to consider at least a few issues outside of the typical representative democracy structure.  As I have written previously, voter initiatives, in particular, are situations that provide both proponents and opponents of those measures the opportunity to massage facts, embellish details, and hyperbolize benefits or consequences.

For those reasons, voter education is absolutely crucial to an effective and worthwhile initiative and referendum process.  In that vein, I want to share a website.  Ballotpedia is really a catalog of many state politics issues, including ballot initiatives.  On the site, you can learn which states have an I&R scheme.  You can find past ballot measures as well as learn about potential or proposed measures in upcoming elections.  

The closer we get to November, the more muddled and murky candidates and issues will become.  I urge you to start your education now.  In doing so, you might also find out how you can support or oppose the campaigns of ballot measures that are important to you.  Get educated.  Be involved.  Take advantage of your right to have a voice in various levels of government that touch your daily life. 

Everyone knows what happens when you don't pay your taxes.

Now, Colorado Springs, Colorado, shows you what happens when you don't collect your taxes.  Be warned - this is U - G - L - Y.

Reprinted from Sunday's Denver Post.

COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won't pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

"I guess we're going to find out what the tolerance level is for people," said businessman Chuck Fowler, who is helping lead a private task force brainstorming for city budget fixes. "It's a new day."

Some residents are less sanguine, arguing that cuts to bus services, drug enforcement and treatment and job development are attacks on basic needs for the working class.

"How are people supposed to live? We're not a 'Mayberry R.F.D.' anymore," said Addy Hansen, a criminal justice student who has spoken out about safety cuts. "We're the second-largest city, and growing, in Colorado. We're in trouble. We're in big trouble."

Mayor flinches at revenue

Colorado Springs' woes are more visceral versions of local and state cuts across the nation. Denver has cut salaries and human services workers, trimmed library hours and raised fees; Aurora shuttered four libraries; the state budget has seen round after round of wholesale cuts in education and personnel.

The deep recession bit into Colorado Springs sales-tax collections, while pension and health care costs for city employees continued to soar. Sales-tax updates have become a regular exercise in flinching for Mayor Lionel Rivera.

"Every month I open it up, and I look for a plus in front of the numbers instead of a minus," he said. The 2010 sales-tax forecast is almost $22 million less than 2007.

Voters in November said an emphatic no to a tripling of property tax that would have restored $27.6 million to the city's $212 million general fund budget. Fowler and many other residents say voters don't trust city government to wisely spend a general tax increase and don't believe the current cuts are the only way to balance a budget.

Dead grass, dark streets

But the 2010 spending choices are complete, and local residents and businesses are preparing for a slew of changes:

• The steep parks and recreation cuts mean a radical reshifting of resources from more than 100 neighborhood parks to a few popular regional parks. The city cut watering drastically in 2009 but "got lucky" with weekly summer rains, said parks maintenance manager Kurt Schroeder.

With even more watering cuts, "if we repeat the weather of 2008, we're at risk of losing every bit of turf we have in our neighborhood parks," Schroeder said. Six city greenhouses are shut down. The city spent $19.6 million on parks in 2007; this year it will spend $3.1 million.

"If a playground burns down, I can't replace it," Schroeder said. Park fans' only hope is the possibility of a new ballot tax pledged to recreation spending that might win over skeptical voters.

• Community center and pool closures have parents worried about day-care costs, idle teenagers and shut-in grandparents with nowhere to go.

Hillside Community Center, on the southeastern edge of downtown Colorado Springs in a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, is scrambling to find private partners to stay open. Moms such as Kirsten Williams doubt they can replace Hillside's dedicated staff and preschool rates of $200 for six-week sessions.

"It's affordable, the program is phenomenal, and the staff all grew up here," Williams said. "You can't re-create that kind of magic."

Shutting down youth services is shortsighted, she argues. "You're going to pay now, or you're going to pay later. There's trouble if kids don't have things to do."

• Though officials and citizens put public safety above all in the budget, police and firefighting still lost more than $5.5 million this year. Positions that will go empty range from a domestic violence specialist to a deputy chief to juvenile offender officers. Fire squad 108 loses three firefighters. Putting the helicopters up for sale and eliminating the officers and a mechanic banked $877,000.

• Tourism outlets have attacked budget choices that hit them precisely as they're struggling to draw choosy visitors to the West.

The city cut three economic-development positions, land-use planning, long-range strategic planning and zoning and neighborhood inspectors. It also repossessed a large portion of a dedicated lodgers and car rental tax rather than transfer it to the visitors' bureau.

"It's going to hurt. If they don't at least market Colorado Springs, it doesn't get the people here," said Nancy Stovall, owner of Pine Creek Art Gallery on the tourism strip of Old Colorado City. Other states, such as New Mexico and Wyoming, will continue to market, and tourism losses will further erode city sales-tax revenue, merchants say.

• Turning out the lights, literally, is one of the high-profile trims aggravating some residents. The city-run Colorado Springs Utilities will shut down 8,000 to 10,000 of more than 24,000 streetlights, to save $1.2 million in energy and bulb replacement.

Hansen, the criminal-justice student, grows especially exasperated when recalling a scary incident a few years ago as she waited for a bus. She said a carload of drunken men approached her until the police helicopter that had been trailing them turned a spotlight on the men and chased them off. Now the helicopter is gone, and the streetlight she was waiting under is threatened as well.

"I don't know a person in this city who doesn't think that's just the stupidest thing on the planet," Hansen said. "Colorado Springs leaders put patches on problems and hope that will handle it."

Employee pay criticized

Community business leaders have jumped into the budget debate, some questioning city spending on what they see as "Ferrari"-level benefits for employees and high salaries in middle management. Broadmoor luxury resort chief executive Steve Bartolin wrote an open letter asking why the city spends $89,000 per employee, when his enterprise has a similar number of workers and spends only $24,000 on each.

Businessman Fowler, saying he is now speaking for the task force Bartolin supports, said the city should study the Broadmoor's use of seasonal employees and realistic manager pay.

"I don't know if people are convinced that the water needed to be turned off in the parks, or the trash cans need to come out, or the lights need to go off," Fowler said. "I think we'll have a big turnover in City Council a year from April. Until we get a new group in there, people aren't really going to believe much of anything."

Mayor and council are part-time jobs in Colorado Springs, points out Mayor Rivera, that pay $6,250 a year ($250 extra for the mayor). "We have jobs, we pay taxes, we use services, just like they do," Rivera said, acknowledging there is a "level of distrust" of public officials at many levels.

Rivera said he welcomes help from Bartolin, the private task force and any other source volunteering to rethink government. He is slightly encouraged, for now, that his monthly sales-tax reports are just ahead of budget predictions.

Officials across the city know their phone lines will light up as parks go brown, trash gathers in the weeds, and streets and alleys go dark.

"There's a lot of anger, a lot of frustration about how governments spend their money," Rivera said. "It's not unique to Colorado Springs."

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303473?source=pop_section_news#ixzz0eJZAGFWl

More on marijuana

Two weeks ago, I put down some thoughts about the philosophical foundation underlying marijuana use and how that "limbo" has extended beyond philosophy to the legal and regulatory sphere.  The Colorado legislature continues to debate new approaches to handle the medical marijuana industry in this state, an industry formed by voter initiative in 2000.  In the meantime, the debate over the place marijuana should ultimately hold in society continues as well.  Here's a piece from Post writer Ed Quillen.

Livability vs. Cost Effectiveness

Administration officials said they were reversing guidelines put in place by the Bush administration that called for evaluating new transit projects largely by how much they cost and how much travel time they would save. . . .

Mr. LaHood said the administration would establish new guidelines that take what he called “livability” into account — evaluating projects not only by how much they shorten commutes but also by their environmental, community and economic benefits.

 

- Administration Loosens Purse Strings for Transit Projects, NY Times, 01/13/2010

Realizing, as its predecessors apparently did not, that alternative transportation is not simply about saving time and money, the Obama administration is altering the criteria by which transit projects will be scrutinized for federal funding.  Rather than a cost effectiveness model, the new guidelines hone in on environmental impacts as well as community benefits and economic development associated with the transit lines.  As posted on the Secretary of Transportation's blog, the DOT is moving away from the "narrow" performance criteria and moving to a set of six broader performance requirements that reflect "key livability factors" - "economic development, mobility improvement, environmental benefits, operating efficiencies, cost effectiveness and land use."  While cost certainly remains a consideration, it, rightly so, is not the only factor by which projects are judged.

 

I will admit that this new system could make individual projects more difficult to judge and could further open fund awards to back-room negotiations and political favors.  The key will be how clearly and thoughtfully the DOT can define some basis of metrics for evaluating the performance criteria that could become more ethereal than concrete.  But in any case, this is a step in the right direction, I believe.  In a land of freedom, liberty, and opportunity, one area where many citizens have no choice is transportation.  Hopefully this policy shift will become and remain an effective tool for providing that choice to more of America's people.

Official DOT Press Release

A report from Houston about how the new guidelines are affecting existing rail plans.