1. As Cincinnati is now dealing with these regulations, here's Flex Salmon on Why do minimum parking requirements still exist? He's at a loss to come up with a good reason. But, here's a good quote from Tom Vandebilt:
“[I]f all of the vehicles in the county were removed from garages, driveways, and all of the roads and residential streets and they were parked in parking lots at the same time, there would still be 83,000 unused spaces throughout the county.”We don't see all the costs on these parking regulation, but "everyone, even those who don’t drive, pays for it in one form or another, whether the invisible parking surcharge is built into retail prices or the various costs associated with parking-lot storm-water runoff" and also worse architecture... This is a needless and destructive regulation. Cincinnati is wisely rolling it back, but thus far only for those who are lucky enough to own land within 600 feet of the proposed streetcar route.
2. An underreported but very important ongoing development - "The most recent survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that five-year-old vehicles had about one-third fewer problems than the five-year-old vehicles we studied in April 2005." The rate of problems in cars falling by a third in five years in huge. Robin Hanson comments:
"Most people are surprised to hear that the world economy doubles roughly every fifteen years; when they think back fifteen years, the world doesn’t seem that different. Besides a few big changes, most things seem pretty similar. But this is illusory – most change happens behind the scenes. In fact, one of the reasons why change can be so fast is that most of it happens behind the scenes."I view this as a relevant point for Cincinnati's streetcar plans. Streetcars are less efficient than auto alternatives right now. But, technology also keeps improving and at a faster rate than we realize. So, it's a mistake to lock in a bad 30 year transportation plan. And, this will become much more 5-10 years from now when we are still paying the bill for the streetcar capital investment, while buses are increasingly more reliable and efficient.
3. Our Conservative Democratic Governor Ted Strickland signed new casino rules legislation. The simple thing to do on gambling would have been for the state just to legalize it with certain regulations. Then anyone could conceivably open a casino if they met certain requires. We would have equal rights and an efficient allocation of casinos. Instead, there are by legislation exactly four pieces of land in the state that can house a casino and certain people granted the privileges to develop that land - A rather questionable set up. So, it's not entirely unexpected that the government created Casino special interests, slipped into the rules an income tax deduction for gambling losses. This is expected to cost the state $60 to $80 million in taxes per year.
To put it another way, the state just passed a $60 to $80 million gambling subsidy. ...This is just bad government. Try to remember it when you vote this November.
4. Reason Magazine has a rather hackish post on the Cincinnati Streetcar, which I nonetheless link to. An outsider's opinion is valuable. They don't see the streetcar turning Cincinnati into another Portland. ...Maybe another Cleveland.
5. The Business Courier informs us that Washington Park was apparently built on top of a cemetery. They include a list of people who are still buried under the park, incuding William Lytle and James Findley. Creepy...
Update 7/6 - Quimbob informs that at least some people have been relocated. No need to fear being haunted by early Cincinnatians now.
Enjoy your 4th of July Weekend.
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