Economics | ModeShift

High Speed Rail Cut Stirs Response in California

by Keith SchneiderMay 3, 2007May 5, 200711

Â Â Â PROPOSED CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL ROUTE Â California Democrats have elevated building their state’s proposed high speed rail network to the top of their legislative priorities, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The Daily Kos, one of the most read blogs in the country, noted the swirl of attention that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stirred with his proposal to cut $2.5 million in state funding to the California High Speed Rail Authority, the agency overseeing …

Fast Trains There; Dreams of Fast Trains Here

by Keith SchneiderMay 2, 2007May 10, 20075

Almost three years after Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that put $2.5 million in the kitty of the California High Speed Rail Authority, which is charged with overseeing the planning of a 700-mile network of fast trains in the nation’s largest state, Schwarzenegger has had a change of heart. The governor’s 2007 budget proposal calls for cutting state appropriations for the Authority, according to an article in the April 29, 2007 edition of …

Brand Associations That Are Helping Cities, Hammering Suburbs

by Keith SchneiderApril 29, 20071

Nielsen Buzzmetrics, which has offices in New York and Cincinnati,Â is one of the top shopsÂ for usingÂ Internet search engine technology and sophisticated analysis programs toÂ understandÂ consumer attitudesÂ and predict powerful trends.Â The company combs millions of conversations occurring on blogs, message boards, and in chat rooms, sifts outÂ salient details, and analyzes the results to forecast consumer behavior and values.Â Earlier this month Pete Blackshaw, one of the company’s senior leaders, published a Buzzmetrics brand association map (see graphic) that …

As Gas Heads to $4, Teachable Moment For Presidential Candidates

by Keith SchneiderApril 27, 2007April 27, 20073

Â We’re one-tenth of a penny short ofÂ $3-a-gallon gas today here in Michigan.Â Energy analysts predict that the price will approach or exceed $4 by mid-summer.Â Welcome to the new world of gas price politics and the emerging new culture of energy efficiency in America.Â Â It’s a whole lot easier to make the case for land and energy-conserving development patterns,Â energy efficiency, and a new economic development strategyÂ in the United States whenÂ consumers’ ire is stoked by the price at …

Email the Sun

by Keith SchneiderApril 25, 2007April 25, 20075

Â New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of a select number of Republican leaders in the United States who makes any sense, turned up at the American Museum of Natural History on Sunday to deliver an Earth Day plan for his city that should be the basic text for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the United States. A full account of the 127 steps the mayor proposed is here. The big pieces …

Build High Speed Rail in the Midwest

by Keith SchneiderApril 23, 2007April 25, 200722

Â Since 1996, nine states in the American Midwest have been gradually inching forward on a proposal to establish a 3,000-mileÂ high speed train network linking 100 of theÂ region’s big and small cities.Â Chicago would serve as the hub of the The Midwest Regional Rail System. Spokes would include Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Columbus, Des Moines, and many other large cities served by trains capable of traveling 110 mph, which would make the travel time and …

Earth Day is Boomer Day

by Keith SchneiderApril 21, 2007April 21, 20078

Â Perhaps not since the very first one 37 years ago has Earth Day attracted the credibility or theÂ genuinely intense national and global focus that it has this year. Thousands of grassroots celebrations, including the annual march in downtown Traverse CityÂ today, are occurringÂ this weekend.Â In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a moderate Republican, introducedÂ a greenÂ investment plan and policy strategy forÂ transforming the nation’s largest metropolis into an even more transit-friendly,Â energy-efficient, environmentally-sensitive place to live and do …

Tom and His Green World

by Keith SchneiderApril 16, 2007April 29, 20073

Tom Friedman, the New York Times’ great foreign affairs columnist and a former colleague of mine wrote this in a must read Sunday Magazine article yesterday: “After World War II, President Eisenhower responded to the threat of Communism and the â€œred menaceâ€ with massive spending on an interstate highway system to tie America together, in large part so that we could better move weapons in the event of a war with the Soviets. That highway …

Gas Prices, Peak Oil, and the New American Backwater

by Keith SchneiderApril 12, 2007April 18, 20075

It’s the nuttyÂ season here in the first weeks of spring.Â The purebred chicken scratchÂ hill billy hound dog puppy that I picked up off the highway in southern Virginia almost 18 years agoÂ decided she’d had enough and wandered off two days ago and vanished.Â It’s been snowing hereÂ in Michigan’s great white north for more than a week.Â Over the weekend I shoveled nine inches of snow off the deck and driveway and it’sÂ colder than it was in January when …

Pure Michigan

by Keith SchneiderApril 4, 2007April 4, 20070

If you’ve followed what’s going on here in Michigan you know thatÂ we continue to lead the nation in too many categories that aren’t welcome — joblessness, rates of obesity and heart disease,Â income gap between wealthy and poor,Â racial segregation, home foreclosures. And weÂ are at the bottom of the heap in categories that define well-being –Â income growth, business starts, educational achievement,Â the quality of our big cities, state fiscal health. There are many reasons why Michigan has slid …