Metropolitan Affairs | ModeShift

The Proximate Principle: Open Space is Sound Fiscal Policy

by Keith SchneiderMay 7, 2007May 7, 20073

Â People adore parks.Â Most people also love open space. That applies even to the three Grand Traverse (MI) County commissioners who last month suggested that global climate change was a leftist conspiracy ginned up by Al Gore, and suggested that emailing the sun was a useful antidote.Â A comprehensive study by the San Francisco-based Trust For Public Land, published in early March,Â Â found sound economic evidence forÂ why regions thatÂ embrace an aggressiveÂ program of park development and open …

California Governor Tracks Back, Says He Supports High Speed Rail

by Keith SchneiderMay 6, 2007May 6, 20071

Â The push back by the old and new media to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut state funds to the agency overseeing the development of a 700-mile high speed rail network in California appears to have influenced the Republican governor’s view. On Friday, Schwarzenegger (see pix) published an op-ed in the Fresno Bee extolling a high speed system. Thanks to Marcel Marchon’s Trainblog for keeping us current. “The promise of high-speed rail is incredible,” wrote …

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 …

New Measure of Community Vitality: Neighborhoods That Blog

by Keith SchneiderApril 30, 2007April 30, 20072

Outside.in isÂ a Web site launched last year to gatherÂ the panoply of writers doingÂ place-based blogging.Â The site is the brain child of Steven Johnson, aÂ prominent writer and bloggerÂ in New York who’s written five books and contributes to, among others, the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Johnson was helped by John Geraci, a social media specialist, and John Seely Brown, the former chiefÂ scientist of the Xerox Corporation and member of the board ofÂ Amazon and the MacArthur Foundation. …

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 …

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 …