Greening the city
Many cities took a big step forward for clean air when they adopted buses fueled by natural gas. But there are other important projects that will make getting around easier, quieter and less polluting. New York City is getting ready to take a big step. From American City:
New York City has the potential to take those [bike sharing] concepts and scale them up to a size unseen on this side of the Atlantic. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a man the transportation community has a complicated relationship with, has been dangling a transformative bike sharing program in front of alternative transportation advocates since 2009 when New York’s city planners issued an “exhaustive proposal” that included a 10,000 strong fleet of safety-equipped, GPS-ready bikes.
Economically, the deal is a victory for innovative financing because it fully absorbs the burden of maintenance, damage, and —as this is a city— theft, vandalism, and “artistic destruction.” New Yorkers would buy their memberships on weekly, monthly, or yearly bases and get an unlimited number of free rides that take less than 30 minutes; ride a little longer, pay a little more. New York has decided that an initial burst of capital will serve their purposes the best not least because of their uniqueness among American cities in terms of density and population.
Take with one hand, then the other
A rich guy makes a gain at the expense of his state’s teachers’ pension fund and then asks for public funding for his stadium project. This is now how things should work — the public should just say “enough,” or at least demand more transparency around this deal that lost the teachers’ money. Bloomberg reports:
Philip Anschutz, who seeks taxpayer support for a $1.4 billion downtown Los Angeles football stadium complex, bought out a partner in his nearby hotel and condo project at a loss to investors including state teachers.
California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the nation’s second-largest pension plan, is an investor in a MacFarlane Partners fund that sold its money-losing interest last month in the Anschutz-led Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels and attached condominiums at the L.A. Live project, according to Ricardo Duran, a spokesman for the pension fund.
“It was sold at a loss, I don’t know how much,” Duran said in an interview yesterday.
[...]
Anschutz’s firm, AEG Worldwide, has asked the Los Angeles City Council to approve a plan to build a $1.4 billion football stadium and convention-center expansion that involves the city issuing $350 million in municipal bonds for the convention- center portion of the project. Part of the existing center would be torn down.
AEG seeks to attract at least one National Football League team to the city, which lost the Raiders after the 1994 season. Revenue from the stadium and convention center addition, along with assurances from AEG, will be enough to repay the bonds, according to Michael Roth, a spokesman for the company.
NJ Governor Christie’s pension win
$96 for noise citations
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America generally has done a very good job in reducing water and air pollution. If you have been in Beijing or Manila where the air is so polluted that most people wear air-filter masks in public, then you can appreciate the only slightly dirty air of New York City or other urban areas. There is one form of pollution, though, that we haven’t fully tackled yet: noise pollution. In residential areas the decibel levels can climb in the summer months as souped-up motorcycles are brought out of storage and people roll down the car windows and crank up the tunes. A little history from Wikipedia:
In the 1960s and earlier, few people recognized that citizens might be entitled to be protected from adverse sound level exposure. Most concerted actions consisted of citizens groups organized to oppose a specific highway or airport, and occasionally a nuisance lawsuit would arise. Things in the United States changed rapidly with passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 and the Noise Pollution and Abatement Act, more commonly called the Noise Control Act (NCA), in 1972.
Passage of the NCA was remarkable considering the lack of historic organized citizen concern. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had testified before Congress that 30 million Americans are exposed to non-occupational noise high enough to cause hearing loss and 44 million Americans live in homes impacted by aircraft or highway noise.
It’s a noisy world out there, but we don’t have to take it! Noise is local and enforcement must be local too. The ABC affiliate in Milwaukee filed the interesting news report in the video above about a simple police technique of using a laser to measure the distance between an oncoming car that’s blaring music and a police officer. It’s a low cost and effective method to measure noise levels.
The best part of the process is that drivers are fined $96 for the first offense and $172 for repeat offenses. I’m sure that as word spreads through a community about expensive fines for noise violations, the sound level will decrease pretty quickly.
I’m not broadly in favor of a community’s law-enforcement authorities monitoring and controlling every aspect of municipal life, but I’ve found noise pollution to be especially aggressive towards others, especially the elderly and infirm. They suffer in silence as revved-up drivers fill the common space with noise. My message to towns and cities: peaceful and quiet public spaces make happier and more productive citizens. So get some noise legislation on the books and enforce it.
“This” may well be about Harleys, but at least in my experience, by far the most common form of noise pollution in most residential neighborhoods, is yap trash abandoned in back yards. With distant second place three way contested by backup beepers, helicopters/propeller aircraft and lawn movers/leaf blowers. Motorcycles, while often loud, are only heard very occasionally.
Of course, the only sensible way of formulating noise regulation, is to fine offenders based on some function of a (possibly weighted) noise measurement, and perhaps the time of day. And thereafter treat all offenders equally, whether they be backyard firing ranges, yap trash, ambulance sirens or screaming children. With “some of us are more equal than others” Democrats generally the ones pushing for regulation, fat chance of that happening, however 
Muni sweeps: How much job creation?
Job creation or program pass-through?
The Congressional Budget Office has published a new report entitled “Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from January 2011 Through March 2011.” It makes some large claims about how many jobs stimulus funds have created:
Various recipients of ARRA funds (most recipients of grants and loans, contractors, and subcontractors) are required to report, after the end of each calendar quarter, the number of jobs funded through ARRA. The law also requires CBO to comment on those reported numbers.
During the first quarter of 2011, recipients reported, ARRA funded more than 571,000 full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs.
The CBO figure of 571,000 full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs is slightly higher than the total non-farm jobs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of 524,000 (see above chart). Something doesn’t add up!
Note how California distributed their Recovery Act funds. Many of the dollars were just “passed through” to support Medicaid and unemployment insurance in California. I’m not sure how to account for job creation for passing through funds.
‘Enormous Buying Opportunity’
Who were buying the municipal bonds that sold off in the winter panic? Mainly smart investment advisers. Heartland.org has an interview with one of them — Rick Ashburn, chief investment officer for Creekside Partners LLC, in Lafayette, California:
Doors of the legislature must remain open
“The right of the people to monitor the people’s business is one of the core principles of democracy.” –Schill vs. Wisconsin Rapids School District, WI 86
Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court cited the above quote today as she ruled that Republicans in the Wisconsin State Senate had violated the state’s open meetings law on March 9th, 2011. The New York Times described the legislature’s actions on that day:
The Senate’s 19 Republicans approved the measure, 18 to 1, in less than half an hour, without any debate on the floor or a single Democrat in the room.
Judge Sumi’s ruling has stopped the enactment of the law in question, which removed the right of unions to bargain collectively for certain rights. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel describes what comes next:
The ruling is the latest in a nearly four-month-long drama that looks to continue for much of the year. On June 6, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to take the case.
On July 12, recall elections will be held after lawmakers’ stances sparked petition drives around the state to recall them.
Nine senators – six Republicans and three Democrats– are targeted. The elections put control of the Senate in play.
The political action in Wisconsin has been hotter than anything we have seen since the anti-war protests during George W. Bush presidency. Over 100,000 demonstrators braved the bitter cold to express their political will in February and March. We are seeing the messy nature of our democracy; the people of Wisconsin have challenged the actions of their lawmakers.
Why the hell do you think this is all about
rhetoric. This fight has nothing to do with rhetoric.
It only has to do with unions, fighting to keep their Phoney Baloney jobs. All of this would go away like
smoke if the unions didnt threaten these democrats.
Realize that unions are, and they hire, absolute
experts at making the problem look like someone elses.
The problem is that their contracts are way out of line
with reality. Just look at the pensions! Just look at their hourly pay! By coming up with nasty things to call
good people, they brow beat people into submission.
30+ million dollars to get rid of 2 good people and ruin
their reputations. Thats more money than has ever been
spent,total,for statewide elections in Wisconsin.
I dont live in Wisconsin or know any of the Legislators.
But when this kinda crap happens I cannot sit idely by!
Issa’s municipal pension hearing
Congressman Darrell Issa’s Committee on Oversight and Reform meet today on state and municipal debt.
The hearing was really a dressed up fight over municipal pensions and collective bargaining rights.
The concern is that bond investors, worried about unknown pension liabilities, will increasingly require more yield for the risk of owning municipals. And some think a solution is to remove the current form of guaranteed pensions.
Many public workers do not get Social Security; rather they get a municipal pension. This is a “defined benefit”.
Defined benefit plans are like Social Security or a fixed annuity. You and/or your employor pay into the plan for a number of years and at retirement you receive a monthly check for a fixed amount adjusted for the cost of living (COLA) increases.
In contrast defined contribution plans are managed by individuals and are valued by the securities held within an account. In times of stock market booms a 401k likely will increase in value. But in times of financial distress an individual account can be severely reduced. And a retirement devastated.
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Resident Muniland expert
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