The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 19, 2006) carried an advertisement by Missourians for Smart Growth endorsing Joe Brazil, a candidate for the Missouri Senate. An examination of the website indicates that the organization equates “smart growth” with opposing eminent domain, which is laudable. Moreover, it is encouraging that Missourians for Smart Growth does not appear to endorse so-called smart growth strategies (such as urban growth boundaries) that have destroyed housing affordability in many urban areas of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand and have virtually stolen the future from many younger households who will be relegated to renting for the rest of their lives. Nor is there any reference to the anti-mobility strategies that would stop roadway construction, seek to heard people onto mass transit services that don’t go where they need to go and drive business expansion to other urban areas. If our reading is correct, this is smart growth worth supporting.

Posted by Wendell Cox at 10:09 AM | Permalink

Apple, the company that teeters between radical innovation and insular reactionary business models has moved the debate over leaks to the private sphere.

An appeal of an order providing Apple with subpoena's over an e-mail provider was heard last Thursday. The anti-intellectual property Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is busy making bloggers into journalists to extend the imaginary journalists' shield - proposed by EFF to work like the shields on the starship Enterprise but having more in common with the cone of silence from Mel Brook's classic sitcom Get Smart.

Given the general state of journalism, I'd just as soon not be included. But a more interesting question is whether the EFF is, as they claim, defending freedom in the digital world, or defending cyber theft.

Continue reading "Are we journalists? does it matter? EFF broken clock?" »

Posted by Brian Bishop at 06:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

The Christian Science Monitor reports today that homeowners around the nation are increasingly angry about property tax increases. It is true that property taxes in many areas have been rising much more quickly than either the overall inflation rate or increasing values of homes, and not just for the wealthy but for everyone. These windfalls, moreover, are not being collected because the communities desperately need additional swimming pools in the local schools. (You should see the astonishing luxuries in most schools in decent neighborhoods.) No, the local governments are collecting these high taxes simply because they can: people living in highly preferred communities are at the mercy of their local taxing bodies, and the latter are increasingly taking advantage of local residents.

Citizens around the nation are utterly fed up with this legalized extortion and have begun to take action, the Monitor reports:

This year, legislative proposals, citizen initiatives, and lawsuits are on the agenda in at least 20 states. These new efforts reflect both residents' distrust of how their property tax dollars are being spent and concerns that rising assessments are driving working-class people out of popular towns and cities. . . .

Continue reading "Welcome Development: Property Tax Revolts" »

Posted by Sam Karnick at 08:13 PM | Permalink

From the Trib:

The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that would limit the power of local governments to take a person's property, following passionate arguments pitting the rights of homeowners against the need for economic development.

The legislation, approved 44-2 with 10 senators voting present, came in response to last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the power of eminent domain by local governments but invited states to define how the extraordinary authority can be used. The measure now goes to the House for consideration.

Posted by Michael Van Winkle at 09:01 AM | Permalink