Dionne on Blumenauer
The Washington Post's EJ Dionne has an article about how to rebuild New Orleans. His advice: listen to Earl Blumenauer:
Why shouldn't the president want to leave a legacy of a New Orleans built on economically mixed neighborhoods and a thriving public transit system? Blumenauer sees new parks and buffer zones in areas where homes shouldn't be, and economic projects designed to put local people back to work. He wants to revisit past policies that encouraged development in dangerous places.
Above all, he wants to turn the hurricane's victims into decision makers. In the rebuilding, "people should have a role in what it should be like, rather than have it done to them." One of his biggest fears is that outsiders will simply turn New Orleans into a Disneyland.
Thanks to Measure 37, Oregon's cred as a great planning state is in serious jeopardy. But Dionne could do worse than listen to Earl speak on the subject.
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Sept. 20, 2005
Posted in in the news 2005. |
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Sep 21, '05
The New York Times on Sunday reported that mid-level U.S. government workers now have a new limit on their W-issued credit cards -- $250,000.
Each.
Yes, you read that right. Any mid-level government type who has a credit card for work can now charge up to a QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS... no questions asked.
So, expanding, I think W should give every evacuee on the Gulf coast that SAME $250,000 credit card, which will build you a really sweet house overlooking the beautiful blue water of the Gulf of Mexico... but wait... what's that off in the distance?
ANOTHER FREAKIN HURRICANE!
God sure is a funny guy sometimes.
Sep 21, '05
I'm glad that the author of this (Kari?) noted the political realities here in Oregon, mainly because I suspect they apply just as much, if not more elsewhere. It's not just Measure 37, but the whole motley host of anti-tax initiatives through the 1990s that defines the political realities that Blumenauer's "visionary" ideals must navigate before hitting the hard ground of reality.
Oregon's experience here is not only hard to replicate, but events are now proving how hard they are to sustain. That's not to say libs/progs stop trying, but it is to say that they need to keep a sharp eye on what can be done.
2:39 p.m.
Sep 21, '05
Nope, 'twasn't me. A number of folks contribute the unsigned elsewhere and in-the-news items.
9:31 a.m.
Sep 22, '05
I posted it, and I agree with your analysis. We need to be clear-eyed about the present, not gauzy-eyed about the past, if we want to sustain any of progressive land use laws from the 70s.
Sep 23, '05
Blumenauer's "visionary" ideals are far from reality. His speel is ripe with distortions and falsehoods just as is the concocted benefits from years of our convoluted land use planning.
<h2>There is nothing sustainable about our approach. It is a house of cards built on a foundation of outright lies.</h2>