Category Archives: The Economy

Free Public Transportation as a Poverty-Fighting Tool

Clearly poverty is a multi-faceted issue too complicated to be solved in one blog post, so I’ll focus on just this one aspect in my response to this bleg from AxisPhilly: poor people don’t have enough money. Of all the … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, Miscellany, The Economy, Transportation

Wall Street Laughs At Pat Toomey’s Debt Ceiling Plan

Ezra Klein says Wall Street is not buying Pat Toomey’s claim that markets won’t mind if we breach the debt ceiling, so long as we keep making our coupon payments: Would the markets really be so calm in the face … More after the jump

Posted in Budget/Taxes/Spending, The Economy

Pat Toomey’s Plan for a Slow Motion Default

Not paying your creditors is defaulting. Full stop. Choosing which obligations to default on first is still defaulting. I see Chris Potter over there saying that paying some creditors and not others would “avoid default” but he’s dead fucking wrong! Paying some creditors … More after the jump

Posted in Budget/Taxes/Spending, The Economy

A Concrete Example of How the Land Value Tax Can Help Philadelphia

Inga Saffron has a great column on the blighted gateway to Center City Philly between 21st and 22nd Street on Market that I read as a story about how the land value tax could help Philadelphia in a concrete way. The main villain … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy, Transportation

Tolls Work

It seems intuitive that truck traffic would decline on the PA Turnpike after tolls go up, but I am not sure why some people are presenting this as a problem. Less traffic congestion is good for the economy. Sitting in traffic is … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy, Transportation

No More Park-n-Rides for the Pittsburgh Metro

I’m a big fan of rail transit, but too often you see local governments squander the valuable land around train stops on Park-n-Rides instead of dense housing and commercial development. When governments invest in rail, the land around the stations becomes more valuable. … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy, Transportation

Philly Needs More Pro-Growth Land Use Advocacy, Less Arson From Building Trades Union

Philaphilia is one of my favorite blogs (maybe my most favorite blog!), and one of the things you notice as a Philaphilia reader is that NIMBY groups manage to get a whole lot of development projects shut down in Philly. … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy, Transportation

PA Transportation Bill Should Aim to Grow Taxi Market

One thing that I would like to see discussed in the 2013 state transportation bill is taxi reform. More, better and cheaper taxis would be a great way to help ease some of the growth fears in PA’s cities. If … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy, Transportation

The Affordable Housing Coalition We Need

One thing I wish more people understood is that affordable housing politics is not a fight between “greedy developers” and renters.  Properly understood, the political economy looks like this: developers + renters + construction workers on Team Build More Housing, and incumbent landowners on Team … More after the jump

Posted in Land Use, The Economy

Senate Democrats’ Plan for PA’s Distressed Older Cities Falls Far Short of What’s Needed

I was venting about this on Twitter earlier, but it deserves a proper blog post. The problems of PA’s distressed mid-sized cities are an issue I care about a great deal. Older cities are badly disadvantaged by state-level municipal finance and annexation … More after the jump

Posted in Budget/Taxes/Spending, Education, Land Use, The Economy