Lyle Solla-Yates

2011-01-15T16:20:00.008-05:00

Who's Your City?

50% of Americans move every eight years. But are they making the right decision? Are they going to a city where they can be more themselves or less so? Richard Florida, who argues that the future of cities is bright because that's where bright people want to be, has developed a nice tool for estimating whether you're better off staying put or moving to a city that suits you better.

Caution: This is entirely based on your perceptions, with no data whatsoever offered by Florida's tool.

Note: You don't have to be American to use this tool, it's exactly as place blind as you are.

You can try the tool right here:

Worldchanging: Bright Green: London's Cycle Superhighways: Hopes for the Future of the New Blue Network

2010-07-23T12:40:00.000-04:00

Great little post on Worldchanging on London's new cycle superhighways. It's a major step forward, and I'm glad to see London continuing to move in the right direction.

Worldchanging: Bright Green: London's Cycle Superhighways: Hopes for the Future of the New Blue Network

2010-06-24T14:54:00.004-04:00

The Safari Reader

I am impressed with Apple's most recent upgrade to Safari with Reader, so much so that I am using Safari sometimes. When you are looking at an article, but don't want to deal with strange formatting and brand material and ads, you can simply click the Reader button, and you are given a nice clean page that you can read.

Lovely.

Great feature. But it made me worry that perhaps people will want to do this on my blog. People like me. So, ahem, new layout.

2009-04-17T08:21:00.003-04:00

All Stimulus Spending is Local

Local government spending decisions made now will affect quality of life, sustainability, and prosperity far into the future. In Virginia, particularly near Charlottesville where I live, the prevailing belief is that the private sector is laying people off and cutting back services and therefore the appropriate government response is to do the same: to tighten belts and institute fiscal discipline. This is disastrous. During a time of peak demand for services, jobs, and economic stability, and peak supply of labor, materials, financing, and federal and state support, local governments should be stepping up services to soften the inevitable problems that increasing unemployment bring, while laying down the infrastructure to increase the area’s competitiveness, and therefore land value, and therefore tax base.

But high taxes harm productivity!

Yes, taxes on productive activity like buildings, labor, and sales absolutely do harm productivity (called deadweight loss). But during times of economic distress, there is much greater investor demand for high quality bonds. At the same time, local spending can leverage even greater state and federal investment in infrastructure and services. Increased local spending during a recession creates and retains jobs, protects and improves quality of life, and gives a lifeline to investors.

But government investment is wasteful!

Keynes argued that this was fine, that spending on clearly unnecessary or downright destructive projects would be a net plus for the economy by providing jobs and investment income when they are most needed, kick-starting recovery. However, government waste is by no means necessary. Using planning techniques already well understood in many places, local leaders can prioritize projects that are more likely to provide a return on investment that can more than cover the debt obligations used to create them.

But high taxes hurt property values!

This is true, but quality services and infrastructure raise property values, and the net effect of taxes + services and infrastructure appears to be a big positive in most places. And clever financial options like Tax Increment Financing and more traditional bonds can smooth out the tax burden to be minimally uncomfortable.

But high taxes are unfair!

Most local taxes fall mostly on property, both land and buildings. Land taxes fall more heavily on those who own a great deal of land. This group tends to be more affluent, but some owners are certainly better able to deal with a larger tax burden than others. Land taxes make up only a small percentage of the property tax in the vast majority of American cities, so this effect is very small. Building taxes, which usually make up about 75% of the overall property tax burden, fall most heavily on low income households because they are passed on to renters and are built into the cost of all economic activity in an area, raising the local price of everything and slowing productivity. This is certainly a huge problem, but it can be avoided and spread out using debt financing. Starving local government is a lose-lose proposition, since it marries lower property values with fewer investment and job opportunities. More lasting and effective management of the damaging effects of the building tax require a transition to other public finance methods such as a land tax and green taxes. I suspect that Build Districts may be the best option for the transition to land taxes and something similar may be best to shift to other green taxes like the carbon tax.

Economic and environmental recovery require vision and bold steps. Doing the obvious easy thing: cutting back and hoping to be saved from our own mistakes is a recipe for failure.

2009-03-03T01:47:00.004-05:00

User Fees and Transit Finance

A while back on the Bacon's Rebellion blog, reporter Jim Bacon noted some cognitive dissonance he was experiencing in advocating free markets, user fees, and subsidized public transit all at the same time. I share Jim's enthusiasm for these policy ideals and have also been troubled when they come into conflict. I wrote several articles for Bacons Rebellion largely supportive of market-based user fees for single occupancy vehicles to subsidize transit. I have also personally advocated this approach to some leaders in green thinking such as Tim Beatley and Peter Newman.

How is it that I do not explode in a burst of hypocrisy?

1. Free markets. Markets work based on a body of laws and agreements on what markets are and how they should function. In general, economic theory suggests that markets are the most effective tool where clever thinking can introduce them, rather than rules and restrictions, which tend to promote waste, lawsuits, and criminality as an unintended consequence of pursuing whatever goal that they pursue.

2. User fees. User fees are a way of introducing markets by requiring users of public services to pay for them. The prices can either be fixed to the public cost of providing that service to that individual or to the market value of that service. Where the use of a public service improves the overall well-being of the community, however, like with transit use, health care, or education, these fees make less sense.

3. Subsidies. Subsidies are a way for policy makers to encourage a beneficial activity, most obviously by writing a check, but also by cutting red tape, reducing regulatory, service, or tax costs, and so on. Unfortunately, these are famous for promoting waste and corruption by creating dedicated interest groups who lobby for the preservation and expansion of their subsidies and distorting market choices. The excellent book Perverse Subsidies goes into this in great detail. The dominance of dysfunctional development patterns can to a large extent be attributed to perverse subsidies for transportation and land use.

So why advocate subsidies for transit? Transit offers some essential benefits to the community. Transit:
-allows more efficient urban land use, moving more people around better without sacrificing access and dispersing uses.
-uses less energy per person for transport and creates economies of scale for investments in efficiency and green energy
-encourages interaction and community

With benefits like those, it's no surprise that advocates for a bright green future would support transit. But subsidize it? Won't the free market provide it if people want it?

Actually, yes, it will, if demand is sufficient to overcome the advantage given to auto travel by road, parking, and pollution subsidies, or if those subsidies are removed. I reported a little over a year ago on a number of private transit services operating in Northern Virginia. This profusion of private innovation appears to be the result of high demand for travel to Washington, D.C. combined with heavy traffic and the provision of free HOV lanes, which give buses an advantage. The high cost of parking and walkability in historic DC areas is likely also a contributor.

Places like Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco, where private transit can be profitable, are relatively unusual in America as most places require ample free parking, provide enough new roads to manage complaints about congestion, do not offer High Occupancy Vehicles an advantage, and have spread out attractive destinations to make space for the car and make walking unpleasant.

A Hybrid Approach

In most places that have adopted caps on how intensely land can be used, imposed minimum free parking requirements, offered no special treatment for transit, failed to charge market prices for on-street parking, and paid to pave more roads to slow down congestion, transit is not very successful. In these places, people use transit because they cannot drive, or because they believe the benefits to society are worth the inconvenience. In these situations, where the scales are grossly tipped towards automobile dependency and away from a bright green landscape, I believe that a limited short-term public investment in transit infrastructure is valuable to promote balance while the community transitions to brighter policies that support the lifestyle they want for themselves and their children. Users ought to pay a little bit during this transition if waste becomes an issue, but otherwise not. The social benefits of this transaction appear to exceed the costs when looking at the whole picture.

2009-02-19T14:42:00.003-05:00

Build Districts

For the last several blog posts, I wrote about the need for a different option to balance the divide between how urban services are funded and how those benefits are distributed. Empty lots and surface parking are given an enormous tax advantage over lots with buildings. As a result, buildings are conserved while land and infrastructure are wasted, contributing to high taxes, high government waste, dying urban areas and urban sprawl. Taxing buildings has been lamented for its negative effects, or deadweight losses, for many years and a number of remedies have been suggested, most notably split rate taxation which is a hybrid of a standard property tax and a full land tax, reducing the penalty on buildings. The problem with this approach and a pure land tax is that those land owners who have bet on low land taxes get slammed at the same time that anyone living, working, or shopping in the affected area receives a much needed break. Those land owners are generally wealthy and influential, and they own the key sites for green redevelopment. Those land owners are key allies for a bright green future.

Build Districts are designed to benefit these land owners in a way that is supportive of healthy cities instead of erosive. They cap property taxes selectively, capping only the building tax burden at two and a half times the land tax burden. So you get the tax benefits of a land tax system without the problems, at least for new construction. I looked at switching existing buildings over also, but the costs are too high in the short term.

A Build District is established as a tax benefit district drawn around an urban neighborhood looking for redevelopment. A high percentage of the available lots will quickly be developed (how quickly is to be determined, there has been no thorough economic modeling yet) to take advantage of the tax break. These new and rehabilitated buildings bring new tax revenues. For maximum effect, all of these revenues should be plowed back into the area in the form of street improvements (buried power lines, better sidewalks, better transit service, street trees, etc.) and services (internet, power, sewer, health care, etc.). Selection of how to spend the money should be done in a public democratic process including the residents and owners of the district and other stakeholders.

The tax cap itself will likely raise land values, as will the street improvements and enhanced services. It is my hope that these rising land values and recycled revenue will create a virtuous cycle promoting a sustainable, quality community. Older buildings can become included as beneficiaries of the district, either by being bought into the tax cap out of revenues from new construction, or in part through rehabilitation and additions. A mature Build District should hopefully be fully developed, with a wealth of amenities, a low cost of living, superior environmental and health performance, and a revenue system nearly identical to what would have resulted from a land tax.

There are some preconditions for a Build District. It ought to work without these plugins, but should be much more effective with them. Basic steps to preserve historic and culturally significant structures should be taken. Zoning should allow development with a walkable, urban character and richness. On-street parking should be managed with prices to ensure an adequate supply of on-street parking while off-street parking requirements for new construction and uses should be waived.

This is what I have so far. I suspect that this will become a book before too long. I appreciate any questions or comments you may have. I have asked for funding for this work here. Please vote for my idea if you think that it is worth pursuing. Thank you for reading.

The image depicts the theoretical Roanoke Build District, with blue representing existing buildings and green representing potential new construction, most of which is currently off-street surface parking.

2009-02-16T15:51:00.004-05:00

Comparing private urban land use and public policy

In comparing the returns from different land uses, the key element appears to be balance. Developers need at least a 30% rate of return in order to acquire financing and build. The public sector requires a 20-30% rate of return in order to overcome the deadweight loss incurred by taxing buildings (24%) and the transaction costs of taxation and public expenditure (which vary). Deadweight loss means loss of economic output from distortions caused by taxation.

1. Historic Rehabilitation. Although the returns are much lower than surface parking, a 40% private return is enough to build. A -20% return for local government makes the historic tax break a win compared with demolition for surface parking or abandonment, though still no path to financial success. Of these four, this is by far the most balanced.

2. Surface Parking. With a private rate of return a whopping 240%, surface parking is a clear winner for investors, while a -50% public rate of return means that much of that profit is a transfer from building owners and renters, and those who work and shop in the area. Despite the public costs, this is by far the most profitable choice given to urban land owners in the study area.

3. Subsidized Development. This offers a similar return to private developers to Historic Rehabilitation at 40%, but at a staggering public cost of -3000% annual return of investment. It is unsurprising that local government is reluctant to pursue this route.

4. For Profit Development. The private return here is the lowest that we examined, offering only 20%. This is below the amount required for financing. The potential return to local government exceeds 1000%, but this revenue is a pipe dream.

This analysis suggests that a fifth choice is necessary that better balances outcomes between private investment in construction and maintenance on one hand and public investment in services on the other. I call this technique a Build District, and I will lay out this option in the next installment.

2008-11-21T00:22:00.006-05:00

What Types of Urban Development Pay? Part II

This is Part II of a breakdown on recent findings studying Downtown Roanoke, Virginia and the recommendations that resulted.

Last time, we found that surface parking was a good money maker for urban land owners, while development didn't make sense without a government subsidy. Now let's look at how these development choices add up for local government. We compared annual property tax revenues with city spending per acre to find the public return on investment.

1. Surface Parking. This popular downtown land use puts local government in the red, effectively moving money from other uses to land owners, though not as much as other options.

2. Historic Rehabilitation. In urban areas, state and federal income tax credits are not enough for developers to invest. Local tax breaks make the difference, and caused a (re)building boom in the study area. The costs are steep though, with the city's return on investment at -50%, moving tax money to support preservation.

3. Subsidized Development. When local government holds the entire bag for subsidizing development enough to see results, the costs are staggering. In the case study, land was given for free to a developer. The public return on investment was around -3000%. These projects are few and far between, because they can bankrupt local government.

4. For Profit Development. Of all of the examples identified in this section of the study, this was the only one that produced a favorable rate of return for the city, a handsome 1,240%. No example could be found during the twenty year study period.

Note: These numbers assume an identical development with the same land area (except the surface parking, which lacks a building) and the same 20 year financing.

Next time we'll compare the public and private returns on investment and see if their relationships square with the findings of the study.

2008-11-13T12:50:00.011-05:00

What Types of Urban Development Pay?

I recently completed a research project on what rate of return different types of land development will produce as part of a greater project. I looked at the four main types of development observed in an urban study area over a twenty year span: surface parking, historic rehabilitation, subsidized development, and walkable private for-profit development. My interest in profitability stems from conversations with developers last year who reported that they had to make a 30% return on their investment in order to consider a project.

1. Surface Parking. It's cheap, it's profitable, it's the most common type of development in the study area. The return on investment is well beyond 100%, assuming appreciation in land value over twenty years.

2. Historic Rehabilitation. It's expensive, it gets federal, state, and local tax breaks, and there are many examples in the study area. The return on investment ranges between 30% and 40%. Some of the largest empty historic buildings haven't been restored, but it may only be a matter of time, or a problem related to the scale of the costs.

3. Subsidized Development. It's not as expensive as a rehab project and the financing is much simpler. There's only one catch: the government has to foot a major portion of the bill, if not the whole thing. The return on investment is similar to historic rehab, between 30 and 40%. A handful of these were found.

4. For Profit Development. It's expensive, it gets no handouts of any kind, and the return is only about 20%. No surprise, you don't see a lot of this, and none at an urban scale. The only recent for profit development has been low density and auto-oriented.

Note: These numbers assume an identical development with the same land area (except the surface parking, which lacks a building) and the same 20 year financing.

Next up I'll talk about how these development choices work out for local government.

2008-09-26T14:35:00.003-04:00

Charlottesville News Through Google News Local

I like reading the news, but dead trees don't do it for me. Not searchable, for one thing. This is why I was excited to figure out how to get local news from my Google Home Page. I found out I could use Google News for local news from the Google News Blog, but hey, I'm lazy, why couldn't it come to me on my home page? So after generating the local news feed by putting my zip code in, I copied the web address of my local news feed. Then I went back to my Google Home Page, clicked "Add stuff", then "Add feed or gadget" and pasted the local news feed web address. And now I enjoy local news automagically delivered to me in real time. Very nice, I think. Sadly, it doesn't appear to have cvillenews.com, but perhaps some day it will.

2008-08-18T09:10:00.002-04:00

BEARS!

Local physicist Bob Hirosky documented some visitors to his screened in porch: a mother bear and two baby bears. With the help of local law enforcement, the bears were safely let out.

2008-08-11T14:20:00.005-04:00

Kerberized Printing in Leopard

I'm currently working on getting Kerberos to work with our windows printers on our Mac Leopard machines at my job. No success so far, but I did discover one thing. In the CUPS FAQ, this is written:

"Note: In order to use Kerberos-authenticated shared printers, you must be running a version of MIT Kerberos with the krb5_cc_new_unique ( ) function or Heimdal Kerberos."

I wondered what that meant. It means it needs MIT Kerberos 1.6 or higher or Heimdal Kerberos, a different program entirely. Mac Leopard ships with MIT Kerberos 1.6 so something else is creating problems.

Thanks to meantheory for making this a little easier.

2008-06-17T12:56:00.002-04:00

It isn't as elegant a solution as Wordpress has, but you should be able to get to the Picasa Web Album that stores this blog's images here:

Lyle Solla-Yates

Then hover your mouse pointer over an image and click the little blue play button that appears. That is of course, if you have already added the PicLens extension, which is amazing, and is available in other browsers.

2008-06-17T12:23:00.006-04:00

Virtual Gallery Experiment

I am posting some images of my graduate work to see how well Blogger works with the Firefox PicLens plugin, which is amazing.This was a quick Andy Warhol homage I put together from an existing color photo of the Lawn at the University of Virginia. I removed the color information, then added translucent layers of color and cut them to fit the images. Used in the U.Va. School of Architecture photoshop tutorial.
This is an image from the Green Streets plan I worked on for the Ix site with Keyur Shah. This is the northern end facing Monticello Avenue. The concept for this section was to create a strong pedestrian connection to the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, increase tree cover, and store and treat water runoff. This includes a pedestrian island, curb extensions with cuts to allow water inside and plants to treat the water. The tree graphics were recycled from one of Keyur's previous projects. You should be hearing more about Green Streets in the near future.

2008-03-21T15:04:00.003-04:00

Today in Future Shock

Here's where four-legged robots are at now. They can handle ice, and I think you'll agree that you feel bad for them when they are kicked. A little bit disturbing.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the link.

2008-03-21T01:14:00.002-04:00

Majora Carter was in Charlottesville recently. My apologies for not mentioning it sooner. She's doing some amazing work in South Bronx working to transform one of the least green places in urban America to a model of sustainability and environmental justice. Here is a moving presentation she gave a few years ago on Sustainable South Bronx, much of which she gave in Cville:

2008-03-19T02:07:00.002-04:00

What It Will Take
For We the People to Vote for and Value the Environment

“We cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together,” Barack Obama stated this morning. I was stunned by what he had to say about our country and its disastrous divides that make We the People a difficult idea to grasp, holding too many disparate parts with contradictory and antagonistic beliefs and desires.

When the colonists sought independence, the Union nearly failed in its conception because the practice of slavery was so divisive, making it difficult for Northerners and Southerners to see a common cause and identity. An ugly compromise was made then that Thomas Jefferson described as having "…the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."

Our disastrous reliance on a way of life that our best science shows will make it difficult for our species and many others to survive is another wolf, what appears to be another ugly compromise between justice and self-preservation. Yet really, justice and self-preservation both call for change when we pause to examine the situation with a clear head. Yet clear heads are a luxury many cannot afford in America, as we are menaced by wolves more immediately pressing.

“We all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren,” stated Mr. Obama. This better future must be a bright green future where everyone contributes to the health and vitality of the human and greater biological community. Our science tells us this and our hearts tell us this. And yet no one on the national stage, including Barack Obama, will talk about climate disruption and the challenge of peak oil in anything more than half-steps and empty gestures.

I agree with Obama that we all want fundamentally the same thing, as Americans, as humans, and as living things on Earth: we want to live well and we want that better future for the next generations. This certainly includes dealing with threats like global warming, food scarcity, and other ills, but most individuals I know seem especially focused on taking care of themselves, managing their debt, getting or keeping a job, health care, making sure their children are safe, healthy, and educated. This is a lot of work, especially in a flattened world where the middle class are disappearing, pay is dropping, and costs are going up. And climate change is not the only large-scale threat we face. Obama again:

“We need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.”

The placement of climate change at the end and the complete omission of other pressing issues like peak oil are no accident. Real change towards a sustainable future requires much more than greater agreement and support between environmental stakeholders, or even between environmental stakeholders and industry or labor. What is required is a true effort towards unity and fairness, a recognizable We the People to act together in our own interest rather than the interest of one faction over another. I use this word faction in the sense that James Madison used it, as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” The factionalization of America is so taken for granted now that environmentalism and labor are considered interest groups, factions that must act in their own interest against the interest of We the People.

“Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education,” stated Mr. Obama. The divide in quality between schools and opportunities for Americans is staggering. Americans who didn’t go to the right school and didn’t have access to opportunities do not become involved in moving towards a bright green future. They try to survive. They live low on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People like Majora Carter from Sustainable South Bronx are rare and amazing. Ms. Carter has achieved in South Bronx in a comparable way to how Mr. Obama has achieved. She is from a disadvantaged environmental justice challenged community where opportunities were and are few. She still managed to grab some however, receiving her MFA from New York University in 1997. In addition to her education and civic ties, Ms. Carter benefited from a neighborhood where the connections between social justice and environmental justice were transparent. Ms. Carter and her community connected the dots and started working for a bright green future. We need a world of people who can do that. It only works if we all play.

”Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away,” noted Barack Obama this morning. This hit me especially hard as the descendent of immigrants. I take enormous pride in the stories of my family’s struggle to come to America and succeed there, facing prejudice against Jews, Hispanics, and women in general, and finally achieving a measure of security in the middle class. I certainly feel that anxiety as I search for the job that will pay for my rent and other expenses. And though I understand as well as anyone the need for a bright green future, I will take a job that doesn’t help me work towards it if I can’t find one that will. Times may well get tougher and I feel like I should be paying off my debt as soon as I can.

Barack Obama argued that becoming We the People once more can be done “by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.” Moving to a bright green future together means starting with what we need to succeed together. Personal and environmental health, welfare, education, and safety are all the same agenda, not that of any one faction, but that of We the People. And we have already started.

See and read Barack Obama's speech I reference here. It is inspiring.

2008-03-14T16:50:00.002-04:00

I'm excited to report that my blogging students are teaching other people how to blog. Welcome to the web Lisa Parker Hyatt Ehrlich! Lisa is an amazing artist in Maryland. She has some interesting things up now and there's more to come.

2008-02-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

A Sustainability Gap

This semester, I'm taking two courses with Australian sustainability guru Peter Newman, who famously coined the phrase "automobile dependency." I've found out about a number of exciting developments internationally that show how much progress toward real sustainability has been made. It's wonderful, but it's also distressing to me that the U.S. has given up the lead on these issues. We invented solar and wind power, and yet we lag far behind in those industries now. The integration of Japan's transit and mobile phone technology is astonishing. Australia's innovations are equally amazing. The national political dialogue has moved far past the conflict between the environment and jobs, where the U.S. dwelled for years, and even past the opportunities of environmental economics which are only just now percolating into the American political consciousness, and into a serious exploration of how a nation can achieve true lasting sustainability, with all the social responsibilities that implies.
America has been left far behind.
We have far more nuclear weapons than any other nation, along with numerous other military gadgets, and we are still on the cutting edge in some technologies, but in the critical area of how we are to continue to thrive together on this planet, America is coming up short.
I'm not worried about Japan, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Brazil, the UK, Canada, or even China. They get it, they're making huge progress. I'm worried about us.

2007-12-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

Questioning King Coal

I drove by some U.Va. students in Student Environmental Action protesting on the Corner yesterday. They were criticizing Bank of America for funding the construction of new coal plants. They are also encouraging people to sign a petition on the subject. Not this one or this one, but this one. Wow, Bank of America ticks a lot of different people off. And who knew March of Dimes did animal testing?

I'm thinking a lot about coal these days too. Here's a nice little service that tells if you are paying for mountain top removal with pictures of the sites and where the coal is being burned with Google Maps and Google Earth.

And here's a service that tells how much your energy company contributes to global warming and how carbon efficient it is (set to Dominion, but you can change it).

If you want to buy renewable energy, you can look here.

Or just contact Dominion and ask why they still aren't offering a green power option for green-savvy consumers.

Great job SEA, I hope you heard me honk when I went by.

The picture is copywrited by the Hook, used here strictly for educational purposes. Please don't sue me, I'm a student.

2007-12-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

Is Range Right?

A few months ago, I commented that our voting system is flawed and that proportional representation or instant runoff voting may be superior. I believe now that I was incorrect, thanks to some help from Clay Shentrup and the information over at RangeVoting.org.
My main concern with the winner-takes-all style of voting currently dominant in the US is its tendency to establish unbeatable incumbent politicians and parties. Government is only effective if it is legitimate, and its legitimacy is based on responsiveness to voters. The security blanket offered to incumbents by the winner-takes-all system eliminates that responsiveness in many cases and thus the legitimacy and effectiveness of government itself.
That seems like a bad idea.
I studied runoff voting as one potential alternative. This remedy was pushed hard by the Green Party a few years ago as a way to eliminate the "wasted vote" concept. The idea is that you prioritize each candidate running, giving each a number. If your number one choice gets the fewest votes in the first round, that candidate is eliminated and your vote turns to your number two.
As it turns out though, in Ireland and Australia, where it's used, Instant Runoff Voting produces the same two party dominance as winner-takes-all.
And fundamentally, the problem isn't how many important parties there are, it's how responsive government is to the needs of the governed, and IRV doesn't offer solutions here and can actually increase problems, such as situations where a candidate is selected where a majority of voters prefer another because of arbitrary cutoffs.
I thought perhaps Proportional Representation might solve this problem. In this system, voters vote for a party, and then however many votes that party gets is how many seats they get in a government body. The party selects who goes in those seats.
The evidence is unclear that this system is better, except that there is some evidence that countries with more PR like Ireland and Switzerland have a superior quality of life than per capita GNP would suggest. I don't like that this system prevents voting directly for candidates. I think that people are more important than parties.
This other option, range voting seems more promising. In range voting, voters rank each candidate from 0 to 100 based on their personal preference. Then the numbers are all added and whoever has the highers numbers wins.
Mathematically, this system comes closest to a state where God comes down and personally selects the candidate that best represents the people, which everyone immediately agrees with. In one analysis, the switch from a plurality winner-takes all system to a range voting system produced a superior improvement in democracy than the difference between the plurality system and picking candidate's names randomly out of a hat. This suggests that a global switch from plurality to range voting might usher in a Renaissance of good government and associated economic boom as better decisions lead to less waste and greater opportunity.

Can it happen in Charlottesville?

2007-10-11T05:37:00.000-04:00

Dear Representative Kucinich,

I was proud to support you in 2004 and am appreciative of your good work for our country, but I have a few concerns this time that I would like to share. I was shaken when a colleague told me that on environmental issues, Edwards is offering a better platform. I have grown to expect you to be well ahead of the curve on these issues, as I still believe you are on other critical topics. MoveOn's embracing of Edwards on his excellent (though still insufficient) climate change plan was a wake-up call for me, as I hope it was for you.
I think all of this is pointing to what I see as a cleavage in the environmental community, what some call dark green and bright green. Dark green is traditional environmentalism, with an emphasis on pollution prevention and cleanup. This is where I started as an environmental activist, and I believe this is roughly where you are, based on your platform. Bright green is the next step, which people like Bill McDonough in Cradle to Cradle and Alex Steffen at Worldchanging.com are promoting. I see this philosophy as essential to our future success as individuals, as Americans, and as a species.
I understand that you're absurdly busy right now, but is there someone in the campaign I can speak with about updating your green platform? I think you'll agree that green democrats and independents are essential to your base, and if you spin it right, a new green platform could be a very positive media event.
Related: Your veganism. It comes up all the time, and it's very dark green. It says that you think that meat and dairy are bad. In the main, you're correct, but there are ethical alternatives: local, organic, humane. I was vegan too, I understand where you're coming from, but you'll win a lot more support by advocating best practices and local farming than by dismissing a massive industry and the majority of Americans. Also, local organic is much tastier, healthier, much greener, and more enjoyable in every way. I had the good fortune of studying this recently with Tim Beatley, reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, and meeting with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. This is a fundamental issue, and it points to the difference between dark green and light green. Dark green says that to be sustainable, we need to make do with less. Sacrifice. Bright green says that to be sustainable, we need to live better. We have work to do.
I hope that you'll agree that you want to position yourself as a bright green, competitive candidate.
Thank you so much for your good work and the hope you have given me and many others. I hope you will take this message with an open heart.

Best Regards,

Lyle Solla-Yates
Planning Graduate Student '08
University of Virginia

P.S. I would love to see you start that blog you have on the site.

2007-10-08T23:25:00.001-04:00

The Public Health Bit

One major government priority, public health, has been giving me trouble. Seeing Sicko (excellent film) convinced me that publicly funded health care was potentially superior to the U.S.'s existing profit-maximizing system. I was convinced of the improved equity (an essential government priority), public health improvements, and economic efficiency of the systems employed in France, England, Canada, and Cuba.
So transitioning to publicly funded health care well would create a public benefit and create savings. Good, the policy makes sense, but how to pay for it?
One idea I had immediately was a Pigouvian tax on pollution. This would focus on major public health hazards like cigarettes, mercury, auto exhaust, lead, and trans fats. This health tax would not ban health hazards, but would price them at their true cost. This would cut pollution and pay for its effects on people, a double benefit.
Still, I didn't have a good sense of how to pay for the majority of health costs not directly attributable to pollution.
Katherine Mason, my girlfriend, gave me the solution. People could pay a flat amount for insurance, which would then come down based on positive steps they took for their own health. Instead of costing money, regular checkups and exams would save money off the insurance. Overweight people who lost weight in a healthy way or people who quit smoking would enjoy an insurance break. In this way, people would be rewarded for making the right decisions, and pay a fair (instead of devastating) economic price otherwise. People already making smart decisions like maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking would enjoy the same low rate, similar to some existing insurance programs. There would still be a nominal fee to discourage excessive visits, like a dollar or two.
I would be curious to see a mixed system where private insurers and hospitals would compete with and complement a publicly funded system. I suspect that there are places where private industry could introduce efficiencies into a system geared towards public health and safety over profit.
I suspect that a system like this might also cut down the cost of Medicare, though extended lifespans might eat up those efficiencies. Still, not a bad trade at all.
I should also point out that this system would offer a significant rise in overall lifespans, quality of life, productivity, and general wellbeing and happiness. It would also increase the productivity of land, causing a small boost in land prices to make up the difference. A land tax would capture that additional value and, if significant, it could be used to help cover the health system or go into general revenue.
After reading some Thomas Jefferson: Also, the baseline cost to premium holders would vary according to income level. Someone with little or no income but doing everything to maintain good health would pay very little, while others would pay up to market rate. Low income premium holders would be assisted with revenue from land taxes on value drawn from the program's improvements and profits from market rate premium holders.

2007-10-02T11:10:00.000-04:00

The Money Solution BETA
(at least for government, but maybe it will help you too)

Some interesting discussion over at Bacon's Rebellion got me thinking about a couple of new ideas, and I felt like reprinting my comments here.

(In response to criticism of the concept of infrastructure that pays for itself, instead of being subsidized by people who do not benefit from it equally or at all)

Is self-funding infrastructure possible? Absolutely, we're doing it every day. When government builds infrastructure, two kinds of benefits are created with two different revenue streams. The first is the actual service of the infrastructure, like better schools or fast transit. We can put a user fee on that and get some revenue, but collecting it is often expensive and with deadweight loss can actively erode the benefits sought by the project in the first place. Still, user fees like congestion pricing can create enormous value by regulating supply and demand for services, creating a double benefit.
The second source of value created by infrastructure is improved productivity of nearby land. A piece of farmland is a much better place to live after the school and transit station go up next door. That land becomes much more valuable, regardless of whether the owner or lessees actually use the services or not. We can put a user fee on that land and harness some of that increase in value. Just like other user fees, the land fee can create enormous value by regulating supply and demand for land, creating a double benefit. Affordable housing and a clear edge are part of that created value.
By putting smart fees on government services, we can pay our fair share for what we need, what we want, have some extra left over if we apply ROI, and don't need taxes, meaning no deadweight loss on consumption and employment.
How's that for self-funding infrastructure?"

I missed some points:
1. Government services can also create efficiencies. For example, free neighborhood medical care would encourage preventative treatment and catch illness early on, before health and economic risks grow. This creates efficiencies such as lower medical costs, fewer sick days, and longer lifespan. This is a critical part of why policies like brownfields redevelopment and energy efficiency make economic sense, by reducing costs.
Some programs, such as brownfields redevelopment, create all three types of value, by providing services (risk abatement), raising land value (safe land is more productive), and creating efficiencies (medical costs avoided). A Return on Investment (ROI) analysis can show the total benefit of a program like this or others, quantifying costs and projected revenue, allowing people to make the best decisions on what to do with their collective political power.

2. There is still room for Pigouvian tax ideas, where the cost of an activity is raised to meet its social cost. Carbon taxes and Virginia's recently enacted abuser fees for drivers are good examples. This strategy is an enormously effective use of police power to address market externalities, as well as a nice source of extra revenue, laying down a nice double benefit. There is not a triple benefit like government services offer, so ROI on these may be lower, but still excellent.

3. As citizens push government in this direction, revenues from services and Pigouvian taxes will replace all taxes and their deadweight costs on earnings and employment, jump starting the economy in a green direction. As efficiencies and productivity accelerate, revenues will outpace spending, creating the delightful problem of what to do with this largess. Alaska addressed this issue with its Permanent Fund. This is an investment fund fed by revenues from oil rights, a government service. The fund forms a cushion to help the state transition as the oil runs out, and in the meantime the interest is used to subsidize other government services and to share with the citizens of Alaska. Governments experiencing revenue beyond useful spending needs would do well with a similar approach, creating a cushion against risk and sharing with citizens.

4. As communities succeed in establishing truly green (profitable) governments, they will have to decide what to do with their individual surpluses. Personal investment (time with family, new businesses, education, stocks and bonds, capital acquisition) and cultural consumption (play, theater, music, film, television, other arts) will dominate over increased family size given high levels of female education (an excellent government service). In this way, the challenges of unsustainable population growth can be avoided, and we can have communities that, as architect Bill McDonough says, "love all children, of all species, for all time."

5. In case of absolute disaster, government can still (ick) put traditional taxes on consumption or (uck) even employment to meet its debt obligations. I note this only because it makes government debt enormously low risk compared with other investments.

Simple, right?

2007-04-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

Exciting News!

As part of a package of Earth Day proposals to green the city of New York, Mayor Bloomberg has announced a proposal to introduce congestion pricing in New York City, based on London's successful model.

The New York Observer offers the map above showing the proposal.

I believe that this sort of solution would be enormously beneficial to dealing effectively with Charlottesville traffic. As Governor Tim Kaine pointed out, we can't pave our way out of our transportation problems. Instead, we should be taxing our problems to pay for our solutions. We should tax congestion and we should tax wasteful land use. This makes sure that if people are contributing to common problems, they are paying their fair share for it.

I strongly encourage you, dear reader, to look further into this and to tell your elected representatives about it.

2007-03-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

Charlottesville City Council meets tonight to discuss shifting two thirds of a $1 million tax windfall slated for repaving to new sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails. I hope you'll join me in e-mailing council@charlottesville.org to encourage this exciting step.

2007-02-14T11:05:00.000-05:00

A fellow Green Drinks attendee is interested in a housemate for her apartment near downtown Charlottesville. If you or someone you know is looking for a good place in town, check it out.

2007-02-07T23:42:00.000-05:00

The Basics of Urban Planning

After I said I intended to make the world a better place through urban planning, I was asked the best way that urban planning could do that, and whether urban planning could also make the world a worse place. Jane Jacobs was also brought up. My response:

The best way that urban planning makes the world a better place is when it works with policy to make doing the right thing (preserving and promoting neighborhood quality, preserving farmland, preserving habitat, and empowering communities) easy and profitable and doing the wrong thing difficult and expensive. In other words, reversing the polarity.

And yes, traditionally urban planning makes the world a worse place. The history of the profession is a history of arbitrary restrictions established for conflicting political agendas producing distressing side effects. American auto dependence is one example, urban renewal is another. American suburbs are the way they are because of urban planning.

My current thesis is that urban planning makes the world a worse place when it is controlled by political elites who are corruptible and have incomplete information. When urban planning is controlled by the communities it is intended to serve, it makes the world a better place. Democracy. That's actually not bad, I don't think anyone's written that book yet, though I bet there's plenty of research to back it up.

Jane Jacobs is brilliant. I'm actually more interested in her foil Robert Moses though. Moses was planning to run an expressway through her neighborhood, forcing her to prove why that was a bad idea. Moses made a lot of mistakes, but he did a lot of amazing things also. I'm interested in how to marry Moses's vision and Jacobs's heart. Synthesis.

2007-01-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

Cut-through Pricing

Sorry I've disappeared a bit recently. I'm in graduate school at U.Va. but hopefully I'll be getting involved in city issues again soon.
Anyway, I read the recent article in the C-Ville about cut-through traffic, and I wanted to share an idea with you.
It appears that there is broad agreement that cut-through traffic is a big problem in the city, and most of it isn't city residents and almost none of it is residents/employees in the relevant area.
An economist would suggest that this situation is a hidden subsidy of transportation to a few drivers, at the expense of neighborhood safety and quality, meaning public health, safety, and welfare. I propose that we could have a better system if we taxed that subsidy away, and used the proceeds to fund multimodal transportation improvements in the city and put a percentage into the affordable housing fund. Cut-through pricing is a regressive tax, since the pricing is the same regardless of income or wealth, so it's important that the funds be used to promote better transportation and housing options for low-income people to balance that.
I think the best way to do it would be to set up electronic tolls on roads that neighborhoods nominate. Neighborhood residents and employees would not be charged for using those roads, but people who neither live nor work there, who are cutting through to another destination, would pay a dollar or so. In high traffic, it's a fair price to avoid congestion. When there isn't high traffic, cut-throughs aren't necessary (though people are still free to do it).
I'm not sure how much this system would cost to set up. Similar systems have been set up in places like London and Singapore to manage congestion efficiently (and we could do that also, perhaps obviating the need for cut-through traffic in the first place), but I've never seen a system initiated to protect neighborhood quality.
I like that this idea supports neighborhoods in that they choose which roads get pricing, and they don't pay for their own roads. Neighborhoods could also decide how much each road should be charging.
What do you think?

top left photo: one local solution for cut-through traffic is to block off streets for everyone. photo by Bill Emory.
lower right photo: signs indicating electronic road pricing in london. traffic is not slowed or stopped. photo by Nevilley From.

2007-01-22T00:58:00.000-05:00

Woolen Mills News Roundup

My neighbor Bill Emory posted a nice roundup of all the tv news the Woolen Mills Architectural Survey received. That's me in the hat towards the end.

2006-11-25T20:19:00.000-05:00

The Woolen Mills Historic District

Lyle Solla-Yates

The Woolen Mills neighborhood of Charlottesville, Virginia presents an excellent case study to understand historic preservation laws and their effects. I will attempt to answer several questions: Is Woolen Mills historic? Why hasn’t it been established as a historic district already? How would a historic district contribute to the neighborhood? Would property rights be affected? And how can the Woolen Mills Historic District be created?

Is Woolen Mills historic?

Written history first mentions the Woolen Mills area before the Civil War, as a busy riverport named Pireus. The reasons for Pireus’ importance were geographic. Moore’s Creek runs into the Rivanna River at this point, where strong rocky high ground provides a dramatic site for development. This area also provides a relatively easy ford across the river named Secretary’s Ford (currently where Interstate 64 crosses the Rivanna River). This ford attracted the second highway into Albemarle County, the Mountain Ridge Road, later called the Three Notched Road. This site then, was a uniquely attractive site for commerce in the region. The earliest documented commercial activity at this site began with Edward Moore’s water grist mill in 1795 (Britton). The next owner, William D. Meriwether, began an aggressive construction agenda. Beginning around 1817, when the Rivanna became navigable, Meriwether built a dam, a toll bridge, a merchant mill, a saw mill, and a port operation. Two buildings on the National Historic Register date from this period, the House at Pireus (no longer standing) and the Pireus Store, now converted into a private residence at the corner of Market Street and Riverside. The prosperity of what became known as the Charlottesville Factory continued to expand, providing desperately needed manufactured goods to the South during the Civil War. On March 3, 1865, the cotton mill was burned by Union troops. The complex was rebuilt and expanded after the war. The Woolen Mills Chapel was constructed in the 1880s to serve the workers. The Mills closed down in the 1960s as textile manufacturing moved overseas. None of the mill buildings have been added to the historic register. The main building has been demolished, leaving the foundations and the ruins of two accessory structures.

There are some points that make the Woolen Mills particularly interesting in history. The Mills was significant in the Civil War, as a Southern industrial center, source for uniforms, and site of wartime destruction. Pireus is interesting as a remnant of a bygone way of life based on the river, when Albemarle was at the edges of Western civilization. The Reconstruction era Woolen Mills are interesting as a site of blue collar industrial history, a past that is disappearing under the weight of globalization.

Why hasn’t it been established as a historic district already?

According to resident Bill Emory, some people in the neighborhood are afraid that historic designation may hurt the resale value of their property by restricting future uses.

Beyond uncertainties about the effects of historic designation lies the issue of responsibility. The growth of Charlottesville through annexation has left the Woolen Mills neighborhood cut apart, split between the city and the county. The primarily residential and agricultural area has become part of the city, while most of the old mill buildings and the Marchant House (picture above) remain in the county. This political divide makes addressing the Woolen Mills as a whole difficult. Albemarle County has recommended all or parts of six villages for historic preservation (Albemarle County). Woolen Mills is not on that list. The County did include Advance Mills, a similar area which is listed on the National Historic Register. Besides unambiguous jurisdiction, Advance Mills also benefits from a remote location in Albemarle County’s Rural Area (a region intended for preservation of open space) and some historical structures of comparable quality to Woolen Mills. On the Charlottesville side, Planning Commission member Bill Lucy says there are several potential historic districts in line before the Woolen Mills neighborhood can be considered. He has stated publicly that the “Woolen Mills may not be as historic as it thinks it is,” citing the large number of post-World War II houses in the neighborhood. I believe that this view is due to the fragmented nature of the Woolen Mills neighborhood compared to the Historic Woolen Mills. Viewed alone, The Woolen Mills neighborhood can look like a postwar suburb to a stranger. This is how the City of Charlottesville views Woolen Mills.

How would a historic district contribute to the neighborhood?

Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plan notes that National “register listing provides recognition, but little or no real protection for those resources. Local historic district zoning is the primary means by which government can provide effective legal protection for historic resources and their settings. Moreover, the number of resources destroyed in recent years suggests that continued reliance solely on voluntary measures would not be adequate to protect those resources” (Albemarle County).

Historic designation at different levels has different effects. Listing on the National Register provides:

1. Consideration of historic status in any federal project that may affect the site (meaning an Environmental Impact Statement; projects include federally funded road construction),

2. Availability of a 20% tax credit for rehabilitation of historic properties that produce income (not owner occupied), and

3. Availability of Federal grants for preservation.

After listing, the state of Virginia provides:

1. Grants to local governments to document and preserve historic buildings,

2. Some financial and complete organizational assistance in surveying and planning preservation projects,

3. The option to owners of setting historic preservation easements, which restrict what can be done with the land, but also create significant tax advantages for federal income tax (100% of easement value deducted), state income tax (50% of easement value credited), property tax (taxable value of property is reduced), and estate tax (reduced estate value, plus 40% of land excluded from taxable sum),

4. Availability of a 25% state income tax credit for rehabilitation of historic properties, regardless of whether the owner lives there or not, (this credit can be combined with the 20% federal tax credit for income-producing property), and

5. Qualification for state grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations for historic preservation projects and maintenance.

Albemarle County offers:

1. Nothing yet. They are currently working on the creation of a Historic Overlay District in their zoning ordinance. None of the Woolen Mills lying in the County is listed on the National Historic Register. The closest listed property in Albemarle County is Monticello.

Charlottesville offers local designation as a historic district. This gives a neighborhood:

1. Design control, meaning that any new development or change to the exterior of a building in the historic district is subject to review by the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review on criteria based on “economic feasibility and compatibility of the proposed construction/alteration with the site and other properties in the design control district… [and] that the proposed rehabilitation work complies with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation” (Chapter 7: Historic Preservation, 2001 Charlottesville Comprehensive Plan). Projects can be denied by that body.

That is the full landscape of government programs offered to historic areas like the Woolen Mills. The benefits of the state and federal incentives are fairly unambiguous. Several studies (see for example, “The Impact of Historic District Designation on Property Values: An Empirical Study,” Schaeffer) point to rising property values and greater long term stability of property values in nationally designated historic districts. This improvement in property values may be seen as a potential threat to neighborhood diversity and the goals of affordable housing. A mitigation strategy may be appropriate. Stu Armstrong of the Piedmont Housing Alliance suggests that reverse mortgages may be helpful. Reverse mortgages pay owners the value of their property in one or more payments and then accrue interest in the form of a lien on the property. Reverse mortgages are unavailable to those under 62 years old in the United States (Wikipedia).

Resident Bill Emory has suggested that the Woolen Mills may be an attractive destination for tourists interested in industrial and Civil War history. A tour of the village could add to the existing mix of attractions at Monticello, Ash Lawn, and the University of Virginia (Emory). According to APVA Preservation Virginia, statewide historic attractions bring over 6.5 million visits, a major slice of a $14 billion tourist industry.

Perhaps the most important effect of historic district status may be the consciousness of Woolen Mills history among residents. The preservation of historic buildings and open space can be a source of civic pride and neighborhood identity.

Would property rights be affected?

State and federal registers do not hinder property rights in any significant way. It becomes more difficult for a federally funded project to threaten a historic district, but this is considered to enhance the security of neighborhood investment, a benefit to property owners. Historic preservation easements are established by property owners, and they offer major tax benefits to balance the property rights sacrificed.

Design control at the local level affects property rights, specifically development rights. The Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review can deny a development that they feel is incompatible with the neighborhood. This can also be viewed as a protection of property rights, by preventing projects that threaten the neighborhood. Research on local historic districts indicates a modest decline in property values, most likely due to uncertainty on what will and will not pass muster (Schaeffer). However, a different study of local historic districts in Abilene, Texas had the opposite finding (Coulson). This disparity is most likely due to the presence of a local property tax benefit in Abilene. Affected properties enjoy a $200 or 20% tax break, whichever is higher. The researchers found that the increased tax revenues from restoration and construction in that case significantly outweighed property taxes lost.

How can the Woolen Mills Historic District be created?

The Woolen Mills Historic District currently in the pipeline may be problematic. The City of Charlottesville is planning to create this district within the next few years. Most likely it will be composed of a subset of the Charlottesville Woolen Mills neighborhood, excluding some postwar housing and the Albemarle County section. This De Facto District will be under design control, by a Board of Architectural Review that may not grasp the complex history and character of the neighborhood as well as Woolen Mills residents. Albemarle County may recommend the Marchant House for the National Register. Nothing much will seem to happen.

The Woolen Mills Historic District could become something very different, however. Listing the entire Woolen Mills, including the old mill buildings, the graveyard, and the Marchant House would create a bureaucratic sense of unity that annexation destroyed. Listing would also create some leverage against potential large, federally funded road projects, such as a new onramp to Interstate 64. It would also open up some new financial opportunities to the Woolen Mills as a whole that could create a critical mass for significant preservation efforts, with potential effects on tourism and other businesses.

The establishment of the local historic district could be significantly improved. A similar system to Abilene’s, where property owners enjoy protection as well as tax benefits, may be appropriate in Woolen Mills. Montgomery County’s 10% property tax credit is particularly successful. “The tax credit is 10% of documented expenses for exterior maintenance, restoration or preservation work. The work must be certified eligible by the Historic Preservation Commission.” (Montgomery County Planning Board). The Montgomery County system has the benefit of tying tax benefits directly to investment and maintenance, rather than a tax cut across the board. This aligns the local tax benefit with the overarching goal of historic preservation by reducing the local tax burden on renovation and maintenance in the neighborhood. One weakness of the Montgomery County approach compared with Abilene’s is the amount of regulation necessary to ensure that only those engaged in historic preservation receive benefits. Abilene also benefits every property tax payer in the district, easing the affordability issues that historic preservation can create. An additional option would be a flat property tax cut on buildings in the district, 25% for example. This would have the benefits of a much lower regulatory burden while maintaining the Montgomery County focus on encouraging preservation and maintenance, and rewarding homeowners for investing in a historic district, where their property rights may not be as strong as elsewhere (Durning).

Design control can be shifted to allow greater local control. One method is the Form-Based Code. In this model, the neighborhood meets for a one-week design charette to plan out what they want for the neighborhood. Then whatever fits that becomes the design code. This eliminates the uncertainties of design control by spelling everything out up front. It also puts the neighborhood in the driver seat, protecting it from development that is disruptive to the historic fabric of the neighborhood, while allowing substantial flexibility for creative new designs. “The new codes, he says, focus less on what's forbidden and more on what's desired--the kind of town or city that people indicate they want. Mixed use is welcomed back. Basic rules are specified--for example a range of acceptable building types from apartments and townhouses to detached villas or high-rise towers (leaving individual design, for the most part, to owners)” (Peirce).

The Woolen Mills Historic District, done right, can be very exciting. The historical importance of the area suggests that measures should be taken to preserve it, and there is no shortage of state and federal support to do so. Support at the local level is not yet ideal, but Albemarle County’s current effort to form a historic zone ordinance creates the opportunity for a single Woolen Mills Historic District that bridges both city and county, with the same rules on both sides of the line. This would create a system for preservation that is effective, beneficial to the city and county, and fair to property owners.

Works Cited

1. Britton, Rick. 2006. “The Charlottesville Woolen Mills, Clothing a Nation.” http://www.historicwoolenmills.org/Charlottesville.html

2. Albemarle County. 2000. “Albemarle County Historic Preservation Plan.”
http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=planning&relpage=2463

3. Schaeffer, Peter V. 1991. “The Impact of Historic District Designation on Property Values: An Empirical Study.” Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4, 301-312.

4. Emory, Bill. 2006. “The Woolen Mills Neighborhood, Charlottesville at Work.” http://www.billemory.com/woolenmills/wmtxt/wm01.html

5. APVA Preservation Virginia. 2006. “Legislative and Local Issues.” http://www.apva.org/issues/state_budget.php

6. Coulson, N Edward. 2001. “The Internal and External Impact of Historical Designation on Property Values.” Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics, Vol 23, No. 1, 113-24

7. Abilene, City of. “Code City of Abilene Texas: Article IV. Historic Zone Tax Reduction.” http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?sid=43&pid=10188

8. Durning, Alan. 1998. Tax Shift. Seattle, Washington: Northwest Environment Watch.

9. Peirce, Neal. 2003.“Zoning: Ready to be Reformed?” Washington Post Writers Group.

2006-11-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

Gentrification and the Commons

I would like to get a couple of ideas down before I go to sleep. In my Preservation Planning class with Rich Collins, a few major issues came up, and I had some ideas about them.

1. Rapid neighborhood change, also called gentrification, also called neighborhood succession. I am extremely critical of this process, because it harms neighborhood identity and displaces disadvantaged people (low income minorities on the way up in land value, and elderly residents on the way down). I believe that given a free property market, (and economics backs me up here), rapid, catastrophic neighborhood change would never occur. The property market would be sufficiently fluid, and various neighborhoods sufficiently similar in value and character (rather than highly segregated, the current norm) that catastrophic shifts would be impossible. The property market would bend like the reed rather than break like the oak. I'm saying we don't have a free property market, and it harms our neighborhoods. I believe that correcting this situation by eliminating building taxes (which grossly distort the market) and raising land taxes (which are either beneficial or neutral, depending on who you read) would enhance neighborhood security and wellbeing and ease ethnic and class tension. You get the dog used to the baby by slowly getting them together, not keeping them apart. In sum, I believe that eliminating the building tax will eliminate gentrification.

2. The Commons is sacred. I would argue that the central tragedy of our culture is the Tragedy of the Commons. By this, I mean that we are terrifically good at protecting, preserving, and enhancing everything that doesn't matter, and catastrophically clumsy at protecting, preserving, and enhancing what does matter. Enormous wealth and energy goes towards the marketing of pet care products, specialized shampoos, gambling, movies, SUV design, things. We're very good at dealing with things that we can count. Things we can't count so well, like security, health, learning, happiness, family, spirituality, nature, we have a lot of trouble with. The solution posed by many progressive thinkers is finding better ways to count these things. If we are creating negative externalities (actions that make economic sense, but harm the Commons), we should account for them. We should charge a carbon tax, or encourage offsetting, or eliminate subsidies, or make abortions more difficult, or tax people for not voting, or make polluters liable for cleanup, and so on. And these may be good things, but they are reactive. "Oops, I'm endangering my survival, I better change something." Survival is a logical good thing, but not sacred. God isn't there. I think this secularization of the Commons and making economic activities the sacred Good is a cataclysmic error of our culture.
Other cultures approach this problem differently. Native Americans have been quite clear that they view their relationships to each other, the land, the sky, other animals, the water, and other aspects of the Commons as sacred. Of course you don't destroy the air you breathe. It's sacred. It isn't even an option. The illogical becomes the impossible. You can still work within the sacred, but you understand and appreciate that that is what you are doing. One feels grateful and gives back to the community, the land, the animals, the Commons that have been so bountiful and kind.
Think about these issues this Thanksgiving. Amen.

2006-10-31T11:14:00.000-05:00

Better America

I've put together a little wiki on national policy. The idea is to explore the issues, the options, what may happen, and act rationally based on American values. Crazy stuff, I know. It's an idea I've had for a long time, that conservatives use think tanks extremely well because the top-down elitist nature of think tanks works well with conservative thought. Web 2.0 goodies like blogs and wikis are more appropriate to liberal thought. So here's a first stab. Have at it! The password is "usa".

2006-10-27T17:37:00.000-04:00

Charlottesville Green Drinks

a la Heidi:

Green Drinks is finally coming to Charlottesville November 14th. We’ll meet the second Tuesday of every month at 7pm at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Green Drinks is a casual meeting of folks from all sorts of different environmental fields. It’s going to be a great time—bring friends!

Thanks to Heidi for organizing this.

2006-10-25T11:16:00.000-04:00

Internship with ACCT

A Charlottesville transportation nonprofit is hiring two unpaid interns. ACCT is doing some exciting work promoting a more healthy mix of transportation options in the Charlottesville Albemarle region. I highly recommend this opportunity to anyone interested in sustainable mobility or the fast growing green job market. I predict that green (which is the new black) is also going to be the new .com in the business world. Yes, I predict a green bubble. It will be good and bad. But there will be a lot of exciting jobs out there.

**ACCT announces two internships***

The Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation is a nonprofit organization that works to promote biking, walking, transit, car-pooling, and sustainable land-use in the Charlottesville area. ACCT is pleased to announce two internships for the fall and winter of 2006, open immediately.

Marketing Coordinator, posted 10/16/06
One of ACCT's most prized projects is the Regional Mobility Map, a Charlottesville-area map that shows roads, bike lanes, transit routes, safe walking routes, and trails. We have 40,000 maps and we need them to be spread widely through our community! Currently, the map is distributed at numberous area business locations. The Marketing Coordinator is responsible for coordinating with our long list of business sponsors about map distribution. The Marketing Coordinator will contact businesses, deliver more maps when necessary, and help some businesses figure out a more successful strategy for map distribution. Lastly, the Marketing Coordinator will help ACCT develop a strategy for recruiting new volunteers and members using the maps as a vehicle for outreach. It is essential that candidates should be able to communicate in a clear and professional manor. Candidates should be creative, be able to work independently, and be familiar with Excel. Page layout skills are a plus. Interns should plan to dedicate about 5-10 hours per week to this position, throughout November and possibly December. This is an unpaid, resume-building internship. Candidates will gain experience working in the nonprofit sector and creating grassroots marketing strategies.

Safe Routes to School Development Coordinator, posted 10/16/06
The Federal Highway Administration recently announced a new grants program for Safe Routes to School programs. Safe Routes to School is an initiative to encourage walking and biking around schools using education, encouragement, enforcement, and engineering strategies. Albemarle County will partner with ACCT to submit an application for funds to make physical improvements around several elementary schools. The Development Intern would work directly with Albemarle County planners and ACCT staff to write the grant application and develop supplemental materials. This position is an excellent opportunity to develop grant-writing skills and to collaborate between state, county, and nonprofit stakeholders. Candidates should have strong writing skills and a basic comprehension of planning and engineering language. Interns should plan to dedicate about 5-10 hours per week to this position, through November and December. This is an unpaid, resume-building internship.

Descriptions and application details can be found at http://www.transportationchoice.org/internships.html. Questions should be directed to Alia Anderson at alia@transportationchoice.org.

Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation
PO Box 1582
(108 5th St SE, Suite 206)
Charlottesville, VA 22902
tel/fax: 434.295.6554
www.transportationchoice.org

2006-10-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

2006-09-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

What to do?

So I have this blog and I almost never post on it. Part of it has to do with my duties at graduate school at U.Va. (Urban & Environmental Planning, great program) and part of it has to do with my duties at William McDonough + Partners. Mainly though, it's just that I haven't really framed this blog in a useful way. I don't know what it's about, and I'm guessing you don't either. I originally intended it as a personal blog, but blogger is not personal. Waldo's cvilleblogs.com was what inspired me to create it, but that doesn't appear to be picking up my feed, to the enormous disappointment of my zero regular readers. In the near future, I will most likely scrap this blog and create something more useful.

But let me say that tonight was wonderful. Brian Wheeler from Charlottesville Tomorrow (a former employer) and, separately, the Albemarle County School Board, gave me the heads up that Tim from pandora.com was hosting a discussion in town about their excellent service. Fascinating discussion, and it offered the rare delight of seeing Brian, Waldo Jaquith, and Sean Tubbs, some of my favorite people.

Here is my current favorite pandora radio station, based on Django Reinhardt. Highly recommended.

And then I was able to sneak into the Charlottesville City Council meeting regarding trucks cutting through my street in the historic Woolen Mills. As I posted earlier, this is a major problem in my neighborhood. I was able to speak at the end, saying essentially that we don't have the information that we need to make the right decision. It's extremely frustrating that it's taken this long for the issue to be raised seriously, but I think it's important that we do this right. The Council expressed willingness to ban truck traffic on Franklin Street (popular for trucks because of its beautiful stone underpass below the train tracks). I think that makes sense as a stopgap measure, but I'd really like to see a more reasoned solution based on useful data, with the participation of all of the stakeholders. Surrounding businesses expressed anger at not being included in the process, but I think that's because there was no real process. The neighborhood came together and said "enough!" Which is fantastic, and I credit Bill Emory for his good work of getting the word out, though many others are also deserving of praise. I thought turnout was very good, excepting the absence of any residents of Carlton Road (who I believe are Albemarle County residents in Lindsay Dorrier's district).
Council voted to table the issue until next month, at which time hopefully we'll have some better data, though I didn't hear them request any from staff. We're supposed to have a sitdown with all of the stakeholders within the next month. I'm optimistic that some good will come of that and we'll have a better grasp on how to solve this problem.

2006-08-18T15:03:00.000-04:00

Another position at William McDonough + Partners has come available. We're hiring another runner. It's part-time, ten dollars an hour. E-mail HR for more information. The position certainly isn't glamorous, but it's an enormously exciting place to work. Highly recommended to anyone interested in starting out and trying to get experience in green business and design.

2006-08-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

I am a man of many interests, but I would say that my two favorites are green cities and socializing. So you can understand my delight at learning about Green Drinks. This is an international networking event for those of us working on making things better, making the world more "green". What is meant by that is an ongoing debate, and I worry that the term will become like "fresh" and lose all meaning.
But back to this. This is great. I'm looking into how much of a time commitment organizing this would be. I imagine that work and grad school will be a drain on my time and energy, but I love this idea. This sounds like big fun.

2006-08-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

On my way back from DC today, I stopped at the first Citgo on 29 south to refill, as I generally do. I was delighted to see, printed on the pump, 10% ethanol. They're using the E10 blend, which any recent car can use without modification. Now I 10% know how ethanol car drivers feel when they fill up: great. This doesn't appear to be company policy, so it may take a while for this innovation to reach Cville (it just took me an hour and 45 minutes).

2006-08-03T17:13:00.000-04:00

Worldchanging is looking for some volunteers to help them deal with their enormous growth. I highly recommend this opportunity to anyone looking to get into the sustainable development world.

2006-07-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

I rarely talk about neighborhood issues, but this is beyond the pale. One of my neighbors was hit by a truck this morning at 2 AM. Luckily, the front porch was between said neighbor, and the truck. I am becoming increasingly concerned about the truck traffic on my street. Making it a one-way south street might make some sense, since all of the truck accidents that I've seen (three, but I bet there have been more) have been north-bound.

2006-07-19T00:04:00.000-04:00

This is a piece that I'm submitting to Echo, a local magazine. It's a primer on land tax and why it's a Very Good Thing. Thanks to my parents, my girlfriend, Echo's editor, my coworkers, and Mike Pasquale for the support and help.

The Da Vinci Tax Code
Lyle Solla-Yates

The book and recent film The Da Vinci Code spirals around the lost Western tradition of the sacred feminine, a concept that challenges many of the assumptions and practices of our culture. This article is about another lost Western tradition, the secret of conforming our way of life to the landscape, rather than the other way around. This concept is philosophically parallel to the sacred feminine. It is the secret of respecting the other side of the issue, seeing the land instead of the buildings. The secret has to do with how land is used, and how taxes shape its use and misuse.
Not so long ago in human history, there were no taxes. In the Middle Ages, feudal lords would require a task (tasque in middle French, the derivative of our word “tax”) to be done by their subjects in exchange for the use of the lord's land. But the land itself was not taxed, and peasants and merchants were free to use it as best they could.
There are many pictures of towns, villages, and landscapes from this period. A few things stand out. First, the absolute soul-stirring beauty of these towns and landscapes. There are places like this in Virginia, but fewer and fewer. Second, the way that buildings are clustered together, to better conserve heat and protect vital agricultural land, and simultaneously create urban squares and plazas that are full of activity and life, ripe with commerce and culture. Buckminster Fuller called this synergy. In a healthy landscape, the elements of the landscape - home, business, farm, forest – are greater than the sum of its parts. This is design for long-term sustainability. And it's delightful, completely satisfying.
But the secret has been lost, and modern buildings and roads are a plague on the landscape, and a curse on the cities. The real estate market has become warped and twisted by a taxation scheme designed to promote suburban sprawl and dying central cities. In some areas experiencing major growth, the central cities are reinvested in, raising housing costs and pricing out many residents. Under this system, growth creates more problems than it solves. The real estate market is sick, and there is a cure. Markets properly cared for give us what we want in the most efficient way possible. It's what they do. But when buildings are taxed, it sends the market a message: “Stop building in valuable areas, it isn't worth it. Buy up valuable land and sit on it: it's bound to go up and be a good investment. If you want to build, build out where land is cheap and the taxes are low. Wipe out the farmers and get rich. If you really want to build in the city, build skyscrapers: anything smaller won't be worth it.” This is not the message that most citizens want to send the market. And this isn't the message that many real estate developers and investors want to hear. But they follow it, and we see it across most of America and the world.
Not everywhere though, because some places don't tax buildings, or tax them less. Those places tax land higher, because as Will Rogers said, “They ain't making any more of the stuff.” When communities tax land high, they tell the market “Don't waste land, use it as well as you can. If you can't use it, sell it to someone who can.” And then you get an outpouring of creativity and ingenuity to create wonderful things to be enjoyed by everyone. This means better, less expensive housing for everyone, better places of work, shorter distances to travel, better places to shop. This means more jobs, a better economy, less pollution, healthier people who can walk and ride instead of drive, and a countryside where small farmers prosper instead of real estate speculators. It's a win-win-win.
When communities make the transition (usually phased in over ten years), three quarters of residents pay less taxes. This is because most people live on land that's being used well, so they benefit. However, places that aren't being used well, such as prime downtown real estate paved for parking, or prime agricultural land growing grass, become a tax liability. Those empty downtown lots become buildings that contribute to the health of the city, and that rural land lying fallow becomes active farms that contribute to the food security and aesthetics of the region.
Several communities across America and the world have demonstrated the success of the land tax. You may have heard of the startling recovery Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania made after the core of the city, its steel mills, closed down. The secret? They'd taxed land higher than buildings since 1913. The economic transition was challenging, but efficiently handled. Plenty of other rust belt towns, such as Flint and Detroit in Michigan, are still staggering from the changes.
Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, pursued the same strategy after it was declared the second most distressed city in the nation in 1981. Since 1982, when they began taxing land three times higher than buildings, Harrisburg made an astonishing economic recovery, attracting $1.2 billion in new investment while reducing the tax burden on 90% of property owners. Newburgh, New York, on the other hand, the only city listed as more distressed than Harrisburg in 1981, didn't fare so well. After years of attempted reforms and economic development schemes, it remains one of the poorest cities in America, another distressed city which tragically did not pursue the land tax. Neither did Lynchburg, Richmond, or Martinsville, or any of Virginia's first cities, to great loss.
The land tax can come to Virginia. Taxing land at a higher rate than buildings is legal in Roanoke city and Fairfax city. The state legislature can authorize it elsewhere, if the political will exists. Thriving urban centers, the return of family farms, and a beautiful, healthy landscape preserved for the future can happen here. That's the secret.

2006-06-22T21:46:00.000-04:00

Outstanding news from San Francisco. Starting now, all San Franciscans will enjoy universal access to health care. They realized that they were paying so much in emergency care in public hospitals and clinics and additional services for the uninsured, that the city would actually save money by encouraging access to health care.
This is brilliant. Pay close attention to this, Charlottesville, because I would be delighted to pay $3 a month for the health care I currently do not enjoy. And consider what a boost to local affordability this would represent.
Am I correct in believing that Charlottesville would need enabling legislation to do this? Any chance of that in Virginia?

2006-05-12T08:38:00.000-04:00

Wandering around Worldchanging (highly recommended blog on the ideas and technologies that are changing the world for the better, like Wired but more idealistic), I noticed that one of my favorite authors, Bruce Sterling, is blogging. I love the internet. Bruce points out an interesting new acquisition for Google. They're purchasing the company that makes SketchUp, a Computer Aided Design program. This means that Google Earth will soon have 3-D models of things located on it, accessible to anyone. How? Who's making the models? Benevolent magic elves. Think of it, a CAD/GIS convergence that's simple to use and freely available on the web! Revelation! I can't imagine the cool toys that this will produce. Goodbye, gray blocks. If this were around when I was doing the Transportation Matrix for Cville Tomorrow, oh man it would have been cool.

2006-05-04T21:21:00.000-04:00

I'm listening to Dr. James Yates speaking on WNRN’s Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call about Guilt and Shame. Yeah, he's my dad. I'm proud. Check it out. Podcasting courtesy of the masterful Sean Tubbs at the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.

2006-05-04T08:45:00.000-04:00

Just read a disturbing post in Wired about a clever state of California innovation that streamlined paying state taxes, to the delight of taxpayers. Apparently, the industry based around repairing government tax inefficiency felt threatened, and leaned on their Republican allies in the state legislature. All of a sudden, tax efficiency "violates the proper role of government."
This is another great argument for public funding of candidates. It doesn't make any sense to force candidates to raise money from special interests, and not pay those interests back with favorable legislation. "Oh, I'll take your bribe, but don't expect to get anything back for it." That sort of attitude doesn't win the big bucks.
My hope is that within the next ten years, we'll have public funding for candidates in Charlottesville, and public funding at the state level within thirty. I'm hoping for the national level in fifty. If things go well for me, maybe I'll live to see a time when government corruption is the exception, rather than the rule.

2006-04-13T19:59:00.000-04:00

Surfing the net, I found this research paper from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The piece focuses on whose taxes would go up or down under a split-rate tax system. The study looks at three Virginia communities: Roanoke City, Highfield County and Chesterfield County. One interesting finding was the benefits to homeowners: "In all three localities, the move to an equal-yield split-rate tax would reduce the residential share of the real property tax while increasing the business tax share." Not surprisingly, they found a significant tax increase on vacant land. In Roanoke (where Census data was available), they found that, within residential areas, lower-income residents tended to benefit more than higher-income residents.
While I appreciate the value of getting this information across, I am concerned that people will view split-rate tax as creating winners and losers. Fundamentally, I don't believe government should do that. I feel it to be an arbitrary violation of personal liberty. This is actually a major reason why I am so interested in split-rate taxation. Efficiency wins and inefficiency loses. Kind of like how the free market is supposed to work, because that's exactly what split-rate taxation does: create a healthier, more efficient market.
But efficiency isn't really going deep enough because, much as I like it, it doesn't really do that much for me. I love beauty, nature, romance, health, and children. And that's where split-rate taxes make the difference that I care about: making beautiful cities profitable, making it easy to get outside and relax, making exercise part of everyday life, helping us make more connections with each other, and helping us give a better world to our children.
What I mean is that, rather than going after one policy or another to solve all of our problems, we should be asking ourselves "How can our city be beautiful, healthy, vibrant?" And go from there.

2006-04-01T23:50:00.000-05:00

To: info@rivanna.org

Hi, I've been researching the pros and cons of water fluoridation on the internet. There's some sobering stuff out there. The best estimate I could find for what we spend is about $20,000 a year. Do you have a more accurate figure? Maybe we could drop the fluoridation program and spend the money on upgrading the composting shed? A win-win!

Thanks,
Lyle Solla-Yates
Woolen Mills

2006-01-19T11:12:00.001-05:00

Today at 1:30, a coalition of local environmental groups officially presented a united eco-action plan "Environmental Imperatives for the Commonwealth of Virginia" to Mayor David Brown and Councilor Kendra Hamilton of Charlottesville and Chairman Dennis Rooker and Supervisor Sally Thomas of Albemarle County. The three-page document outlines environmental priorities for action at the state level.
The imperatives include a Biodiversity Action Plan, stricter guidelines for logging, air quality monitoring throughout the state, reducing per capita power use by 50%, better growth control tools, improved funding for car alternatives, and prohibiting the energy industry from making Political Action Committee campaign contributions.
Seventeen groups participated in creating the document:
Sierra Club, People's Alliance for Clean Energy, Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, Alternatives to Paving, Virginia Forest Watch, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population, Citizens for Albemarle, Energy Justice Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, Public Citizen, Wildlaw, Voices for Animals, American Lung Association, Southern Energy Network, Nature Conservancy, and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Some of these seem like a long shot. Like the PAC business. But the air quality monitoring seems reasonable enough as does better growth control tools, such as sufficient infrastructure legislation.

2006-01-19T11:12:00.000-05:00

One of my clients, Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population, is looking for a new Executive Director. I definitely recommend the position to anyone interested in sustainability and growth in the Charlottesville region. And you get the extra special privelege of being my boss.

2005-12-25T16:45:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, Charlottesville.

I've been researching the Global Business Network and Scenario Planning. The idea here is to chart out possible future scenarios for the item of interest, in my case Charlottesville. You look at a do-nothing scenario, realistic scenarios if each faction gets its way, and hopefully some scenarios where multiple or even all factions get their way. Something that's bothered me with Charlottesville is that we have no real vision, no great plan for the future that we all understand and believe in. Even among the elites who follow these issues closely. The County has attempted this with the Neighborhood Model, with mixed success, but the Neighborhood Model is really just a jumble of useful tactics. It isn't really a scenario/dream/vision. I see nothing comparable on Charlottesville's end. Folks like Maurice Cox and ACCT support the Streetcar, folks like Mitch van Yahres and Bern Ewert support the Ruckersville Parkway, folks like David Slutzky support Bus Rapid Transit, and folks like Meredith Richards support the Virginia Railway Express. I happen to support land value taxation. Whoopee, these are all tactics. They're meaningless without a greater framework to rest upon. I'd like to see all of the interested groups in Charlottesville get together and chart out some possible scenarios for the region. I'd like to see a pro-development backlash scenario like what we saw in Loudoun, I'd like to see a Smart Growth scenario, I'd like to see a No-Growth scenario, and I'd like to see all the scenarios we aren't even talking and thinking about, like some sort of small farmer agrarian scenario like what Al Weed and Dave Matthews seem to be leaning towards, or a William McDonough-style Eco-Effective scenario, or a Peak Oil scenario, or a positive libertarian vision that doesn't trample our countryside, like what I suspect is in Neil Williamson's head. I'd like to see some real analysis done to see how all these scenarios pan out, who wins, what works, and I'd like for the region to go through the process to find a plan where we all win, and make it happen. I think there is a broad understanding of how special this region is, and what a crucial turning point we are at. We're drowning in good ideas, but without a scenario to throw around, a framework to fit them in, they have no substance, and we'll keep marching along the path of least resistance.

2005-11-22T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is the first short story I wrote. It was inspired by Ray Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines.

Lost in Fog
Lyle Solla-Yates

I reclined on a bench in my favorite garden, lost in daffodils. A monarch butterfly flew out from them and fluttered in front of my face. I lay still, watching the butterfly. It landed on my nose and slowly flapped its wings. I crossed my eyes and watched it melt away to nothing.
A bed of marigolds wilted and flowed together, forming a patch of brown linoleum tiles in the mulched bed. Two cherry trees parted to reveal a dingy corridor. My father stepped out of the corridor into the garden.
“Tom, where are your glasses?”
“Oh, I forgot. They’re right here.” I pulled a fresh pair of brown-rimmed glasses out of my pocket and put them on.
Dad frowned. “Your glasses have black rims.”
“Right.” The rims turned black.
“You have to maintain your habits, Tom. Humans are creatures of habit.”
“Yeah, you’ve told me,” I answered quietly.
Dad squinted at me. “What happened to your face?”
“My pimples? I have to keep my pimples?”
“They’re part of who you are, Tom.”
I felt two pimples appear on my face: one on my lower lip and another on the side of my nose, where I could see it.
My dad nodded. “Better. Have you been doing your homework?”
I shook my head, exasperated. “I barely did my homework before, what’s the point?”
He sighed and looked at the endless fog outside the garden walls. “It’s important, Tom.” He walked to the edge of the garden and turned back to look at me. A dark hallway stretched out behind him. “We’re having dinner up top tonight.”
I grunted and dad walked away. The trees closed up behind him. A flute played somewhere.
Moaning a little, I sat up on the bench and took my father’s workbook out of some thick ferns. I brushed a ladybug off the cover and started reading.

DARPA Internal Report
Top Secret

The civilian applications of U Fog are limitless. Medicine, communications, entertainment would benefit from this technology. Manufacturing is the most severe design problem. While desirable for control, centralized production is not viable. Atom by atom construction of nanobots is too slow and too costly. Nanobots need to self-replicate to a defined limit…

DARPA Nanotech Division Progress Report
Top Secret

Building upon the recent developments regarding buckyballs and their applications in nanotechnology, our division has successfully developed several microscopic carbon-based robots. They are able to work in a coordinated manner and are responsive to remote commands. More research is needed to improve user interface and refine nanobot motor skills…

Something buzzed harshly in the giant dandelion patch, breaking my concentration. I put down the book and stood up. I walked to the patch and stuck my hand into the mass of soft white puffs and yellow flowers. I pulled out an old-fashioned metal alarm clock with a new digital display. It read seven o’clock, not that time matters much down here. I turned it off and tossed it back into the dandelions.
The sky darkened and warm tropical rain fell into the garden. I tilted my head up, enjoying the warmth. The rainfall intensified, until the garden was washed away and I was underwater. I swam up, frog style.
My dad sat at our old white antique dinner table on top of the fog. He gestured at the seat across from him. His mouth was full.
I waded to a pool ledge and pulled myself up easily. One of the nice things about this new situation is that I’m a lot stronger. I dried off and sat down. “What’s for dinner?”
“Your mom’s collards and black-eyed peas.” He smiled sadly.
I looked at my collards. “I wish she was with us.”
“I miss her too.” He looked at the horizon, totally gray and empty. The fog frothed hungrily.
I looked up at the stars. They were perfect. I could never get the stars to look that way below. The air was so strange, very light and clear. I sighed and looked back down at the eerie landscape. In the distance, I saw something jutting out of the fog.
I got excited. “Hey, what is that? Is that other people?”
He shook his head. “That’s what I brought you up to show you.” An oriental rug formed below the table and carried us forward. As we got closer, I could see that it was moving slowly. It looked like a giant black rectangle tilting away from us. We stopped moving a hundred yards away from it. I saw our shadows against it.
“Is that a solar power thing?” I stared at the monolith in awe. It was massive.
My dad nodded grimly. “The utility fog is showing some extremely intelligent behavior.”
We had a solemn moment in front of the monolith. I broke it. “How can the fog be intelligent? Isn’t it just a lot of tiny robots?”
He shook his head. “I guess you haven’t gotten that far in the book yet. It is a lot of tiny robots, but the robots are all connected together, like neurons in our brain. Also like neurons, they have the potential for quantum computing, which allows for nonlinear leaps of logic and creative thought. As for how it figured out how to build a solar power collector, I have a theory.”
“Okay, tell me.”
“Read a little further and I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
The sun fell below the horizon and the monolith sank back into the fog.

Nano Lab Hypothesis: Life Beyond our Bodies
Dr. Pete Johnson

In religion, life after death plays a key role in the belief system of a group. However, science has, for the most part, left this concept unexamined. What makes us human? Is it our bodies? Our brains? Our minds, which are not our brains but something beyond and more complex? Or is it our soul?
There have been some fascinating recent developments in destructive scanning. Destructive scanning is defined as an extremely high quality digital copy of a three-dimensional object that destroys the original in the process. This is opposed to, say an MRI scan, which does not destroy the original, but produces a much less sophisticated copy. Destructive scanning is accurate to the submolecular level now. I was involved in a recent and innovative use of this technology in IBM’s Brain Machine project, where we destructively scanned a cadaver in order to reverse engineer his brain. Apparently this will help to build a better computer.
The hypothesis of Nano Lab is that destructive scanning technology can be used to store a person’s data, hopefully that person’s essence, and then download that data into a more durable form, preserving that person’s consciousness. It sounds like ghastly science fiction, but many…

Nano Lab Progress Report
Dr. Pete Johnson

We attempted our first destructive scan and digital reconstitution this week using a cadaver and some “utility fog” on loan from the Defense Department. Although we didn’t get enough to replicate the whole body, what we could copy came out perfectly. An interesting feature of this “fog” which no doubt improves its performance, is the way that it stores data. It works rather like a hologram or the brain, with data distributed evenly and apparently randomly throughout. When this project was in its early stages, it was thought that we would be using some form of robot or even a database, but this “fog” appears to be much more suitable for organic data. Hopefully, we will be able to get more for the next experiment…

DARPA Internal Report
Top Secret

From a Defense standpoint, the key development in nanotechnology is exponential reproduction. The Warbot team has nearly finished a design for assassin nanobots that reproduce exponentially in the circulatory system, causing cardiac arrest. There is also theory work on Counter-Nanotech, since rumors of similar weapons being developed in Europe and China…

I started to get sleepy. Okay, bored; I haven’t been sleepy in a while. I put down the book and stretched, accidentally knocking over a potted ivy plant. I picked it up and put it back on a pedestal. Something was really bothering me, I couldn’t focus. I took off my glasses and cleaned them on my shirt. Unfortunately, that didn’t help. I remembered a trick I figured out the first day. It had really freaked my dad out and he asked me not to do it again. I really felt the urge to, though. I stretched, and I stretched more, and I exploded out in all directions.
I saw my dad working in his office, studying the Fog, still trying to figure out how to stop it. I felt the jagged ocean floor as the Fog dug into it, searching for nutrients. I scraped along great piles of metal and rock, the torn remains of great cities. And far, far north, I felt an irritation, something huge and strange. I went there, curious to see what it was.
It was round and smooth, urgently real, but totally bizarre. It was a gigantic glass sphere bobbing in the Fog. I put my hand against it, fascinated. It didn’t break apart, it was totally solid. I looked through the glass.
Inside there was a garden filled with tropical plants. Something moved, and I saw that it was a girl. She was watering the plants methodically, going from one to the next. She was about my age and very pretty. I tapped on the glass, but she couldn’t hear. I stayed outside the sphere for a while, letting the Fog swirl me around with it. After half an hour, another girl came into the garden and talked with my girl. I thought my heart would burst. Thought became reality and my chest exploded, throwing me away from the sphere.
When I got myself back together, the tropical garden was empty. I looked at other parts of the sphere, seeing people eat, talk, live their lives. They all looked like people from a movie. They were all white and good-looking, and they wore really nice name brand clothes. Watching them made me feel lonely and self-pitying. I left them and went back to my garden. The daffodils waved at me and a fly swooped around my head. I sat down on my bench and tried to think things through. I kept getting this image in my mind of me running towards the girl from the sphere, and we hug and we kiss, and she gets ripped apart in my arms by the nanobots. Like mom.
Before I could clear anything up for myself, my alarm went off. I angrily pulled it out of the giant dandelion patch and threw it against the brick walkway, breaking it apart. I sat down on the bench and looked at the smashed parts for a minute, then picked them back up and put them together. Seven o’clock, time for dinner.
“You’re a little late tonight, Tom.” My dad arched an eyebrow.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He shrugged. “Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
“The solar thing, how did the Fog figure out how to make a solar thing?”
“I think it took the idea from our heads, or rather our data, which is spread evenly across the Earth now.”
“So it isn’t really intelligent, it just takes people’s ideas?”
“That’s pretty close. It’s actually extremely intelligent, but it lacks creativity. However, it can apply our creativity to its own problems.”
I remembered smashing the clock in my hand. I saw the scene where I hug the girl and she gets ripped apart again. I faded away from our conversation, moving quickly through the Fog and arriving back where the giant glass sphere was. It was held in a massive fleshy hand far above me. The Fog cleared away where I was standing, and I was too shocked to flow away with it. I stood on bare scored rock, in the shadow of the endangered sphere. I tried to make the giant hand stop, to make it put the sphere down gently and leave it in peace, but it only lifted the sphere higher.
The sphere dropped. I watched it fall toward me, faster and faster. I touched it, and it crushed me. The sphere shattered and the Fog rolled in. The screams carried in the Fog, I heard them even without ears.

I drifted.

I’m alone now, my fantasies are gone. My garden, my father, my girl. They’re gone. It’s strange to be so alone.

2005-11-10T10:05:00.000-05:00

How to Solve All of Our Problems

You know the story about the greek philosopher and the bathtub, yes? I had one of those moments last night at the Medeski, Martin, and Wood show at Starr Hill.
As part of my work with Charlottesville Tomorrow, and to a degree with ASAP, I've been spending a great deal of time watching (with horror) the development trends in Albemarle and surrounding counties. We are being strangled with urban sprawl, ladies and gentlemen. Albemarle's good-intentioned efforts have staved it off somewhat, at least in the county, but it seems to just be rolling out into Greene, Fluvanna, etcetera. If trends continue, the Chicago-New York-DC Megalopolis will slouch south in the next twenty years, swallowing us up and ruining our way of life and economic health. I don't believe I'm exaggerating here, I foresee bad things if major shifts aren't made soon. Even if Albemarle and Charlottesville stay relatively undeveloped, we'll be an island of green in a sea of awful. So that's my fear. I watched it happen in Miami when I was growing up there, and many of you watched it happen in Northern Virginia and elsewhere. The horror.
People want to live in Charlottesville, but because of the way the rules are set up, the only really profitable way to house them is outside the city. Developers buy up surrounding farms cheap, wait a few years, then develop to get the highest price. It's huge money. Dr. Hurt and Wendell Wood didn't become millionaires because they wanted to make our traffic problems impossible and our lives less social and relaxed and physically fit. They wanted to buy low and sell high, like good entrepreneurs.
The way the existing body of laws is set up, developers make the most money by buying low in rural areas surrounding a city, and developing to sell high. They don't make their money selling houses, but in selling land. Developers aren't evil. This came as a bit of a revelation to me, coming from the environmental community, but I believe they simply want to be good entrepreneurs. The challenge then, if we don't want to consume Central Virginia in a sea of awful development and traffic, is to change the laws so that buying low and selling high means compact development in the city. Let's make capitalism work for Charlottesville's future instead of against it.
There are three policies I see as crucial to accomplish this. I assembled them for Charlottesville, but I suspect they would work well in any growing community:

1. A form-based code. This idea was sprung by Duany Plater-Zyberk, the minds behind New Urbanism. Did you see Truman Show? Remember how pretty his town was? That's New Urbanism. Anyway, normal code, Charlottesville's for example, evolved from court battles. People needed to be less bad to prevent lawsuits. So older codes talk about all the bad things developers shouldn't do. Form-based codes talk about all the good things the community wants, and gives developers clear examples and instructions to do it, with easily understood graphics. Reading them is a breath of fresh air for a planner used to older codes. And the beauty of this is that developers are set up to succeed. All the problems that normally come up in the review process are designed out up front, allowing a greatly accelerated approval process. This means developments get a clear timetable and guaranteed public support. Why? Because they're doing what the residents want, from the get-go. Plus, the city saves big bucks on staff time and advertising money for public comment. You can see a beautiful example here. I'm hoping to develop some open-source software in graduate school that allows anyone to almost instantly develop an approved site plan and profitable business plan using this code.

2. Transit that matters. In Charlottesville, people are talking about a streetcar. Other places are talking about bus rapid transit or light rail. What's crucial is a transit system that makes people want to take transit. Most (unprofitable) systems, such as Charlottsville's, serve people who have to take transit because they have no other choice. Everyone else is given excellent roads for their cars, which is the natural choice. Since the gas prices went up, I've been riding the free trolley a great deal, and let me tell you, it ain't competitive. It's extremely undependable, slow, and inconvenient. It's easier for me to drive everywhere. This is wrong. I should have some excellent alternatives, in case I want to be more physically fit, or get outside more, or want to be easier on our air. And in fact, I do. By offering competitive transit, the city becomes a much more attractive place to live, and therefore, a much more attractive place to build. People may cry gentrification at this point, but do you think it's nicer to lower income folks to force them to either live in a house they can't afford close in, or live so far out that they have to drive more than they can afford? Affordability is a big part of this plan, as is diversity. A bus system that only the poor and disabled use, that is clearly inferior to car travel, is not being nice to the lower income folks.

3. Land value tax. A huge reason why developers don't invest in urban areas is that as soon as they invest money in property, it raises the value of the property, and therefore the taxes. As soon as developers put money in, they have to swim upstream to stay profitable. This higher cost is passed on to consumers in various ways, either in the real estate market or hidden in retail prices. Lynchburg and Richmond have somewhat addressed this by offering developers several years with no tax increases when they rehabilitate historic properties. That's a nice thing, and I support it, but I don't believe it goes far enough. I would like to see taxes on all buildings eliminated. Taxes on land would rise to make up for the gap, making this shift revenue neutral. What happens then? Well, development becomes tax-immune. People are free to do whatever they like to their property with no fear of the assessor. In fact, the city can save a great deal of money by canceling real estate assessments. This makes investing in development very very attractive. This could be phased in over several years to ease the market shock.

So that's my recipe for success. If all three elements are enacted at the same time, we'll see a major shift in development away from the suburbs and into the city along with major improvements in housing affordability, lower taxes, better mobility, and a more pleasant, livable city.

2005-10-29T01:58:00.000-04:00

I'd almost forgotten I had this blog. For whatever reason, my web browser stopped working with Blogger for a while, and I left it behind. My thanks to Bill Emory for helping me remember its existence.
I am currently working with Charlottesville Tomorrow as an intern and Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population as a web developer. I'm expecting good things of both in the future.

Much as I enjoyed working in the wine department at Foods of All Nations for a year and a half, I must say that working in my area of interest has made me feel alive again. Exciting things are happening. You can see what I'm working on with Charlottesville Tomorrow on the weblog. It's exciting stuff.

Also, the ideas I discussed in my previous posts remain near and dear to me, and I will get to them. However, at the moment I'm focusing on getting my wine distributing company off the ground and my self into graduate school. Much as I've enjoyed interning with Okerlund Associates, Topia Design, Oliver Kuttner, and Charlottesville Tomorrow, I'm anxious to be able to work on my own two feet, and a Masters in Urban Planning is necessary for that.

2004-09-29T00:36:00.000-04:00

An Update! So, affordable housing. This is something I've been thinking about since writing a research paper (“Affordable Housing in Charlottesville”) at U.Va. I've got a few ideas, but the one I'm excited about most is called split-rate taxation. The way property tax is now, there's a flat tax applied to the value of a piece of real estate. This taxes land and improvements equally. So, people who build on their land, pay more tax. People who do nothing with their land pay the same tax. This makes land speculation very attractive, since taxes are easily covered by the increasing value of property in places like Charlottesville. So the property tax system encourages people with wealth to buy up land and sit on it, waiting for the price to go up.

Results:

Prices go up in town, staying low in the suburbs.
Long-time homeowners are priced out of their own neighborhoods, as taxes rise on homes that might not have changed in decades.
Development continues to sprawl outward at low densities, increasing traffic, air pollution, water pollution, etc.
City revenues slowly increase along with the cost of housing.
Some wealthy speculators are given a fairly safe investment.
The pace of development in town is slowed, temporarily preserving some nice places.

The way split-rate taxation works, is land and buildings are taxed at different rates. Land is taxed at a higher rate. This turns real estate investment rightside up. In this system, there is great profit in developing, by offsetting high land taxes with low-taxed and high-revenue development. Existing homeowners benefit from lower taxes, especially as housing supply begins to meet demand. City revenues increase along with increased investment in taxable property. Overall urban density increases, improving transit, walkability, and bikeability, reducing travel times, and protecting outlying areas from development. This is also something I recommend for Albemarle's Development Area, but absolutely not in the Rural Area. If anything, the Rural Area should tax homes higher than land, giving farmers a break and slowing down sprawl. Outlying counties should do something along the same lines.
This was done with great success in Pennsylvania.
Also, I have completed a professional website. Behold: Coactive Counseling.

2004-07-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

Progress. I went to a fundraiser for John Kerry and two good things happened. First, I learned more about Al Weed. He's running for Virgil Goode's seat in congress. For that reason alone, I support him. Because Goode is a bad, bad man. The other good thing is that I told people about my ideas for Vinegar Hill, and they got excited! I've kept my ideas restricted to my family and this blog up until now, and it's immensely comforting to know someone else agrees with me.
The way I laid it out went like this:
1. The history of Vinegar Hill. A thriving, mostly African American community is leveled. Housing projects to replace some of the eliminated housing are put in many years later. African American-owned businesses are never replaced. African Americans, unlike other minorities (Jews, Italians, Irish, Koreans) in America, have been unable to rise out of poverty as a group. Some argue that this is due to a genetic defect. Others blame institutional racism. In fact, African Americans attempted to do exactly what other minorities in America accomplished: create their own neighborhoods with their own culture and support each other out of the ghetto. All that progress was eliminated when places like Vinegar Hill were destroyed under urban renewal.
2. Race issues today. Charlottesville is the best place to live in America. If you have enough money. Segregation and lack of opportunity for young African Americans persist. There is more awareness of the problem since the recent outbreaks of racial violence, but no solutions are apparent.
3. University-Downtown. Charlottesville has been talked about in terms of its brain (U.Va.) and its heart (Downtown). Local elites have wanted to make the connection through West Main for some time. Coran Capshaw has been most successful with Starr Hill and the housing across the tracks. The city put together the free trolley to support this connection. However, this connection isn't possible, because there's a gaping hole between the two: Vinegar Hill. Heart and head are cut off, because the soul has been ripped out. The intersection with the Lewis & Clark statue is one of the worst intersections I've seen, making bike and pedestrian travel extremely uncomfortable. Car travel moves to two main destinations: either Downtown, or the University. This is all made possible by the Ridge Street connector that was rammed through the Vinegar Hill neighborhood.
4. Downtown's decline. Part of the rationalization for destroying Vinegar Hill was to eliminate competition with Downtown businesses and create opportunities for major new construction to bring people downtown, like the Omni hotel. This kind of worked, but it also routed most traffic around downtown, eliminating its visibility. Tourists visiting downtown can find the Omni, but the pedestrian mall is hidden. This was fantastic for the sprawling growth of 29 North, making it easier to get there from the city.
5. Shadow of the Meadowcreek Parkway. The official rationale for the Parkway is to ease traffic on 29 North and the Rio Road shortcut. In fact, this will happen. However, this will also dump an enormous amount of traffic in city neighborhoods, thanks to that Ridge street connector. It will also make it even easier to get to 29 N from the city, sucking even more business out into the sprawl north of town and worsening traffic in a short time.

Solutions.
1. Reclaim Vinegar Hill. Vinegar Hill is a powerful place. Rich with history and heartbreak, and pivotal to the past, present, and future of Charlottesville. The built form should reflect this. The neighborhood needs to be bought up and redeveloped.
2. Kill the connector. The Ridge street connector only makes sense given the priorities of the 1950s. Given Charlottesville's modern needs, it does more harm than good. The old neighborhood grid will be brought back. The pedestrianized street between Omni and Downtown can be reopened to traffic. This will eliminate some awful pedestrian space and give Downtown excellent visibility.
3. Hold the neighborhood in trust. An urban land trust gives residents all the rights of their land, save actual ownership. This gives them much greater resistance to rising land values due to gentrification. This makes a rich neighborhood of mixed incomes, backgrounds, and perspectives possible.
4. Support local African American business. I'm not sure how yet, but I'd like to see the richness and variety of Vinegar Hill's economy restored. If it's all Starbucks and Blockbusters, it'll be sad.
5. Develop with the community. Vinegar Hill needs to be brought back by Charlottesville working together, rather than by a few developers. Everyone needs to have a say in what happens here. The way to do this is with a design technique called a charette, where everyone involved gets together in a room and hashes it out over a few days, creating something we all want to see happen.

So that's what I've got. If you like it, hate it, want to help, or have a suggestion, e-mail me at WonkoDATaol.com

2004-06-16T21:19:00.000-04:00

Finished, finished. I completed my graduate school application to U.Va.'s Department of Urban and Environmental planning. They didn't read my application because it was late and they had a full class. This is great news.
I didn't want to go to graduate school yet. I was frustrated because all of the decent jobs in my field required a masters, but I've realized that isn't a problem. None of the things I want to get accomplished (Helping Friendly Book, Soul Walk, Eco-Industrial Heating Plant, Message) will be at all assisted by having a job in my field. In fact, a job with the city might even be a straightjacket. I'm happy where I am, and I have all the resources I need. Here we go.
I don't think I've mentioned the Soul Walk or the Eco-Industrial Heating Plant here. The Soul Walk is inspired by the Spirit Walk they do every Halloween on the Downtown Mall. The difference is that this takes place in Vinegar Hill and is about that defining time and place in our city's history. It occured to me that if Vinegar Hill hadn't been destroyed, there would be no pressure for the Meadowcreek Parkway. It's amazing how one terrible thing can create opportunities for more terrible things. Destruction supports destruction. On the other hand, wise, humane acts support more of the same.
The Eco-Industrial Heating Plant comes from my studies in sustainability. The U.Va. heating plant burns coal, and is one of the largest polluters in the area. The plant produces steam to heat the University, and as a side effect, it creates acid rain, mercury in our streams, a haze that reduces visibility, and global warming. Which is a shame, because everything that comes out of the coal plant's chimney is a valuable input to other industries. Much of it has to be mined out of the ground and/or created chemically and paid for. So I think there's an opportunity to eliminate a major polluter, cut costs, and create jobs for Charlottesville.

2004-06-02T23:59:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading an excellent article by Kurt Vonnegut about the mess we're in. Essentially, he believes, and I agree, that part of what's going on is the end of an intense and destructive national addiction to oil. It's been almost a hundred and fifty years, which is a pretty good run for any addiction, but the good stuff is running out. There's a lot of reason to be worried about that, but I personally find it exciting. Times of transition are challenging and dangerous, but allow for amazing things and historic moments. End oil empire, enter solar economy.

2004-05-31T00:50:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a month since my last post, and what a month it's been. First, progress on the culture jamming I mentioned. Thanks to the crucial assistance of Mr. Justin O'Dell, I have managed to acquire the majority of the lawn signs from the city council election. I can't remember the exact figures, but the democrat to republican/Meredith Richards write-in ratio was very close. I am lumping together the Richards campaign with the republicans because both happened to use the same kind of lawn sign. Which is interesting. This reminded me of the funding the Bush 2000 campaign provided for Nader ads in swing states.
I noticed a large degree of clumping with the signs, with most neighborhoods having a small number of democrat signs and a few neighborhoods (notably the more wealthy ones on the north side of town) having many republican signs within a small area. We began our collection by sharing a bike around the Woolen Mills neighborhood, stopping repeatedly to grab signs, then hopped in my car for the rest of the neighborhoods.
Since then, my mind has been occupied with returning to school for my graduate degree. I have been struggling with the application for U.Va.'s urban and environmental planning department. I have stressed out far too much over this, but it's almost done. Wish me luck! Once it's over, I promise I'll update more.

2004-05-01T22:21:00.000-04:00

I'm doing some Adbusters-inspired culture jamming around the national election. The concept is the posting of terms relating to the Bush record, but without actually mentioning Bush. So you might see a sign that said "Enron" or "Weapons of Mass Destruction" or "Excessive Secrecy" and nothing else. The intent is to create questions and dialogue, about the meaning of the terms, who displayed them, what the intent itself is. I feel a great number of issues are being left out of the national debate, and I'd like to create an alternate forum for them to get out. If you'd like to work on this and other related projects, sign up for the Charlottesville Adbusters Meetup here:

If you'd like to order a FREE sign for your lawn, e-mail me at WonkoD@aol.com. Yes, it's a lame e-mail address. I have to wait 60 days for the helpingfriendlybook.com address to transfer to my new provider.

2004-05-01T21:45:00.000-04:00

I'm worried about the city council campaign. I went to the NAACP-sponsored council forum and was struck by the low turn-out and the poor quality of the Republican candidates. Kenneth (Ann Reineke kept calling him "Kenny") Jackson was offensive and ill-informed, and yet powerfully condescending. Reineke actually made some policy statements, focused on the city budget. She said that property taxes were too high and business taxes were too high, and this hurt affordability and the job market. Which I agree with. She also said that police and teachers should get better pay and benefits. Which I also agree with. She also said that the city shouldn't spend $6 million on new software. I think she means the city should stay outdated, but I think Waldo Jaquith's suggestion of pursuing freeware makes a great deal more sense. So I agree with everything she said should happen, but the only way I can imagine her achieving these conflicting priorities of lower taxes and better pay and benefits is by cutting critical social services. As Kevin Lynch pointed out, Charlottesville is the main provider of social services for the entire region of central Virginia. We provide a crucial public good that benefits us and especially our neighbors. This was fine when the nation funded the states and Virginia funded Charlottesville, but since the state went into a budget crisis of its own, and Bush's unfunded educational mandates, we've been left with greater responsibilities and fewer resources to meet them. So I heard two options. The Democrats propose that we maintain the line. We suffer high local taxes and keep Charlottesville a world class city. The Republicans didn't make a clear proposal, but it appears that they wish to mimic the federal and state governments by lowering taxes and cutting services. I understand their position, we've definitely been put in an unfair spot, but I'm unwilling to budge an inch and give up the things that the city pays for that make Charlottesville great. Like the wonderful work that city landscaping does, or what little social safety net we have that keeps homelessness low enough for affluent people to be comfortable in public spaces. This is one of the many things that make the Downtown Mall work, like Friday's After Five. So, I'm backing the Democratic ticket, but I really think that we're going to need some creative solutions and major lobbying at the state and federal level to get Charlottesville back off the financial razor edge that it's been left at. None of candidates seem to be saying this, but my impression of the Republicans ability to work well with city Democrats is very poor. Also, I've been noticing some Meredith Richards write-in signs next to Reineke and Jackson signs. If I were Meredith, I'd be offended. Though it would be ironic if Meredith were elected by Republicans.

2004-04-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

I am worn out. The bake sale went great. We raised $811 for campaigning against Bush and other good things. The Free Store went well. It turned out to be part of an Earth Day celebration. Earth Day meant a lot to me when I was a kid, but I feel very disconnected with it now. I'm not sure it's effective any more. There was a time when corporations would use it as an opportunity to showcase the paltry attempts they made to be environmentally friendly, but I'm not sure if even that happens anymore. I'm glad the event happened, but overall I was very discouraged. Still, it gave me the idea to start a permanent Free Store somewhere. I'm trying to think of who would be willing to donate space. I'm looking for a location near downtown that has some visibility and some public awareness. I'm thinking either a church or a charitable organization.

2004-04-15T23:14:00.000-04:00

Coming Up: This is going to be a busy weekend. I'm doing two exciting things.
Saturday, April 17th, 12-2 PM Downtown Mall by the water fountain + Cha Cha's: MoveOn's Bake Sale for Democracy! A few dozen friends and I will be selling delicious baked goods benefitting a delicious movement for democracy and regime change in DC complements of MoveOn.org!
Sunday, April 18th, 12:30 PM Tonsler Park, corner of 5th and Cherry: Food Not Bombs Feed In! I think, I'm not totally sure what's going on. But I do know that I'm running a Free Store! What's a Free Store, you ask? Aren't the terms "free" and "store" mutually exclusive? Probably. A free store is a place where people leave good things that they don't want and take things that they do want. So if I get tired of my red chair, but don't have anyone to sell or give it to, I would put it in the Free Store. Then if I saw a good book there, I would take it. When I finished, I would put it back, and someone else would take it. A Free Store saves money and the environment by reducing waste, extending the use of products, and providing useful goods at an unbeatable price. Of course, a big part of what makes a Free Store work is it being in the same place for a long time. Otherwise it's just me giving away my things and talking about how nice a free store would be. But hey, it's a start.

2004-04-04T16:49:00.000-04:00

I'm making progress on the Helping Friendly Book. I've purchased the webspace from 1and1.com. I should be using Lyle@helpingfriendlybook.com as my main e-mail soon. It's long, but memorable. The concept of the Book comes from a song by jam band Phish's lead singer, Trey Anastazio. In Trey's myth, a peaceful people called the Lizards are given a book by their god Icculus. The Helping Friendly Book contains all knowledge and "the ancient secrets of eternal joy and never-ending splendor." The theft and retrieval of the Book form the narrative of Trey's first album, The Man Who Fell Into Yesterday. I think a Helping Friendly Book would be a very handy thing in these desperately unhelpful and unfriendly times. Unfortunately, I'm not Icculus, so the best way I could think to make this happen was to rely on the wisdom, experience, and insight of many. The Helping Friendly Book is based on the online forum, with people posting material and noting where in the Book it should go. Superimposed over the forum is an editing program, where members (people who logged in with a name and valid e-mail) can discuss posts, suggest edits, and come to a consensus on them using a moderated chatroom system. The editing program will display the current book from the content and the edits, and the Helping Friendly Book can be browsed by anyone or printed out. All material is under copyleft, as part of the agreement to participate in the project.
This project is inspired by www.Indymedia.com , www.wikipedia.org , www.dancingjesus.com , and www.cvillenews.com . Like those groups, I'm hoping to carve out some public space on the internet with some value to humanity. I think there's room on the internet for a little spirituality, philosophy, creativity, and helpful everyday hints without a commercial motivation.

2004-04-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

What an amazing day. Yesterday I met with Richard Collins, who helped me decide to pursue my graduate work here in Charlottesville at the University's planning department. Then I met Ben Kweller and his band. They were great guys. We talked about indoor air quality inside a touring bus. Then I set up for this outstanding party above Plan 9 that I DJ'd. It's been my dream for years to run music for a party. Thank you, George, Andy, JR, Swen-Yu, and especially Ian for helping me make this happen. That was by far the best party I've ever been to or heard of, and I was at the Ben Kweller show when it was really kicking. I gotta say it was a good day. Oh, my dj name: DJ Telepresence. I rock the party even when I'm not there.

2004-03-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

It begins. I'm starting this weblog as a symbolic beginning to my adult life and career. This is also the beginning of the Helping Friendly Book, a website concept I'm working on with my brother, Ian Solla-Yates. More to follow.

Lyle Solla-Yates

Worldchanging: Bright Green: London's Cycle Superhighways: Hopes for the Future of the New Blue Network

2. Albemarle County. 2000. “Albemarle County Historic Preservation Plan.”http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=planning&relpage=2463

2. Albemarle County. 2000. “Albemarle County Historic Preservation Plan.”
http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=planning&relpage=2463