Breakfast links: The blind spot
By Tom Toles. See the entire cartoon.
Found it
Tom Toles highlights the root of Metro’s problems. (Post)
Turns out it was unsafe after all
An Asheville firefighter passed a mom and dad biking down the road, with a child in a bike seat behind the dad. He thought it was unsafe, so he spoke his mind to the couple. When they didn’t comply, he SHOT THE DAD. (Asheville Citizen-Times, Jeff Peel)
Against big government, except at VDOT?
The Arlington GOP attacks the County’s plan to take over Columbia Pike, calling it a “power grab” to “silence criticism” of the “questionable proposal for a Pike streetcar” that would “add to gridlock on the Pike.” For some reason the item only appears on their RSS feed. Don’t Republicans oppose big, centralized government? Now VDOT’s bureaucracy and one-size-fits-all approach to planning is a bastion of conservative values? (Joshua D) (Tip: Joshua D)
Sun says “lose the lanes”
Following its news story and blog posts questioning the I-270 widening, the Baltimore Sun editorializes against the project, saying it would “also run counter to virtually all of Maryland’s goals for environmental protection, community preservation and planned growth” and “serve little purpose other than turning Frederick into a bedroom community of Washington, a trend that eats up farmland and puts more pollution into the air and water.”
Now the traffic and megachurch reserve?
Frederick County officials delayed approval of a giant megachurch on the Frederick-Montgomery line. Montgomery Executive Ike Leggett endorsed the plan, even though it puts the entrance inside Montgomery County and therefore will create lots of traffic in and around the Agricultural Reserve. The church is currently located in Silver Spring. (Post)
Tidbits from a secret meeting
At yesterday’s budget discussion, Jim Graham suggested raising the parking tax, Marion Barry added that it hasn’t risen in years, and Jack Evans said “shhh.” (@SegravesWTOP) Unfortunately, we don’t know more, as the Council banned everyone except a few reporters and Tommy Wells tried to convince the reporters not to Twitter.
One intersection “repaired,” more to go
After a medical student was killed crossing a well-known dangerous intersection on foot in New Haven, neighbors turned out to paint a mural on the ground in the middle of the intersection, a traffic calming technique. Neighbors still have a long list of other instersections that could use this “repair.” Where’s the city’s traffic engineering department, by the way? (New Haven Independent, Stephen Miller) (Tip: Stephen Miller)
Your childhood neighborhood affects your income
If kids of middle class parents grow up in a poor neighborhood, they’re much more likely to “slip down the income ladder” and make less than their parents than kids of similarly middle-class parents in middle-income neighborhoods, says a Pew study. The good news: policies that invest in those neighborhoods and reduce the poverty rate also significantly cut down on this effect. (Post, Lynda) (Tip: Lynda)