Breakfast links: States like it, commentators don’t

High-speed, Baltimore to Richmond, bit by bit

Both Virginia and Maryland will apply for some of the federal government’s $8 billion high-speed rail money. Virginia wants about $75 million, for a third track over a segment of the rail line paralleling I-95, and will apply for more in October. Maryland has a $360 million package to fix or replace bridges, tunnels, signals and more along the Washington-Baltimore corridor. (WBJ)

From bad to worse quality commentary

Harvard’s Ed Glaeser has been picking on high-speed rail in a New York Times blog for the last few weeks with poorly thought-out arguments that Ryan Avent has been patiently refuting. Yesterday, Robert Samuelson rolled Glaeser’s arguments into a an even sloppier piece with the faulty syllogism that since a) Amtrak has gotten subsidies in the past and b) rail in this country isn’t amazing, then c) spending money on trains must be wasteful while all car spending is great. Avent refutes once again. (Post, Streetsblog, Chris R)  (Tip: Chris R)

Loudoun mega-sprawl plan on foreclosure block

A real estate company assembled 4,100 acres in eastern Loudoun and heavily lobbied county leaders to let them build 15,000 houses of suburban sprawl. Instead, today all their land may be auctioned off in foreclosure, unless the company files bankruptcy or works out a deal. (Post, Cavan)  (Tip: Cavan)

Sign them up

Where do Metro’s signs come from? The Post profiles Metro’s sign shop and the workers who print and assemble replacements for the system’s 127,000 signs. (Michael P)

Who needs Central Park?

Reader Charles sent along this entertaining plan for converting Central Park into an airport. They’ll preserve park icons like the Strawberry Fields’ “Imagine” mosaic inside the terminal. Of course, it’s a hoax (if nothing else, planes can’t land so close to huge skyscrapers), but sometimes we hear serious proposals that are almost as bizarre, like widening 14th Street. (More on that later this morning.) (Manhattan Airport, The Airline Blog)

More from Maryland

A National Pinball Museum in Silver Spring? (Silver Spring, Singular, Michael) … Preservationists are trying to save important sites in Prince George’s County’s African-American history (Post) … A man pushed a drunk pedestrian into traffic in Rockville, where cars hit him; prosecutors couldn’t get manslaughter but won a 9-month prison sentence. (Gazette)

As least we have SmarTrip

Important SmarTrip upgrades for Metro have been frustratingly delayed, but we’re relatively ahead of the curve: Philadelphia’s SEPTA has again delayed plans to implement a smartcard program, and won’t finally get one for at least “several years.” (Philadelphia Enquirer, Ken Archer)  (Tip: Ken Archer)