Archive for September, 2007
Dwellings
Here in Brookland, 12th Street is the main drag and primary commercial strip. While it could be in better shape–many storefronts remain empty, or are home to bargain basement takeout restaurants serving food from behind bulletproof Plexiglas–there have been recent positive developments. A new coffee shop, Cafe Sureia, is open. A Yes! organic grocery store [...]
What to Expect from Rail
Via Richard Layman, I saw this editorial in the New York Times on the status of rail in New York State. More funding for rail is obviously something I can get behind, but there were a few points in the editorial with which I took issue. First: Rail lines are the most promising solution to [...]
Quizzical
Everybody’s talking about this civic literacy quiz. Apparently, Harvard’s incoming freshman are performing very poorly on it. So, how do you guys stack up? I missed two questions, unfortunately. Things I did not know: The Puritans stressed the sinfulness of all humanity. According to just-war theory, a just war requires the authority of a legitimate [...]
No Retrocession
Ross Douthat directs Matt to a National Review editorial advocating for retrocession of the District to Maryland. It’s not surprising that conservatives support retrocession; it’s clearly the best outcome for them politically. I’m a little surprised to see Matt note that, “This probably is the best choice.” I would humbly disagree, for several reasons. The [...]
The Bull is Taking Charge
Now is a pretty stupid time to be a housing bull, according to David Leonhardt and just about everybody else. Obviously, some places around the country are in for some pretty ugly declines, but I don’t think that most of the country should expect similar devastation. Maybe prices will only hold steady or inch up, [...]
Democracy
So, a majority of the House of Representatives and a majority of the Senate are in favor of giving the District of Columbia a voting congressperson, provided the Supreme Court approves. Result? No District congressperson.
Lame
Dear Reason, Apropos this: Free Exchange over at The Economist website is discussing the role of government policy in influencing fertility. They argue that if governments want to influence people to have more children, they should spend more on roads to foster a suburban lifestyle. I would conjecture that causality is exactly the opposite: people [...]
Traffic
This is why its so important to connect transportation with development planning. If you build your city in such a way that everyone lives 30 miles from their place of business, then you’re going to have these problems. And if you insist upon building lots of big roads out into the rural wilds, then you’re [...]
Vote With Your Money
Matt notes that another political prediction market is open, and happily for economists, the prices have rapidly converged to those seen at other political exchanges. My question is this: as they all give Hillary about a 67 percent chance of taking the nomination, with Obama far behind at around 18 percent, what are the political [...]
Question
Obviously a moot point, since the Skins won and JC threw the ball to Hershey, but I’m trying to decide, was Al Saunders’ call to throw deep on second down, late in the fourth quarter, with an eight point lead the best decision ever, or the worst?