Subdivision’s paving woes highlight gray area in enforcement | The Courier-Tribune: The developer owns the road up to the point where the state takes it over. The state will not take the road over, even if it is up to spec, until a certain threshold of habitation is reached — a minimum of two houses per one-tenth mile, according to Jeff Loflin, county N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) engineer. So, in the interim, the developer should be motivated to keep the road up, in theory.
The reality
Stauffer is experiencing what happens when the theory breaks down.
It breaks down, most often, when a developer goes bankrupt or leaves a subdivision uncompleted because he or she has moved on to a more lucrative project. Short of suing the developer, the homeowners typically have few options other than taking over road maintenance themselves.
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This is the point where the intergovernmental relationship as the perfessor termed it in his seminal 1994 book Privatopia reaches a dead end. NCDOT is using a similar formula that privately owned cable companies use in determining where they will build infrastructure -- a formula that creates winners (and lots of losers), leaving many without needed infrastructure.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition - The Washington Post
White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition - The Washington Post:
"With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs.
The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.
Though some older segments of the network — notably the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes and Interstate 95 in Maryland and Interstate 495 in Virginia — are toll roads, most of the 46,876-mile system has been toll-free."
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The Republican strategy of refusing to let Obama fix any problem, under any circumstances, pays off again. Now they are turning the interstate highways into toll roads, which should make Rand Paul happy. Now if only they can figure out how to charge us for the air we breathe...
This decision will be a huge boon to the privatization industry, which will step forward and propose a big cash payment (that will turn out to be not so big) for the right to lease the interstate highways and run them as private toll roads.
"With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs.
The proposal, contained in a four-year, $302 billion White House transportation bill, would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.
Though some older segments of the network — notably the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes and Interstate 95 in Maryland and Interstate 495 in Virginia — are toll roads, most of the 46,876-mile system has been toll-free."
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The Republican strategy of refusing to let Obama fix any problem, under any circumstances, pays off again. Now they are turning the interstate highways into toll roads, which should make Rand Paul happy. Now if only they can figure out how to charge us for the air we breathe...
This decision will be a huge boon to the privatization industry, which will step forward and propose a big cash payment (that will turn out to be not so big) for the right to lease the interstate highways and run them as private toll roads.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
To Water Or Not To Water? Residents Getting Mixed Messages Amid Drought --CBS Los Angeles
To Water Or Not To Water? Residents Getting Mixed Messages Amid Drought CBS Los Angeles
The message from the state: overwater your lawn and you get fined. The message from the city of Glendora: underwater your lawn and you get fined. It's sort of a Goldilocks drought watering policy.
The message from the state: overwater your lawn and you get fined. The message from the city of Glendora: underwater your lawn and you get fined. It's sort of a Goldilocks drought watering policy.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Income Inequality Has Spurred a Boom in Private Security | Mother Jones
Income Inequality Has Spurred a Boom in Private Security | Mother Jones:
"Perhaps this is our dystopian, Piketty-esque future: a small class of ultra-wealthy rentiers; a breakdown of public safety because the rich employ their own private security forces and don't feel like funding anything further; a retainer class of managerial drones; and then everyone else—sullen and resentful, but kept in line by the hard men in dark glasses toting automatic weapons and driving armored limos.
Actually, probably not. Eventually robots will provide better security services than fragile human beings, so the security forces will be out of jobs too."
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Actually, a lot of the private security features in CIDs are automated, such as card key gates and video cameras that are being sort-of semi-watched by some guy a hundred miles away with a hundred TV screens all around him. And a box of doughnuts.
"Perhaps this is our dystopian, Piketty-esque future: a small class of ultra-wealthy rentiers; a breakdown of public safety because the rich employ their own private security forces and don't feel like funding anything further; a retainer class of managerial drones; and then everyone else—sullen and resentful, but kept in line by the hard men in dark glasses toting automatic weapons and driving armored limos.
Actually, probably not. Eventually robots will provide better security services than fragile human beings, so the security forces will be out of jobs too."
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Actually, a lot of the private security features in CIDs are automated, such as card key gates and video cameras that are being sort-of semi-watched by some guy a hundred miles away with a hundred TV screens all around him. And a box of doughnuts.
AG sues state's largest foreclosure law firms alleging massive fraud - The Denver Post
AG sues state's largest foreclosure law firms alleging massive fraud - The Denver Post:
Is there no end to this sort of thing?
"Colorado's largest foreclosure law firms — The Castle Law Group and Aronowitz & Mecklenburg — were slapped with massive civil lawsuits Tuesday by attorney general investigators who say the lawyers operated a multi-million-dollar scheme that defrauded tens of thousands of homeowners, banks, investors and, ultimately, taxpayers.
Principals of the Aronowitz firm, which is second to Castle in the number of foreclosures handled in Colorado, immediately agreed to pay $10 million to settle the case, and will either sell or close its Denver-based law practice in the next six months, according to copies of the settlement filed in Denver district court."
Is there no end to this sort of thing?
"Colorado's largest foreclosure law firms — The Castle Law Group and Aronowitz & Mecklenburg — were slapped with massive civil lawsuits Tuesday by attorney general investigators who say the lawyers operated a multi-million-dollar scheme that defrauded tens of thousands of homeowners, banks, investors and, ultimately, taxpayers.
Principals of the Aronowitz firm, which is second to Castle in the number of foreclosures handled in Colorado, immediately agreed to pay $10 million to settle the case, and will either sell or close its Denver-based law practice in the next six months, according to copies of the settlement filed in Denver district court."
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Downtown L.A. is now driest since rain records started in 1877 - LA Times
Downtown L.A. is now driest since rain records started in 1877 - LA Times:
'Rainy seasons over the last two years were the driest in downtown Los Angeles since record-keeping began in 1877, and forecasters now say the El Nino that had been predicted to bring some relief may not materialize. According to the National Weather Service, the 2012 to 2014 rainy seasons -- which are measured every July 1 to June 30 -- only brought 11.93 inches of rainfall, which is 17.93 inches below normal.'
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Global warming is causing extreme weather patterns that could make life in many US cities quite a challenge. Las Vegas and Phoenix come to mind, but here we see Los Angeles experiencing the effects of severe drought. Contrary to what the article says, NOOA is still predicting El Nino, with a likelihood of 70% in the summer and 80% in the fall, although they say it will be "weak to moderate," so there may be at least some increased rainfall in California. But the main lesson here, which everybody involved insists on learning the hard way, is that cities and real estate developers will have to get more realistic about water availability as a pivotal issue in all new residential development. On the demand side, so will all these snowbirds who think the arid southwest is retirement Eden. Sorry, folks. The golf courses and outdoor fountains will have to be sacrificed at some point, or eventually people will be drinking their own pee like Bear Grylls.
'Rainy seasons over the last two years were the driest in downtown Los Angeles since record-keeping began in 1877, and forecasters now say the El Nino that had been predicted to bring some relief may not materialize. According to the National Weather Service, the 2012 to 2014 rainy seasons -- which are measured every July 1 to June 30 -- only brought 11.93 inches of rainfall, which is 17.93 inches below normal.'
---------------------------
Global warming is causing extreme weather patterns that could make life in many US cities quite a challenge. Las Vegas and Phoenix come to mind, but here we see Los Angeles experiencing the effects of severe drought. Contrary to what the article says, NOOA is still predicting El Nino, with a likelihood of 70% in the summer and 80% in the fall, although they say it will be "weak to moderate," so there may be at least some increased rainfall in California. But the main lesson here, which everybody involved insists on learning the hard way, is that cities and real estate developers will have to get more realistic about water availability as a pivotal issue in all new residential development. On the demand side, so will all these snowbirds who think the arid southwest is retirement Eden. Sorry, folks. The golf courses and outdoor fountains will have to be sacrificed at some point, or eventually people will be drinking their own pee like Bear Grylls.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Don’t Like Your Neighbors’ House? Sue Them. - NYTimes.com
Don’t Like Your Neighbors’ House? Sue Them. - NYTimes.com:
The case in question involves a historic district, not an HOA, but the author goes on a bit of a tangent about HOAs:
"But lawsuits like these fly in the face of American individuality and progress, which the American dream is meant to embody. With each passing year it seems that things like homeowner associations and the various codes, covenants and restrictions they tend to follow have become ever more proscriptive and often ridiculous. People have been sued for not mowing their lawns, or for using exterior paint colors that were not on a list of approved colors."
The case in question involves a historic district, not an HOA, but the author goes on a bit of a tangent about HOAs:
"But lawsuits like these fly in the face of American individuality and progress, which the American dream is meant to embody. With each passing year it seems that things like homeowner associations and the various codes, covenants and restrictions they tend to follow have become ever more proscriptive and often ridiculous. People have been sued for not mowing their lawns, or for using exterior paint colors that were not on a list of approved colors."
How Corporate America Shut the Courthouse Doors to Average People | Blog | BillMoyers.com
How Corporate America Shut the Courthouse Doors to Average People | Blog | BillMoyers.com:
It seems likely to me that within the next few years all standard HOA and condo CC&Rs will contain mandatory binding arbitration provisions for all lawsuits against the developer, the association, the BOD, and the property manager. The Republican majority on the US Supreme Court is perfectly happy to endorse contractual provisions that deprive the consumer of access to the courts.
"Two recent US Supreme Court rulings — AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant have deeply undercut these centuries-old public rights, by empowering businesses to avoid any threat of private lawsuits or class actions. The decisions culminate a thirty-year trend during which the judiciary, including initially some prominent liberal jurists, has moved to eliminate courts as a means for ordinary Americans to uphold their rights against companies. The result is a world where corporations can evade accountability and effectively skirt swaths of law, pushing their growing power over their consumers and employees past a tipping point."
It seems likely to me that within the next few years all standard HOA and condo CC&Rs will contain mandatory binding arbitration provisions for all lawsuits against the developer, the association, the BOD, and the property manager. The Republican majority on the US Supreme Court is perfectly happy to endorse contractual provisions that deprive the consumer of access to the courts.
"Two recent US Supreme Court rulings — AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant have deeply undercut these centuries-old public rights, by empowering businesses to avoid any threat of private lawsuits or class actions. The decisions culminate a thirty-year trend during which the judiciary, including initially some prominent liberal jurists, has moved to eliminate courts as a means for ordinary Americans to uphold their rights against companies. The result is a world where corporations can evade accountability and effectively skirt swaths of law, pushing their growing power over their consumers and employees past a tipping point."
Cities With the Most Abandoned Homes - 24/7 Wall St.
Cities With the Most Abandoned Homes - 24/7 Wall St.:
"In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of homes in foreclosure were abandoned as of the first quarter of 2014. In six of the nation’s most populous metro areas, at least a third of homes in foreclosure were vacant. Based on data provided by housing data website RealtyTrac for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, these are the cities where residents are abandoning their homes.
Median housing prices in all but one of the metro areas with the most vacant homes were among the lowest in the country. In addition, housing prices fell during the last 12 months in four of the 10 cities: Boise, St. Louis, Syracuse, and Wichita. Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, explained that this drop in prices creates a problem for both banks and homeowners because neither wants to hold on to a depreciating asset. This increases the likelihood that homeowners will abandon their homes and banks may find that foreclosing on the home could be more expensive than writing it off."
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21st century ghost towns?
"In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of homes in foreclosure were abandoned as of the first quarter of 2014. In six of the nation’s most populous metro areas, at least a third of homes in foreclosure were vacant. Based on data provided by housing data website RealtyTrac for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, these are the cities where residents are abandoning their homes.
Median housing prices in all but one of the metro areas with the most vacant homes were among the lowest in the country. In addition, housing prices fell during the last 12 months in four of the 10 cities: Boise, St. Louis, Syracuse, and Wichita. Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, explained that this drop in prices creates a problem for both banks and homeowners because neither wants to hold on to a depreciating asset. This increases the likelihood that homeowners will abandon their homes and banks may find that foreclosing on the home could be more expensive than writing it off."
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21st century ghost towns?
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