Libertarian Planning

Wow, this is cool. Jane Jacobs and Ken Greenberg boiled urban planning into two rules:

  1. New buildings must not be set back from the street
  2. New buildings must not exceed the height of existing buildings

Aside from these two rules, anything else is allowed. It's libertarian urban planning.

This is awesome. It requires buildings to address the street (one of the must crucial features of a walkable neighborhood) and not overpower their surroundings. The essence of livable places in just two simple rules.

(Via City Comforts)

— June 29, 2004

The Electoral Calculus of Iraq

Josh Marshall: The economy does continue to be an advantage for the president. But Iraq -- and the myriad of assumptions, policies and repercussions it represents -- is what this election is all about. I take it as a given that virtually no Gore voters from 2000 will pull the lever for Bush. But how many lightly-committed Bush voters from 2000 will hold him to account if they believe he gambled big and gambled unwisely with America's honor and safety, and came up short? I think more than a few. And since there were more Gore voters than Bush voters last time anyway, well ...

— June 29, 2004

Those Wacky Greens

And they say Democrats hate America? I like the part about voting for a guy who's been dead for 75 years (Actually, in my small dealings with Green party leaders, they seem to have some sort of obsession with Eugene V. Debs.).
For Greens, roll call of states is more like a litany of sins
Chuck Haga, Star Tribune
June 29, 2004 GREEN0629
MILWAUKEE -- At the Green Party national convention here on Saturday, state delegations paraded to floor microphones to announce their votes for a presidential nominee, and it was just like listening to the Republicans and Democrats.
Well, almost.
Major-party convention halls usually ring with unabashed pride and self-promotion as vote announcers remind everyone that "the great state of [fill-in-the-blank]" is home to this sainted man or that unparalleled mountain range.
At the Greens' convention, though, the spin was a little different. Delegates were told, for example, that "the great state of Indiana" extends "from the shores of polluted Lake Michigan in the north to the clear-cut banks of the Ohio River in the south, with many other sins in between."
Before casting its votes, New York trumpeted itself as "home of Wall Street and unbridled corporate greed."
And the great state of Minnesota? It is, delegate Kellie Burriss of Minneapolis intoned, "the land of 10,000 lakes and the Boundary Waters -- as well as the home of the Prairie Island nuclear power plant."
The reference to nuclear power drew a chorus of boos from the Greens, but that changed to loud, sustained cheers when Burriss read out the state's votes, which included "one vote for Eugene Debs," cast by delegate Wade Hannon of Moorhead, a teacher and counselor.
Debs, who died in 1926, was a fierce critic of the established order and five-time Socialist Party candidate for president. In 1908, he stumped the nation on a train dubbed the Red Special. In 1920, he campaigned from a federal prison cell after being convicted under espionage laws for speaking against World War I.
When the convention chairman repeated Minnesota's vote totals, ending with "one vote for Eugene Debs," the hall erupted with cheers again.

— June 29, 2004