Half a Train is No Train: Who Will Pick Up the Bill?

October 26, 2010 Leave a comment

The Federal government will not seed enough money to start construction of a high speed train in Florida.  Even if the Orlando-Tampa section is built, it will bring huge operating deficits, and who will pay for the deficits, but the taxpayers of Florida.  It is conceded that for the high speed train to be “profitable” it will need to include the longest section from Orlando to Miami. Even when completed you may expect to pay substantial operating subsidies.  But at this rate the Orlando-Miami section likely will not be built in our lifetime.

There is no passenger train system or subway in the US that does not operate without taxpayer subsidies.  Washington, DC has one of the most successful and beautiful subway systems in the US and it is still being expanded; taxpayers are paying  about half of the operating costs of that system.

Miami has a great unfinished subway system and it will not be completed as promised.

[Even the great little train at MIA that, finally, is running, took years to complete and came in way over cost.]

Until we have a true federal or regional transportation authority that gets the trains running and that subsidizes trains along with highways and cars, the trains will always be singularly costly projects.

Filed under Florida, Government, Taxes and Fees

Brutally Honest Evaluation of International Private and Public Assistance to Haiti

October 25, 2010 Leave a comment

This report provides a fundamentally accurate analyses of the failures of private and public international assistance in Haiti.  The recovery of this sad country will take years, if not decades, and external help is missing many of the fundamental keys to effective help.

There is a lot to see in this appraisal and many lessons that have not be learned by those who have tried to help in Haiti over decades.

Read this, but don’t expect to find a pretty picture.

Today, the hospital stands empty, its consulting and operating rooms abandoned, its beds unused, its scanners gathering dust, its two brand new ambulances sitting under tarpaulins in the yard. On April 1, owner Reynold Savain was forced to close CDTI because neither the Haitian nor U.S. governments, nor the United Nations, would agree to help pay his bills.

via Special report: Is aid doing Haiti more harm than good? | Reuters.

Filed under Government, International, Nonprofits

Two Resignations Today: School Reformer Michelle Rhee (DC) and City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez (Coral Gables)

October 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Rhee made a serious attempt at reforming education in Washington, DC; and Hernandez is leaving a highly debatable legacy in Coral Gables.

Rhee’s goals – higher student achievement, better teachers and greater accountability for their classroom performance – were generally shared by Rhee’s predecessors. But with new powers putting the struggling school system under mayoral control, Rhee pursued the goals with an unprecedented zeal.

She closed more than two dozen schools, fired teachers by the hundreds and spent more than two years negotiating a labor contract that gives principals new control over teacher hiring while establishing a new performance-pay system that ties compensation to growth on student test scores.

via D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to announce resignation Wednesday.

 

Source re resignation of city attorney:  see George Volsky (article received via email), CITY ATTORNEY RESIGNS,  Oct. 12

Filed under Coral Gables, Government, Organization

Leaf Blowers–Less Air Please

October 6, 2010 Leave a comment

Mr. Cabrera introduced an ordinance to prohibit gasoline leaf blowers in Coral Gables.  But the city and its contractors and event organizers are exempted.  Electric-powered leaf blowers are allowed.

Mr. Kerdyk was skeptical that the citizens would think it fair that the city and its contractors should be exempt.

One citizen pointed out that an electrical leaf blower is just as noisy as gasoline blower.  I am inclined to believe that that is right.  (Have you ever used one of those high speed hand dryers in the mall restroom?)  Alternatively, I am also inclined to think that lawn contractors might use small lawnmowers to move around the trash and leaves–almost as noisy.

Certainly, in the face of budget deficits, unfunded pension liabilities, union negotiations and impasse hearings, taxpayers paying higher property taxes and fees, failure of the Biltmore lease, unemployment, declining property values and a new economic development district at the University of Miami, leaf blowers is one of the great pending issues of our time.

Filed under Community, Coral Gables, Government

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