High Speed Rail Coming to the U.S.

30 04 2009
high_speed_rail

Photo from U.S. Department of Transportation

Surprisingly, the United States has never quite adopted rail as public transit as much as one might expect.  While places such as Australia or Europe have adopted rail transit as an important cog in their public transit infrastructure, America has never really adopted it the same way.  However, that could change with the addition of high speed rail.  US President Barack Obama has been pushing for high speed rail and it truly sounds like more of a reality now.

The high speed rail network could include trains that reach speeds up to 240 km/h (150 mph).  The first corridors planned in ones in major tourist states such as Florida or California.  According to this BBC article, the following routes are planned:

  • California corridor : Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego
  • Pacific Northwest corridor : Eugene, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver British Columbia
  • South Central corridor : Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Little Rock
  • Gulf Coast corridor : Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta
  • Chicago hub network : Chicago, Milwaukee, Twin Cities, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville
  • Florida corridor : Orlando, Tampa, Miami
  • Southeast corridor : Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Macon, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville
  • Keystone corridor : Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh
  • Empire corridor : New York City, Albany, Buffalo
  • Northern New England corridor : Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield, New Haven, Albany

This is most definitely an expensive proposition, but is aimed at making individuals less car dependent for longer distances of travel and may in the end have higher payoffs.  Perhaps America will become a rail nation afterall?


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Dubai: The City of Controversy

22 04 2009

dubai-cranes

Anyone even a little bit familiar with Dubai knows about the insane amount of new developments going on in the city.  Any picture of the city showcases a skyline full of cranes.  There is of course a lot of controversy surrounding the city whether it comes from it’s mistreatment of it’s working class (generally Indian construction workers) or the growing divide between the ex-pats and the locals.

But I want to touch on another bit of controversy.  Certain new developments have sparked controversy in the city for one reason are another and I thought i’d bring to light a few of them:

1) The revolving apartment tower

http://wcbstv.com/national/dubai.david.fisher.2.756027.html

The first question that comes to my mind is whether such a structure is actually safe.  And why test it out on such an enormously tall structure first.  There have already been safety concerns over some of the other new developments happening in Dubai and this one would likely top the list.

2) Replicas of some of our greatest structures

http://burjdubaiskyscraper.com/2006/al-bawadi/al-bawadi.html

This project takes what Las Vegas has done to the extreme.  I really don’t find anything wrong with creating a mock of such things as an English village (like at Disney World), but this takes the whole thing one step further.  This whole project reaks of inauthenticity and is a very poor use of money for such novelties.

3) The World

http://www.theworld.ae/

This is perhaps the most famous of the three projects.  For those not in the know, the project is essentially a series of islands off the Dubai coast in the shape of the world.  The trouble with this one is the potential environmental impacts it has on the ecosystem in and around Dubai.  One has to wonder given Dubai’s reputation with other projects, whether such a project may have these adverse side effects.  Time will tell since this project is going ahead.

To some people, Dubai may be cutting edge.  To others, it’s just tacky.  But as a whole it has sparked a lot of controversy with it’s people and it’s surrounding environment.  As amazing as these projects sound, one has to wonder at what cost building such things will have?


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Rent Control: The Ever Contentious Issue

17 04 2009

Based on whether one is a renter or a property investor, it is very easy to take a certain stance of rent control.  The rather long blog post in Market Urbanism takes the side of the property investor, which makes it a very biased read, but it’s not without it’s merits.  The arguments against rent control do make sense.  Rent control allows tenants to abuse it and lowers the supply for other potential renters.  Yet, i’ve always felt those opposed to rent control had another agenda when they’ve argued against it.  Let’s not forget that rent control generally helps those that need the help more and places them more in a position of power (eg. the renters).

According to the blog post, rent control still remains a popular idea in such major states in the U.S. as California and New York (two states where rent prices are most likely to get out of control).  But the concept is still a declining one.  The blog post lays out many arguments opposing rent control such as the obvious one mentioned above and even more unknown effects like as the growth of discrimination when choosing renters or the decrease of mobility for skilled workers.  And despite being mainly pro rent control (I am a renter after all), Market Urbanism brings up some great points.  And thus the debate continues…


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Is it truly a buyers market? Not so much in Toronto.

5 04 2009

As a young inidividual in his mid 20′s looking to purcahse a home in the next couple of years, I will be honest that I welcome the drop in home prices over the last year.  Most of us are aware that the prices of homes were way too high and increasing at too much of an alarming rate to really hold on to the momentum of the last couple of years.  Realistically, a buyer should be looking at homes or condominiums worth 3 to 4 times their current income and in places like New York City, San Francisco, London and Vancouver, that was becoming an impossible reality.

Yet, what’s interesting about this recent Globe and Mail article is buyers in my hometown of Toronto still feel like prices haven’t fallen nearly enough as they should.  And that may very well be true.  But one must look at how sharp the price increases were in the first place.  A visit to guava.ca instantly shows that Toronto never went through the same kind of bubble many other places did.  What goes up must come down.  But the slower it went up, the slower it is likely to come down.  With that being said, the unfortunate reality of our current housing situation is some individuals must take the hit (as unfair as it may be) and let’s face it anyone who bought a home in the last couple of years and is looking to sell now as an investment is foolish.  It will (and rightfully should) take many years for the housing prices to reach what they were 2 years ago (though i’m sure there will be new housing bubbles to take place of the old ones when the recession ends).


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