Peter - lots of good ideas, though the politics won't work yet. May your tribe increase. BillR
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter Frederick Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 8:50 PM To: Mercedes Discussion List Subject: Re: [MBZ] Another reason to stay home Well, there is a solution (actually, the same one I've been suggesting for 30 years or more....) Stop building roads, of any kind, at once. Spend the highway trust fund money on de-suburbanization -- for an example, take a look at any community near a large city built before 1948 -- a main street with a commercial district and the mass transit line (bus, trolley, etc) down the middle, with housing varying from inexpensive mulitple unit near the main street to high dollar large lot single family at the outside. Require banks to quit financing new construction at better rates than existing homes (if you haven't noticed, the vast majority of "subprime" loans are for city housing....) Stop zoning for parking. Anywhere, any place, any time. Nationalize the railbeds (not the railroads, just the rails themselves -- note that the Railroads currently pay property tax on the roadbed) and build a rational one (sorta like the interstate highway system instead of the hodge-podge we have). Set up a national passenger service that actually moves passengers for transit instead of an excursion service. This requires high speed, concrete set (not wooden crossties in gravel) rail bed. Another use for the highway trust fund money. Start taxing fuel use, increasing it rather steeply until it's $5-6 a gallon. Require zoning law changes so that new construction MUST be contiguous with current mass transit. No more isolated suburbs, no more way out in the country businesses -- we ain't gonna be driving to work any more, we HAVE to be able to use mass transit. A very large and annually repeating severance tax for converting farm land to any other use. I'm hoping that the severity of the fuel crisis will finally persuade people that one should NOT take advice about zoning and community development from people who make money off urban sprawl. Probably not a snowball's chance in the bad place any of this will happen, though, we all worship the "free market".... Peter _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
