If you haven’t gotten lost, you haven’t driven in SF.

Boy, you got that right.

Japan and France have done it. It is so wonderful to think that we are less evolved, technologically and politically than the cultures that brought us the bikini and Hello, Kitty!

“(Lots of commuters live in cheaper housing south, then drive to SF for work.)” May be a mistaken idea. New housing East of SF has pricing closer to Abq. west side prices. East side Abq. and SF proper prices are comparable. My feeling is that most people who live in the south and commute do so because as a top 40 city, Abq. has more to offer culturally, and a greater variety of (non-art) commercial shopping, better schools, and last but not least, a city laid out upon a grid system instead of cow trails. If you haven’t gotten lost, you haven’t driven in SF.

What’s the matter with these people, the producers of Taken for a Ride I mean? Don’t they understand the concept of price elasticity? What individual is going to rent this for $55? And when you can buy most movies right off first run for $25 or less, what individual will purchase this for $225? They would probably do much better financially by dropping their purchase prices by an order of magnitude and striking a licensing deal with Netflix. From Netflix’s 10-K form at the latter link:

We acquire titles from studios and distributors through direct purchases, revenue sharing agreements or license agreements. Direct purchases of DVDs normally result in higher upfront costs than titles obtained through revenue sharing agreements.

It’s no wonder that this important documentary is not available on Netflix if they have to buy it for the $225 they charge “institutions” (colleges and universities), assuming they’ll even sell it to a for-profit company for that price.

After 8 years of Bush (really, 28 years going back to Reagan in 1980), there’s nothing but opportunity for Obama’s administration as far as I’m concerned. There’s a lot that could be done, and much of it involves improved community and building design, and there’s a pretty solid body of research showing that translates into improved safety.

One of the things that cities seldom do is bring their cops in to sit in on the planning projects; a smart cop can add a lot of value to a project by spotting potential safety problems that designers can then address from the earliest stages. Those involve things as simple as landscaping — and both safety and ‘amenities’ like plants lead to higher property values.

Phoenix’ system will probably follow what has happened in many other communities. For the first 5 years development will seem slow, after that time the cumulative effect will be obvious. The other circumstance that will affect the rate of development will be the price of oil. Once the economy begins to recover it’s likely to rise again. The rise had the effect of pushing many homeowners in distant exurbs over the edge financially. Places like Palmdale are nearly ghost towns while areas near the rail transit in LA are thriving.

It will be a combination of factors some of which we won’t know for some time, ie. economic recovery in the US.

Obama has promised ‘green jobs’ programs. Development near transit stops will definitely rate more funding under this program than the sprawl we’ve experienced since WWII.

Medium-range high-speed intercity rail–for distances like that between LA and SF or, for that matter, Phoenix and LA–is a very practical idea. The only thing that has held it back is political opposition.