The Grandstanding Old Party

Well, the house has voted to defund National Public Radio. The GOP, in the best tradition of ignoring pressing matters and shamelessly grandstanding for its base, is going after NPR with the same righteous vigor it once did flag burners and people who exercise their constitutional right to worship where they please.

The action follows Andrew Breitbart's exposure of an NPR fundraiser expressing his personal opinion, in what he thought was a private conversation, that Tea Partiers are racists. Now, if he can just catch a government-funded researcher dishing on Sarah Palin, maybe we can get busy with shutting down the National Science Foundation!

It's too bad, really, as NPR affiliates around the country engage in a type of local news coverage and public advocacy you won't get from any other source. They'll continue to do it, but it will be harder now.

Here's how the local votes went down: Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Pitts, Runyan and Smith voted yes. Andrews, Brady, Carney, Fattah, Holden and Schwartz voted no.

The pittance saved is nothing compared to what could be achieved by a host of other initiatives ignored by the Republican-controlled congress, such as mandating Amazon and other Internet retailers collect sales tax on behalf of their customers. As noted last week by The Huffington Post's Nathan Newman, the loss in state revenues from this brand of unequal taxation translates to a greater burden on lower-income families.

If you missed it, be sure to watch this hilarious video of New York's Anthony Weiner, mocking the calling of a special session to vote on defunding NPR:

King of Prussia, By Rail

I learned today in the Inquirer that there's been talk for years of extending the Norristown High-Speed Line (the Rt. 100 trolley) to King of Prussia Mall. The proposal for a 4.9-mile spur will get a "renewed look" this spring as Upper Merion Township launches a locally-funded nonprofit planning initiative charged with researching and implementing improvements in the area.

King of Prussia Mall attracts 25 million visitors a year. Even with the current, somewhat awkward public transit set-up (I can get to the mall without a car by taking the high-speed line to the Gulph Mills stop, then a bus to KOP), a whopping 7,500 people use SEPTA every day to get to King of Prussia, according to the article.

This seems like a no-brainer in terms of viability. Many years ago, transportation companies used to put amusement parks at the terminus of their urban-suburban trolley lines to attract riders (the wonderful Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh is a surviving example). How much more of a built-in demand would there be, then, for an easy one-seat ride to one of North America's largest malls?

Make it easier and relatively stress-free to visit, and KOP might find a whole new customer base, as well as help solve intractable traffic and safety problems. I hope this line finally gets built.

The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Early Conclusions

Newspaper reports detail Japan's amazing infrastructure preparations for just such a catastrophe: the regular drills in coastal towns, warning systems that alert individual households, the special footpaths and escape routes leading to higher ground, state-of-the-art engineering allowing high rises and residential buildings to withstand tremors, coastal and river floodwalls, etc.

One resident of Tokyo testifies today on the New York Times website:

The shaking went on for so long that I had ample time to get up, put my shoes on and go out onto the emergency stairs. The neighborhood -- largely 3-15 story buildings -- looked like a set of children's blocks teetering on a shaken table. It looked more dreamlike than scary ... After what must have been 2 or 3 minutes, the neighborhood public address system came online with a cheerful, slightly inappropriate recorded message: "This is Sumida City. Just now, a large earthquake happened. Please be careful."

It was only when I turned on the television and saw live footage of a tsunami closing in on cars driving down the road that I understood the severity of what happened.

We seem not to have woken to the need for such infrastructure improvements in the U.S. Our entire west coast is part of the same "ring of fire" that circles the Pacific, of which Japan is a part. There is no reason—other than shortsightedness and right-wing aversion to federal spending on effective public works solutions—that we should not be able to prepare for what one day, inevitably, will come.

I-95 Should Go

Saw a show on PBS last night about Oregon's land use laws and how they have encouraged dense, urban-scale development while minimizing sprawl around the city. It mentioned how Portland used to have a freeway running alongside, and cutting the downtown off from, its river. When it was proposed that the artery be widened, residents not only rallied to stop that project, but—amazingly—got the whole damn thing ripped up and moved. It's been called the single best thing ever done for the city, and a major reason for Portland's downtown revival.

It reminded me of a very memorable front page piece in the Inquirer by Inga Saffron that ran way back in 2002. She brought up Portland as an example of how it's possible to undo what seems a permanent blight to Philadelphia's waterfront. Since that article originally ran, we've had the completion of the "Big Dig" in Boston. Even if we did not tear up 95 altogether (which, after all, doesn't even provide a direct connection to New York because it peters out in Princeton), Philly could restore its riverfront for a fraction of the Big Dig's cost simply by putting a little bit of the freeway into a tunnel.

Saffron's article was called "I-95's stranglehold on riverfront" and was published 11/17/02. Worth the $2.50 to purchase through the archives: http://bit.ly/fysYBr