Still More Images Showing NFL Stadiums Rarely, If Ever Stimulate Growth

NRG Stadium (Formerly Reliant Stadium) Houston, Texas - opened 2002

The paid shill for The Pittsburgh Stadium Authority responded to my earlier visual evidence posts.

Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee - opened 1999 

Levis Stadium, Santa Clara, California- opened 2014 

AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas - opened 2009

He pointed out, a few images showed older stadiums and that the newer ones fit better into an urban context. Sadly, images of most newer stadiums hardly prove his point. Hard to see much growth in these shots.

Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts - Opened 2002

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina- opened 1996

NFL stadiums belong in the suburbs

More Visual Evidence, Stadiums Rarely Stimulate Growth

Sports Authority Field, Denver, Colorado 

Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium Parking, Baltimore, Maryland

Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana 

Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium, Florida

Tropicana Field, St, Petersburg, Florida 

Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas 

Metlife Stadium, New Jersey

Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California 

Another hidden cost of sprawl as road salt contaminates streams

Most of us are just starting to face the cost of reparing our sprawling infrastructure, but dozens of other costs still are not widely acknowledged.

From The Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Leftover salt has unsavory outcome for municipalities

"If we brought (the salt) out here, we'd have to cover it with tarps. No matter how well we stored it, we'd probably have less salt by the time next winter rolls around because of water runoff," Getz said, adding that presents environmental concerns because a stream is nearby.

In July, a water-main break beneath a storage area in South Park washed tons of salt into adjacent Peters Creek and killed hundreds of fish.

The township's storage area is an old Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel, about 175 feet long and 20 feet high. Today, it holds about 2,000 tons of salt, which piles to the ceiling through much of the tunnel.

From The Columbus Dispatch:

Road salt is polluting Ohio drinking water

Since 2009, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has found rainwater runoff from road-salt piles fouling public and private wells in five Ohio communities. Though not considered a health threat, the salty taste of drinking water grew so bad that the village of Camden in Preble County had to abandon its wells.

“After you get to a certain level, you can certainly tell there is a change in the taste,” said Melissa Williams, the Preble County health commissioner. “It will corrode your plumbing fixtures, also.”

The issue has Ohio EPA officials dealing with a new type of pollution that’s not specifically covered by environmental law.

Keeping America's Failing Road System Alive

Taking the train to NY on Pittsburgh's original rail link to the world takes more than 9 long hours which gives one plenty of time to think about the decline of America's rail infrastructure and the coming decline of it's competitor-- the government funded highway system.

People already worried about the woes of the housing bubble, the cost of the Fed's bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac and the city of Pittsburgh's debt might not be happy about finding out there are a lot more liabilities and unbacked promises still under the torn up rug. The word "Trust Fund" is usually a good clue that a big unfunded liability lies under your feet.

The LA Times has a nice story on a funny situation the government is in as people start to drive less and move towards fuel efficient cars.

"The result: The principal source of funding for highway projects will soon hit a big financial pothole. The federal highway trust fund could be in the red by $3.2 billion or more next year.

The fund, set to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, is increasingly strained. And the problem has taken on greater urgency as lawmakers face a backlog of projects to maintain the nation's aging interstate highway system and ease traffic congestion.

"The situation has only been exacerbated by rising fuel prices, which are causing motorists to drive less and resulting in less revenue for transportation improvements," said David Bauer, senior vice president for government relations at the American Road and Transportation Builders Assn."

One is reminded of the situation the government is in as a major player in the cigarette business. Allegedly, they want people to stop smoking but at the same time they rely heavily on cigarette tax revenues.

President Bush had a particularly bizarre plan to fill the hole in road funding by actually cutting Mass Transit subsidies at a time when use of this far more efficient mode of transportation is exploding. Of course this is why we need the government to be involved in the first place. Projects that make financial sense will be paid for by private investors, but we need the government to sustain those that make no sense.

The Last Days Of The American Suburb: A Few Thoughts On The Housing Bubble

At first it was hard to discern, but the fallout pattern of the housing bubble is starting to take shape leaving evidence even the main stream media can see. For the last 6-7 years in NYC, the cities insane real estate prices brought talk of a crash. So now, the bombs gone off and a funny thing has happened. It turns out that "Alpha City" urban real estate is still close to bullet proof and instead we are seeing the worst effects shaking suburban and exurban markets.

Yesterday's Times took a look at the market in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"To make matters worse, these outlying suburbs were built on the premise of cheap gasoline, says Keith G. Debbage, a geography professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who tracks the local economy. With gas at $4 a gallon, he says, “travel costs are now a serious consideration.” Oak Ridge and Summerfield are bedroom communities, he notes, and many commuters drive 30 to 45 minutes each way to jobs in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. “People are doing a serious rethinking of where they live,” he adds.

Now reality has caught up with the hopes that animated so many real estate markets around the country. When the Tillmans moved down to Greensboro from Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., four years ago and discovered these fast-growing suburbs, Mrs. Tillman says, “we thought we’d be flipping homes. Now there’s just so much inventory out there.”"

The article also mentions people hopefully awaiting lower gas prices. Perhaps they went to public schools and don't know the size of India and China? Gas is still cheap!!!

Earlier, The Atlantic Monthly laid out a grimmer and more complete painting of just how archaic and poorly positioned the average suburb is to deal with the needs of an aging population and the effects of rising energy prices.It's called, "The Next Slum?"

"The decline of places like Windy Ridge and Franklin Reserve is usually attributed to the subprime-mortgage crisis, with its wave of foreclosures. And the crisis has indeed catalyzed or intensified social problems in many communities. But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing market—a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work. It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. And its effects will be felt more strongly, and more broadly, as the years pass. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound.

Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, has looked carefully at trends in American demographics, construction, house prices, and consumer preferences. In 2006, using recent consumer research, housing supply data, and population growth rates, he modeled future demand for various types of housing. The results were bracing: Nelson forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today."

Pittsburgh's Sprawl Problem

Bill O'Driscoll has a nice short story about the effects of our misguided, government funded and enforced development pattern which is at the root of our wastefull lifesyle.

"Jim Hassinger, executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, led off by discussing Project Region, the group's effort to chart its 10-county territory's preferred future. Over two years, with input from 3,000 citizens, Hassinger says the SPC discovered a public preference for more compact, higher-density development.

"Thus, the SPC's long-range plan -- the region's blueprint for funding things like infrastructure and economic development -- leans toward revitalizing existing communities and preserving open space, in contrast to the low-density, bedroom-suburb-and-strip-mall model that has characterized growth in the region (and the country) for decades.

This was music to critics of the SPC's history of favoring highway-based development. Meanwhile, the conference's keynote speech by renowned metropolitan land-use strategist, author and real-estate developer Christopher Leinberger announced that communities designed to be more compact and walkable -- and hence more environmentally friendly -- are also the market's future. "The market basically is switching," he said, citing increases not only in fuel prices but in people who prefer urban living."

I'll be back on this subject again soon.