links for 2006-07-31

• Metropolitan Income: Donuts or Pie Slices?
  Looks like slices.

Lichtman for Senate

Trailing behind Kweisi Mfume and Ben Cardin in the Maryland Democratic Party Senate race, underdog Allen Lichtman is scrambling to get voters’ attention before the September 12th primary. Campaigning under the tagline “Too much government intruding in our private lives, Too Little government meeting our needs,” Lichtman’s platform includes withdrawing troops from Iraq and policies to make higher education more affordable. Today’s Post article describes his scrappy campaign, noting he likes to boast he’d be the only lifelong teacher in the U.S. Senate if elected.

> Post: “Behind the Pack, Lichtman Feels the Heat”
> See the campaign website, myspace, and Facebook group

What is There to do in Portland, Maine?

That’s exactly what I’ve been asked by three separate friends in the last week. Although I do know we Mainers are relatively rare in the Washington area, I was struck by the coincidence. So, for the record, here’s some ideas.

• Walk out on the Maine State Pier. From here you can get a good view of the city’s working waterfront, and see the Casco Bay Lines ferries coming and going. If you have some more time you can walk out on Widgery Wharf and get up close and personal with some lobstermen.
• Walk down Exchange Street in the Old Port. There’s lots of shops, when I am in town I tend to stop in Emerson Books, Books Etc., JavaNet, and Gritty McDuff’s.
• If you have some more time, the Portland Museum of Art has a good permanent collection and Portland Sea Dogs games are fun.

But don’t take my word for it - here’s some more reading:

> National Geographic: “48 Hours Portland: The Best of a City in Two Days”
> About.com: “Visit Six Lighthouses Near Portland Maine”
> Portland Convention and Visitors Bureau
> Get some ideas from my photos of Portland

National Archives to Cut Researcher Hours

The National Archives will eliminate evening and Saturday hours for their DC-area facilities under a proposed rule published in the Federal Register yesterday. Currently the public researcher reading rooms are open until 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and open from 8:45 until 4:45 on Saturday. Under the proposed schedule the facilities would be open to researchers from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and Saturday hours would be eliminated.

The National Archives and Records Administration is facing a budget crisis due to inadequate Congressional funding, rising energy costs, and expenses related to the flooding of their DC building earlier this summer. The organization the National Coalition for History issued an alert in June describing some of the cost-cutting NARA may be forced to implement.

> Federal Register: “Changes in NARA Research Room and Museum Hours“

Washington’s Real Estate Royalty

It was hard to miss the Post’s sprawling feature on District developer Jim Abdo in yesterday’s paper. The article, ostensibly regarding a new development deal he’s pursuing in Northeast on New York Avenue, lingers luxuriously on the finer details of his Northwest home. ( … “once home of the former ambassador from Ghana” … “assessed at $4.2 million” … Viking appliances … crab meat stacked “the way other people might stack yogurt” … ) Yes, this was a home fit for a king. Also featured prominently: his close personal friendship with DC Mayor Anthony Williams:

Today, Abdo and Williams smoke cigars together on Abdo’s patio. Abdo tried to get the mayor into fly-fishing, taking him shopping at Orvis with the mayor’s security detail in tow. The mayor, who, Abdo says, has a thing for kitchen gadgets, once persuaded Abdo to buy a set of glass bowls at Williams Sonoma. Williams goes to Abdo’s weekend farm at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia where he rides an air-conditioned tractor, cutting grass.

Abdo gets testy with the Post when they hint at accusations of name-dropping the mayor, “It’s because he’s a friend … I’m an outward, vocal person and if I see someone over the weekend I start rattling off. If that’s interpreted as name-dropping, I’m sorry.” They also note that Abdo has donated to Williams’ campaign and the mayor is godfather to Abdo’s son.

Today’s A1 story about District developer Herbert S. Miller is cast from a similar mold. Accompanied by a front-page photo of Miller enjoying a Nats game with a D.C. Council member, the Nationals President, and a D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commissioner, the story lingers on his Georgetown home (recently put on the market for a record $28 million), his “vision,” and thousands donated to local and national politicians. “To say Miller is tight with city officials is an understatement,” the Post croons, revealing DC Council member Jack Evan’s dog has “roaming privileges” to his back yard.

Of course, you too can glimpse into lives like these, if for one night. Tickets are on sale now for November’s sixth annual “Builders’ Ball” where the city’s “commercial real estate community” (emphasis mine) will gather to raise money for charity at a gala themed a “celebration of the senses.” Guests will mingle in the National Building Museum’s “opulent” surroundings amid “Four Royal Courts,” “taking time to mingle and indulge in the latest royal gossip, and catch up with friends from far and wide,” according to the press release. Of course no ball would be complete without the crowning of a King and Queen. Despite the royal trappings, there’ll be little chance for a Cinderella story here unless your fairy godmother brings some cold, hard cash: tickets to the charity ball cost $250.

My Vacation in Links

I just returned from visiting my girlfriend Libby in Michigan and parents in Maine. In Michigan Libby and I stayed at the Inn on Ferry Street, ate a Coney dog, saw a Tigers game, browsed the shelves in John King Books North, and spent time in Ferndale and Royal Oak. I noticed construction has begun on the long vacant Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit, and there seems to be a lot of other development along the Woodward Corridor. In Maine, I went to the Yarmouth Clam Festival, had a lobster roll from Bayley’s, and biked on a Maine segment of the East Coast Greenway. I also saw Tom, who’s been doing lots of work on his house lately.

On the plane to Michigan I read Justice Thomas’s extremely interesting dissent in Kelo v. New London (the 2005 Supreme Court Case where the court held economic redevelopment qualified as a public use under eminent domain law), where after arguing for an originalist interpretation of “public use” he throws in a paragraph about how eminent domain has been used to displace poor and black communities, concluding that “Regrettably, the predictable consequence of the Court’s decision will be to exacerbate these effects.” I first read about the dissent on this blog post on blackprof.com which contains Emma Coleman Jordan’s analysis.

I also read an article published in the Journal of Urban History in January by Blake Gumprecht examining the geography of college towns by using Ithica, New York as a case study. I found the article quite interesting and I think there are many similarities between Ithaca and Ann Arbor. Gumprecht describes the various communities of the “highly segregated” college town including the status-seeking greeks, NIMBY faculty neighborhoods (”You don’t want to live next door to an undergraduate student house. One property, one bad apple, can cause a whole flight.”), and the familiar student ghetto with both modern and dilapidated rental housing. Describing the development of Ithaca’s Collegetown, Gumprecht throws in this tidbit: “The city encouraged development by temporarily suspending building - high limits and parking requirements. Over a ten-year period, more than a dozen apartment buildings, capable of housing 1,70 people, were built.” (p. 255) How’s that for pent-up demand? The article is available online here: “Fraternity Row, the Student Ghetto, and the Faculty Enclave.” (PDF)

On the topic of reading, I also finished a borrowed copy of “The First Days of School.” Although mostly relevant to K-12 teachers, it did contain some tips I’m sure will be useful for the class of 18-year-old freshman I’ll be TAing this fall. Ironically, it was in Maine where I discovered the book “Saving the Neighborhood: You Can Fight Developers and Win!” at a church book sale. The book is a NIMBY handbook written by a DC resident and published in 1990. The examples of citizen activism include a petition to stop the construction of an office building on Wisconsin Avenue in Northwest, and the entire book seems full of DC-area examples.

links for 2006-07-13

• Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti : Google Ann Arbor press conference raw notes.
  Ann Arbor blogger attended Google announcement press conference.
• Arbor Update: Google comes to Ann Arbor
  Google has decided to locate a major office in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Ann Arbor News: Where will Google land?
  Article about where Google’s 1,000 Ann Arbor jobs might end up.