Mark Steyn's Year-End Message

From his weekly syndicated column.

Update on Goodhue County Wind

State Representatives Steve Drazkowski and Tim Kelly, along with State Senator John Howe, have an opinion piece in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Goodhue County wind project.

Also, another blogger has posted about the Wednesday meeting with the local utility.  It includes all the details that I left out of my account.

Rich Lowry on "Thatcher vs. Decline"

Over at National Review Online.

Edison light bulb to become illegal January 1st

According to The Hill.

Town Hall Minnesota In Action

I wish I could take credit for the idea, or even the execution, of the meeting I attended as an interested spectator this afternoon.  It was pure Town Hall Minnesota in action.

Two officials of the state's largest electric utility came to Belle Creek Township, Minnesota (population 437), to answer questions about a controversial wind farm project proposed for the surrounding Goodhue County, which lies about an hour southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul.  The wind farm is being developed by a third-party with the output to be sold to the utility, under contract.  The utility officials were there to answer questions from concerned citizens after touring the area with the meeting organizers, who are opponents of the project and live within the proposed project's footprint.

The meeting literally took place within a town hall.  Not just any town hall, but this one,

a one-room meeting place for the Township's citizens.  Several dozen people, including families and children, packed the space to standing-room-only capacity.

As they themselves acknowledged, the utility officials were not necessarily giving the answers the local citizens wanted to hear.  But from where I was sitting, I thought both sides acquitted themselves well.  Questions from the meeting organizers and audience were without exception well-informed, sometimes pointed, but more often then not, delivered with humor.  Answers were informative, respectful and acknowledging of the seriousness of the occasion.  I doubt anyone left the room happy, but I suspect just about everyone left better informed.

The utility officials answered questions for almost 2 hours on topics ranging from the science behind noise pollution, to the roles of state regulators and regulated companies, to dairy farm operations in springtime conditions and just about everything else under the sun.

Attending as audience members were the local State Senator and State Representative (I apologize if there were other elected officials there that I did not recognize), but the event was centered on the local citizens and their questions.  It was Minnesota at its finest.

Experiments in Public Services

Today's lead editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune decries two recent experiments by local governments in delivering public services ("Don't Experiment with Public Safety").  The editors believe that public safety (police and fire) should be exempt from efforts to redesign government at the local level.

However, for small municipalities, public safety makes up the bulk of the services they provide.  To exempt those services from any makeover attempts gives small communities little room to maneuver.

In 2011, the town of Foley, Minnesota, decided to replace patrols by county sheriff's deputies with patrols by private security guards.  As the editors note, private security guards do not have the same powers of arrest, etc. as do sworn peace officers.

Nowthen, Minnesota, (yes, you read that correctly) ended patrols by deputies and replaced them with...nothing, in a cost-saving measure.

The editors lump together these two actions, but I think a reasonable distinction can be made between a community that tries a different method of delivering a service (Foley) and a community that ends the provision of a service (Nowthen).

As far as I can discern from the editorial, the editors' biggest problem with experiments like Foley's is less that public safety will be compromised, but that public "expectations" may not be met.  A lot of expectations will be disappointed as we move from a "giveaway politics" to a "takeaway politics."

Not all experiments will go well, but many will succeed and provide examples to other communities.  But to say that experiments in delivering services cannot be tried is guaranteed to lead to failure.

Minnesota Sunset Commission

It is often said that the closing thing to eternal life, in this realm, is a government agency.  As reported by Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Sunset Commission is testing that theory.

Mark Steyn's message for the season

On the other miraculous birth.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: St. Paul Edition

A few days ago, I noted that the City of Minneapolis was steering a few hundred thousand dollars of federal taxpayer money to open a bike sales and repair/coffee shop in north Minneapolis.  Not to be outdone, their rival east of the river is going much bigger.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on that city's decision to subsidize an apartment and grocery store complex at the edge of downtown.  On a split 4-3 vote, the City Council voted to kick in $15 million of city-taxpayer money in the hopes to gain a $40 million loan backed by the federal-taxpayer funded Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The new apartment building is not "affordable housing," with rent on a studio unit running more than $1,000 a month.  The grocery store will be an outlet of a higher-end local chain.

In the Minneapolis Star Tribune's take on the project, the paper reports that not everyone was happy, writing

"Private developers and rental property owners complain about tax dollars going into a project that competes with their businesses.  The three opposing council members wrote a lengthy commentary article detailing their distaste for using the entire pot of available--and scarce--development money for one project while others go begging."

and

"Opponents spoke against subsidizing market-rate housing and risking development dollars.  Cheryl Golden-Black said, "We're all struggling.  Any risk at this point that would burden the taxpayers further is too big, way too big."

As Mark Steyn says, America is the brokest nation on earth, yet the City of St. Paul has decided to spend $55 million of money we don't have to get into the property development business.  What happened to just say no?

Redesigning Government in Rural Minnesota

Everybody talks about redesigning government.  Some people are actually doing it.  This editorial from the Mankato Free Press (by way of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) lists some of the efforts underway in Minnesota.

Bikes, Coffee, and Tax Dollars

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today in its West Metro section about the opening of a new bike sales and repair shop in north Minneapolis.

Good news right?  An entrepreneur risking hard-earned capital in a tough economy?  Not quite.

The new shop sells new (and soon will sell used) bikes and bike accessories, offers repair services and will teach maintenance and repair skills.  A coffee shop will soon join the space to make it more of a destination.

The Star Tribune reports that,

"The shop received $350,000 from the city, which was a recipient of a federal grant to help support healthy behaviors and reduce city obesity through increased physical activity and improved nutrition."

And it turns out the shop is a non-profit.

It sounds like the effort will provide good training to new workers and lots of other benefits, in line with the non-profit mission.  However, it seems that the City and federal taxpayers are subsidizing two businesses, bike and coffee, that compete with private, for-profit establishments.

Makes me wonder about our budget priorities.

The Creative Class Wants its Trains, Everywhere They Go

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune carries an opinion piece from the epitome of the Creative Class.  She represents the very type of person that city planners are trying to attract (or to retain) to our fair burg.  This is how she describes herself,

• Parents live in the "desolate" suburbs of Minneapolis
• Graduated from college last year
• Moved to Munich, Germany

Since abandoning this "colder" and "foreboding" land (her words), she has acquired all the accoutrement needed of a Creative Class member,

• Works at a "hip" marketing firm
• Has "international" friends
• Doesn't own a car
• Lives is a "teeny-tiny" Munich apartment
• Likes to ride Munich's subway

Munich, population density of 12,470/sq. mi., and Minneapolis, population density of 6,722/sq. mi., are very different places.  In addition to having a core city twice as dense as ours, Munich has a metro population of 6 million, twice the size of our 3 million.

Regardless, this young woman believes that Minneapolis should have a subway system, based on her struggles navigating our inadequate bus and light rail network.

Key passage,

"Basically, you can trust the government [in Munich] to get you where you want to be.  It's not why I moved there, but it's why I stayed.  I've seen Munich attract plenty of other young people."

Good thing that, because Germany is among a handful of countries (mostly European) whose population is actually declining.

Nonetheless, she never makes clear whether installing a subway in Minneapolis would be enough to tempt her back to live again amongst us rubes in flyover country.  I'm sure that she is grateful to the taxpayers of the Federal Republic of Germany and its Free State of Bavaria for subsidizing her carefree lifestyle.  She writes,

"I wouldn't be nearly as successful in Munich if I had to make monthly car and insurance payments, if I had to navigate foreign streets as well as a foreign language."

And she would be grateful if we made such transit options available here, for her occasional visits.

Perhaps I'm biased, as my German ancestors were wagon makers.  But my advice to her?  Next time you visit your parents, rent a car.

Follow the Money: Nonprofit 100 Edition

Each year the Minneapolis Star Tribune publishes its "Nonprofit 100" index, with statistics on the state's largest not-for-profit organizations.  Medical outfits dominate the top of the list, with Blue Cross at No. 1 and the Mayo Clinic at No. 2.  In fact, health care institutions occupy the top 16 spots.  Educational institutions dominate much of the middle of the list, with the local private colleges and universities represented.

The only environmental nonprofit to scrape into the top 100 is Pheasants Forever, the St. Paul based group, whose mission is to protect and enhance pheasant populations and habitat.  Pheasants Forever ranks 91st, with annual revenues of $33.8 million.  Its CEO makes $219,200 a year, the Star Tribune reports.

In Minnesota, the cabinet-level Commissioner of the state's Department of Natural Resources makes $108,367, an amount set by state law.  He oversees an executive department with a budget of more than $400 million a year.

Doing well by doing good.

"Bottom Up" Done from the Top Down

As the name of this blog suggests, my mission is rebuilding America (and Minnesota) from the bottom up, as I outline in my Town Hall Minnesota plan.

What I am not talking about is an approach described by Minnesota Public Radio about a recent "town hall" style meeting held in Brainerd, Minnesota.  Funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and led by a "sustainability organizer for the University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership," locals spent the day being told what they think.

A list of the issues tells you everything you need to know:  "land use, transportation, housing and economic development" were discussed as "organizers asked people's help in imagining potential economic, environmental and lifestyle futures."  These are the issues that matter to the Inside the Beltway Elite, not regular people in rural America.  Jobs, economic growth, and government spending are the big issues, not "lifestyle futures."

Nonetheless, the folks in central Minnesota dutifully parroted the talking points the organizers were looking for,

• How much growth did people want to see?  ...some growth but not rampant increases that might be prompted by a booming economy."  Really?  I'm willing to give 'booming economy' a try.
• "transportation?  ...they preferred a vision that improved main rail and road lines but let some local streets go unmaintained."  How did 'rail' get top billing?
• "Broadband?  Yes, they said.  Lots of connectivity is needed to make everything else run smoothly."

The Brainerd Dispatch has a story on the event.  The Dispatch reports,

"Work groups identified key listed issues such as affordable housing, employment, public transit, national and social environments, land use planning, technology, infrastructure, walking and biking.  Then the University of Minnesota assisted in creating scenarios using real data from current trends and incorporating information gathered from group sessions."

Again, whose issues do these sound like?  Regular people do not utter the phrases "land use planning" or "social environments."  Ah, but you get what you pay for.  The Dispatch reports,

"Region Five was awarded an $825,050 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a Sustainable Communities Regional Planning program with four main work areas — housing, transportation, land use and economic development."

Sounds like the emphasis was on the first three items.

What we need is a real bottom up agenda.  Let locals organize their own meetings, without any "sustainability organizers" on the scene.  I'm sure the results would be starkly different.

Bicyclists Are Better Than You Are

At least that is the subtext of this article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune ("A new attitude about biking in Minneapolis?").  The "new attitude"?  Why the question mark?  As it turns out, the new attitude is "smug satisfaction".

But we already new that, so why is this article in today's paper?  It turns out that a local advocacy group ("Bike Walk Twin Cities," a program of Transit for Livable Communities) issued a press release, so the Star Tribune jumped into action to validate their biases.  Actually, it turns out that while the group hadn't even bothered to issue the study yet, the newspaper was happy to provide the free, pre-publicity.

The article follows the standard form.  It begins in the classic style with an unverifiable assertion, "...signaling that a decade-long cultural shift in transportation and urban design..."  Next comes the first dubious statistic from the advocacy group.  Followed by the quote from the expert from one of the coasts.  In this instance it's from a Rutgers professor of "Urban Transportation."  Us little folk in flyover country are not validated unless someone from the East or West Coast pronounces us good.

Once the preliminaries are out of the way, we get down to business:  giving the hoi polloi their marching orders,

"The trend is also producing new attitudes toward commuting and--in case you hadn't noticed--a need to share the roads no matter what the weather."

So, 'in case you hadn't noticed,' your job while operating those primitive, gas guzzling autos is to get out of the way of the important people on two wheels.

Now we follow up with the soothing reassurances:  that all of those millions spent on bike lanes are finally paying off, that soon everyone will be riding a bike (even you can do it), that all of this way made possible by the all-knowing Federal government.

Next comes the conversion story, how one brave Minnesotan (from Ohio) found biking and let go of the car.

Finally, more dubious statistics, a last, unfunny joke and we are done.  You may now resume your unworthy lives.

The 1880's Transit Solution or "A Streetcar Named Delusion"

Under the heading of "questions no one is asking" MinnPost asks this week, "Are streetcars the answer to our transit and environmental needs?"  Streetcars are that cutting edge (circa 1880) technology that moves the masses about the urban landscape at speeds rarely exceeding a brisk walk.  MinnPost writes,

"Cities could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent or more by linking streetcars and higher-density land use."

How dense?  MinnPost informs,

"The key...is to achieve sufficient density—10 to 40 residential units per acre"

How dense are we today?  MinnPost notes,

"In the Twin Cities, the typical urban neighborhood might have a density of seven to 10 units per acre, while the density in developing suburbs is more in the range of two to four units per acre."

How dense is 10-40 units an acre?   It turns out, this level of density equals San Francisco at the low end (10 units/acre) and roughly approaching the density of the city of Paris, France (50 units/acre) at the high end.

Keep in mind, streetcars won't work if the occasional acre includes 40 housing units, we need to maintain this high density level for mile after mile after mile to build the ridership needed.  It would transform the nature of the community.

Nonetheless, "Minneapolis landed a $900,000 federal grant to explore the idea.  The city has embarked on a study of a possible nine-mile line along Nicollet and Central Avenues"

Let me off at the next stop.

The Suburbs are Not Dying, After All

In a happy convergence, the Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) interviews New Geography's Joel Kotkin at PJTV (registration required).  They talk about the refusal of the suburbs to die off, the static viewpoint of Urban Planning, telecommuting, and the war on the middle class.

Reynolds' Law

Glenn Reynolds, a Tennessee law school professor best known for his blog Instapundit has promulgated Reynolds' law,

“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people.  But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits—self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc.—that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class.  Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

Correlation does not equal causation.  It's a form of the Cargo Cult problem, where Pacific islanders built ersatz airstrips in a deluded effort to encourage the "cargo" to return.  Allies fighting the World War II brought in supplies and material that were shared with the islanders.  When the Allies left, the islanders tried to draw them back building fake airplanes, control towers and the like.  But the air traffic control tower was only an accessory to material wealth, it did not create it.

Durban Climate Conference Ends (Roundup)

The latest UN Climate Conference, held this year in Durban, South Africa, has come to an end, finally.  It was always going to produce the dramatic, ground-breaking triumphal agreement that "saves tomorrow, today" while allowing delegates to claim, "We have made history."

Walter Russell Mead is less convinced, concluding that delegates merely agreed to keep getting paid by the global climate industry.

Wendell Cox comes to a similar conclusion, but focuses more on environmental improvement strategies that may actually do some good (hint, "Smart Growth" doesn't make the cut).

The big news made was the withdrawal of Canada from the process.

Don't worry, there is always next year, the 2012 Climate Conference will be held in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar.  It's a small country, so book your first-class plane ticket and 5-star hotel suite early, space is going fast.

Education and Money: International Edition

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that grew out of the post-WWII Marshall Plan in Europe.  Today, among its other contributions, it provides a treasure trove of data on activity in developed and developing nations.

The group just came out with their latest (2011) edition of Education Indicators, with data through 2008.  If you dig deep, it makes for interesting reading on the subject of primary and secondary education (think K-12).

Out of 34 developed nations, on a per pupil basis, the U.S. spends more money than all except tiny Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway for a ranking of 4th out of 34.  We beat out Austria by $1 per pupil.  (See Table B1.2, Column 3).

As for achievement, what did this extra spending buy us?  In science the U.S. ranked (2006 data) 36th out of 57 countries studied (see Figure 2.11a).  Free spending Switzerland ranked 18th, with Norway 31st and Luxembourg 33rd. 
In more recent (2009) data, in Reading, the U.S. ranked a more respectable 17th, with free spending Norway at 12th, Switzerland at 14th and Luxembourg a distant 38th out of 65 studied.

News on Math was even worse, with the U.S. dropping down to 22nd. 

Keep these figures in mind the next time someone calls for more spending on Education.

Discounts on Deck Chairs

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune notes the efforts of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to cut waste in state government by employing consultants to review operations.  Twenty-two firms have been approved for such work, promising total savings of $20 million or more.

However, on a two-year budget of $35 billion, even savings in the the tens of millions--however welcome--won't make a significant difference to the state's fiscal situation.

Having served recently in state government, I have no doubt that improvements could be made.  Perhaps 1 to 2 percent of the budget (hundreds of millions) could be saved by simply adopting modern management techniques and information technology from the last twenty years.

To make a real dent in our structural deficit, we need to either stop doing some things entirely or to do many things in entirely new ways.

Over on the Star Tribune's Business page, Chuck Slocum writes in an opinion piece that "Businesses Support Government Redesign."  That's good news, because we are going to need all the support we can get when we actually get around to redesigning state government.  We will need to achieve savings of $ billions, not $ millions, and there are bound to be winners and losers in the process.  You can bet we will hear from the losers.

So what are we talking about when we talk about "redesign."  It's not about putting some government form on the Internet that now has to be filed in paper form.  It will involve providers being compensated for results, not reimbursed for inputs.  It will involve services being delivered by local non-profits and for-profits that are now delivered by government employees.  It will involve introducing competition in areas where now only monopolies exist.

Change will be disruptive, but we need new thinking, not merely tinkering around the edges.

Global Warming? Focus on Adaptability

That's the advice of Bjorn Lomborg in today's Wall Street Journal.

America's Growing Energy Security

From Daniel Yergin in today's Wall Street Journal.  The author of a number of books on the oil industry discusses America and Canada's growing energy production.

Looting the Future to Bribe the Present

Mark Steyn hits the nail on his head in his weekly column.  Writing about our current budget situation,

"The political class looted the future to bribe the present, confident that tomorrow could be endlessly postponed."

As they used to say on TV "the future is now."

News from Durban

Did you know that the annual UN climate conference is now going on in South Africa?  There has been little news of the proceedings in Durban and for good reason.  As Walter Russell Mead reports, fewer and fewer countries seem willing to sign on to a global carbon control scheme, even as the existing Kyoto treaty is set to expire.

Chalk this one up to "no news is good news."

How Competitive is Minnesota?

As it turns out, (slightly) worse than average.  Unfortunately, our neighbors are doing much better.

Hank Robison and Rob Sentz over at New Geography took a look at how states are doing competing with each another to create jobs.  Not surprisingly, oil-rich North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska rank first, second, and third, respectively.  Oil-rich and post-Katrina Louisiana ranks forth, in the period that covers 2007 through 2011.

But non-oil neighbors South Dakota and Nebraska come in at 5th and 6th, while Minnesota clocks in at a disappointing 31st.  Iowa ranks 11th and Wisconsin comes in at 22nd.  Minnesota does not rank ahead of a single neighboring state, unless you count Michigan (we share a water border in Lake Superior), which ranks 4th from last, ahead of only Florida, Arizona, and Nevada--which were hit hardest by the real estate crash.

Robison and Sentz use a methodology that seeks to screen out the effects of national economic trends, to try and tease out how each state competes against expectations in creating jobs.  About states like Minnesota doing worse than average,

"If a state is losing, then it stands to reason that there are factors within the state that make it less competitive...If a state is hemorrhaging jobs faster than the national economy, there should be cause for concern.  There are likely toxic conditions within industry sectors and economic policies that make it very difficult for employment and economic activity to flourish."

Last Night on "Late Debate" with Jack and Ben

Jack and Ben indulged my ego by having me as their guest for the full two hours last night.  Download the December 6, 2011 show at itunes.  I come in around the 25 minute mark.

Jefferson v. Hamilton: The Debate Rages On

Walter Russell Mead comments on how the ancient debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton continues to play out in today's politics.

The Problem with Regulation

Phillip K. Howard of Common Good makes the case for "results-based" regulation, rather than the micro-regulation we have today.

University Administrators Outnumber Faculty

Ever wonder why college tuition keeps increasing faster than inflation?  Perhaps one reason is that full-time administrators now outnumber full-time faculty members, 54% to 46%.

Doesn't sound sustainable.

Too Many Counties? I Say, Too Few

For some time I have heard the argument that Minnesota, with 87, has too many counties.  A County Commissioner from Ottertail is the latest to make the pitch, suggesting that we consolidate to between 30-35.

The argument, of course, is efficiency, economies of scale, eliminate duplication of costs, etc.  As a resident of the state's largest county by population (Hennepin), I can attest that just the opposite is true.  Huge diseconomies exist when a single political entity tries to serve 1.15 million people with a $ billion plus budget.

The latest controversy in Hennepin involves the Commissioners (on a 4-3 vote), giving themselves a backdoor $2,000 raise on top of their $97,080 a year salary.  I doubt that is what the gentleman from Ottertail has in mind.

In Jefferson's "Ward Republics" concept, government would move closer to the people not further away.  If we are looking for savings in government waste, look to eliminate the duplicate layers: watershed districts, soil and water districts, park districts, sewer districts with overlapping jurisdictions and similar missions.  In fact there are 26 different kinds of taxing districts in Minnesota.

A for Counties, look elsewhere for savings.

My One Year Blogiversary!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this web log.  It's been a blast.  A few highlights:

• My first post, a short note linking to the Wall Street Journal piece by the Breakthrough Institutes's Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger and their efforts to reframe the climate debate.
• The most read post, discussing our growing energy independence.  Most read thanks to a timely link from the great Walter Russell Mead's blog.
• The most read essay, where I discuss new ideas for marketing electricity.

Thank you, the reader, for keeping this going for a whole year.  I look forward to the next year and the adventures ahead.