Academy of Local Politics

The storm season is coming. Mock disaster drills are being held by local governments across the nation. Now would be a good time for a review of the strength of storm categories.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is used to measure a hurricane's strength. 

Category One - Winds 74-95 mph, storm surge 4-5 feet above normal

Category Two - Winds 96-110 mph, storm surge 6-8 feet above normal

Category Three - Winds 111-130 mph, storm surge 9-12 feet above normal

Category Four - Winds 131-155 mph, storm surge 13-18 feet above normal

Category Five - Winds greater than 155 mph, storm surge greater than 18 feet above normal

The Fujita scale is used to measure a tornado's strength.

F0 - Winds 40-72 mph, Some damage to chimneys; breaks branches off trees; pushes over shallow-rooted trees; damages sign boards.

F1 - Winds 73-112 mph, The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.

F2 - Winds 113-157 mph, Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars pushed over; large trees snapped or uprooted; light object missiles generated.

F3 - Winds 158-206 mph, Roof and some walls torn off well constructed houses; trains overturned; most trees in forest uprooted.

F4- Winds 207-260 mph, Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown off some distance; cars thrown and large missiles generated.

F5 - Winds 261-318 mph, Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel reinforced concrete structures badly damaged.

Here's hoping none of these hit you!

People use libraries for different reasons. My wife is almost always in possession of a good book of fiction from the library. I use the library for reference purposes. Whenever I go in the library the bank of computers are all busy with patrons.

Then there is this.

From the Providence Journal we learn of a new program which loans out fishing equipment.

FREE PARKING. The battle cry of businesses everywhere.

Parking. A headache for local government everywhere. Because nothing is FREE.

I found some fascinating information about parking written by Tim Falconer in TheStar.Com.

I'd heard various estimates (four, eight, 13) for the number of parking spots per car in North America, and I have to admit that, initially, I was shocked. After all, like most people, when I'm driving around hunting for a legal space – all the while burning fossil fuels, spewing emissions and adding to the traffic congestion – it never occurs to me that North American cities devote so much space to parking.

But the typical driver has a parking spot at home and one at work (usually bigger than the cubicle he or she spends all day in) as well as shared spots at malls, stores, restaurants and even churches.

We're so accustomed to abundant free parking that we resist paying for it, hate looking for it and, most of all, dread getting tickets. As Donald Shoup, America's parking guru, told me, "Everybody thinks parking is a personal problem, not a policy problem." But everybody is wrong.

Born in California in 1938, Shoup was living in Honolulu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Now a professor at UCLA's urban planning department and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, he has a growing band of followers who call themselves Shoupistas even though the market-oriented policies he advocates could best be summed up by the battle cry, "Charge whatever the traffic will bear."

Gouge for parking? Why not, we're being gouged to drive, right?

Turning to his computer, he showed me aerial photos of several cities to demonstrate how much land we waste just to give drivers a place to leave their wheels. "Parking is the single-biggest land use in almost any city and almost everybody has ignored it," he told me. "It's like dark matter in the universe: We know there's something there, and it seems to weigh a lot, but we don't know what it is. If only we could get our hands on it."

While he was at his computer, he also gave me a virtual tour of the Old Town Pasadena neighbourhood, with before and after photos that showed how it had gone from skid row to upscale destination.

ONE OF HIS IDEAS was instrumental in that transformation. The city faced a common problem: Parking was free, but the few merchants who were still in business complained that it was inadequate. The people who worked in the stores took most of the spots, leaving customers to drive around searching for one – or just staying away. Meanwhile, the city had a vision of a revitalized downtown but no money to repair sidewalks, plant trees, increase security or take any of the other steps necessary to attract people.

Shoup recommended charging enough for parking to maintain an 85 per cent occupancy rate and using the money shoppers dropped in the meters to improve the neighbourhood. The revenue couldn't go into the city's general coffers; it had to be spent on the streets.

Once that happened, the business community started to invest, too – even sandblasting and renovating derelict buildings – and soon the shop owners, who had initially opposed meters, wanted to charge for parking until midnight. They wanted the money for the improvements, but they also discovered that their fears about scaring away customers were unfounded – anyone who really wanted to shop or eat in the area was willing to invest a few quarters.

As the area became more popular, the meters raised more money for more improvements, which increased the popularity. And so on. The city now collects one million dollars a year to pay for upkeep that includes sweeping the sidewalks nightly and steam-cleaning them twice a month.

Money to steam clean the sidewalks twice a month? That got my attention.

How much should be charged to park on the street?

The right price is the one that means there are always one or two open spots per block. Since the cost encourages turnover, time limits are unnecessary; in fact, any place that needs to impose time limits is not charging enough.

A city should adjust the rate every quarter to ensure the 15 per cent vacancy rate, always letting the market decide the price. "Nobody can tell you what the right price of gold is, or the right price of wheat or apples," he argued. "It just happens."

Parking meters. Kind of like Back to the Future, isn't it.

Another thought by Mr. Shoup...

The harm abundant free parking does feeds on itself: All that land dedicated to parking, which often sits empty for much of the day, increases sprawl, and that sprawl makes alternatives such as public transit and walking less feasible, which forces more people into cars, which increases the need for more parking.

Are these ideas catching on?

Cities pay him large lecture fees, fly him first class and then wine him and dine him, but they don't all do what he suggests because parking is so political.

"The nice thing is that when cities adopt what I'm saying" – he snapped his fingers – "like that, it works."

Fascinating... I wonder if these ideas really work?

 

The mortgage/foreclosure mess is creating...well...quite a mess.

• Neglected properties leading to the lowering of desirability of neighboring properties.

• High availability of property for sale, causing dropping prices.

• Lowing property values leading to the expectation of lower property taxes.

How widespread is the mess?

Will Wilson on the 13th Floor at Governing.com discusses the issue.

This week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke displayed a set of maps that details just how wildly the number of foreclosures has risen in just a few years -- and how concentrated they've has been in certain areas of the country.

Almost all of California, Michigan and Florida are red, indicating large increases of defaulting borrowers, but that isn't news. More worrisome, perhaps, is that most of New England save Vermont is red; Minnesota and Hawaii are more red than not; northern New Jersey and southern New York are red; Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky are spackled with red counties; and central Colorado has an awful red belt running north to south. No state is untouched.

This map will have an influence on the Red-Blue Map this November. We just don't know how yet. It is way to early.

The only thing I do know is that in spite of the expectations of lower property values leading to lower property taxes ... property taxes will not go down.

Lithonia or Snellville? That is the question?

Last week Rick Badie of AJC.Com weighed in on who owns the title of...

“The most dysfunctional governing body in metro Atlanta.”

In contention are both Snellville and Lithonia.

In order to feel the pulse of Snellville, Mr. Badie found a local diner and started to chat with the customers. He found citizens like Theron Carmen who stated...

Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer and a five-member City Council can’t seem to do anything but fuss, belittle each other and call names. In Snellville, politics is personal. A bloodsport. Ugly and disgraceful, too.

It seems that the battle in Snellville is the classic "old guard vs. newcomers".

Then there is a dispute over a who authorized a $31,00 check is still a bone of contention. A defamation lawsuit between an "Old Guard Alderman" and his successor. But the biggie as of late is...

the vacant city manager’s position. Jim Brooks had been hired as interim city manager, but the mayor didn’t want to extend Brooks’ contract. Oberholtzer has been filling in, so to speak, but he says he doesn’t actually tell city workers what to do. Mayor Pro Tem Warren Auld sought the opinion of state Attorney General Thurbert Baker. Baker ruled that the mayor cannot legally fill the vacant city manager’s spot. Big deal, Oberholtzer said in so many words.

The citizens of Snellville wish it would all go away. As Mr. Badie observed...

residents I talked to on and off the record hold hope that a change is going to come, that egos, pettiness and vindictiveness will subside.

Meanwhile, over in Lithonia according to WSB Radio...

The feud between Lithonia Mayor Joyce McKibben and the city council reared its head again at a Monday night meeting.

McKibben told a standing room only crowd at City Hall that she is being denied access to her office by the police department.

The interim city attorney, Debra Golymbieski, told the Mayor she would be allowed into her office once she signed a letter agreeing to protect city property and city documents.

Let's see...A Mayor illegally serving as the City Manager vs. a Mayor not allowed in her office by the City Attorney.

Most dysfunctional?

Decisions, decisions, decisions.