Very cool.

Not the Type of International Press Coverage...

...that most Chambers are interested in receiving. From London's Financial Times:

Jefferson County, in which Birmingham is located, is one of the most indebted municipal governments in the US, owing an estimated $7,000 (£3,550, €4,500) for every adult and child. In recent years it took advantage of easy lending conditions in the municipal bond market, mainly to fix its ailing sewerage system. But since the credit crunch started last summer, funding costs have soared and investors have been less willing to lend. The county is now struggling to meet its interest payments.

If it cannot reach some kind of agreement with its lenders in the coming weeks, Jefferson could become the site of the largest municipal bankruptcy seen in the US - overshadowing even California's Orange County fiasco from the 1990s.

Yes, sprawl growth is one of the reasons for this situation. After all, why were bonds needed for all of this infrastructure in the first place? Yep. To pay for sprawl.

More on the Ridiculous Practice of...

...using food to fuel our engines rather than our bodies. This Washington Post article discusses this troubling trend:

Now, however, the legislation is being criticized for making food more expensive while gasoline prices continue to climb. Rick Perry, a Republican who succeeded Bush as Texas governor, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to waive half of the "misguided" ethanol requirements because of rising food costs; every penny increase in per-bushel corn prices costs his state's livestock industry $6 million a year, he said.
...
Development specialists have also joined the fray. "While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick said in a recent speech.

The end result? We are exacerbating major food shortages in order to fill our fuel tanks. It's as if we've become sheeps following a sprawl shepherd--entranced to the vagaries of our 40 mile commutes.

Sprawl Schools...

...in 2006 I published a law review article with the University of Pacific law review that discussed the advantages of incorporating smart growth principles into school building.

A variety of counter-responses discussed on my proposals for more neighborhood schools--ones that many students could walk or bike to--did not make financial sense because schools could be more cheaply built on the suburban and exurban fringes. This was primarily because land was cheaper in those sprawl areas.

Unfortunately, land costs are only part of the overall school cost equation. In this case, another major expense is the fuel costs of busing children to these schools built on the fringes.

This story is bearing out that concern and converting it into a reality:

f you think you have gas pump sticker shock, consider the Putnam County School system, which uses about 7,000 gallons of diesel every 20 days to keep 50 big buses running over routes that total 2,668 miles.

The big yellow vehicles get about eight miles to the gallon. It takes 81 gallons to fill the tank of one.

Here's another way to look at the bus fuel nightmare: the current year's budget contained $246,000 for diesel fuel, but officials recently had to get a budget amendment, bumping it up to $316,000.

"Our actual costs for fuel this year came in at 57-percent higher than what was budgeted," said Schools Director Kathleen Airhart.

Do you naysayers still need more proof?

$10 Per Gallon?

No way, you say?

Well, it's not just a shock headline but a real possibility according to this article:

Oil recently hit an all-time high of nearly $120 a barrel, more than double its early 2007 price of about $50 a barrel. It closed Friday at $118.52.

The forecasts calling for a jump to between $7 and $10 a gallon are based on the view that the price of crude is on its way to $200 in two to three years.

Translating this price into dollars and cents at the gas pump, one of our forecasters, the chairman of Houston-based Dune Energy, Alan Gaines, sees gas rising to $7–$8 a gallon. The other, a commodities tracker at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla., Sean Brodrick, projects a range of $8 to $10 a gallon.

While $7–$10 a gallon would be ground-breaking in America, these prices would not be trendsetting internationally. For example, European drivers are already shelling out $9 a gallon (which includes a $2-a-gallon tax).

Folks, I've never been the alarmist type so I even hesitate to post articles discussing these types of projections. Except that, my extensive research reveals that they are quite likely to be accurate.

Soon, major changes in where we live, work, worship, and play will be the norm. This is why locating to a smart growth community is so important.

Headline: "How much your groceries will cost in 10 years?"

There's no doubt that we're going to have to spend more on food. And yet, compared to other parts of the world, we're lucky. We spend 13 per cent of our household budget on food, down from 30 per cent, 50 years ago. For a family in the developing world, food is likely to be between 50 and 75 per cent of the total, according to the World Bank. What's more, in poorer countries, people buy raw ingredients, so if the price of corn doubles, that seriously affects their buying power.

Read more here.

Kunstler Gets...

...Business Week coverage. One excerpt from the interview:

Why is suburbia now threatened?

Cheap oil is what made suburbia possible. But we'll run into problems with spot shortages. As we get into trouble with these supplies, our economy will suffer. Major instabilities in the system will present themselves much sooner than we are led to believe. And by that I mean the way we produce food, the way we conduct commerce, and the way we move around.

When will all that happen?

The rise and fall of oil production is asymmetrical. In other words, it'll be a steeper, rockier tumble down than the steady increase going up. My own sense of things is that we will be in very serious trouble inside of five years.

Sanity Starts to Set in...

The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food crisis, as foreign populations turn against measures to use foodstuffs as substitutes for fossil fuels...One factor being blamed for the price hikes is the use of government subsidies to promote the use of corn for ethanol production. An estimated 30% of America’s corn crop now goes to fuel, not food.

Read the whole story here.

The issue of climate change is certainly an important one. However, the solution is notto try and salvage the commuter sprawl system by replacing oil with food.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that "food is for eating, not for driving". Meaning that, using food to energize motor vehicles instead of humans essentially prioritizes the automobile ahead of the human.

What a strange set of standards we have.

Very concerning:

On Tuesday in Washington, DC, a regulatory body called the Commodity Futures Trading Commission held public hearings on this very question. Farmers and food producers argued that the market was "broken," suggesting that the steep rise in the price of staple crops was hurting everyone -- farmers as well as the people they feed. "The market is broken, it's out of whack," said Billy Dunavant, head of a cotton-producing firm in the United States, at the Tuesday hearing.

New Term to Learn...

..."Resource Protectionism":

The credit crisis has taken an ugly turn, with a number of countries banning rice exports, causing the price of the staple to soar above US$1,000 per tonne, treble its level a year ago. Politically and economically, the world has moved decisively in the direction of protectionism and seems likely to continue further along the protectionist path. It's worth looking at what this trend may entail and how we might minimize its costs.

The most damaging aspect of the current burst of protectionism is the refusal by countries supplying food staples to export to their usual customers; this could actually make people starve.

Keep an eye out on this issue. Daily Sprawl predicts that this, more than a lack of available supply, could be the one that leads to resource shortages (which, in turn, begats resource rationing).

Kudos to CNNMoney.com...

...for this very informative (though often saddening) series called "America's Money: In Their Own Words"--first hand accounts, many of which find the American sprawl system to have played a major role.

My Op-Ed Piece...

...from today's Montgomery Advertiser:

Unfortunately, experts from every sector of the energy economy are starting to realize that the world has already consumed the vast majority of cheap and easily available oil. Indeed, even top executives from several petroleum companies are warning about this very real problem.

The fact is that without cheap oil our lifestyles will dramatically change. After all, oil isn't just used in cars. Instead, things like plastics, pesticides and many medicines are derived from petroleum byproducts. Without the oil, there would be no byproducts to manufacture these important products.

Same Story...

...different city:

Families such as the Colvins are trapped in homes worth far less than what they paid. Speculators, who helped fuel both the boom and its collapse, are also stuck, their get-rich-quick properties now money pits.

Meanwhile, cities and townships such as Buffalo, Otsego, Albertville and St. Michael, which were in the throes of building schools, roads and expanded water-treatment plants to match their growing populations, are left with big bills and the prospect of a dwindling tax base.

This is the unfortunate thing about the whole sprawl fiasco: the real effects on families. Unfortunately, the market will likely be ruthless in its lack of sympathy.

Sad.

How Much Water Do Your Purchases Use?

This NYT blog item discusses an interesting new website that measures how much water goes into creating many consumer products.

Here's a hint--it's much more than you probably think. One proposal is to stop water sprawl by buying more used products, thus "amoritizing" the water cost over multiple sources.

The Future of Transportation?

The freight railway industry is enjoying its biggest building boom in nearly a century, a turnaround as abrupt as it is ambitious. It is largely fueled by growing global trade and rising fuel costs for 18-wheelers. In 2002, the major railroads laid off 4,700 workers; in 2006, they hired more than 5,000. Profit has doubled industry-wide since 2003, and stock prices have soared. The value of the largest railroad, the Union Pacific, has tripled since 2001.

This year alone, the railroads will spend nearly $10 billion to add track, build switchyards and terminals, and open tunnels to handle the coming flood of traffic. Freight rail tonnage will rise nearly 90 percent by 2035, according to the Transportation Department.

Why the "future"? Here's one major reason:

The zeitgeist has even dropped a "green" gift in the industry's lap. A train can haul a ton of freight 423 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel, about a 3-to-1 fuel efficiency advantage over 18-wheelers, and the railroad industry is increasingly touting itself as an eco-friendly alternative. Trucking firms also use the rail lines; UPS is the railroad industry's biggest customer.

Read the entire Washington Post article here.

UPDATE: Kunstler writes about this issue in his Monday column:

Now get this: we are sleepwalking into a transportation crisis. As I already said, the airline industry is dying. The price of petroleum-based aviation fuel is killing it. And forget the fantasies about running it on bio-diesel or used french-fry oil. Driving cars will not be an adequate substitute, either. It's imperative that this country gets serious about restoring the passenger rail system. We can't not talk about it for another year. We must demand that the candidates for president speak to this issue. If you who are reading this are active reporters or editors in the news media, you've got to raise your voices behind this issue.

An Interesting Solar Strategy...

One of the biggest challenges to introducing solar power into residences has been the upfront costs.

This article discusses an interesting strategy that several cities are embracing:

But last year, DeVries hit upon a brilliantly simple idea. What if, he asked, the city financed residents' solar rooftops, then levied a 20-year tax assessment on their properties to pay for it? The debt would follow the home, not the owner, and in one fell swoop, the two greatest impediments to home solar would be history.

His bosses ate it up, and Berkeley plans to roll out its new program this summer. City officials will float low-interest municipal bonds to cover the initial costs, and DeVries figures a solar setup factoring in rebates and tax deductions (which can be looked up at dsireusa.org) will cost a single-family household at least $65 a month. Once the system is paid for, the homeowner enjoys free electricity.

DeVries' phone has lately been ringing off the hook as dozens of municipalities look to follow Berkeley's lead.

"Vespanomics"

Very cool.

What Percentage of Your Monthly Income...

...goes toward gasoline for your motor vehicles?

This interesting story (the subject of which is not far from here in Montgomery) gives some general guidelines:

Though drivers across the nation are smarting from the rising price of gas, it is taking a particularly harsh toll here in Wilcox County, where the median household income is $17,500. A recent report by the Oil Price Information Service estimated that residents spend more than 13% of their monthly income on gas -- the highest ratio in the nation. (The study, which also took into account local gas prices and commuting statistics, found that the average Los Angeles County household spends 3.9% of its monthly income on gas.)

A New School Has Been Announced...

...for the Waters TND in Pike Road, Alabama. Above is the artist's rendering.

A Great Cause...

...the Daily Sprawl family will be participating in the Walk of Life for breast cancer this Saturday starting at Cramton Bowl.

It's a great cause and we highly recommend participating. Details can be found here.

Ouch:

The most common subprime loans were known as "2/28" in the industry: 30 years, including a two-year teaser rate before the interest rate rose. Now these loans have reset, and we're seeing the fallout.

But prime borrowers, too, got loans that started out with low payments; if you bought or refinanced your house in the last few years, it's not unlikely that you have one. With an "option ARM" loan you have the "option" (which most borrowers happily take) of paying less than the interest; the magic of "negative amortization." The loan grows until you hit a specified point—the exact point varies with the lender; with Countrywide, it'll come after about four and a half years—when the payment resets to close to twice where it was on Day 1.

Just two banks, Washington Mutual and Countrywide, wrote more than $300 billion worth of option ARMs in the three years from 2005 to 2007, concentrated in California. Others—IndyMac, Golden West (the creator of the option ARM, and now a part of Wachovia)—wrote many billions more. The really amazing thing is that the meltdown in California is already happening and virtually none of these loans have yet reset.

Better Use Those...

...frequent flyer miles asap. According to this article, the airline industry is in major catastrophe mode. Interestingly, the article is not from some crazy outside source but from an industry trade publication.

Pay careful attention to the date of the article.

It was published in 2005 when oil was $60 a barrel--and almost all of the article's short-term predictions are proving accurate.

Train travel, anyone?

UPDATE:

More on the topic, here and here.

"The Story of Stuff"

Watch this fascinating and entertaining set of free videos here.

Books That Seem to Matter...

...we haven't finished it yet, but find it so interesting that The Transition Handbook warrants immediate recommendation.

One note: though the title may sound like another survivalist guidebook, the actual book is not. Instead, it takes a very reasoned and level-headed approach toward the different scenarios that a post-cheap oil world may encounter.

And, in doing so, recognizes that there are opportunities for good results--not just collapse scenarios (scenarii?).

So, Daily Sprawl recommends The Transition Handbook as a book that seems to matter.

"Scenes" from World Made By Hand...

...are now posted on the book's website. Once again, haunting music supported by thought-provoking narrative.