Weekend links: Taxes and spending

by Eric Fidler • October 22, 2011 1:04 pm

Photo by Mr. T in DC on Flickr.

Taxis and taxes: If installing credit card readers in taxis isn't that hard to do, why aren't more cabs doing it? Is it due to expense or the desire to evade taxes? (Post)

Be patient with VA's surplus: Virginia has a $100-million transportation surplus. Such a year-end surplus is typical and may not be wise to zero out in a hurry. The money roll over into next year's spending anyway. (Examiner)

SmarTrip changes coming: Per IRS rules, SmarTrip cards will soon hold separate accounts for parking and transit fare. The cards will reload SmartBenefits automatically. Sadly, Congress may lower transit benefits while raising parking benefits. (Post)

It's the zoning, stupid!: Grumblings about a state gas tax increase is misdirected. Marylanders should instead grumble about land use policies and poor transit investment that encourage car dependence and gas-price vulnerability. (Baltimore Sun)

New York installs benches: New York received FTA money to install 1,000 sidewalk benches to make walking and transit more enjoyable. Many cities, especially DC, are extraordinarily reluctant to install sidewalk benches. (Streetsblog)

Chicago's poor attempt at congestion pricing: Mayor Emanuel wants a $2 surcharge on parking in city-owned lots and garages. The surcharge, which will not apply to street meters, may just encourage more drivers to hunt for street parking instead. (NPR)

Philly testing complete street designs: A neighborhood, with city support, installed temporary bulb-outs at intersections and vegetated chicanes on narrow streets. The city added a new bike lane to Spruce St. and found that serious crashes fell 34%. (PPS)

And...: Two nuclear plants in Virginia will power up again after closing during the earthquake. (HuffPo) ... DC now has 1 Republican council candidate. (Post) ... The Red Line is split in two this weekend; riders on other lines may suffer very long waits.

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Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

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I can understand why DC is reluctant to install benches. I have seen the District remove them when the homeless begin to congregate in troubling numbers around them. This happened at 13th and E outside the Warner.

Can't have benches when you ignore serious levels of homelessness.

by Matt on Oct 22, 2011 1:48 pm • link • report

DC used to have more sidewalk benches, especially in the touristy areas. They've gradually disappeared since the mid-1980s.

by dcseain on Oct 22, 2011 1:53 pm • link • report

Kinda hard to blame Chicago for this congestion pricing attempt being 'poor'. They can't adjust the meter prices much because they ceded that power to their meter contractor for the next 75 years in exchange for a couple billion dollars. Given that constraint, what else can they do?

I'd also note that with that meter contractor controlling prices, the meter prices have indeed increased a great deal.

by Alex B. on Oct 22, 2011 3:14 pm • link • report

Hacks hate credit cards because they pay the exchange fee.

by TGEOA on Oct 22, 2011 5:57 pm • link • report

Removing benches deals with homelessness as effectively as cutting bus service since the homeless often ride the bus.

Being able to sit in public and take in the scene is a vital part of feeling connected to a place.

Removing benches is not an attacck on the homeless, it's a dereliction of civic duty. Those who decide to do it do not know what they are doing. What they are doing is eroding public space and our subsequent exposure to and respect for it.

In no way is it any kind of solution to the homeless problem, or any problem.

It's a measure that makes us feel relieved in the short-term, and like we've done or accomplished something, but all it really does is highlight our stupidity and lack of imagination.

by Jazzy on Oct 22, 2011 8:21 pm • link • report

+ 1, Jazzy. Here's a Capitol Hill pocket park that went from unused to active with addition of benches.

http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-years-post-3-how-about-more.html

by Trulee Pist on Oct 23, 2011 12:23 am • link • report

Benches make excellent toilets. Check out Franklin Square Park sometime. NYC is dense and loud enough to make camping out and defecating on benches a bit more impracticable.

by aaa on Oct 23, 2011 11:20 am • link • report

Alex B, exactly right on Chicago (former mayor really sold us out on that deal selling 75 years of the profit from street parking). And I guarantee that the private company that is managing our on-street parking will be raising rates when this goes through to increase their profit.

When you look at what this $2 congestion fee is going for—a new L station in a part of town that is revitalizing and a rapid transit bus system in the core—it is not hard to support the deal, especially as a city dweller that rarely drives. To the degree that people look for on-street parking to avoid the fee, I don't think that deal with last a long time, see above on the for-profit company raising rates. And while I can understand why suburbanites hate this proposed fee, it certainly seems like a better idea than tolling our urban highways and all the additional infrastructure that would require. On balance, while the reception might be chilly, Mayor Emanuel should get some leeway to make this work and improve the city of Chicago.

by timfry on Oct 23, 2011 12:39 pm • link • report

A big factor in the concentration of homeless in parks is the do-gooding of suburban churches. their mass meal programs are, of course, centered on the parks. Pre-OccupyDC, they )the churches) would practically descend on McPherson Park at certain times of the day. A park that's close to varied pedestrian uses like Logan Circle get a much more varied crowd, even without the dog park aspect taken into account. Dupont is an even better example. The homeless are never gone from those places, but other people feel much more welcome.

Giving broad public purpose to parks and having lively areas nearby make a difference. This would be a good time for churches and other providers to consider how they can do something with a broader public purpose than simple charity and also how they can deal with the problems they probably are ignoring in their own backyards.

by Rich on Oct 24, 2011 8:44 am • link • report

Although concern about the ~2-3% exchange fee on CC transactions is plausible, New York's experience shows they'd more than make up for that in larger tips:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/nyregion/08taxi.html

by ah on Oct 24, 2011 9:24 am • link • report

pardon, GU, not GW.

by AWalkerIntheCity on Oct 24, 2011 12:25 pm • link • report

The homeless are never gone from those places, but other people feel much more welcome.

That's right. Take away the benches, and you all but guarantee having nothing but the homeless sleeping on the ground, among other things.

by Jazzy on Oct 24, 2011 12:41 pm • link • report

Is it just me or does anyone else find it suprising that you can make 67K a year just driving a cab...

by brightwood 34 on Oct 24, 2011 2:16 pm • link • report

It is not just you.

by Jazzy on Oct 24, 2011 3:48 pm • link • report