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Afternoon links: Stand up and...

by David Alpert   •   March 16, 2010 3:11 pm

Be counted: We got our census form yesterday. Fill yours out right away before it gets buried in a pile of other mail. Here's DC's Census info page. BTW, how is "Vietnamese" a race but "Dominican" a kind of Hispanic ancestry that's not a race? And what do you do if you're half-Hispanic? Anyway, fill it out.

Meet in public: Muriel Bowser introduced a bill strengthening the open meetings law. In particular, it would forbid the Council's behavior last year when it negotiated measures to close a budget gap almost in secret except for Mike DeBonis (who live tweeted the details) and a couple others. 8 Councilmembers cosponsored this time. (City Paper)

Get off the road, mate: Bike hate isn't just an American problem. 60 Minutes Australia looks at the conflicts between drivers and cyclists every day on the roads down under. (Jaime Fearer)

WMATA's "TOD nerd": The new head of real estate joint development (development on WMATA property around stations) wants to jump-start more TOD and change the process to ensure Metro does more to steer good development. (WBJ)

Pie in the Skyland?: Skyland Town Center, at Alabama Avenue and Good Hope Rd SE, had the promise to revitalize a decrepit strip mall, but the property owners didn't agree. A long eminent domain court battle raises the same issues in the Supreme Court's landmark Kelo case: is it right for governments to take private property for a bigger private development with more public benefit, and what's the risk that the development just won't ever materialize, which is what happened in New London? (DCmud)

Size matters: The I-270-370 interchange is about the same size as the entire Woodmont Triangle section of Bethesda. Which does more for our region? (The Straight Line)

Federal government to John Cook: You're wrong: Allison points out that the federal policy statement on walking and bicycling being equally important as driving sounds almost directly aimed at Fairfax Supervisor John "bicycling is not transportation" Cook: "Consider walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes ... Walking and bicycling are efficient transportation modes for most short trips ... walking and bicycling should not be an afterthought in roadway design."

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater. 

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Eminent domain is tricky. It is intended so that single property owners can not block progress. That makes perfect sense. The problem is that politicians who invoke eminent domain rarely make any sense. Neither do property owners who are usually just looking to get more money.

You can't legislate common sense. And that is very unfortunate.

by Jasper on Mar 16, 2010 3:28 pm • link • report

How would the strengthened open meetings law affect WMATA and the Gunn Report?

by Redline SOS on Mar 16, 2010 3:49 pm • link • report

Which defeats the whole point of property rights in the first place.

I love how liberals think. If the government is endowed with the power to do __________, they never stop to think that it's possible that that power will get abused. That's why most Democrats voted for the Patriot Act. Then, when the power is abused, it's because of a lack of 'common sense'.

If you give the opportunity to abuse power, it will invariably happen.

by MPC on Mar 16, 2010 3:51 pm • link • report

Hispanic is an origin, not a race.

by Michael Perkins on Mar 16, 2010 4:00 pm • link • report

In Australia, it is interesting to compare Sydney with Melbourne. Melbourne, the #2 city by size, has a different philosophy towards bikes and you see more biking, and a faster growth than in Sydney.

by SJE on Mar 16, 2010 4:00 pm • link • report

Kelo provoked a (much deserved) backlash, especially since the New London site (the subject of Kelo) was not developed as envisioned. I hope that they do not use E.D. for this project in DC

by SJE on Mar 16, 2010 4:02 pm • link • report

Yeah, the race/ethnicity/origin questions are all kinda tricky social constructs, and the Census has to deal with evolving social definitions of those terms while still trying to ask the question in a way that provides some continuity with past census forms, so changes in the data can be seen.

Anyway, the best option is to fill out the form as you would describe yourself. You have the option to check multiple boxes for race, and one of those boxes is a blank, write-in option.

Either way, filling out the form is the most important thing.

by Alex B. on Mar 16, 2010 4:14 pm • link • report

You can't legislate common sense. And that is very unfortunate.

You can't ride a unicorn, either. Which is also unfortunate.

by oboe on Mar 16, 2010 4:20 pm • link • report

I hope the "TOD nerd" doesn't ignore Dupont Circle. I would love to see some cool space built above the large round Q St entrance. Even just a spherical cafe would be nice. (I'd also love to see a high-rise built in the PNC parking lot next door, although that admittedly is not controlled by Metro.)

by M.V. Jantzen on Mar 16, 2010 4:26 pm • link • report

As Alex B pointed out, you can check as many boxes as apply for race on the Census form.

by Kathy on Mar 16, 2010 5:04 pm • link • report

Speaking of census terminology, since when is "Negro" acceptable? Please tell me that this is for Spanish speakers & that government pencil pushers don't think anyone refers to themselves as "Negro" anymore...

by mch on Mar 16, 2010 7:52 pm • link • report

Please tell me that this is for Spanish speakers & that government pencil pushers don't think anyone refers to themselves as "Negro" anymore...

Um, en Español, "black" se traduce como "negro".

by oboe on Mar 16, 2010 8:21 pm • link • report

I think, but am not certain, that one can be Dominican of either African or Spanish or some other background, which is why many Caribbean / Latino / "Hispanic" options are considered ethnicities. One could be Black Dominican, White Dominican, etc. But like someone else said, answering what you feel is right for you is the way to go.

by Graham S on Mar 16, 2010 8:34 pm • link • report

@mch

The short answer (in case you don't click on Miriam's link) for why "negro" is on the form is because more than 50,000 people wrote that in as a self-descriptor in 2000.

So, government pencil pushers do think some people still refer to themselves that way because that's exactly what the data showed.

Again, the whole matter of race and ethnicity is one of personal perception and description. There's no such thing as a wrong answer.

by Alex B. on Mar 16, 2010 8:51 pm • link • report

David,
To answer your question - because Latin America, more than anywhere else in the world was shaped by the mixing of the Spanish, indigenous population, African slaves, and the later immigration of Europeans and some Asians.

Argentines, for example, tend to be almost entirely of Italian or Spanish extraction or some other mix. There were very few indigenous people there. The president (Kirchner) is of partial German descent (check the last name!)

Bolivians tend to be very heavily of indigenous descent or mixed, with very few pure Spainards.

African slaves were heavily concentrated in the Caribbean countries, Caribbean coast, and northeastern Brazil, so there are a lot of black Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Brazilians, and on the Carribean coast of Central America. They tend to be mixed with indigenous and Spainiard (or Portuguese, in the case of Brazil)

Chinese immigration (forced or not) was heavy in the Caribbean and Peru (2-3% of the population, and now 5-6 generations old) -

The biggest population of Japanese outside Japan is in Brazil.

So really, someone of Latino/Hispanic descent describes a regional culture and is a somewhat broad way of describing a very large immigrant group to the US as well as the other major culture in this hemisphere (if you can describe it as such, although for the most part, a common language, religion, and culture bind Central and South America in the way that the US and Canada are)

by AA on Mar 16, 2010 11:06 pm • link • report

Latin culture is the most thorough melting pot on the planet. That dosen't mean they don't have racism, it's just that the spaniards didn't bring over as many women as the english, and their thought was more mercenary (in general) than the northern europeans.
Latin America is probably what America will look like in 500 years if we start building transit oriented communities with traditional style buildings, NOW ;)

by Thayer-D on Mar 17, 2010 8:25 am • link • report

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but, I'm with MPC. I really dislike the use of eminent domain for private development. It's not that I take a absolutist property rights position, but I just think it's distasteful and, moreover, I suspect that there are more examples of Kelo and Poletown, where the private development did not pan out as planned, than there are examples of successful projects.

by Reid on Mar 17, 2010 9:35 am • link • report

"And what do you do if you're half-Hispanic?"

what I did is I disagreed with my wife. She is 2nd-generation Hispanic, born in NYC. I am White. So my son is half-Hispanic, I guess? I said he his white, because he looks white. She said he is Hispanic. But she filled out the form first....

by lee on Mar 17, 2010 12:12 pm • link • report

First, how are we doing with the plan to convince the teabaggers that Census people are coming for them in black helicopters?

Second, IIRC, Kelo was doomed to stink, even before it became a court case, because the "New London" committee who invoked eminent domain was packed with our Governor's cronies from Hartford.

In CT, two counties away is a long distance.

by ThresherK on Mar 17, 2010 12:20 pm • link • report

It seems to me eminent domain is a key tool in stopping sprawl. there's always one fool who won't sell (like a slumlord uncle of mine) no matter what the price, or one property that's hopelessly tied up in title issues b/c the family can't figure out how the estate should be divvied.

If you can't assemble a sizeable site in a developed area, then the bigger retailers will just keep finding new sites in undeveloped areas. Like civil war sites, or family farms, or undeveloped open space.

Go visit Skyland, and you'll see why poor people have to pay more for the basics and groceries that the rest of America gets cheap at Target. That skyland merchandise is pretty sad.

by emrj on Mar 17, 2010 12:22 pm • link • report

First, how are we doing with the plan to convince the teabaggers that Census people are coming for them in black helicopters?

Send 'em this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2174366/posts

Don't get caught by the Socialistic ObamaCensus! Once they get your name, they give it to the Death Panels!

by oboe on Mar 17, 2010 12:42 pm • link • report

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