Ideas and Concepts Seemingly Long Forgotten
Unresponsive Government
Our Unresponsive Government By Frank Schiavone Call me a masochist. I routinely watch my city’s council meetings on cable television. Most of the time, they are uneventful. Sometimes, however, important projects are heard that have the community up in arms. When these projects are on the agenda things get interesting. City staff give their report distilling reams of information into a few...Tyranny
Tyranny Takes Many Forms By Frank Schiavone On a cold December night in 1773, some seriously annoyed British subjects held a tea party aboard three ships in the service of the East India Company. Now this wasn’t your typical, genteel English tea party. In fact, it was more like a rowdy masquerade party hell-bent on raising a ruckus. Samuel Adam’s Sons of Liberty, in their amateurish...Property Rights Myth
The Property Rights Myth By Frank Schiavone As most of us have experienced firsthand, property rights are not absolute or unqualified. Cities restrict the use of property all the time. Developers tend not to like land use and environmental limitations. To overcome regulation, a common tactic is to threaten “takings” litigation invoking a passage in the Fifth Amendment – “nor shall...Drill Our Way Out?
We Cannot Drill Our Way Out By Frank Schiavone With less than three percent of the worlds oil reserves (21 billion barrels on shore), our nation simply doesn’t have enough oil to impact the global market or drill our way to lower prices at the pump. Lacing the Arctic Refuge and our spectacular coastlines with oil rigs would boost oil company profits, but it would impoverish our natural...Reducing Environmental Impacts
Reducing The Environmental Impacts of Development By Frank Schiavone The State Legislature passed the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in 1970. The legislation was enacted to provide public agencies with the tools they need to regulate development, minimize environmental damage, and provide each of us “a decent home and satisfying living environment”. The law explicitly states...