National PARK(ing) Day is September 19th

My friend Becky Striepe has a post over at Ecolocalizer.com talking about National PARK(ing) day, which is apparently this Friday, September 19th.

National PARK(ing) day is a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. The event is sponsored by The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization launched by REBAR, an art collective, to raise awareness about the need for more green space.

They plan on transforming over 400 spots into mini-parks. Pretty interesting. Check out Becky’s post for a whole list of the events happening.

I’m actually 100% against it though. I’m not against green space or helping the environment, but they’re doing it wrong. The Trust For Public Land wants to give the government more money to maintain public parks and land, which is an inefficient way of doing it. What they should have done when they started out in 1972, is started collecting money to buy land and turn it into private parks. They could have sold advertising, made it a for-profit enterprise and by today, they would have been much more successful. Imagine it, we could have tons of green parks and pretty landscapes, all done privately, more efficiently, and without tax money.

Check out this link for an example of that kind of private environmentalism.

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How to Solve the Nation’s Traffic Problem: Sell the Streets

Fed up with traffic congestion, seemingly endless construction, and poor quality roads? Why not take David Friedman’s advice and sell the streets as he says in his book The Machinery of Freedom?

Privatization of the streets isn’t such a crazy idea. A company that owns a road wants to make a profit and please his customers. That company has more incentive to eliminate gridlock than any urban planner.

The private road owner will, unlike the city, be interested in keeping drivers happy by performing regular, and efficient, maintenance on the streets. Plus, there is no danger that money collected from a private toll will be used for some other city project.

Don’t take my word for it, check out Drew Carey’s ReasonTV short on the subject:

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Hoon Appointed UK Secretary Of State For Transport [Government]

Well, Hoon by name if not by nature. Geoff Hoon, former Secretary of State for Defense, was appointed the United Kingdom’s Secretary Of State For Transport back in October. Could this be a good thing? Surely anyone named Hoon can’t be all evil, right?

Well, he has called fixed speed cameras “arbitrary” and “unfair,” preferring instead the far less arbitrary and unfair average speed cameras. You know, the ones that record your speed over a large distance then send you a ticket in the mail should your average exceed the posted limit. He’s also proposed that drivers could lose their licenses after only two speeding offenses. Why?

No, not because speeding is dangerous — it seems that even the Ministry of Love Labour Party has lost faith in that lie — but, get this, because the faster you drive, the more you pollute. Coincidentally, Geoff Hoon has just approved an extra 23,000 flights per year at Stanstead and who supports a third runway at Heathrow.

Despite his anti-car policies, Hoon has had the gall to have himself described as “car mad” in newspaper interviews. Ignoring his car-hating policies for a second, let’s take a look at the Hoon fleet: a Ford Galaxy minivan, a purple Mini and his Government issue Prius.

What’s most interesting about Hoon’s appointment to the position isn’t the cynical policies or spin however, it’s the resigned acceptance shown by the English press. Writing in The Times, former CAR editor Jason Barlow cites all of the above offenses but doesn’t move on to present a cohesive argument for either Hoon’s dismissal nor the repeal of his policies; instead moving on to a tired and trivial Clarkson imitation, calling for people with stuffed animals in their cars to be banned. For this ex-resident of Blighty, it’s sad and frightening to see the degree to which the British are prepared to roll over and accept the slow progression of Orwellian rule. The United Kingdom used to be a bastion of reasonable laws and personal freedom. Not anymore. [via The Times]

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