an unusually passionate announcement last weekend, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she's begun a national search for a deputy commissioner of the state Department of Transportation who will focus on mass transit and anti-sprawl measures.Right on! Rell has already made a difference in pushing $3.5 billion in transportation improvements, the tough part will be to get the 169 towns in Connecticut to hop aboard the regional growth platform. When commuter towns like Darien and Westport offer no affordable housing around transit stops, can our popular Governor bring those delegations to the table?
"We need to combat sprawl," Mrs. Rell said. "Our goal is to create more attractive, livable, economically strong communities while protecting natural resources, and our battle to attain those goals must include mass transit." She spoke of bringing affordable housing and business to the areas around transit stops, to create "walkable, bikable neighborhoods."
Courant Step Toward Smart Growth, Editorial, September 10, 2006
12 comments:
58 days to the election, still no issues page on Republican Rell's website. Maybe it's because she has no vision for the state and simply takes credit for others accomplishments.
I can't wait to see her lose.
Check out Kevin Rennie's editorial in today's Courant. Interesting......
Sprawl is absolutely necessary if we are going to allow future generations to purchase affordable houses. There's a growing demand for housing with the growing population. To counter that, we need a growing supply.
We've got a growing population, so we need a growing housing stock. There are essentially three ways to achieve this: build more, build up or build out. Build more involves building more houses on smaller lots. With towns like Wilton and Ridgefield enforcing multi-acre zoning, this can't happen in too many places. Building up means building multi-storied apartments. Stamford recently rejected Trump Tower because of traffic issues and that it would be too high or something. Trump has a counter offer now that's a little smaller. Building out means, well, sprawl. Sprawl has become one of those dirty words: it essentially means, however, to "anything built after I decided to come out here".
In a really extreme example of anti sprawl (both geographic and governmental), one needs only to turn to Santa Barbara, CA. There, you can qualify for low income housing if you make $160,000 a year.
Poverty Up, Wages Down in CT. Phony property tax reform by cutting property taxes on vehicles, not homes. All the while doing the typical Republican thing of protecting and helping the wealthy by wanting to eliminate the inheritance tax. But it's all okay, because she's NICE. You can only vote for Rell if you are clueless, or really don't care about most people in this state.
Yogi--
You should vote for Rell because she has promised to cut taxes for the richest of the rich by abolishing the CT estate tax.
Also b/c the working poor could easily get their own insurance by just working a little harder. Why should the state take care of them?
Plus she has some very good ideas about how to deal with the property tax problem. But they are such good ideas that she has to keep them secret for now. Okay?
TrueBlue,
According to several pieces I've read, Rell is lukewarm on public financing, but decided to include it at the last minute as a way to make sure CFR went forward.
But I'm not sure a Dem governor would be able to rein in the majorities in the Senate and House. If DeStefano were governor, I could see a titanic clash of egos between him, Amann and Williams, and I don't see much evidence from his campaign that he would keep fiscal discipline.
This is a joke and one of the many reasons that Governor Rell is a poor leader. "Sprawl" is the result of rampant crime, poor schools, and poor leadership in our cities. The more appropriate approach would be to cut off the ridiculous level of taxpayer funding of our cities exposing the poor leadership and forcing the residents there to elect leaders who will actually attack the problems plaguing our cities (see above).
>>Ghost of Yogi said...
What about assault weapons? What does she say about assault weapons?
False issue.
Jodi's claim right now is that she's the `grown-up' protecting us from overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses.
Most of us, including most Dems, don't really want to find out just what the Dems might dream up if they were totally unrestrained.
ACR: Jodi's claim of elect me because the big bad Democrats will destroy the State is b.S. If she really believes that why hasn't she gone on record and asked Connecticut to elect her "TEAM"? Is all of her popularity helping Farr, Cook, Abate etc ? NOPE! Jodi only cares about Jodi and uses that pitch "I'm the only Repblican" nonsense. Jodi may win but she is small time and will never and could never go any further than Governor of a small state. I am tired of hearing COATTAILS and can't wait to the rest of the under ticket takes a pounding.
Why is violent crime, specifically crime involving firearms, up across the state? If it's a false issue to you than it is clear where your priorities lie.
Would an assault weapons ban have stopped these crimes from occurring? From what I remember, the last federal assualt weapons ban was more or less a joke, since it banned having certain items that made the weapon look mean. In some cases, particular weapons were banned, in which case the manufacturer changed the name and made slight cosmetic changes.
I don't own guns, and I'm not a gun guy. But I guess my questions to those advocating assault weapons bans would be 1) can you adequately define what an "assault" weapon is? 2) would banning these types of guns limit crime?
Rell just lost this R's vote. I guess her and the anti-sprawl nitwits figures our kids can afford the exorbitant housing costs which are the direct result of anti sprawl legislation. You make land more expensive and zoning more restrictive and you get super expensive houses.
We should build more roads and more hosues to alleviate congestion and housing problems, not less. CT has more forest and open space now than 25 years ago.
We need to bulldoze it.
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