Two useful comparisons of population density: Chicago has the same population as the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming combined (2.8 million); the former covers 228 square miles, the latter group about 393,000 square miles.
A five-mile radius around my house (78.5 square miles) has 1.2 million residents, about the same as the population of Idaho, with 83,574 square miles.
Philip Longman, in the cover story for the current the Washington Monthly, outlines how the VA hospital system can offer better quality care, at lower costs, than any private health care provider: largely through active management of chronic illnesses, aided by extensive investments in information technology. The dramatic gains made by VA in improving care show just how deficient the rest of the US health care system is in basic, good management: think of the entire system, provide life-cycle services rather than products, etc.
The problem with this approach, he points out well into the piece, is that it isn’t replicable within the current privately funded US healthcare regime: high-capital-cost investments with long-term outcomes only make sense for single-payer, usually government, schemes like VA. (The only other US health services provider to employ so much IT is non-profit Kaiser, which is run strikingly like a government health service.)
Indeed, there are huge disincentives to change within the current pay-to-play system: since surgeons and thus doctors get paid per operation, there’s no incentive for hospitals to steer patients towards less invasive, preventive care, even when such care would cost less and result in better outcomes. Investing now in subsidizing preventive care makes little sense when the patients jump ship every few years; the investment will save money for the next guy, not for your firm.
And thus, the profit motive once again foils socially strategic investments. The market doesn’t always win.
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Tracy Rozhon in the NY Times report that buyout talks between Federated and May are continuing:
Analysts suggest that Federated would still benefit by the cost savings it could create by shutting down overlapping stores and eliminating back-office functions. According to Wayne Hood, an analyst at Prudential Equity Group, Federated would probably save $200 million in the first year of a deal.
A lot of underperforming or duplicative locations will have to close in order to wring $200M out of this deal — especially since Federated only has two business models (upscale Bloomingdale’s and midscale Macy’s) whereas May’s dozen nameplates operate in a far wider range of market conditions. A consolidation by the industry’s two largest players could leave dozens of malls with dark anchor spaces, and the inevitable sales declines that follow could push even the remaining anchors out — putting dozens of B-grade malls out of existence unless their owners prepare to reposition now.
In DC this weekend, someone left a “New Homes Guide” in my hotel room. The map of sprawl shows commuter suburbs springing up not one, but two counties past the West Virginia line, in Spotsylvania County, five counties from DC, and across from Annapolis on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
The beauty and functionality of Metrorail and the new National Airport leave me feeling jealous: I haven’t seen infrastructure this well-designed and well-kept since Paris. Train headways have been 2-3 minutes at rush hour, 10 minutes even on Sunday afternoons.
Bob Rackleff, a county commissioner in Leon County (Tallahasee), Florida, has put together an interesting paper on how auto dependence is draining Florida’s economy. (Full text is after the jump.) The Wall Street Journal earlier had an article on the Tampa region, which has the highest per-capita expenditures on transportation (an astonishing 23.2%!). That money leaks out of the state, as Florida neither makes cars nor drills nor refines oil. If even one-third of those transportation expenditures were invested in housing instead — an investment which tends, unlike cars, to grow in value — the resulting price rise would build lots of wealth within the state, and bring tax benefits due to the mortgage interest deduction.
Continue reading
As a complement to the Home Depot post from earlier today, I offer a view of the Procter & Gamble factory that my local Home Depot (North Ave & the river) replaced.
Alas, they didn’t know the value of a good loft building then. (Thanks to Chicago Switching for keeping that around.)
Maybe it’s only in LA, though. “Enhanced reading” to be staged on 5 March.
THE TREE, a new opera by PETER WING HEALEY
Synopsis: The spirit of a centuries-old oak tree on a ridge outside a small town falls in love with a poetic young man from the town.� She comes out of her tree and marries him when his first marriage falls apart.� They move to the big city where he will pursue his dream of becoming an architect.� His ex-wife, taking custody of their son, marries again, this time to a local developer.� When, years later, the developer decides to build a mall outside the now growing town it becomes clear that he plans to cut down the old tree.� The town is instantly polarized and the son joins with a band of tree-sitters to protest the construction.� The architect and the tree spirit watch helplessly as the situation deteriorates.� When the tree is finally felled she dies but in the process he receives the gift of a vision that will enable him to transform the world.
An exciting, contemporary re-telling of an ancient Shinto myth combined with the story of today�s struggle to save our old-growth forests and stop the sprawl.�� Tying together themes being addressed by a broad world movement chrystalising around such organizations as Smart Growth and Congress for a New Urbanism, The Tree attempts to sing about the unthinkable � can there be life without cars?
A mention of lifestyle centres in Canada by the ICSC included a hint: the first completed lifestyle centre, the Village at Park Royal in North Vancouver, includes a 70,000 sq ft design-focused Home Depot with a round, street-facing, two-level layout. It looks quite good from these photos from architect MDMA:
I’m surprised I’ve never seen these before, but in the past three days I’ve been treated to (a) a truck stuck under a bridge (in this case, a crane under the UP-N bridge over North Avenue) and (b) a bank shut after a robbery. The latter was the LaSalle Bank at State & Adams; I was getting cash and noticed a preprinted sign (done up in the standard graphic design scheme) on the bank door saying “this branch is closed due to an emergency situation.” Inside, the bank employees were milling about while cops took photographs. It’s odd that they would have those preprinted signs at the ready.
These are the kinds of things I’d photoblog about if only I was carrying a cameraphone — maybe soon.
Most of the rest of the world will begin working to actually do something on a global scale about global climate change starting next Wednesday, when the Kyoto Protocol formally enters into force. Most other industrialized nations have developed or are developing carbon emissions plans, but, of course, not the USA.
Bike Traffic is reporting that CTA and the city DOT are collaborating on building five giant new 24-hour indoor bike parking facilities, with a cumulative capacity of over 400 bicycles. I’d be curious to find out where these facilities will fit in:
* Jefferson Park/Blue Line (112 spaces)
* Damen/Blue Line (104)
* Midway/Orange Line (154)
* 35th-Sox/Red Line (42)
* Howard/Red Line (70) [in phase two]
And, which Damen station? (There are now two, now that the Douglas branch’s Hoyne station has been moved.) The existing station is tightly wedged, although CTA owns some additional space under the tracks for a new structure — much of which is, ironically, now used for car parking.
Runyon D. Banks, my distant billionaire cousin, has off and started his own blog. We don’t exactly agree on politics, but his sense of style is utterly infallible.
west north 
