I thought I might try out a new feature here at the Mojowire. I am going to try to throw up some interesting posts and article on various topics that I see from the various blogs and other sources I read. I am going to try and emphasize the wonkier side, so expect to see alot of infrastructure, water, and edu-wonkery along with the usual politics stuff. I will probably offer my quick or not so quick take on the piece as well. I read these blogs and sites because I am an incorrigible policy nerd so you don't have to. I'll start with just a few
- From Infrastructurist, a link to an Economist article about the fears of the rail freight industry about the rise of High Speed Passenger rail. I like this piece becasue it highlights an important fact we forget in the U.S. Namely that our passenger rail sucks by comparison to Europe and Japan, but our frieght network is the best in the world and that is something we should work to preserve as we begin the arduous process of hammering out the complex process of building more passenger rail.
- From On the Public Record, an interesting post about Ca water policy for the policy nerd interested in water policy and the arcane practices of the Ca state water technocracy, a post about a recent state report about what it would take to restore fish in Ca waterways.
As Mojo can attest to, I obsess about public instrastructure policy, particulary transportation. You can expect to see quite a few links about that topic, HSR in particular. As a resident of a region with particulary egregious transporation challenges, I believe that investment in this area is critical to our economic growth and quality of life. The problem is how to allocate finate resource, choose winners and losers in an area where the market simply cannot, ( we can discuss that last if you wish, but please bring more than slogans to the table), and how do we navigate the complex political and economic relationships you have to figure out when you build a massive insfrastructure project that spans many jurisdictions and has many stakeholders. I'll be putting up links about his topic consistently and talking about this in the future.
