The Italian Way

I recently returned from a vacation in Italy. The most enjoyable part of the trip was being with my daughter, who has been studying art history in Rome this spring. Standing in the middle of a piazza and listening to her tell me stories of ancient Rome and pointing out why we know what we do from the art and architecture of this ancient city, which was the cradle of democracy, is something I will never forget. I could relate some of what I learned to Loudoun County.

As we walked though the ruins of Pompeii, I noticed something that looked modern and familiar, and asked our guide if what I was seeing in the mist of the rubble and excavation could be conduit for fiber optic cable? He just smiled in reply. Maybe it was to connect the sensors recently installed in Vesuvius, one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, to warn the 800,000 living in the “red” zone of an impending eruption.

Italy seemed more connected than the US. During my two days in Rome, two days on the Amalfi coast in relatively small towns like Ravello, Positano, and the two days on the island of Capri, I never felt disconnected from the ROW (rest of the world). There seemed to always be 4 bars on my cell phone, and every one of our hotels had HSIA (high speed Internet access). This connectivity allowed me to beam images of the breathtaking beauty home to family and friends.

Italians drive like they speak, with great emotion and flair. In the city Smart Cars, picture a Mini Cooper cut in half, were everywhere. They park perpendicular to the curb, but intrude into the street no more than a normal car. It’s the darnedest Mercedes I have ever seen. Yes, the Smart Car is made by Mercedes-Benz.

We traveled south from Rome with a hired car and driver. (Do not think about doing this yourself.) Our driver held to the speed limit 130 km (about 81 mph) on the Autostrada, but cars flew past us with a whoosh. My guess was at well over 100 mph.

This round trip on the Autostrada was the closest connection I made to Loudoun County. The high speed highway from Rome to Naples rivaled our Dulles Greenway in design - a limited access 6 lane toll road. From Rome to Naples the toll amounted to $0.34 per mile. The Greenway’s $0.18 per mile toll would be a bargain to Italians. Doing a little research after I returned home, I discovered why this highway felt familiar. It is operated by Autostrade Group, the same company that operates the Dulles Greenway!

Private Highways

Earlier this year I wrote about the debate at the public hearing over the proposed toll increase on the Greenway, see Free Markets. All the TV lights and the spots on the evening news, including the NBC and ABC national news shows that same night, focused mainly the politicians, who in my opinion were way off the mark on this issue. Frank Wolf was one. I have been a friend and admirer of Franks for many years. My wife was his transportation aide during his freshman years in Congress. Frank has also been a great friend of Loudoun County and Leesburg so I am surprised by his position. The Greenway would not exist if private entrepreneurs had not financed, built, and managed this road. The Greenway is to the economic development of the Leesburg area as Dulles Airport is to the western Fairfax County and far eastern Loudoun County.

Recently National Public Radio’s Kojo Nnamdi show featured a discussion on Private Highways. Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation discussed private toll roads and HOT lanes, which is another "hot" subject in Northern Virginia and Richmond as the Commonwealth tries to unjam our roads. Frank Wolf put in an appearance on the show, but did not stay on the air long enough to hear Poole’s very logical explanation of why Wolf is mistaken. For example, the Greenway is not the most expensive toll road per mile in the US. The Greenway can not be compared to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which was built over 60 years ago; and it is impractical to think that Virginia could buy the Greenway. (Why not use those dollars to fix the state roads and interchanges?)

You can listen to the Private Highways show, and at the same time learn why there is a solution to some of our traffic problems that has proven to work elsewhere.
Click here to listen with Windows Media
Chick here to listen with Real Audio.

Time for Change at the Airport

The Leesburg Town Council was recently trying to get a grip on the Leesburg Airport financials as they went through the budget process. Leesburg Today reported on the struggle, Airports Financials Grab Councils Attention. It was about time. For the last five years the airport has lost a total of $2,259,734. That is an average of over $450,000 a year. Last year the loss was $525,286. The trend is not good. Taking a page from Enron’s play book, some on the Council, egged on by the airport manager and the leaders of the airport commission, are blaming the accounting system. This group, rather than trying to fix the problem, apparently would like to rewrite the book on GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principals. Another suggestion was to move the airport from being an Enterprise Fund to some other form of accounting in the Town’s financial report. I call this a cover up. By definition an Enterprise Fund should at least breakeven. The Town has two Enterprise Funds – The Airport Fund, and the Water & Sewer Fund. (I wrote earlier about the Water & Sewer Fund which has also been mismanaged – see Water Balloon.)

Instead of trying to juggle the books, the Town should do what any money losing business does – cut costs and increase revenues. Like the utilities department, which had not increased rates since 1992 the airport has not increased rates for three years. When I looked into the tie-down rates, I discovered the Town charges $100 a month and that they were 100% occupied with a waiting list. This means that sometime after 1993 the tie-down rate was decreased, because in 1993 it was $100. I managed the airport from 1981 until 1993 under a contract with the Town. The Town paid me nothing for management or anything else. I leased land and buildings from the Town. The lease terms were determined by the Town in a public RFP process. I never negotiated the rate or term. Today the cost to the Town to manage the airport is over $400,000 for both personal and contractual services.

In the last 15 years the airport has managed to chase off all but one business jet, and build a $4 million Taj Mahal terminal that caters to small recreational pilots and airplanes. Business jets visit on occasion, but seldom stay. As I write this, the Town Council, on the recommendation of the Airport Commission and the staff, is about to reject the two bids for the hangar pad that had gone vacant for over three years. One of these bids was from a very successful high tech company, EIT, founded by State Senator Joe May, and the other bid was from a large Washington DC real estate company, Advantis. Two years ago the Town accepted a bid for the adjacent hangar pad, but to date not one spade of dirt has been turned on this site and it remains vacant.

In May the last of the FAA flight service employees, once numbering over 150, will leave. With them goes the majority of the economic impact of the airport. It’s time for change.

My Kind of Mayor

A mayor who reduces taxes, increases services, has a plan to decentralize the national energy grid, and put his city in the green energy business at no cost to the tax payers, sounds like a fairy tale. Not so, George Fitch, Mayor of Warrenton, is just such a guy, and a Republican at that. The Washington Post reports how Fitch sees treasure in trash. He has a plan to build an ethanol and electric plant on the county dump. He has done more improbable things in the past like organizing the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team. He was even gutsy enough to run against Jerry Kilgore in the Republican primary.

Water Balloon

Here’s a trial balloon. It is apparent that the Town’s water and sewer department has been financially mismanaged for many years. Ten years ago the utility fund had a substantial surplus, which today has all but disappeared. Last year consultants recommended rate increases to correct the problem. Unbelievably, until last year there had been no rate increase for water and sewer since 1992. Last year (FY 2006) the utility fund had a loss of $4.1 million compared to a loss of $2.6 million the year before. Connection fees and developer donations were $5.9 million in FY2006 and $10.8 million in FY 2005. These one time fees reduced the losses but you can see the trend. With fewer homes being built this very unfavorable trend will continue.

There is now a food fight between the Town and the County over who will provide water and sewer service to Crosstrail and other proposed developments that are just outside the Town boundaries. Last year the Town Council imposed a 100% rate increase on those living outside the Town but receiving Town water and sewer. This group filed suit.

While listening to the staff discuss some of these issues at several public hearings, it became apparent that the Town and the Loudoun County Sewer Authority (LCSA) work pretty well together. I have recently discovered that there is even an agreement that either entity will provide the other service in the event mechanical or other events temporarily curtail operations. I understand that this week those of us who live in the Town were drinking and bathing in County water.

Perhaps instead of raising rates the Town should look at costs, and ask themselves, why are we in a business that loses money? Why not sell the Town sewer and water department to LCSA. The savings in overhead cost alone might put the operation in the black.

The Town could take the proceeds and return the money to the tax payers by reducing taxes. The combined Authority could charge everyone the same. Sounds fair and reasonable.

The Town has one other business or “Enterprise Fund” that needs attention - the airport. I will save that for another time. Stay tuned.

Rail and Navigation Lines

If readers have not guessed it by now I am a local news junkie. Maybe I tune out things I can not control or perhaps even understand like the war in Iraq, and social issues like evolution. After scanning the front page of The Washington Post on Sundays, I routinely turn to the Loudoun Section and look for Eugene Scheel’s occasional stories about the Piedmont. They almost always bring back a memory that I have as a young boy growing up in Loudoun County. Today’s article, At the End of the Line, An Opportunity Lost, reminded me of the train that brought my trunk home from summer camp in Maine. Leesburg was a Railway Express terminal, the FedEx of the early part of the last century. The story also triggered thoughts about the number one issue in Loudoun County today – transportation.

I called my friend and Town Council member Ken Reid, who is a transportation guru, to get his reaction to the article. Ken reminded me of the proposed Metro Purple Line from Bethesda, through Chevy Chase Lake, Silver Spring, and New Carrollton continuing on to complete a full circle of Washington like the Beltway. The proposed Purple Line right-of-way in Montgomery County is another abandoned heavy rail line. Trains on this line moved coal and freight to Georgetown. Ken said that politics, not the cost of the right-of-way, doomed the line. Nevertheless every few years the idea resurfaces. This triggered another memory bell. Part of the political pressure stemmed from the Columbia County Club whose members include powerful Washington area businessmen and professionals.

Columbia Club is located just north of East-West Highway and about a mile south of the Beltway. The proposed Purple Line railway right-of-way like the W&OD trail is also a walking and bike trail. This railroad right-of-way runs through the Columbia Club golf course between the 14th and 15th greens. Golfers today use two tunnels to walk or drive golf carts under the trail. On the other side of the trail from the golf course is historic Hayes Manor. (Note it is Hayes, not Haynes, but there is a family connection.) My great uncle George T. Dunlop, Jr. bought Hayes Manor in the 1902 and lived there until he died in the 1950s. My cousin, close friend, and mentor Langhorne Bond is George Dunlop’s grandson. Langhorne’s father lived in China for 22 years. He worked for Pan American World Airways trying to save China National Aviation Corporation from the clutches of the Japanese. CNAC was a fledging airline jointly own by the Chinese government and Pan Am. As war loomed he sent Langhorne and his brother to Chevy Chase to live at Hayes Manor. After George Dunlop died, Hayes was sold to Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post’s granddaughter, Ellen McNeil Charles. In the 1990’s Hayes manor’s property was divided. The Manor house and a small amount of land were purchased by Columbia Club, and the remaining land by The Howard Hughes Medical Institute as their main campus. This is the same medical research organization that recently opened in Loudoun County at Janella Farm on Rt. 7.

Langhorne followed his father’s aviation interest and became Administrator of the FAA in the 1970’s. Last October Prince Philip of England indoctrinated him as an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation honoring Langhorne’s work to save LORAN and make it a backup for GPS navigation. The Greenwich meridian is the line where time and navigation begins.

Perhaps the history of these different lines will help us solve Loudoun’s transportation problems, and then again maybe not. Hopefully at least the history is entertaining.

Outside.in & The Loudoun Scoop

As I write this the outside temperature is just above the single digits and moving in from the outside is indeed a good move. But a move that works in any season and anywhere is the new website outside.in. That’s all you need, just those two words. outside.in is the creation of best selling author Steven Johnson. A lucky few met Steven at a book signing lunch just after Christmas in Leesburg when Steven told us about his new book, The Ghost Map, the story of a London neighborhood stricken with a cholera epidemic and how this medical mystery was solved.

Outside.in is also about neighborhoods, and like the true story of The Ghost Map, residents unlock the “mysteries” of what is happening in their neighborhood. Enter a zip code and you will get the scoop on the neighborhood. News on the arts, bars, community, crime, schools, kids, etc. are a few of the many tags that can be placed on articles about any neighborhood. Top tags for 20175 and 20176 (Leesburg) are events, politics, Loudoun, Dulles, concerts, New Years Eve. Click on any tag and read everything posted about these subjects in Leesburg. Outside.in has teamed up with Google to supply a map called the “Dashboard”. If you are looking at any community, drag the map to a community nearby that you want to check out.

Outside.in is only a few months old, but growing like wildfire. In early January about a month after launching the 100,000th story was posted. Over a 1,000 stories are added every day by contributors. By early February over 1,650 blogs had been submitted to outside.in, and they were in 56 cities and 3,201 neighborhoods.

Outside.in will soon cover the world, but a great source of local news is The Loudon Scoop a creation of David D'Onofrio. If you are like me and do not have time to read all the many local Loudoun County papers cover to cover, The Loudoun Scoop is a great way to quickly stay up-to-date on what’s in the news about Loudoun County. I often find news I am interested in days before I read it in the papers because The Loudoun Scoop links to articles the papers publish on their websites. Join the Scoop email list and you will receive a daily reminder.

The Scoop and outside.in are a great way of staying in tune with what is happening.

Free Markets – part III (Parking)

On February 3rd the Wall Street Journal ran a story, Parking Fix. (I believe you need to subscribe to the WSJ for this link to work.) It pointed out that “Free-market economists are overhauling a frustration of American life -- and erasing what may be one of the last great urban bargains”. The article should be food for thought for our city and town leaders particularly in Northern Virginia in places like Leesburg where on-street parking is limited and off-street parking in the Historic District is scarce.

The article says that planners for years believed that, “cities can never have too much parking, and it can never be cheap enough. But a small but vocal band of economists, city planners and entrepreneurs is shaking that up, promoting ideas like free-market pricing at meters and letting developers, rather than the cities, dictate the supply of off-street parking.”

“Seattle is doing away with free street parking in a neighborhood just north of downtown. London has meters that go as high as $10 an hour, while San Francisco has been trying out a system that monitors usage in real time, allowing the city to price spots to match demand. (A recent tally there showed that one meter near AT&T Park brings in around $4,500 a year, while another meter about a mile away takes in less than $10.) Gainesville, Fla., has capped the number of parking spots that can be added to new buildings; Cambridge, Mass., works with companies to reduce off-street parking.”

Donald Shoup, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles published a book, The High Cost of Free Parking. Shoup accuses cities of "mismanagement of the worst sort". He developed the "85% rule, the Journal reports. “Cities, he says, should charge whatever rates lead to about 85% of the spots being filled up at any given time, moving rates up or down as demand fluctuates”. The 85% target now serves as a policy guideline for cities including Portland, Ore., and Anchorage, Alaska.

Cities and towns like Redwood City, and San Francisco are finding that Shoup’s ideas and similar free market solutions are working. Maybe this is one idea from California that Virginia should buy into.

Free Markets – part II (Tolls)

This week I first watched Republican Congressman Frank Wolf, next Independent Scott York, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Democrat Steve Miller candidate for the Board of Supervisors, and a parade of other politicians from all parties chastise the owners of the Greenway for proposing a toll increase which they characterized as “highway robbery”. All the while 3 or 4 television cameras were rolling, and a larger group of reporters were busily scribbling notes. No one should be surprised at the position every politician took – it’s an election year! The politicians were followed by some of the same activist “ANNs” that are regular speakers at public hearings and other such meetings. (This word has become an acronym for Against, Never, No. I have never heard this group speak in favor of anything.)

As I watched this show, finally a speaker who I thought I could relate to spoke. This man impressed me with his education and knowledge of business and economics. He discussed rates of return, various benchmarks like the S&P 500. But soon he lost me. I usually can follow this kind of logic as that’s what I do for a living, and I have a long-ago degree in economics. He seemed to draw the conclusion that a 15% return on investment was excessive and more than you can get investing in the S&P 500. He is right on the last point. But if everyone just invested in stocks and bonds, we would have no risk capital, and no Microsoft’s, Apple’s, or the zillion small start up companies that make Loudoun County what some call the Silicon Valley of the east.

Maggie Bryant took a huge risk when she invested in the Greenway, almost 20 years ago. So did every investor since then. I heard that TRIP II, the company that owns the Greenway made its first profit in 2005, over ten year after the road opened. That sounds like risk to me - a risk for which any sophisticated investor would expect double digit returns well above 15%. “Return on investment”, or ROI in geek speak, is based on three variables, what you invest, the amount you receive when you sell, and the time in between. If you double your money in two to three years, the ROI is very attractive. If you double your money in 15 years, you should have invested in a government bond. The Greenway investors have never doubled their money or come close to it.

Having said that, I don’t believe anyone, private citizen or government, can say what the right price should be. However, as my hero Warren Buffet would say, Mr. Market can and will. In a free market, prices will adjust to the law of supply and demand. Our roads are a free market, not a monopoly. If one road is crowded or dangerous, we use other roads. When I lived in Maryland in the 1980’s I drove to work in Leesburg on Georgetown Pike. When I saw several bad accidents, I opted for Rt. 7. Now I use the Greenway most of the time because it is safer and faster. Would I use it if the toll was $4? I don’t know, but I would have a choice.

Remember that the Greenway is a private road. The owners pay for everything – police patrols, snow removal, mowing grass, new lanes, and toll plazas. Notice the two new bridges and exits at Shreve Mill Road/Crosstrail Boulevard and at Battlefield Parkway. These exits will be completed and opened long before our governments build the roads to the bridges. And that is exactly what happened with the Greenway – a road before its time, and the finest road in Loudoun County, and probably all of Virginia.

Now Here’s Real Leadership

“Battlefield Parkway Construction Back On Track”, reads the headline in Leesburg Today. This article tells the story of how the Town Council and John Wells resurrected the reality of Battlefield Parkway from Rt. 7 to Kincaid Boulevard. It now appears that the funds are in place and that the RFP for construction may be issued as soon as this Friday, January 26th. If the system works like it should, we might see Battlefield Parkway completed all the way from the Greenway to Rt. 7 by 2009. This is an extremely important connector that will help relieve some our most serious traffic problems.

When VDOT took this project off their near-term to-do list only a few weeks ago, the Town Council sprang into action. I understand that Mayor Umstattd wrote 9 letters with personal notes to politicians and VDOT on this subject. Ken Reid, the transportation champion on the Council, Vice Mayor Susan Horne, Katie Hammler, Kevin Wright, cornered their friends in the State Legislature and members of VDOT. Kelly Burke contacted the Governor’s office. Several citizens spoke directly with Delegate Joe May. Other members of the state legislature were also approached. Town Manager, John Wells, should get special recognition for figuring out how to pay for the project.

I hope that this is a trend that will continue. We need to finish Battlefield Parkway from the Greenway to Rt. 15. The bridge will soon be completed across the Greenway, but Battlefield Parkway will end at Evergreen Mill Road. Sources tell me that “Meadowbrook II” will soon surface, which may give the Town a second bite at the apple and a chance to complete this road. I also hear a rumor that there may be some good news on the funding of a flyover at Sycolin Road and the By-pass. Wouldn’t all that make for a very happy New Year, and many happy new years to come?

I Also Have a Dream, and It Begins with T

As I write this we are reminded of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech that changed the lives of millions for the better. Today is his birthday. King was a leader who died an untimely death at the young age of 39. About twenty years later, after King’s death, another dreamer, Ralph Stanley, conceived of a private road from Dulles Airport to Leesburg. Like the civil rights movement, a private road was a disruptive technology, inconceivable to some, and fraught with risk, but an idea that changed the world in which we live. I hesitate to try and connect my dream to these two great visionaries, nevertheless my thoughts are as follows.

There is problem in “River City” (Loudoun County) that begins with T. This problem has reached the front page of every local newspaper and even The Washington Post. The problem is Traffic and Transportation, and that’s with a “Capital T which stands for Trouble”, as Robert Preston, the Music Man, said.

The front page headline in the January 12, 2007 issue of Leesburg Today reads, “Traffic Choking HHMI Research?” This article tells of a meeting between the Loudoun County Economic Development Commission and the COO of Janelia Farm. Janelia Farm is the site of Loudoun County’s largest bio-tech venture, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The article reports that the business leaders on the County EDC were “stunned” by the report they received of traffic so bad that HHMI potential employees were turning down job offers, and scientists could not easily drive to the NIH in Bethesda where they often collaborate.

My dream is of a bridge across the Potomac and a road connecting Loudoun County Parkway. This dream is not new or unique. In fact it is as old as the Washington Beltway. Politicians have debated this for years. I believe the solution is a public/private partnership and the solution begins with T which stands for Tolls. A toll bridge across the Potomac connecting to a road that connects to the Loudoun County Parkway is financially feasible. It should be also politically doable. Why not another private toll road and bridge?

Polls – here we go again

In the early spring of 2006 I was credited/accused (your choice of words) of being responsible for the first ever political poll taken during Leesburg Town elections. I only wish I had the talent and the money to put something that professional together. Now, more in keeping with my talent and pocket book, I have recently added a poll to Leadership Talk. You, the readers, get to be the professional pollsters. First vote and watch the results. (This not Chicago, so your vote will only be counted once.) Then comment here on the results (click on the comment link below), and send me ideas for future polls. If it proves popular, I will change the poll every few weeks.

A little history, when the polls of last spring began, many were amazed that something like this could happen in little old Leesburg. Never mind that polls are common in state-wide and national elections. Even some friends who suspected my hand in what they called mischievous doings called me names like Skunk. Even though I cannot take credit for the earlier polls, I do take credit or blame for this poll on Leadership Talk. But please, if you want to call me a name, I would prefer “Pole Cat”. Perhaps some might think of Leadership Talk as the “Skunk Works”.

A little history on that name; as an aviator it has a special meaning to me and others of this persuasion. The name has its genesis at Lockheed Aircraft. The story is told on the Lockheed Martin Website:

When Kelly Johnson, a Lockheed engineer, brought together a hand-picked team of Lockheed engineers and manufacturing people at Burbank in the wartime year of 1943, each team member was cautioned that design and production of the new P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter must be carried out in strict secrecy. No one was to discuss the project outside the small organization, and team members were even warned to be careful how they answered the telephones.

A team engineer named Irv Culver was a fan of Al Capp’s newspaper comic strip, "Li’l Abner," in which there was a running joke about a mysterious place deep in the forest called the "Skonk Works." There, a strong beverage was brewed from skunks, old shoes and other strange ingredients. Johnson’s organization operated out of a rented circus tent next to a plastic manufacturing plant that would produce a strong odor which permeated the tent.

One day, Culver’s phone rang and he answered it by saying "Skonk Works, inside man Culver speaking." Fellow employees quickly adopted the name for their mysterious part of Lockheed, where the new jet fighter program was brewing. "Skonk Works" became "Skunk Works." The once informal nickname is now the registered trademark of the company: Skunk Works®.

There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Love

So goes the popular Country song. At a recent meeting of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, the question of too much mixed-use development was raised. In my opinion “mixed-use” can be added to the list of things we can not get too much of.

Mixed-use development is not new. Downtown Leesburg is as mixed as it comes. Residences are built over shops. Leesburg was planned and built before the automobile during a time when you walked to work. Horse dung was the pollutant du jour, not exhaust fumes. As our country industrialized and the automobile replaced the horse tract housing development became the norm. The demand for housing and roads accelerated at a phenomenal rate after World War II when 16 million veterans returned home. The baby and housing boom was on. Bill Levitt understood the tidal wave of demand for housing and the market for large low cost housing developments. Roosevelt talked about the dream of a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. Eisenhower introduced the Interstate Highway System. The idea of walking to shop and work was lost on everyone except those living in very dense urban cities like New York where a car just does not work very well.

In the mid 1960s developers began to see that the old mixed-use model could actually work in the modern world of mass transit and the automobile. Employees were attracted to companies with offices close to where they could work and shop. Robert E. Simon was one of the early visionaries and his dream took shape in the form of RESTON. Others like Jim Rouse conceived Columbia, Maryland, a self-contained planned community. Columbia, which in the 1960s was almost entirely rural farm land, has a population of over 90,000. Reston’s population exceeds 56,000. Reston Town Center has become the focal point for retail and commercial businesses as well as a cultural center hosting summer concerts and recreation, like ice skating, in the heart of the project.

The Peterson Company watched this happen and developed Fairfax Corner at Fair Lakes, the Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, and has given rebirth to downtown Silver Spring. The newest Peterson project, National Harbor, is attracting literally Olympic fame.

So why aren’t our leaders more receptive when mixed-use projects like Village at Leesburg, One Loudoun, and Crosstrail are proposed? We should stop treating developers as devils. They have done more to improve our quality of life than government – local, state or federal. These developers deserve our support and encouragement not the negativism that they are confronted with at every turn.

The Ghost Map

I never thought I would read a book about sewage, but I did and can not stop thinking about what I learned about the past and what the future might bring. The Ghost Map, The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson is a fascinating story about a terrible disease and two men who solved the mystery of how Cholera infects and kills in usually a day. Johnson tells about ancient Sanskrit writings in about 500 B.C. that told of a “lethal illness that kills by draining water from its victims". His main story centers on Victorian London and the Cholera outbreak in the summer of 1854.

Johnson is a best selling author. His previous book, Everything Bad is Good for You, made him a popular figure on television and radio talk shows, and a much requested speaker at events around the world. He has the ability to explain complicated scientific issues in terms that mere mortals like me can understand.

While the story of Dr. John Snow and Reverend Henry Whitehead and how they solved the mystery is a page turner, Johnson’s discussion of the development of cities and their infrastructure, both physical and social, is what I found even more fascinating. He takes the reader from the past into the present and finally into the future of our modern world. Terrorism whether it was Cholera in 1854 or al-Qaeda today may be dealt with similar scientific tools.

Maps and digital tools today in dense cities like New York are improving city life. Johnson tells of Michael Bloomberg’s 311 service in New York City built around the tech support for his financial computer terminals. He explains that 311 is, “kindler, gentler version of 911.” For example New Yorkers call 311 when there is a homeless person sleeping in a park, or they can call to find out if a concert in Central Park has been cancelled. It is a two-way system and 311 operators learn from the callers – where potholes have developed, where noise from constructions and parties are a problem. A side benefit was that calls to the overburdened 911 service decreased for the first time in New York’s history.

The part that touched me the most was Steven Johnson’s dedication:

For the women in my life. My mother and sisters, for their amazing work on the front lines of public health; Alexa [my wife] for the gift of Henry Whitehead, and Mame, for introducing me to London so many years ago.

You see Mame is my mother, and Steven Johnson is my nephew. (Read more about Steven in my earlier post "Birth of the Blogs".)

All Roads Lead to Home

I first knew Loudoun County growing up on my father’s dream come true, Courtland Farm. It was named by my grandmother. It was where my dad courted my mother. (My father was a Washington lawyer who grew up in Texas. “Don’t Fence Me In” was his theme song.) The farm buildings are still there today. The house he built, now owned by the Pomata family, still sits on a hill with some of the most beautiful views of Loudoun County. My oldest memories of Loudoun County are driving from our home in Washington on Route 50 to the farm. Route 50 was the shortest and fastest way. Later as Fairfax County began to develop, we switched to Route 7, a two lane road that we picked up at Tysons Corner where we often gassed up at the only commercial business there, an ESSO station.

After World War II, the growth spurt, first fueled by the war, accelerated and has never stopped. Northern Virginia was home to a growing number of federal workers. In those days there was no beltway, no Interstate Highway System, and four lane roads were almost unheard of. The Eisenhower congress passed the Federal Highway bill and the automobile industry exploded. City workers could live in the county. Today not much has changed, except everything. Tyson’s Corner is now a city, larger than Washington of the 1940s. The drive from my home in Washington to the farm on Saturday morning took an hour. Today the same drive takes an hour. But then my father could leave the farm at 8 AM and be in his office at 15th and K Street by 9 AM. Try that today.

Traffic and funding roads has always been a major issue for Loudoun County and Northern Virginia. Stopping residential development, as some would like, will not solve our transportation problems. Most of our automobile traffic does not originate in Loudoun County. Much of it does not even originate in Virginia. Traffic from West Virginia, Maryland, Northwestern Virginia (Winchester, Berryville, Purcellville, Hamilton, etc.), and from the south (Manassas, Warrenton, etc.) and the developments on the land where Disney once planned a theme park, all converges at Leesburg.

What to do? We need many solutions to this transportation problem. Outside-of-the-box thinking from the private sector like the Greenway and the Route 28 special tax district are desperately needed. The State and Federal Governments will not solve this problem for us. The Dulles South CPAMs can be part of the solution. Crosstrail, Riverside Park, and maybe even Meadowbrook can be part of the solution. The developers of these properties can bring the creativity we need, and the funds we don’t have.

What Happened to Free Markets?

“Drivers Seeing Red Over Greenway Toll” reads the headline in the Washington Post. The article reveals that the State Corporation Commission (SCC) has received over 100 letters opposing the Greenway’s owner’s application to increase tolls over the next six years. The Republican-controlled Loudoun County Board of Supervisors are screaming foul, and my good friend Republican Frank Wolf has written a letter, which he uses in his campaign ads, opposing the toll increase. It is an election year and Frank has a tough fight in a year when Republicans are being depicted as devils around the world. Let’s put politics aside as the SCC must do and consider some facts.

In 1988 when the private toll road legislation was passed to permit the first private toll road in the United States since before the Civil War, State Route 267, later named the Greenway, was not even on the VDOT 20 year plan. A year before Ralph Stanley, President Ronald Reagan’s Urban Mass Transit Administrator, left his government job to develop the Greenway and sell his idea to legislators in Richmond and to the public. Ralph setup a small office across from the Courthouse in Leesburg. I met with him often and we shared ideas on right-of-way issues. We became good friends. I was personally very interested in seeing this project happen. At the time I was commuting on Route 7 from Chevy Chase Maryland to the Leesburg Airport, an increasingly frustrating and dangerous journey. I could also see the benefits this road would bring to Loudoun County, Leesburg, and my business at the airport.

When the Greenway opened in 1995 it was toll-free for the first month or so. When a toll was levied, trips on the Greenway dropped as commuters and other drivers returned to Route 7. But slowly back they came to the Greenway as traffic increased on dangerous Leesburg Turnpike. My point is that they had a choice.

So why is the SCC even involved in setting toll rates? The Greenway is not a monopoly like Dominion Power or other utilities. It was not built with public funds. The owners of the Greenway pay for the State Police to patrol the road. If drivers feel the toll is too high, they can take alternates like Route 7 or Route 50. If VDOT and the State Legislators want to compete with the Greenway, they can raises our taxes (a government toll) and make Route 7, Route 50 and other roads competitive. Fat chance – we have just spent a year of gridlock in Richmond over these transportation issues.

No Sausage Factory Here

Watching government in action has often been compared to the production of sausage – not a pretty sight. The 9/11 meeting of the Loudoun County Planning Commission meeting to consider the Crosstrail rezoning application should be a case study for the Harvard School of Government. Despite being held on the 5th anniversary of our nation’s most disastrous day, at the same time as the Redskin’s opening game, a major Presidential address to the nation, and the second installment of ABC's controversial, highly promoted, and widely watched mini-series, “The Path to 9/11”, the members of the Planning Commission, County staffers, two member of the Town Planning Commission, Town staffers, senior officers (including the CEO) of the Peterson Companies, and several dozen consultants worked until midnight to approve Crosstrail: 5 for, 2 opposed, 1 abstention, and 1 absent.

Chair Teresa White Whitmore should have the Harvard chair in Meeting Management. She brought warring parties not only to the peace table, but conducted an orderly debate where all parties had an opportunity to express their views and resolve differences. After the final vote was tallied, I had the feeling that even the two opposed were not violently opposed. One said almost nothing during the whole five hours and gave no reason for his opposition. The one abstention did so because she had only been on the commission a few weeks and had not heard the entire debate. Judging from her questions and observations, it was my feeling that she leaned toward a Yes.

The Crosstrail application now goes to the Board of Supervisors. If this body works as hard and as responsibly as the Planning Commission, the process and the results will make Loudoun County and Leesburg a better place to live, and will hopefully set the tone for better government. Sausage production is not a permitted use in the County Government building. Take note Leesburg: Your zoning laws on this use should conform to the County’s.

There are strange thing done…

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By men who moil for gold

So begins a poem by one of my favorite poets, Robert Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. If Service were alive today and lived in Leesburg, his poem might have read something like this:

There are strange things done in the midday sun
By a Council that that covets gold;
Leesburg’s trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
Loudoun’s folks have seen queer sites,
But the queerest they ever did see
Were the Council forums on the banks of the Goose
That out numbered the residents ten to three.

The strangest sight I ever did see was at the recent Town Forum at the Senior Center in Leesburg. Picture four members of the Town Council (Umstattd, Burke, Martinez, and Reid), eight Town staff members, and one County staffer (a total of 12) making a thirty minute pitch to four seniors who had just finished a bridge game. Twenty other seniors folded up their tables and chairs, and left before the Town group uttered a word.

After much whining about the unfairness of having no vote in the Crosstrail land planning process, not withstanding the fact that Mayor Umstattd has always opposed annexing any land into the Town, I asked if I might say a few words. “No you may not,” exclaimed Council member Burke. “You were not invited.”

Four seniors pitched, one senior muzzled. Indeed, a strange thing at a public meeting in a public building.

Softball at Woodlea

The recent Town Hall Forum at Woodlea Manor turned into a game of softball. Some members of the Leesburg Town Council are making the rounds of HOAs expressing their frustration over the lost opportunity to provide water and sewer to Crosstrail and to receive the enormous tax revenue that this proposed development will produce not for Leesburg but for Loudoun County. Seeming to forget that Woodlea is in Loudoun County and that we all benefit from a more fiscally sound County, the Town vs. Peterson game began on a recent Thursday night.

Susan Horne, managing Team Leesburg and actually pitching some very nice compliments about the Peterson Companies by noting the wonderful mixed use developments they are known for, sent Susan Swift to the plate. Town planner Swift took a swing at transportation, airport, and utility issues. Despite pitchers planted by Team Leesburg in the audience who delivered several underhanded softballs, Swift whiffed each toss. The umpire called three strikes.

Hoping to get a hit for the Town, Kelly Burke assumed the pitcher’s mound and sent a curve ball to Swift on roads, which Swift fouled to left field.

Sandy Kane was then sent in as a relief pitcher and asked Swift with a slow slider about residential traffic. Swift bunted a foul.

Sensing a need for yet a better pitcher, manager Horne called on Bill Whyte from the airport commission. After warming up with an explanation of the effects of Gelignite, he stated the first Leesburg Airport had closed because of noise. This was ruled a foul ball which actually traveled backwards over the catcher’s head. The ump explained that Arthur Godfrey, who owned the original grass strip runway, wanted a longer paved runway for his soon-to-be-acquired DC-3, which accounted for the new airport location.

This sent retired pitcher Burke into contortions of body and face that worried some in the audience that a medical emergency was about to occur.

The inning ended. Team Peterson was up to bat. Leading off was Jeff Saxe with Mike Banzhaf on deck. Saxe lit up the big screen with an impressive PowerPoint presentation of all the features of Crosstrail - restaurants like Coastal Flats, a 12 to 14 screen movie theater, well known stores and shops all closely connected to high-end class A office space, a residential community, a school site, and parkland. Three bases, Live, Work, and Play were all tagged. A homerun for Saxe.

Banzhaf looked ready for a fight as he strode to the plate, and hit three long balls on annexation, water, and roads. As he swung at water, Burke again came unglued and questioned his source of information from the Town staff. Some poor staffer may be cut.

All this was too much for manager Horne who tried to call the game on account of too much raining good news from Peterson. The umpire ruled that that Peterson had the right to finish the inning.

Despite heavy promotion, so few fans turned out at Woodlea, future minor league games like this may be in doubt.

Birth of the Blogs – from Feed to Plastic

Back in the stone age of the Internet, May of 1995, to be exact, my nephew Steven Johnson, who was working on his PhD at Columbia University, started the first on-line magazine, FEED. Steven assembled some of his friends, many of whom were college classmates from Brown and up and coming writers and journalists, raised some capital from friends and family, and built a website. This was a time when there were no HTML editors like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, which today make designing a Web site almost as easy as writing an essay in Word. No $10 a month hosting companies existed.

In addition to FEED’s professional staff of writers, FEED had a section called “Filter”. This was where anyone could express their thoughts by writing short articles on subjects that struck their fancy. Other readers could comment on these Filter posts. Often lively discussions developed.

Reviewers in major media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Newsweek, heaped praise on this leading edge and edgy “E-zine”, a word FEED helped coin. In 1995 Newsweek ran an article on the pioneers of the then new Internet. Among those singled out was Steven Johnson along with Bill Gates and other household names.

Steven’s business model was based on ads that would be placed on FEEDs website and the revenue would pay the overhead costs, including website design, maintenance, hosting, rent, and stipends for the writers, and a return on the investors’ investment. However, advertisers were skeptical about spending anything but meager amounts on web ads. In July 2000 as the economy weakened FEED merged with another popular media website, suck.com, and became Automatic Media in order to consolidate overhead. Lycos provided an infusion of capital and for a very short while it appeared that Automatic Media coupled with yet another Johnson Concept. “Plastic”, would be the “new new” thing in the world of on-line literature. Plastic was to be a community weblog, authored by thousands of people.

In the heat of this battle for survival Steven Johnson went to San Francisco to pitch an idea to Evan Williams. Williams was working with a couple of friends on a Web-based software concept they called Blogger, which they had developed to make the expensive and complicated process of creating a weblog or “blog” easy and relatively simple. Steven wanted to connect Blogger and Plastic. His idea was to have the two connect to each other, so that interesting ideas and links would "trickle up" from the individual blogs to the group blog at Plastic.

Data on the Internet moves at the speed of light and while Evans was considering all this, the dot com meltdown was building at Internet speed. By the spring of 2001 Automatic Media was history with only a post on their website that created almost as much attention as all the articles posted over the past six years. Johnson’s farewell said, “We are feeling the effects of the recent chill. As of today, we are in suspended animation, cooled to a temperature at which our metabolic rate is near zero.” Suck said simply, “has gone fishin’.”
Remember that great line from The Graduate, “Son, the future is plastic”.

Evan Williams sold his web-based software, Blogger, to Google for pre IPO Google stock, worth – use your imagination. (You are reading this on a site developed with Blogger.)

Steven Johnson became a best selling author, (Everything Bad is Good for You, Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life, Emergence: the Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, and Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate.) His newest book, The Ghost Map will be released in October.

Today you can find Steven Johnson writing his blog.