Yearly Archives: 2008

A New Home for Bush

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George W. Bush has found a new dig for his post-Presidential years. Nope, he is not headed back to his Crawford Ranch. He purchased a 2.07 million dollar estate in the Preston Hollow district of Dallas, TX. You can see the home here. It is a palatial home (10141 Daria Place, Dallas TX) with 8,501 square feet of living space and site on 1.13 acres.

Apparently, the Preston Hollow Elementary School was accused of being in violation of Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that set forth desegregation in U.S. schools…in 2006 [source]. Of course, the district is one of the most exclusive in Texas and is home to several other celebrities like Presidential candidate Ross Perot and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban among other energy and sports magnates.

White House Urban Policy Office Chief

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The Obama transition team announced the chair of the newly-created office of Urban Policy. Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion will head the new White House office of Urban Policy:

Carrion is a well-liked, pro-development official who has tried to enhance his limited power through an alliance with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and gives the New York mayor — whose aide was just appointed HUD Secretary — another ally in the White House, and suggests a New York-centric urban policy.

After eight years of hands-off policy from the Feds, it remains to be seen how a progressive administration fares toward urban policy.

Carrion was an important figure in the development of the Bronx Terminal Market & Hunts Point Vision projects and was responsible for bringing George Steinbrenner of the Yankees and the City to the table for negotiations in the development of the new Yankee stadium. On urban transportation, he was a vocal supporter of New York’s congestion pricing plan.

Office of Urban Policy

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“Because he [Obama] began as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, he understands at the local level is really where you can impact change and that local government can play a vital role as we try to jump start our economy. So having somebody in the White House, because there are so many different agencies that really can impact urban America and to have one person whose job it is to really pull all of that together, is really a critical position. And there are plenty of terrific candidates for that spot.”

The Obama transition co-chair Valerie Jarrett has announced that the new President-elect will have a White House chief of urban policy.

Polling Fever

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Apologies for not posting lately. Fervent activity on the dissertation front and professional pursuits have kept me busy. Not to mention, the very exciting Presidential race with umpteen polls to sift through have provided much fodder for thoughts on survey methodology and poll aggregation.

Among the plethora of polling companies and results, I highly recommend Five Thirty Eight, an excellent compendium on daily tracking polls and excellent accounts of the ground game of the two campaigns. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, it should not be difficult to guess whom I’m rooting for. Go out and vote now!

Reinventing College Towns

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Colleges could maximize their real estate and financial position if they can bring in boomers as full or part-time residents. This is true not only in metropolitan areas but in broad parts of the country including the rural south, Midwest and places like Pennsylvania. Many boomers do not view retirement as a permanent vacation but as a place to start a “second life.”

Joel Kotin writes on the need to reinvent college towns to take advantage of emerging demographic trends that are highlighted by an increasingly vital aging population.

Disaster Preparedness and Voter Response

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This paper by Andrew Healy [PDF link], an economist at Loyola Marymount University concludes that “on average, every $1 spent on disaster mitigation prevents roughly $8 of disaster damage over the following five years” but voters tend to reward disaster response and recovery efforts more as compared to disaster preparedness leading to governments underpreparing for disasters.