Government Action = Landowner Benefit

Brendan Buck runs a fascinating blog on planning and development in the Dublin area. He writes about the increase in land values after the Dublin Port Tunnel opened. Dear Dirty Dublin's taxpayers chipped in 750 Million Euros, yet I bet that the land owners situated where the tunnel pops out of the water won't pay more than anyone else for this unearned windfall.

I wonder what my friends at Eire's own Feasta - who try and rationalize the public economy for sustainability and prosperity for all would make of this?

Fat Boy Sings Last Sad Song

I've never been to Smyrna, Georgia, but if I ever, it would have been plopped down at Fat Boy, my kind of joint. It sounds like an old greasy spoon of my youth Dan's Place in 1980s Albany.

Well, Smyrna's getting hot, like the rest of Metro Atlanta. Hotlanta is not truly Southern anymore, so that means a sea of pampered yups want their Sushi, Trader Joe's and that damnable Panera. So, that means an old comfy place like Fat Boy has to go...

The Atlanta Journal article claims, per usual, that the weird and savage beast gentrification is causing Fat Boy's demise. "Gentrification." It's one of those words that can explain and define anything like spiritual, globalization or post-modern.

But - really truly - high land values caused Fat Boy to die. Nothing else. The business didn't own the land, so the landowner knew that a corporate client would be able to absorb the higher rent. this drives homes a point about land value taxation (LVT).

The whole community made Smyrna hot: The dog's dinner of Interstates and Beltways that drained Atlanta of people increased land values in the exurbs. Newt Gringrich increased land values by making Cobb County the babe at the teat of Federal largess. The government by somnambulism that is Atlanta City increases land values outside the city be decreasing them inside the city.

Urban Planet has a nice discussion of this issue, with input from your blogporter.