Within one year after President Obama signed the Recovery Act, almost a billion dollars has been invested in the San Diego region. A large chunk of the money has gone to the Camp Pendleton, Coronado and UCSD. However, even if you are not on base or campus, it is highly likely that you have been touched by the Recovery Act. Major public works construction projects have benefited from this spending, including the four-lane expansion of SR-76, construction of I-905, and the HOV lanes on I-805. Future funding has already been allocated to the construction of Otay Mesa crossing, the Oceanside transit station, and the high-speed rail to Los Angeles/Sacramento. And the Recovery Act funding is going to flow into our homes, in the form of solar panels and weatherization.
Tag: Infrastructure
Pocket Change: Potholes-a-plenty
If all of San Diego’s 2,800 miles of paved streets were laid in a straight line, they would stretch across the United States. This road would be illuminated by 40,000 streetlights, and punctuated by a traffic signal or beacon every 1.5 miles.
San Diego’s Outsized Carbon Footprint
The carbon footprint of the average San Diegan — including residential energy use and transportation — is larger than that of the average resident of Los Angeles, CPI documents in an Earth Day policy brief. The paper also shows that the City of San Diego lags behind LA in policies to reduce energy use.
San Diegans travel 23% more road miles per year than our notoriously car-reliant neighbors in LA – 9,463 miles per capita. Less than 6% of San Diego’s energy comes from renewable sources, far below the state-mandated 20% utility companies are required to reach by 2010.
Those are among the findings in Climate Change Performance and Policy: San Diego versus Los Angeles, issued today by CPI.
$8 a week in taxes isn’t bad
The $800 billion stimulus package Congress passed in February contained tax cuts for millions of Americans and major investment in infrastructure and public programs. The debate and negotiations that led up to the bill’s passage echoed a 60-year-old debate between Keynesian, demand-side economics and conservative, supply-side dogma.
Obama and Democrats argue that tax cuts for workers stimulate growth by putting spending money in the pockets of American families. More cash for workers means more spending, leading to more hiring and ultimately more spending. The Republicans, on the other hand, believe you give tax cuts to the wealthy so they invest, innovate and create jobs.
