The Globe & Mail
Martin Mittelstaedt // January 4, 2010
Americans' infatuation with their cars has endured through booms and busts, but last year something rare happened in the United States: The number of automobiles actually fell.
The size of the U.S. car fleet dropped by a hefty four million vehicles to 246 million, the only large decline since the U.S. Department of Transportation began modern recordkeeping in 1960. Americans bought only 10 million cars – and sent 14 million to the scrapyard.
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Sunday, January 10, 2010
Texas May Enact VMT Tax
Houston Chronicle
Peggy Fikac // January 3, 2010
Peggy Fikac // January 3, 2010
If you don't like gasoline taxes, here's an alternative: a tax on the number of miles you drive in a year.
The Texas Transportation Commission has directed a fresh study of the idea, and it is not alone. There are pilot projects in other states and nationally to gauge how such a tax would work.
Texas transportation officials say the study is meant to help give lawmakers information on options ahead of their next regular session in 2011, when they confront a funding squeeze that is expected to drain the highway fund of money for new construction contracts by 2012.
“We need to think differently about how we fund transportation,” Texas Transportation Commission Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi said at a Texas Taxpayers and Research Association forum in November.
Delisi said the vehicle-miles-traveled tax idea is controversial, but should be discussed because revenue from the state's main source of transportation funding, the motor fuels tax, is declining. The gasoline tax has not been raised since 1991.
10 things to watch in Dallas for 2010
Pegasus News
Shawn Williams of Dallas South News // January 4, 2010
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
Dallas Black Dance Theatre at Wyly Theatre
Continued Main Street resurgence
511 Akard
Victory Park
Empty Southern Dallas promises
Oak Cliff streetcars
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Shawn Williams of Dallas South News // January 4, 2010
Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge
Dallas Black Dance Theatre at Wyly Theatre
Continued Main Street resurgence
511 Akard
Victory Park
Empty Southern Dallas promises
Oak Cliff streetcars
MORE
Spire Realty adds to its land holdings near the Arts District
Dallas Morning News
Steve Brown // January 4, 2010
Investor Spire Realty Group has bought almost two acres of land in downtown Dallas near the Arts District.
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Steve Brown // January 4, 2010
Investor Spire Realty Group has bought almost two acres of land in downtown Dallas near the Arts District.
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Hopes are high for a hipper Las Colinas
Dallas Morning News
Brandon Formby // January 4, 2010
Las Colinas' Urban Center sees plenty of daytime traffic as thousands of North Texans make their way to and from work in its skyscrapers.
But nightlife? Not so much.
Irving leaders are betting a number of developments – many built with millions in public money – will soon change all that. They anticipate concerts, restaurants and shops will draw people to the area. They hope more businesses will then follow.
So how is this different from previous plans to turn the Urban Center into a bustling hub of tourists and locals eating and shopping around waterways and on restaurant patios? And what's to set it apart from developments at Victory Park and around Cowboys Stadium that have fallen far short of expectations?
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Brandon Formby // January 4, 2010
Las Colinas' Urban Center sees plenty of daytime traffic as thousands of North Texans make their way to and from work in its skyscrapers.
But nightlife? Not so much.
Irving leaders are betting a number of developments – many built with millions in public money – will soon change all that. They anticipate concerts, restaurants and shops will draw people to the area. They hope more businesses will then follow.
So how is this different from previous plans to turn the Urban Center into a bustling hub of tourists and locals eating and shopping around waterways and on restaurant patios? And what's to set it apart from developments at Victory Park and around Cowboys Stadium that have fallen far short of expectations?
MORE
Andy Sarwal - Austin Mixed Use Developer
AustinAmericanStatesman
January 2, 2010
January 2, 2010
Andy Sarwal
A virtual unknown in the local real estate community, Sarwal is overseeing one of the few large mixed-use projects still going forward in the region: University Park, a $750 million complex that is transforming the former Concordia University campus north of downtown into apartments, townhomes, a hotel, a movie theater, offices and retail space.
Last year, Sarwal and his mystery investors raised $39 million to finance the first office building, now home to Texas Monthly magazine and an Aveda Institute salon training school.
Financing for major real estate developments remains unusually difficult to obtain, but Sarwal said recently that funding is in place for the hotel, a Hyatt concept called Andaz, and a planned 450,000-square-foot building that will include a Premiere Cinema Corp. theater and about 340 apartments.
'I just know I'll drive longer distances and to all the ends of the Earth to accomplish something,' Sarwal said. 'I will get a deal done.'
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