Randal O'Toole Presentation - February 23, 2005

Silicon Valley Taxpayer's Association presents The Costs of San Jose's Urban Growth Boundries and Light Rail Transit.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Alicia's Banquet Room

San Jose's urban-growth boundary and other land-use rules caused the increase of housing prices to be tenfold over the last 25 years. Housing prices in many less-regulated but faster-growing areas have increased only fourfold. Light-rail transit carries so few people that it increases congestion, relative to alternative uses of the space and resources. Santa Clara County light rail is the nation’s second-worst-performing light-rail system, with high operating costs and low ridership. Government intervention has reduced livability and made the poor suffer.

Randal O'Toole is senior economist with the Thoreau Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding ways to protect the environment without big government. As a resident of the Portland area, he began working on urban planning issues in 1995 by studying Portland's "smart-growth" plans for higher-density housing and light-rail transit. This led to his book, The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths. In recent years, O'Toole has been invited to teach at Yale University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Utah State University. O'Toole currently lives in Bandon, Oregon, on the southern Oregon coast.

SVTA members - $20.00 per person / $35.00 per couple
Nonmembers - $25.00 per person / $45.00 per couple
Mexican Dinner Included

Directions:

Corner of Camden and Union in South San Jose to the left of the grocery store in the Cambrian Plaza shopping center. From Highway 880 take the Camden exit, follow Camden Ave. east to Union, turn right onto Union, then left into the shopping center. From Highway 85 take the Union exit, go east on Union Ave. about one mile, turn right into the shopping center at the light.