Report from California, Part One

Thursday evening, we had a Zoom report from Derek Sagehorn, a lawyer and Georgist activist in California, talking about transit and other issues. Cities tax their people to provide roads, light rail, and other forms of transit, and then the benefits end of in the pockets of landowners, as higher rents and home prices in the areas served, so people pay for infrastructure twice.

He mentioned the federal infrastructure bill, passed by the Senate and now in the House. He himself lives in what was a streetcar suburb, decades ago; a developer built a streetcar line, and provided service, making money by selling houses at prices reflecting the availability of transit.

He spoke of Property + Rail. Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea provide examples of this, by assembling land near rail stations, and using it for affordable housing, or revenue or both, so that the people living near the stations generate ridership for the rail lines (which typically charge money to ride).

The Red Queen’s Race

I got one amendment this week, and wrote an Office Action on the amendment I already had, so I’m back at one amendment.

I have been working on my oldest Regular New case, which has been time-consuming, as a result of Information Disclosure Statements listing an exceptionally large number of prior art references for me to consider.