Author: Charles (Page 6 of 11)

A Brief History of Zoning laws in America and Why We Need a More Flexible Approach (by Salim Furth written on ecomincs21.org) In an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on June 25th Trump instructed his administration to find ways to remove regulations that are barriers to affordable housing. “these regulatory barriers” the president said which include “rent control” cumbersome building and rehab codes, energy and water efficiency mandates and so on increase the costs associated with development and “are a leading factor in the growth of housing prices” the president claimed. Yet much as he would like to change zoning laws washington actually has very little to do with it as they only have the power to “tweak some federal regulations” as the power to create and abolish said zoning laws (and sometimes building codes) lies within the individual states legislative.

“from the beginning U.S. zoning has embodied a contradiction: its stated legal purpose is that cities must be rationally planned to avoid ugly spillovers” and so most states require regular comprehensive plans as a precondition to zoning which translates into having cities and suburbs that are effectively unplanned because the zoning’s enactment almost always enshrines whatever land use happens to be in that specific location originally.

“in the current housing market zoning is to blame for high housing costs in coastal cities (such as New York)” However the original system designed by Herbert Hoover in the early twentieth century has proven to not be flexible enough which we can partially shift the blame onto. Now in theory the price of real estate has to do with the location of said building or house, if it is in a desirable location then the price of it will go up and the same is true for the opposite. their really is not a solution to battle against the demand of wanting to live in a certain area which i believe the only way to combat that is by making another new area enticing but then prices in this new area will raise accordingly as more people move in. So in conclusion zoning laws in my opinion don’t play as big of a role as we think.

Is watching TV good for you? (source theloop.com) According to a recent study research has shown that watching high quality TV dramas can increase emotional intelligence thus making us more empathetic people. In order to test their theory the study’s psychologists divided participents into two groups, one group watched high quality dramas and the other group watched non fiction TV shows. The conductors of the experiment then proved that viewers of the high quality dramas were able to guess emotions better. A follow up survey also showed that viewers of a high quality drama guessed emotions better then those who did not watch TV at all, So will watching TV help you understand your spouse better? The reasons for this being the case as the conductors of the study explained is as follows “The fictional situations in the dramas we watch force us to become more empathetic, since we have to ponder about the characters problems from multiple perspectives. we also have to mentally fill in the gaps of their inner lives and emotions because their not explicitly presented to us.” some benefits of increased emotional intelligence is more understanding towards family members or towards perhaps a having a better understanding of a complicated relationship between people that you know. Now while obviously sitting home and watching TV all day is not exactly good for you this study has proven that their are some positive side effect of watching good shows. So in conclusion the conductors of this study and I are not telling you to become a couch potato, we are however stating that TV is not entirely a waste of time thanks to some great actors and directors in can be quite educational if you the viewer pick the right show but don’t get to carried away with your show and forget about your college homework.

Topic: When did automobiles become an integral part of American culture?

Know: What I know, there are millions of people driving at any given time and almost everyone has a car which is used daily to commute to work, School or whatever purpose the owner sees fit. cars come in all shapes and sizes meant to suit you the consumer best. Nicer cars are even popularized in our culture and considered a sign of success. People get in their car without even an afterthought we just take it for granted that its here to serve us without wondering what we would have done if it did not exist as automobiles are a new invention when compared to the longevity of the planet, think of the thousands of years when the sole mode of transportation was a horse.

Want: What i would like to know is the following; when was the automobile invented and perfected? when did the automobile become preferable and more sensible to own then a horse? When were roads made with cars in mind? how do cars work? What power sources do cars use?  When did cars stop becoming a commodity of the rich? when were cars readily available to the general working class? When were traffic laws enacted? when were unpracticle pleasure cars first made? what part did automobiles play in urbanization and the rising popularity of the suburbs? when were cars seen as a means to end rather then the mechanical beauty that they are? when were driving assists created? how safe were cars 60 years ago? are self driving cars the future? these are just some of the questions that need answers in order to begin to understand the significance automobiles play in our society.

Learned: what i learned after 15 minutes of internet research. The origin of the Automobile,the first automobile capable of human transportation was built in 1769 powered by a steam engine, it did not work very well but this was the first car invented. in 1803 the first internal combustion engine (most modern cars have one) was implemented in a car powered by hydrogen (we use gasoline or diesel now) it wasn’t until 1885 that Karl Benz developed a Gasoline powered (petrol) automobile this car largely considered the first production car of Mercedes Benz is when automobiles replacing horses first became a real conversation. in 1908 the Ford model T created by Ford motor company (owned by Henry Ford) began production and would become the first car to become mass produced on an assembly line from 1913-1927 Ford sold over fifteen million Model T’s. Power sources of automobiles consisted of mainly steam engines in early cars (as locomotives were the go to model I am guessing) Electric cars until recently were exceedingly impractical but the first one was made as early as 1828. Gasoline and diesel has been the main power source in cars but now it seems to enviromental concerns that  electric will be the sole source of power for cars. the Governor of California has announced that he wants all cars sold there to be powered by electric motors within 15 years. I don’t have enough time to answer the other questions.

Still want to know: I still want to know when cars started improving safety wise. when cars started getting computers in them, statistics on how many people in the country verses cars in the country. and a couple of other questions that will be discussed in the full research essay which i would like to write about shifting the topic to will cars ever become fully autonomous not requiring a drivers attention at all? and if we can eliminate drivers error to stop accidents from happening will it ever become illegal in the future to drive on the basis of saving lives?