US, PA, not broke - just haven't collected the taxes

Large corporations are making record profits, paying out huge bonuses, and not paying any taxes. Many are getting gifts of taxpayer funds. Many were completely bailed out by the taxpayer and should not even be in business. Conservatives say that it's OK to have the Corporations on welfare because they provide jobs, and if they had to pay taxes they would pass-through that expense in prices. That is not true. Prices are set by the market, not by the amount of expenses. If a company cannot pay for the civil society sea in which it swims, then its business plan is unsustainable and it should drown.

If you would like to do something about this: http://www.usuncut.org/

Let's double the parking tax and get more buses

There is a campaign to roll back the parking tax. We say, double it and give the money for more and better bus service.

LCTA is all ‘pump’ed up by an increase in ridership | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre & Scranton PA

These riders get ready to board an LCTA bus at the intermodal center with more people opting for mass transit due to gas costs.

Pete G. Wilcox/The Times Leader

LCTA is all ‘pump’ed up by an increase in ridership | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre & Scranton PA: "According to ridership reports from the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, there were 4.7 percent more people riding county buses in the first three months of 2011 than in the first three months of 2010."

Driver Sought In Deadly Montgomery County Hit And Run On Township Line Road « CBS Philly

Driver Sought In Deadly Montgomery County Hit And Run On Township Line Road « CBS Philly: "UPPER PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) – Police are searching for the driver who fled the scene after fatally striking a pedestrian in Montgomery County Wednesday afternoon."

The victim was walking because she had lost her job and had moved back in with parents. She did not drive because she had a disability and did not want to endanger others. When we we wake up an realize that the auto-sprawl system simply does not work.

No money for SEPTA? Here is why.

Uncut Facebook

Courageous people of Libya undoing the damage of US Autosprawl

Time to admit that car-dependency is a bad idea.

Having a car-dependent society means that all kinds of people will be driving under all kinds of conditions. People under stress, disoriented, emotional, etc. It is easy to say "people should be responsible," but where do you draw the line? Taking that bumper-sticker thinking to its logical conclusion, we should not waste money on stop signs or traffic signals.
Instead, why not just design a system that is safe for humans under a larger range of circumstances? For example: make public transit free, plant gardens of vegetables and flowers in every other street, and abolish the private auto.

Driving into the city -- to see flowers

The flower show is a time of irony. Honking horns, parking mania. Big, stinking, flora-killing vehicles descending on the city. Acres of paved-over paradise to speed the journey. The self-satisfied suburbanites pop out and scamper to the show. The beautiful flowers are locked and guarded behind cement. Heaven forbid the homeless might get to see them. Then, for the return home, the beast-vehicle is retrieved from its temporary cement cave. Home it speeds, home to low-tax, good-school, sprawl heaven.

Yo, people. You can keep living in subsidized sprawl-ville. But please stop voting against public transit. We are tired of supporting your wasteful lifestyle. We would like to make the whole city a garden and take the flowers out from behind the locked doors and the extra police protection.

CATA may go fare free - Local | Centre Daily Times - State College, PA | Penn State, Nittany Lions, weather, news, jobs, homes, apartments, real estate

A rider boards a CATA bus along College Avenue. CDT/Christopher Weddle

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/03/08/2567279/cata-may-go-fare-free.html#ixzz1G441m9G5

CATA may go fare free - Local | Centre Daily Times - State College, PA | Penn State, Nittany Lions, weather, news, jobs, homes, apartments, real estate: "A state-funded study set to start later this year will analyze the universal access concept, which allows mass transit users to ride without paying a fare at that time.

While the “U-pass” system often targets student populations, the study also will analyze a scenario for broader Centre Area Transportation Authority bus riders."

Still own beach property?

Debate rises on saving N.C.'s eroding beaches - Health/Science - NewsObserver.com: "Kids splashed last summer in the waves under an oceanfront row of cottages on the eroding south end. Huge sandbags fortified pilings, the steps of condemned houses dangling above the sand.

'We wanted close to the beach, and that's exactly what we got,' vacationer Rod Daugherty of Greenville, Pa., said as the tide lapped under the deck of his rental house."

People take over 10th Street for New Year Celebration

Reasons to give up your car: #8 - support local business

Small shops in town centres depend on passing pedestrians, but from the 1960s onwards there has been a move to create out-of-town supermarkets and retail parks. Britain has lost 30,000 independent grocery stores between 1995 and 2005 (pdf). I’ve got about three of them on my own street. If your high street is a ghost town of pound stores and charity shops, you know what car culture can do to town centres."
Ten reasons to give up your car « Make Wealth History: "8. Support local business