timwferguson

A Dollar Store with a Difference

A few months short of its 42nd birthday, the California-based sundries-and-more chain 99 Cents Only is going to die. An Orange County columnist for the Los Angeles Times delivers this fond obituary while visiting a store in Santa Ana that I used to patronize, and captures much of the appeal. He doesn’t mention the long-running,Continue reading “A Dollar Store with a Difference”

Last Shot at New Golf in Greater Hamptons

When an 18-hole golf club—private and exclusive—opens in the next couple of years at the controversial Lewis Road luxury development in East Quogue, it will mark the latest and probably the last of 135 years of links building on and around the South Fork of Long Island. This will bring to 20 the number ofContinue reading “Last Shot at New Golf in Greater Hamptons”

YIMBY Can Populate Conference Halls

This weekend’s New York Times article marvels over the apparent embrace of New Urbanist notions of densified and commercially active housing corridors by a seemingly fresh breed of market-oriented libertarians. They have come together under various banners of YIMBY–Yes In My Back Yard–to address a scarcity of “affordable” homes in many areas of the country.Continue reading “YIMBY Can Populate Conference Halls”

Ruptured Democracy? Add a Think Tank

A full-page advertisement (there are still a few!) in today’s print New York Times salutes an act of philanthropy but is full of ironies. The gift is $59 million from the HMO fortune of Leonard Schaeffer and his wife to the University of Southern California, for establishment of a (named for him) Institute for PublicContinue reading “Ruptured Democracy? Add a Think Tank”

A Twilight Strategy on Hong Kong

The grim progression of bloody autocrats in major as well as lesser quarters of the globe can make for personal and political paralysis here in the U.S. When Alexei Navalny is snuffed out in Russia and Vladimir Putin grinds on to occupy Ukraine, or when Xi Jinping stamps out dissent in greater China and pursuesContinue reading “A Twilight Strategy on Hong Kong”

He Comes to Bury the Tax Cutters

Michael J. Graetz long ago established himself as a nettle in the side of those who promote lower tax rates for economic growth–in recent times what’s known as a “supply-side” agenda. Today Princeton University Press publishes the Ivy League law professor’s book chronicling the last 45 years of that cause, “The Power to Destroy: HowContinue reading “He Comes to Bury the Tax Cutters”

Chase Is Happy to Be ‘Just Another Bank’

This Wall Street Journal article of the past week spotlights the unusual (for today) strategy of opening numerous bank branches by the nation’s largest such financial institution, J.P Morgan Chase. It comes at a time when most other banks are retreating from the branch ubiquity approach, something many had embraced in urban areas not 15Continue reading “Chase Is Happy to Be ‘Just Another Bank’”

Hamptons Farmland: A Death and a Legacy

A significant but underappreciated aspect of the South Fork of Long Island land-preservation story is the role that old farming families have played. This is particularly true of the Polish clans that so prominently figured in the agricultural belt below the moraine that runs along the Water Mill to Bridgehampton stretch, some of the mostContinue reading “Hamptons Farmland: A Death and a Legacy”

Losing the Virtue of Volunteerism

The Wall Street Journal last week published this ungenerous review of Chris Anderson’s new book, Infectious Generosity. And I can’t say the critic was wrong to zing the boss of TED Talks for “embarrassing naivete” in his plea for more universal kindness. But after reading the work and listening to Anderson make his case toContinue reading “Losing the Virtue of Volunteerism”

Long Island Supe Wants to Build

Even with diminished editorial resources, like most “dailies,” Newsday remains often the only public-affairs coverage resource for much of its home base of Long Island, N.Y. So this week it reported the striking pledge of the new town supervisor in Brookhaven to open up housing development there. Republican Dan Panico said he would seek to eliminateContinue reading “Long Island Supe Wants to Build”