Free Republic

A plan to squeeze most residents of the San Francisco Bay Area into multifamily housing offers a test case of whether land-use bureaucracies nationwide, encouraged by the Obama administration, should be allowed to transform American lifestyles under the pretext of combating climate change. Currently, 56 percent of households in the nine-county Bay Area live in single-family homes. That number would drop to 48 percent by 2030, under a high-density development blueprint called Plan Bay Area, recently enacted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the region’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Plan Bay Area has already drawn several legal challenges, and...

Cyclist is suing Miami-Dade County over accident Most people know that being a cyclist in Miami isn't the healthiest choice you can make. But now there is video proof. A Youtube video has surfaced which allegedly shows an incident in January where a Miami-Dade transit bus mows down a cyclist on Biscayne Boulevard. The footage comes from the on board camera on the bus. Watch the video here. Cyclist Pier Raccuglia is suing the county over the accident, claiming the bus driver tried to run him off the road. He suffered a broken foot in the accident. "It was...

Electric vehicles are no longer a technology of the future. Californians will be driving the Nissan Leaf and Coda Sedan by the end of the year, and several other automakers have all-electric and plug-in hybrid models in the pipeline. Now the race is on to build electric vehicle charging stations, where drivers can pull up and plug in their cars. Several companies, including Coulomb Technologies in Campbell, Better Place in Palo Alto and ClipperCreek in Auburn, see enormous opportunity in the development of electric-vehicle infrastructure. "Now that the world has decided this is a business, everyone wants in," said Richard...

Imagine what life would be like floating around the world on a giant island capable of holding 50,000 people and completely sustaining itself. Well, welcome to "Lilypad City." Designed like a lily pad, the innovation by award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut could be used as a permanent refuge for those whose homes have been covered by water in the future. "I think trying to accommodate the millions of people left homeless by environmental changes will prove to be one of the great challenges of the 21st century," he told the Daily Mail. "Some countries spend billions of pounds working on...

PHOENIX-- Gas prices continue to soar to record levels in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the out-of-control costs may force some homebuyers to rethink ... about where to live.While comparatively low home prices on the outskirts of the Valley have encouraged sprawl..., it's also becoming a lot more expensive to live far from where you work....With Valley gas prices approaching $3 per gallon, a 70-mile, round-trip commute in a car getting 20 MPG will run you $10.50 per day. ... A gas-guzzling SUV will cost you even more. Stuart Banks, chief operating officer of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of...