The Planetizen News Brief

• Artist: Planetizen
• Title: Planetizen Podcast - 2007-07-19 - The Planetizen News Brief
• Album: Planetizen Podcast
• Year: 2007
• Length: 4:10 minutes (3.88 MB)
• Format: Stereo 22kHz 128Kbps (CBR)

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

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Full Transcript

Two years after the Supreme Court’s eminent domain ruling in the case of Kelo vs. New London Connecticut, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill to limit the powers it granted. Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner and California Democrat Maxine Waters have joined forces to try to stop the federal government from providing funding to local and state governments that are trying to use eminent domain to promote private development. Dubbed the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2007, the bill is actually a do-over of a bill introduced in 2005 right after the ruling. That bill - the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2005 – overwhelmingly passed in the house, but was killed on the senate floor. The updated bill looks to protect both homeowners and tenants, an additional protection the bill’s sponsors hope will win over their colleagues in the senate this time around.

Meanwhile, San Francisco is undergoing and unconventional economic boom. The Economist reports that the city is rebounding from the dot-com bust at the turn of the century with a large influx of high-tech jobs and high-end retailers. Increasingly, the city’s families and younger populations are being replaced by wealthy baby boomers, many of whom are only in the city as part-time residents. Between 2000 and 2005, the city’s population of 20-to-30-year-olds dropped by 38%. Though not as vibrant as during the dot-com era, the city’s job market is still thriving. But many worry that the rising value of property in the city will push even more young people out, and keep many others out in the suburbs.

And for all those who are still out in the suburbs, a new battle is raging in front yards across America. But it’s not over eminent domain, or rising house prices. This war is over the front lawn, and how the way one homeowner keeps his grass the greenest can have a deleterious effect on the health of neighbors and the environment. An article from The Wall Street Journal looks at how literal grassroots movements across the U.S. are trying to get their neighbors to cut down on the use of pesticides on lawns. Recent studies finding links between common pesticides and Parkinson’s disease have upped the urgency of these efforts. But for many lawngardeners, trading the greenest lawn on the block for the safest one is a hard sell.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

Overturning Kelo?

Post-Dotcom San Francisco Resurges

The War Over Lawn Care