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Do I believe in Trump Propaganda?I have never agreed with Trump.Trump has extensive business and social history, which shows Trump as a pathological liar, influence peddler, money launder, and sudo mobster.Trump is a man that attacks children and women regularly. Trump is a man who attacks private citizens, governmental employees, academia, and government officials; he attacks anyone who disagrees with him.There is a pattern to Trump's scheming; I would point you to Trump's Birther investigation. Trump did not need the announcement of a conspiracy to be truthful; Trump only needed to send Joe Arpaio to Hawaii with a couple of Maricopa County Sheriffs to look for the false birth certificate, to have every network focused on Trump.If we look, I am sure we will see this pattern of scheming repeated numerous times by Trump and his cohorts during his business and governmental exploits. The next scheme was the Clinton Email scheme, and while in office, he catalyzed the Ukraine abuses leading to impeachment.

FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS IN ARIZONAGeneral Order 20-20, General Order 20-17, and General Order 20-15:All jury trials scheduled to commence before June 1 are postponed until further notice.Grand jury proceedings are suspended through June 1, and trial deadlines in criminal cases scheduled to begin before June 1are postponed until further notice.All other proceedings, except those deemed necessary by the Court, are postponed until further order. Necessary proceedings include: initial appearances, arraignments, preliminary and detention hearings, changes of plea, sentencings, and necessary revocation hearings.Judges may continue to hold hearings, conferences, bench trials, and other proceedings to the extent necessary, but the proceedings shall be telephonic or virtual when feasible. General Order 20-18 authorizes the use of video and telephone conferencing for various criminal case events.Non-case related activities are canceled until further notice, including naturalization ceremonies, attorney admission ceremonies, mock trials, CLE events, school tours, and all other non-case related gatherings.Customer service counters are closed until May 29, but employees in the Clerk’s Offices are available by phone.Mail and electronic filings will still be processed.In-person filings and criminal debt payments must be left in drop boxes near the courthouse entrances.ARIZONA STATE COURTSArizona State Courts resource center.Arizona State Bar resource center.The Arizona Supreme Court Clerk’s Office remains open but has implemented certain protocols to ensure safety. The protocols are available here.Administrative Order No. 2020-70:It is anticipated that Arizona courts will begin a phased-in approach to conducting in-person hearings and jury trials in late spring or early summer 2020, with a future order setting forth the protocol for the transition.In the meantime, the limitations on court operations and facilities are extended.All in-person proceedings in all Arizona appellate, superior, justice, and municipal courts are to be avoided to the greatest extent constitutionally possible until further notice.Empaneling of new petit juries is rescheduled through June 1.Empowers the presiding judge of every superior court to make or suspend local rules to address the public health emergency and to determine how in-person proceedings shall take place to limit in-person contact, follow social distancing guidelines, and liberally grant continuances and additional accommodations to parties, witnesses, attorneys, and juries.Suspends through June 1 any rule that impedes the court’s ability to use technology to limit in-person contact. For example, judges considering orders of protection may conduct ex parte hearings via telephone.Between March 18 and June 1, all time is excluded from the calculation of time under court rules and statutory provisions that require the court to hold proceedings within a specific time frame. Limited exceptions include certain criminal proceedings, domestic violence protective proceedings, child protection temporary custody proceedings, civil commitment hearings, emergency protection of vulnerable person proceedings, habeas corpus proceedings, juvenile detention hearings, election cases, and other proceedings to determine whether to grant emergency relief.Electronic and digital means of creating a verbatim record may be used notwithstanding a party’s request for a certified court reporter.Until June 1, the time to act under Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure 50(b), 52(b), 59(b)(1), (c), (d), and 60(c) may be extended by 30 days upon a showing of good cause.Even if Arizona courts are forced to close entirely, they will strive to be available by telephone and email to the greatest extent possible and will accept documents by drop boxes for documents that cannot be e-filed.Administrative Order No. 2020-58:Extends the deadline for all Arizona attorneys to complete their necessary continuing legal education hours for the 2019–2020 year to December 30, 2020. The deadline to submit an attorney’s affidavit of compliance is similarly extended through December 30, 2020.MARICOPA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURTSGeneral information.Administrative Order No. 2020-60:Through May 1, Maricopa County justice courts will be closed for in-person proceedings, with limited exceptions. The justice courts will continue to hold telephonic hearings and process all types of cases. Contact information for the justice courts can be found here.Parties seeking eviction/forcible detainer, in cases of irreparable and immediate breach, may contact the assigned justice court to request an emergency telephonic hearing. See also the governor’s Executive Order 2020-14 delaying evictions.Debtors requesting a hearing on a writ of garnishment may file an emergency request for a hearing with the assigned justice court to request a telephonic hearing date.Individuals seeking an order of protection or an injunction against harassment may complete petitions through AZPOINT and may file petitions by calling the assigned justice court and providing the AZPOINT confirmation number. Contested hearings will be conducted as directed by further court order.Individuals seeking injunctions against workplace harassment may filed petitions with the justice court, and any contested hearings will be conducted by further court order.Administrative Order No. 2020-58:Suspends protocols for processing requests to defer payment of court fees and costs, and directs special commissioners to grant applications for deferrals between March 25 and May 1, with the understanding that the deferrals will be reviewed and may be modified at a later date.Administrative Order No. 2020-055:With limited exceptions, no in-person proceedings will occur in Maricopa County Superior Courts through April 30, 2020. Telephonic hearings will continue, and the court will be available to process all case types and non-appearance hearings.Physical access to all Maricopa County Superior Courts is restricted to the limited exceptions. Attendance is limited to parties, witnesses, victims, sheriffs’ deputies, detention officers, law enforcement officers, parents in juvenile delinquency matters, and lawyers who are participating in the hearing or event.Any person who has contracted, been exposed to, or is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 must notify the assigned judicial division to appear telephonically or have the hearing rescheduled.Unless an in-person appearance is required by statute or the Arizona or United States Constitution, any proceedings may be converted to a telephonic or video appearance by any judicial office of the court.Parties seeking eviction/forcible detainer, in cases of irreparable and immediate breach, may contact the civil department at 602.506.1497 to request an emergency telephonic hearing and must provide notice to the defendant. See also the governor’s Executive Order 2020-14 delaying evictions.Debtors requesting a hearing on a writ of garnishment may file an emergency request for a hearing, a conformed copy of which must be emailed to [email protected] seeking an injunction against harassment may file a petition at the Law Library Resource Center located in the East Court Building at 101 W. Jefferson, Phoenix, Arizona 85003. Ex parte hearings will be conducted telephonically, and contested hearings will be conducted as directed by the court, which may be done telephonically or by video.Applications for temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions will be reviewed and orders issued. The application and any supporting materials must be emailed to the assigned judicial division with a copy to [email protected]. Return and evidentiary hearings will be held telephonically or by video unless otherwise ordered.There is good cause to waive any personal appearance at a settlement conference.From April 1, 2020, through April 30, 2020 documents may be served by email to the email address of the party or, if represented, counsel for the party being served, and such service is deemed completed upon electronic transmission. The serving party shall use the email address the receiving party has identified in the caption.On a case-by-case basis, the presiding judge may designate additional proceedings as in-person proceedings.Juror selection in all Maricopa County courts has been halted through April 17.Jurors scheduled to first appear before April 1 are excused and deemed to have fulfilled their service.No new jury trials will be scheduled before March 31.Ongoing jury trials may continue at the discretion of the trial judge/commissioner.Nonessential functions are canceled, including field trips, court tours, law library workshops, volunteer events, and conferences.MODIFIED CLERK OF COURT OPERATIONSThere are restrictions for entry into the superior court. View them here.Filing options are listed here.Marriage license services will be available by appointment only until further notice.Passport services will not be provided until further notice.The public record computer terminals are no longer accessible to the public.The Law Library Resource Counter is limited to applicants seeking a protective order or injunction against harassment.Requests for updates on case statutes should be directed to the assigned judicial divisions rather than the Clerk of Court.News release of COVID-19 measuresMODIFIED CIVIL DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS (Updated April 1)Until April 30, no in-person proceeding will occur, with limited exceptions. The court will hold telephonic hearings and remain available to process all case types and non-appearance proceedings.No new juries will be empaneled through April 30.Judicial officers are to limit in-person proceedings. Requests to convert an in-person proceeding into a telephonic or virtual proceeding should be directed to individual judges.Judicial officers will continue to have access to electronically filed documents and will continue to review, consider, and rule on filings.Oral arguments will presumptively be conducted telephonically. Exceptions must be specifically arranged with the assigned judicial officer.Attendance at any in-person court event is limited to parties, witnesses, and lawyers participating in the event.Couriers will be able to drop off copies of filings in division boxes, but court personnel will not provide signature verifications.Court-appointed arbitrators are permitted to postpone proceedings for up to 120 days from the appointment, upon a showing of good cause. They also may conduct proceedings and hear testimony telephonically.Settlement conference deadlines scheduled to occur before April 17 will be extended.The Law Library Resource Center is restricted to individuals seeking protective orders and orders against harassment.Applications for temporary restraining orders/preliminary injunctions must be filed with the Clerk of Court. The pleadings, application, supporting materials, and proposed form of order must be emailed to the assigned judicial division and to [email protected]. Any return hearing or evidentiary hearing will be held by video or telephone unless otherwise ordered by the court.Parties seeking an eviction/forcible detainer may contact the civil department at 602.506.1497 to request a hearing date. Only eviction/forcible detainer applications alleging an immediate breach and irreparable harm will be heard before April 8. See also the governor’s Executive Order delaying evictions.Debtors may request a telephonic hearing date on a writ of garnishment by filing an “Emergency Request for Hearing” and delivering a conformed copy to the Civil Court Drop Box located at the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson, Phoenix, AZ 85003.Judgment creditors seeking judgment against a garnishee or an order of continuing lien in a transcript of judgment case must deliver a garnishment packet to the Civil Court Drop Box located at the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson, Phoenix, AZ 85003.Default judgment packets may be mailed to the assigned commissioner’s division. Hearings for excess proceeds and name changes will be vacated through April 30.[1]Sherman & Howard gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Extern Law Clerk Jake Rapp in preparing this memorandum.Footnotes[1] What You Should Know About How COVID-19 Is Affecting Courts In Arizona - Sherman & Howard

You asked, or at least someone asked me to answer, "What are some social justice, sustainability and equity issues with urban consolidation?"That is a VERY big question, and I am almost certain not to touch on every aspect of an answer that I'd like to give, there just isn't that much time in a day, or even a week. But I will try to give an answer that provokes some thought included a lot of ideas that are not consistent with my own opinions or attitudes, but social justice and equity are, to a large extent, subject to one's individual perspective on the subject, and that also relates to one's attitude toward the current and future value of sustainability. The latter of these is an area of my own expertise, so I will try to curtail my breadth on that topic. So let me finish this opening with a warning: making it to the end of this answer is likely to distract you for a bit of time, so be prepared to abandon before then end (I won't know and I won't mind), or plow on, since there may be some "plot reversals" or other unexpected goodies I save until the last. (Hey, I'm a writer, but I don't usually write with a contrived plan of how or what I am going to write.)I received a provocative quote from a politically conservative friend of mine recently, and I took my answer far to seriously considering the light manner in which he forwarded it. But I am going to borrow from myself, to put you in the right frame of mind on the issue of social justice.“A true 'progressive' paradise would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive healthcare, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities, and only law enforcement has guns.And believe it or not, such a place does, indeed, exist.....It's called prison."Sheriff Joe ArpaioMaricopa County Arizona Sheriff's OfficeThat was the quote. Here's my reply. (with a just a tiny edit or two to adapt it to this context)No question that Joe is right about the "A place to meet our Savior," part. Condemned people are held in prisons until they are executed by the state.The missing element is "infinite parental/brotherly love, with eternal-indescribable joy."Although it is a lot easier to find a boyfriend or girlfriend than it is in high school, as long as you don't mind them being the same gender.Oh, yes, then there is the part about "NO law enforcement needed."I don't think prisons would operate very well it all the guards went home.The same "Universal free education" is available to anyone, in prison or not, since in prison it is almost entirely "self-taught" learning from books (and now DVD's too). [Although a lot of prisons have quite good libraries "on campus" and have a library lending policy with public libraries as well.]And must add that is would be a fond wish from all of us who have attained "a certain age" is the "no memory loss" part. I don't think there have been any studies showing that prisoners have any better memory that non-prisoners.When anybody calls "prison" a "paradise," whether it is "progressive" or not, they obviously have a very warped view of realityMy conclusion, therefore is that Sheriff Joe, as usual, is singing a siren song for the people dumb enough to fall for his bullshit, a large percentage of whom are too dumb to stay out of prison. Of course in the very conservative state of Arizona, his statement amounts to a MARKETING CAMPAIGN that is fairly likely to sell, because there are plenty of conservative out there who would be happy to see all "progressives" in prison. On the other hand, this is the Barry Goldwater state, too. So the libertarian wing of the Republican party actually is the dominant force here, and they are unlikely to want the government involved in any of this in the first place.And finally, Joe doesn't operate any prisons. He has a jail where he treats people who have committed minor offenses to a diet of not much more than bread and water (baloney sandwiches are a favorite of his - mayo not included). People who are starving in South Sudan might consider that a feast, but in America? This is cruel and unusual punishment of white collar "criminals" and is justified as a cost cutting measure to save the taxpayers money, which is laughable since Joe's assistant is "retired" so he gets a pension of nearly $100,000. Why? Because his regular job, as Joe's assistant, paid him over $100,000 until he retired. Oh, yes, and since he still works as Joe's assistant, only now he is called a "consultant" now, he also gets his same old salary on top of the pension, so in "retirement" he is now making over $200,000 a year. But the prisoners have one slice of baloney in their sandwiches, and only water to drink.Them's the facts, Jack.Sincerely, and with love,Doc[Note: I only sign my emails solely with my nickname with close friends.]Sheriff Joe Arpaio is perhaps the most famous (or infamous) sheriff in the USA because of his tent city jails, bread and water diets, no heating in winter and no cooling in the blazing hot desert in summer when it gets to be over 100°F at night and 120°F in the daytime, plus forcing prisoners to wear embarrassing pink underwear. I do not understand. Why is pink underwear controversial? It is, for some reason that is unfathomable to me. Why would what is chosen as a prisoner's uniform matter. It could hardly be mistaken for a fashion statement whether it is the traditional, broad black and white horizontal stripes, now reserved mostly for cartoon characters, or pink jumpsuits this is hardly a really significant issue of social justice, except that some people see it as just another way in which Sheriff Joe makes jail an unpleasant experience so that, he assumes, this might slightly reduce recidivism. And he claims he has statistics to prove it does, if only slightly.Oh, yes, of course there are some people who feel that pink underwear for prisoners is a direct slap at the gay community (for whom Joe hold no great affection).However, from Joe's point of view, as he has enunciated it in the past, society has coddled the poor to the point where they have an expectation that they are entitled to something like his "progressive paradise" as a human right. And Sheriff Joe is none too pleased about that. Unfortunately he is also right about a lot of it.One of the major tenets of urban consolidation is to concentrate population at higher densities than are allowed now, especially surrounding suburban transportation hubs. At this point, Joe's nightmares begin. As he sees it (or at least hypothetically, because his attitude represents a certain fairly large segment of the total population of the whole country) public housing (also known as "the projects") began as a good idea to clean up urban blight in the form of unfit housing occupied by people so poor they could not afford to do anything about the inhuman conditions in which they were living,. (well, Joe might not describe it in those empathetic terms, but you get the idea). The resulting housing units were nothing elaborate, although they usually had elevators if the building was tall, and garbage chutes and kitchen appliances of less than luxury grade. But they were clean, freshly painted and finished, and new.The people who were entitled to live in public housing, however, were the same people who had been scrounging a living in the midst of the urban blight conditions, being exploited by relatively high rents from landlords who preferred short term profits to actually maintaining the building in decent living conditions. However there were also legal protections that allowed these people to "play games" on the landlords. Notices to pay rent or be evicted had to be given in advance of actual notices to "quit the premises", and mere notices were not sufficient in and of themselves in some jurisdictions. It was common that an appointment with representatives of the local sheriff had to be made to actually effect the physical removal of the tenants. Even so, other laws and regulations prevented landlords from physically evicting tenants during winter when the temperature could reasonably be expected to be below a certain temperature (not so much a problem in the South, but a consideration in almost every state about the Mason-Dixon line). Therefore, savvy slum tenants, or tenants with the benefit of sympathetic advisers from legal aid organizations (Southern Poverty Law Center, for instance, who are less interested in absolute equity and justice than they are in tilting the scales of justice in favor of their clients), could, timed to what ever specific laws and regulations applied locally, stop paying rent in August, stretch out the non-payment period for a couple of months, then use the prolonged eviction process to get to late November, when the snow blanketed the ground, and they were safe from eviction until at least March.Once that knowledge of how to manipulate "the system" was demonstrated thoroughly by several instances of neighbors using it successfully (with help from legal aid, or similar organizations), it became, or at least can become part of the culture. Neighborhood self-help groups could supply the expertise, no attorneys required.Now, let's get back to Sheriff Joe's nightmare. His bias against "Mexicans," particularly illegal immigrants, though in practice, toward Hispanics generally, and from there to more of less any dark skinned minority (remember, we are talking about a "hypothetical" version of the real Sheriff Joe). Urban consolidation also takes as desirable characteristics of these new concentrated population centers a mixed use of both residential and commercial enterprises, especially retailers, as well as mixed use low and moderately priced rental and purchase properties integrated with higher priced units. So now Sheriff Joe has to patrol a block of subsidized public housing, then a block of middle class rental properties, a block of high end McMansions, and two more blocks of public housing, another block of middle class, and so on.At this point we have to circle back to the "entitlement" attitude of impoverished persons (especially youth, and gangs) moving into those nice new housing projects. Public housing rents were often deducted from subsidies the families, especially single mothers, who got more than couples due to some warped social policies that ended up actually encouraging young men to shirk family responsibilities and actually abandon, or at least claim not to be resident fathers. Unlike the parental generation, again especially first generation immigrants who were much more likely to be grateful for the assistance of a new, clean and decent apartment. But the younger people viewed actually having the rent deducted from assistance payments from the point of view of having their net available cash, used for "a living" spent at their own discretion, as a kind of inequitable treatment akin to imprisonment. A resentment of "the man" developed, and the easiest way, they thought, to "get back at the man," was to neglect "his" property, the closest and most accessible form being their own accommodations.This had a compounding effect on the already self-defeating attitude of their own status of the landlord's tenants who were "not responsible" for the maintenance of the landlord's property. Lack of an ownership stake in the property meant disrespect for and neglect of the public housing projects, and a rapid deterioration in their condition. To a large extent this applies not just to the impoverished, but to virtually the entire population of the Western world. Attitudes about care of "the boss' truck" or the "car rental company's vehicle" are a good deal more careless than toward one's own vehicle. Spilling a drink in one's own car would likely prompt virtually immediate efforts at clean as soon as one parked the car at work, or arrived at home. Spilling a drink in a rental car is almost always a case of "oh, well, they have people to take care of that" even though the car may be rented for a week at a time.Community organizers, like President Obama, in his old job, have come to recognize that creating a sense of community, and ownership of that community has a strong influence on maintaining the quality of the community which extends to clean streets, clean up, fix up, of the facades of buildings, and a spill over of a sense of responsibility for the actual living accommodations the people occupy, regardless of actual legal ownership. In fact, this also works toward a "take back the neighborhood" attitude that can drive away local drug dealers, even if the drug dealers are members of the same families who live in the neighborhood.There is no substitute for a sense of ownership and the pride of ownership that comes with that.It is also fairly obvious that it is difficult to develop a sense of community among a disparate group of resident that range from a couple of "empty-nesters" who paid $700,000 for their McMansion, and the single mother with three infant children living on welfare checks while supporting an out-of-work spouse who pretends not to be living with her (but not helping enough with childcare to allow her to work full-time, if there was a job for her in any case), added to that pairing a middle class couple with one daughter they are trying to get into a private school. It is not impossible, but in the short term it is unlikely to happen. That is not to say we should not try, but it will take concerted effort, and support from all levels of government to create incentives to achieve those kind of sense of community that now normally only existing in a homogeneous economic stratum.On the other hand there are communities with a sense of ownership and loyalty. Large ones like national pride cross all kinds of social lines, though not quite all strips of political differences. Small groups, but still sometimes large are sports fans who are "fans" in the original sense of the word which is a shortening of the word "fanatics," sometimes called "rabid fans," usually in a way not meaning to deprecate such individuals or groups. Indeed some "fans" are actually rabidly fanatical about their loyalty, football (aka soccer) fans in particular come to mind, because their fanaticism is often very real, and frequently results in fights among fans of rival football clubs (teams) in the stands at the games.That leads me directly to the perils of too much sense of community. City rivalries are not uncommon, especially between college sports teams, though in North America it is far more rare to see outbreaks of violence as a result. But when the sense of community is concentrated to small areas of local geography it is not uncommon to see gang wars breaking out. In upper class schools this might be in the form of "hazing" to join the high school honor society (and keep out the middle class undesirables). In blighted urban neighborhoods this is more likely (than in upper class areas) to be gangs with ties to criminal activities. Upper class drug dealers do not tend to hang out in groups. More precisely group identity that consolidates a mixed community (as with a nation) can also be exclusionary, and ruthless in its pursuit of advantage for itself.I recall living in Los Angeles (actually the San Fernando Valley, in Van Nuys in this particular instance) when I found out a year or two after I moved in that this was "Asian Boys" territory, a ordinary street gang with a core of Korean heritage kids. I had never noticed any signs of this, but when we had meetings with police as we formed a revitalized Neighborhood Watch group, the police had maps showing the exact boundaries of every block of gang territories all across the hundreds of square miles of the valley communities.Of course a "Neighborhood Watch" is a kind of gang, but also one with a sense of ownership of the community as discussed previously, regardless of the socioeconomic group or groups included from their particular community. Not vigilantes, but guardians, with a kind of abstraction of the "this is ours" mentality if not ownership per se. Forming close knit communities that cross socioeconomic strata is a good thing, in my opinion, and could be an outcome of the kind of mixed residential communities intended to be created in urban consolidation.Oh, yes, just by the way, my community has a rather informal Neighborhood Watch (we have the signs up), but more significantly, we have a volunteer branch of Sheriff Joe's Sheriff's Posse, equipped with an office we provide at the community center's Fine Arts and Learning Center (it is an "elder" community), equipped with radios, walkie talkies, and cars provided by Sheriff Joe's Maricopa County Sheriff's office. Lavishing (by donating) cars on (unarmed, or at least nominally unarmed) volunteer patrols does appear extravagant on the surface, but criminals can't readily identify whether the occupants of those cars are employee (armed) deputies, or the volunteer variety, so it is a cost saving for Joe as compared to hiring additional officers to patrol our streets.Sustainability is a big winner in the urban consolidation movement. Creating clumps of retailers means that, for instance, even if there are competing grocery chain stores in the same cluster of development, they will be very close to one another. This reduces transportation costs and therefore reducing air pollution and liquid fuel consumption. So the dairy delivery truck's one out and back trip can have three or five stops within a block of two, and only traverse the distance to the distribution center once.Urban consolidation centers are also encouraged to become employment centers to reduce or eliminate commutes for workers. Zoning for some of the land will be for commercial office space or even designation of "air rights" above certain properties can be restrictive to enable only employment centered business offices, by which I do not mean to exclude sole proprietorship lawyers. Lawyers are people, too. Sometimes.Sorry, Uncle Rocky, I couldn't resist that one.New construction and retrofitting will both (usually) be subject to more stringent standards for ecologically friendly buildings. Urban transit, to the extent possible, will be provided virtually at the front door of these residents, or at least within walking or bicycling distance. Parking lots at these transportation hubs will (or should be) "right sized" for the projected maximum commuters who will use this particular point of departure so that the lot will never (at least for a long, long time) be so full as to make it impossible to find a parking space on a tight schedule to arrive at work on time. Transportation hubs should also improve efficiency for bus traffic in the same way that airlines use certain airports as hubs for their flights across the country.Now you may have noticed I used dairy delivery as my example above, which was deliberate. Canned goods, dry cereals, and generally pre-packaged meals or other food products will still have to each have some means of delivery, but rules could favor distributors who deliver multiple product lines, although very high volume, fast throughput products like Coca Cola might still need their own delivery methods, but that is not to say they could not adapt and adopt using a "cargo area" in public transportation, the addition of which would be another clever way to adjust the operations of the city to make urban consolidation more efficient. Mixed use public transportation system subsidized by commercial cargo carrying as a concomitant function and revenue source could be very good for reduction of liquid fuel use. (Buses in Los Angels now run on CNG - Compressed Natural Gas, a much cleaner burning fuel than gasoline or diesel, albeit still a fossil carbon fuel -- for the moment. Syngas, a fuel of hydrogen and carbon monoxide [yes, CO will burn] can be created from recycling wastes, and could readily substitute for CNG in another eco-friendly advance that is mainly just a social responsibility decision, not a scientific or technological one. ) It could also be a way of keeping costs of public transportation low, and more affordable by commuters.Another aspect of sustainability is local production of food. There is no reason not to utilize (enforced by zoning regulations, although perhaps just economics) some of the "brownfield" land converted to growing vegetables, fruits, spices and more. Remember, too, that urban consolidation does not mean only redevelopment of brownfield, abandoned or uninhabitable real estate. It also applies to the way new suburban development is allowed to proceed. In such cases, "greenbelt" set asides could specifically be designated for vegetable or livestock production. I have had a neighbor, a veterinarian, who was involved in the livestock butchering business for a major meat company. It is unlikely that any suburban neighborhood would want a slaughterhouse nearby. It is a noisy, dirty, smelly operation. However, individual farmers might form a co-op to clean and dress animals they produce locally for the local population to eat. Presumably this would work best with small animals like chickens, rabbits or ducks. That is, if they can find a location somewhat isolated from the urban consolidation hub. Organic cultivation and husbandry might be needed to justify increased costs from small scale production, but fresh ingredients just taste different (better?) than things that have traveled from distant parts of the world, or even just different parts of the country.Now, mind you, not every instance of locally produced food is going to be an instant success, organic or not. It happens that I prefer Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup to any homemade chicken soup I have ever tasted, cream, noodle, rice or otherwise. In fact, I no longer even want to try anyone's homemade chicken soup. I know what I like, thank you.Lastly there is a different kind of "equity" involved here. Property ownership, and the owner's "equity" in the property. Equity is that portion of the property's value which has not been pledged against any borrowing, or any outstanding debts of the owner which law allows to burden the propertythat must be discharge before title to the land can be transferred. (A little over technical and not sufficiently legal description of "equity" I know. But it is important to define one's terms so all parties know what is being discussed.)Recent (in the last few) years court decisions have put a great deal of authority in local government's hands to exert a power of "eminent domain." (Another brief legal description of "eminent domain": the government's right to demand possession of land [and it's structures, if any] for any purpose allowed by law, but especially for construction of community services, like roadways, utility corridors, safety clearance at the end of airport runways, and so on) A recent case decided against a legal landowner when a local government wanted his land to build a shopping center. The courts decided that the economic benefit to the community outweighed the landholder's rights to the property. He was paid for his land, but he had no choice. The community financial benefit was the value, the public good, that prevailed over ownership.The usual problem with use of eminent domain is that the landowner almost always thinks the land is worth more than the government is willing to pay, or at least that she/he/it (corporations are people too, according to SCOTUS) can squeeze more from the government than they are offering or have imposed upon them at the point of forced sale. There is also the social equity issue here, which is that it is easier to bulldoze, in both the legal and physical sense, a group of low value properties that are home to impoverished residents (regardless of whether they are tenants or home owners), than to take land and homes from middle and upper class families, so the lower value homes are bulldozed in preference to the higher costs and greater resistance.This is justifiable from a purely economic point of view.For reasons I don't completely understand, liberals (I didn't say "bleeding heart liberals, though that is how conservatives would likely characterize them) seem to feel that it is unjust to uproot such residents from the area they have known as home for some indeterminate period (anything from a few months to a dozen decades over multiple generations). The part I find difficult to understand is that these people will be compensated in cash for the inconvenience of moving, placed in comparable (more likely better and newer) housing, and paid for the true value of their home if they are owners, plus, again, a premium relative to the value, in order that they not feel unduly put upon to be displaced for the public good.Nor am I completely unaware of how and why some people have such feels of displacement. I occasionally recall some happy times spent around my grandfather's bakery, which remained in the hands of my uncle (by marriage) allowing me those fond memories of standing by the doughnut machine, waiting to be allowed to taste the first one to cool on the cooling rack. I do feel sad that the place is no longer "in the family" even though I never lived there, but I also moved, on average, every four years for the first fifty years of my life, so I feel less attachment to people whose family has occupied the same dwelling for a hundred years. On the other hand (I know, I know, by now we have at least 3 or maybe 4 hands. If you have been reading articles/responses I have written you know I am a quirky sort of guy, though maybe not that quirky.) how many people do you know, especially in your neighborhood, who have lived in the same house for a hundred years? Our whole state has only existed (legally) for one hundred years as of last year's centennial celebrations.Still a lot of people feel it is unjust to target poor people's homes. Frankly there are some strong merits in that point of view. Although it may be rather odd, equity isn't the same for everyone when it comes to the "public good," despite the best of intentions.Sincerely,Stafford "Doc" Williamson