Infrastructure and Human Capital Interlude

Busy week, so just a couple of things of note.

1. Via Dr. Black, my old neighborhood gets a chance to build a better future:
   

   “It’s a great partnership among a number of researchers from academia, the private sector and national laboratories. It’s a great collaboration for a solid project that will help the environment,” said Penn State spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz.

   Foley said the project “will spur real innovation and job growth for Philadelphia, the region and the nation. We have a world class team of universities, corporations, and economic development entities that made this proposal come to life. There is no better place to do this work than in the Philadelphia Navy Yard.”

   My mother would have agreed, but she stopped working there (coincidentally) around the time Tom was born. Indeed, the renovation of the Navy Yard has been an American Success Story (driven by a Norwegian shipbuilding firm and a clothing retailer), and we can almost pretend that the area has “recovered.”

2. Similarly, the results of the Race to the Top came in a couple of days ago. You may have heard that our Superstar Governor was cruelly betrayed by Washington bureaucrats and/or the evil NEA.

   Well, until the actual video was released, after which point yet another Republican decided to prove that people collecting unemployment are Just Lazy (though he does claim not to have lied to Superstar Governor, leaving the question of where the story from the Governor should be sourced).

So the old area is gaining because of Federal government management, and the current area is suffering because of State government mismanagement. It’s almost enough to make me think that there’s a difference when people want to accomplish something.