'Honest graft,' done badly

We've all seen studies that explain how transit generates a great deal of economic activity, most of which is not realized by the agencies funding it. One way for the governments and agencies to get in on the action is to buy land around transportation projects, renting or selling it at a handsome profit once a new subway, light rail or commuter line goes into operation.

At first blush, it sounds a little like Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, in which a 19th century New York City machine boss explains how he got rich buying properties around projects before they were formally announced. It may be unseemly, but so is the short-sighted refusal of potential beneficiaries to pay higher taxes to improve coverage of the mass transit system. If the main reason government builds infrastructure is because expensive projects like suspension bridges and interstate highways have concentrated costs but diffuse benefits, why not allow government to behave like railroad barons, profiting from the land they improve and generating growth for everybody else?

Because they screw it up in places like Prince George's County, Maryland. Local developers say the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is charging rich-suburb prices for property in poor suburbs.

PS: I think they're right about P.G. Metro stations' lost potential. Greenbelt Station is entirely a park-and-ride affair, with no opportunity to drop off dry cleaning, grab breakfast or sit down for a beer after work. Perhaps they should build a commercial complex on part of the sprawling lot (a lot so big, I might add, that it has its own shuttle bus service). That would cut the number of spaces available for parking, which would be a disaster for people who rely on the lot, which is at capacity by 8:30. That's why they should add another stop on I-95, above MD 212, for Howard and Baltimore county commuters. New Carrolton, on the Orange Line, is a similar disaster, only worse.