Who gets to own the West?
nytimes.com
Who gets to own the West?
1–10 of 71 posts
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#2The irony of billionaires who made their money through fracking saying they have a 'responsibility to the land' is I hope not lost on anyone.
In either case, we're seeing a lot of previously public property essentially turn private and the results never seem to work out that well. From beaches being closed to retirees being pushed out of their homes, this sort of large-scale property ownership shifting seems to result in a net negative for the local community.
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#3The irony of billionaires who made their money through fracking saying they have a 'responsibility to the land' is I hope not lost on anyone. In either case, we're seeing a lot of previously public property essentially turn private and the results never seem to work out that well. From beaches being closed to retirees being pushed out of their homes, this sort of large-scale property ownership shifting seems to resul…
What beaches are being closed?
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#4> Among the nation’s top landowners are Mr. Malone, with 2.2 million acres in New Mexico, Colorado and other states;
To give a sense of perspective, 2.2 million acres is a 94 km by 94 km square (or 59 by 59 miles). Approximately equivalent to a single person owning all of Cyprus or Puerto Rico.
Add two more people from that paragraph, and between the three of them, they own more land than all of Israel.
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#5The irony of billionaires who made their money through fracking saying they have a 'responsibility to the land' is I hope not lost on anyone. In either case, we're seeing a lot of previously public property essentially turn private and the results never seem to work out that well. From beaches being closed to retirees being pushed out of their homes, this sort of large-scale property ownership shifting seems to resul…
What beaches are being closed?
Martin's Beach, closed by Vinod Khosla.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/technology/california-bea...
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#6Land taxes will curb the billionaires, make the land have a carrying cost
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#7Land taxes will curb the billionaires, make the land have a carrying cost
That is the problem. Land owners don't pay property tax on land that they have placed a conservation easement on.
https://www.landtrustalliance.org/topics/taxes/income-tax-in...
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#8Land taxes will curb the billionaires, make the land have a carrying cost
Additionally everyone should have the right to roam.
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#9While it isn't the most pressing issue in the article, a quote that jumped out at me is: "For years, he assumed the road was public..."
Public land in the West isn't well-marked, and the difference in usage rights between private, state, and federals lands is not well understood by the general public, and sometimes not possible to know without recent data from the managing organizations regarding current permits and claims on various parcels. I've been thinking for years that I should write an app that reads your location, looks up related data, and tells you exactly what land you are on and what the allowed uses are. Especially out in the Western wilderness areas when you may be crossing into different parcels and walking in and out of various mining and mineral claims without even realizing it.
Re: Who gets to own the West?
#10Land taxes will curb the billionaires, make the land have a carrying cost
That is the problem. Land owners don't pay property tax on land that they have placed a conservation easement on. https://www.landtrustalliance.org/topics/taxes/income-tax-in...
I'm OK with this - I would rather financially incentivize them to conserve their lands, instead of making them feel they need to monetize it to cover a tax bill.