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Spotlight on Sustainability: Western New Hampshire

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With more and more emphasis being placed on personal health in relation to healthy, vibrant communities, western New Hampshire has joined the numerous places around the county working to improve access to healthy food choices for all sectors of the population. Through funding provided by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Challenge Grant, the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission (UVLSRPC) is spearheading an effort to not only assess the geographic availability of healthy food options in relation to housing, but to then work with municipalities who hope to turn that analysis into a concrete set of policy changes that ensure accessibility, lower obesity rates, and improve public health.

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Smart Growth Stories: A Mayor’s Perspective

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Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory is on a mission to support economic development in his city, and he’s using smart growth and downtown development strategies to accomplish that goal.

“People were slow to embrace some of the changes we were proposing because they didn’t necessarily see how, say, the development of a street car would lead to more jobs,” Mallory says in Smart Growth America’s first “Smart Growth Stories” video interview. “They didn’t necessarily see how investing so much money in downtown allowed for improvements in neighborhoods. So I’ve had to explain to people that downtown is the engine, the economic engine, for everything that happens in our entire region.”

Local Leaders Council Uncategorized

Cloture Vote on Senate Transportation Bill Falls Short

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WASHINGTON D.C. — President and CEO Geoffrey Anderson released the following statement after the Senate’s cloture vote today on its surface transportation authorization: “Smart Growth America is disheartened to learn that members could not reach full agreement and cloture on MAP-21. Though today’s efforts were unsuccessful, we remain confident in the Senate’s bi-partisan bill and … Continued

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Kimberly, Idaho aims to implement cool planning program with aid from Smart Growth America’s technical assistance

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Next week, Smart Growth America will meet with staff from the City of Kimberly, ID as part of a free, grant-funded technical assistance program aimed at assisting the City of Kimberly implement a cool planning program.

Residents are invited to attend the meeting, which will take place on Monday, March 12, 2012 from 6–8 p.m. at the new Rock Creek Fire Station.

The presentation and discussion will highlight how Kimberly can best plan for growth while enhancing community livability and economic sustainability. Staff will discuss how Kimberly can: Get Centered (creating a vibrant and attractive town center), Grow Compact (avoiding sprawl and minimizing vehicle miles traveled) and Make Streets Complete (making city roads safe for pedestrians and cyclists).

“We are very excited to have been selected for this incredible opportunity,” said Kimberly City Administrator, Polly Hulsey. “This assistance will allow professionals from around the country to converge on Kimberly and to meet with City leaders, business owners, builders, realtors and our citizens to help us maximize our resources, while helping guide us in the right direction for our future. We invite anyone interested to attend the program to provide input and join us in planning Kimberly’s future.”

Technical assistance

New Jersey isn't capitalizing on demand for walkable places

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The following was crossposted from Smart Growth America’s coalition partner, New Jersey Future.

A 2008 survey found that 77 percent of Millennials – the generation of 20-somethings – want to live where they are “close to each other, to services, to places to meet, and to work, and they would rather walk than drive.”

New Jersey, with its extensive rail transit network and “streetcar suburbs” with pedestrian-friendly downtowns that surround many of their stations, is well poised to take advantage of the rise in demand for this walkable urbanism.

The New Divide: Walkable vs. Drivable
New Jersey is an anomaly among the 50 states in that it is highly urbanized yet lacks a major center city to claim as its own. The state’s home-grown urban centers all live in the shadows of their much larger neighbors, New York and Philadelphia. In fact, New Jersey is widely perceived as consisting mainly of suburbs serving these two cities, even if many of its small towns do not fit the low-density, single-use stereotype of a “suburb.” The distinction, however, between city and suburb as the defining paradigm for describing the built environment is giving way to a new dichotomy: walkable urbanism versus drivable sub-urbanism. New Jersey is well positioned to take advantage of this change.

LOCUS

Senate’s vote on bi-partisan transportation bill tomorrow crucial for economic development, great neighborhoods

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Smart Growth America lauds latest draft of surface transportation authorization MAP-21, pushes for successful cloture vote Tuesday WASHINGTON DC — The newest version of the Senate transportation bill, presented by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) with bi-partisan support, includes key provisions that preserve existing infrastructure, grow the economy and improve the mobility of all Americans. … Continued

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Partnership in the News: Somerville Residents Planning for Future

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Three years of work have paid off, with the release of Somerville, Massachusett’s first 20-year comprehensive plan, reports the Somerville Journal.

“This is an extraordinary achievement made possible by the hard work of hundreds of community-minded contributors both inside and outside government,” said Mayor Joe Curtatone at the event. “Because it is based on so much public input and review, it truly represents a consensus view of our values and priorities as a community.”

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Partnership in the News: Chamber of Commerce Leaders Promote Southwest Light Rail Line in St. Paul

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A study commissioned by the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, and the TwinWest Chamber, as reported by Minneapolis-St. Paul’s KARE 11,

found that 76 percent of Minnesotans polled agree the state would benefit from expanded public transportation. The same poll showed that 69 percent would like to use public transportation more often.

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Community involvement, local leadership lead Notasulga, Alabama’s comeback

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“I’ve been in this town 10 years, and I love this little town,” said Juanita Syljuberget, a resident of Notasulga, Alabama, who works as a contract and grant specialist at nearby Auburn University. “There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’s a quiet little place, and everyone is very nice.”

“But it’s going to dry up and go away unless we do something.”

The plight of Notasulga and its 850-some residents in rural Macon County is not unlike hundreds of other small communities across the country. Years of changing economic and development patterns limited growth opportunities, and the very nature of remote towns left local businesses and municipal services more vulnerable than their counterparts in busy urban centers.

But while the story of a “Small Town USA” grappling with tough financial decisions has been played out countless times nationwide and even in emotional books and films, there is something that sets Notasulga apart: strong local leadership.

Technical assistance
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