When a timber company proposed a new development on a lake in central Maine that would clear 14,000 acres of forest to build roughly 2,300 homes, forward-looking leaders in Maine questioned the wisdom of a mega-project on pristine wilderness so far from existing infrastructure. Considering the fact that satisfying the growing demand for homes in … Continued
Joint statement by the Smart Growth America, Reconnecting America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership to the report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. For Immediate Release: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008 Contact: David Goldberg, 202-412-7930 WASHINGTON, DC – The National Surface Transportation Study Commission has provided an invaluable service in marshalling … Continued
As you could see from our last two posts chronicling the candidates’ positions on energy and climate, it varies from being a core issue among 11 or 12 others, all the way down to not being mentioned much at all. And as interested as some candidates may be in the issues, they still haven’t reached … Continued
This is part two of our rundown of candidates’ energy, climate, and transportation positions. Today, we’ll cover the Democrats. (Click here for the Republicans) As a reminder, Smart Growth America is endorsing neither a candidate nor a party. This is solely for informational purposes. Have we missed something or has a candidate changed their stance? … Continued
After watching some of the debates over the last few weeks, and partially inspired by a similar post from Rob Goodspeed on the Planetizen Interchange, I pieced together this very abridged summary of where some of the current candidates stand on some of the environmental, transportation, energy and urban issues that our coalition cares about. … Continued
Those were the words of Scenic America’s Kevin Fry in a slideshow from the New York Times that accompanied a Dan Barry column just before Christmas. (New York Times photograph by Angel Franco. Click image to view the slideshow) “Once you’ve lost your connection to your place you have no reason to care about it … Continued
First of all, happy new year and welcome back! All of us here at SGA are excited about the prospects for 2008, including the transition to a new President and CEO, which you can read here in case you missed it. We’ll be posting Geoff Anderson’s full bio shortly, with perhaps a short Q&A on … Continued
After an extensive nationwide search, the SGA Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Geoffrey Anderson as President and CEO of Smart Growth America. Anderson, who has headed the smart growth program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 2000, will succeed founding executive director and CEO Don Chen, who is leaving … Continued
This white paper by CEOs for Cities argues that, “the collapse of America’s housing bubble—and its reverberations in financial markets—has obscured a tectonic shift in housing demand. Although housing prices are in decline almost everywhere, price declines are generally far more severe in far-flung suburbs and in metropolitan areas with weak close-in neighborhoods. The reason for this shift is rooted in the dramatic increase in gas prices over the past five years. Housing in cities and neighborhoods that require lengthy commutes and provide few transportation alternatives to the private vehicle are falling in value more precipitously than in more central, compact and accessible places.”
This NGA report assesses a number transportation funding strategies and includes pros and cons for each as well as examples of where the mechanisms are currently being used.