Smart Growth Around America

It’s been more than 10 years since former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening — president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute here at Smart Growth America — enacted his historic smart growth initiatives and threw Maryland into the national spotlight. After a recent Washington Post article assessing the impact of the smart growth laws (with a wildly inaccurate headline, based on the actual study’s findings), Governor Glendening responded with a letter pointing out the benefits of the smart growth program, and how Maryland could continue to improve it:

The Nov. 2 Metro article “Study calls Md. smart growth a flop” leads to an inescapable conclusion: We in Maryland need to do more — more to create walkable neighborhoods, more to give people transportation choices, more to save tax money and more to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

But the misleading headline did a disservice. What the study really found is that the policies I instituted as governor haven’t been enough. It’s true: Maryland’s work is not done. Our laws and programs should be updated as we learn what works best. But the study doesn’t call the Maryland programs a “flop.”

Despite the need to improve and strengthen the policies, smart growth has done a great deal for Maryland. It placed the social services building right in downtown Easton and aided the University of Maryland’s efforts to revitalize Hagerstown. It permanently preserved 400,000 acres. And it helped revitalize places such as Silver Spring, Hyattsville and Baltimore, adding thousands of homes to transit-accessible neighborhoods. Because the study looked only at single-family homes, it couldn’t report any of these benefits.

Today, it’s more important than ever that government policies don’t promote sprawl but instead help communities meet the demand for more convenient, affordable neighborhoods. And improving the smart-growth program should be a key part of Maryland’s plans.

Richard Hall, the Maryland secretary of planning, writes that Maryland is working hard to fully realize Governor Glendening’s plans. “No doubt we have smart-growth challenges that we need to address together,” he said. “We are developing a State Growth Plan for this purpose. Maryland’s commitment to, and innovation in, smart growth remain strong.”

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Tags: Gov. Glendening, Maryland

Image from “Steel Valley: Meltdown”

(This post was written by National Vacant Properties Campaign intern Ryan Kraske.)

Over fifty people gathered on Capitol Hill last Thursday in support of new legislation that would strengthen cities and metropolitan areas that have experienced large-scale property vacancy and abandonment. The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009 would empower these communities and give them the opportunity to turn the tables on the problems created by abandonment and creatively reshape the environment for healthier, more economically competitive and sustainable neighborhoods.

The speakers agreed: the federal government needs to renew its commitment to work in partnership with these older industrial cities and regions as they work to make themselves stronger for the future.

The bill’s sponsors, Congressman Tim Ryan and Congressman Brian Higgins, spoke about the challenges and lack of resources available to the many cities like their hometowns of Youngstown, Oh., and Buffalo, N.Y., that have long suffered from sustained population losses and high property vacancy and abandonment rates. Under the new legislation, these struggling cities could adapt innovative policies and systematic changes they need to become healthy and vibrant.  New links between planning, capacity building, and revitalization programs can turn community blight into urban agriculture systems, energy producing fields, and new job opportunities (to name a few.)

Terry Gillen of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) spoke about the high financial cost imposed by vacant and abandoned properties, many of which are tax delinquent and privately owned. She pointed out how new tools must be made available in these regions to help identify the best strategies to encourage the private market to better manage its assets and help identify where areas of strength and opportunity lie (such as through regional information systems), and to more effectively acquire, manage, and hold properties until redevelopment needs catch up with the land supply (such as through a land banking program.)

Phil Kidd, a community organizer from the Mahoning Valley Organizing Project in Ohio, carried not only his own message of the urgent need for a new approach to community revitalization in cities big and small (Youngstown’s population hovers around 80,000) but also delivered an inspiring video made by a 20-year old student from Youngstown. The video depicted the town’s remarkable industrial history and transformation through neighborhood based organizing, university investments, and entrepreneurship. Read more information about the feature-length documentary, “Steel Valley: Meltdown.” Mr. Kidd emphasized the progress he sees coming from the region but acknowledged that they need help raising the capacity among the government, nonprofits, and other partners in making real change happen.

The Regeneration Act would have a significant impact on cities like Youngstown, Buffalo, and others that have lost significant population and are challenged with high long-term vacancy rates. Using performance-based standards, the Act would give local communities the resources and technical assistance to create a regeneration plan tailored to local conditions, in places that have long lacked the resources they need.  Please show your support by asking your Representative to co-sponsor the Regeneration Act.

Find out more about the Regeneration Act at http://www.vacantproperties.org/CRSI.html

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Tags: Preservation & Revitalization, Vacant Property

Washington, DC – The latest version of the Senate climate-protection bill put forth by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, would provide significant resources and incentives to communities to plan and build cleaner, more convenient travel and living options.

The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) would set aside an average of 2.4 percent of revenues generated by the Act each year to help states and metropolitan areas reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they grow and change in the years to come. Half of the funds would support a competitive grants program for transportation projects and smart growth strategies that help reduce emissions and the planning needed to better account for and curb emissions. The other half would support the expansion of public transportation.

“That the Senate mark more than doubles the amount the House bill would dedicate to clean transportation options represents major progress for communities across America,” said Geoff Anderson, president of Smart Growth America and co-chair of the Transportation for America coalition. “Senators Boxer and John Kerry (D-MA) the primary authors, deserve enormous credit for recognizing the role that reduced transportation emissions must play, and for including measures that will help create affordable options as oil supplies tighten and fuel prices rise in the years ahead.”

The Act substantially incorporates language from a separate bill known as CLEAN-TEA, sponsored by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) and Arlen Specter (D-PA) and co-sponsored by senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). The CLEAN-TEA sponsors’ support was critical in securing meaningful transportation provisions in the Senate bill.

“Transportation contributes nearly one-third of the total annual climate-harming emissions in the U.S., and has to be a key part of the solution,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. “S. 1733 contains common-sense policies and funding that promise cleaner, safer and more affordable transportation options for all Americans, and will help create green jobs.  As the bill moves through the Senate and the understanding of the importance of clean transportation grows, our coalition hopes to see a funding level closer to 5 percent of revenues. We urge members of the Senate to unite behind this essential legislation.”

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This has been released jointly with TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA, a broad coalition of housing, environmental, equal opportunity, public health, urban planning, transportation and other organizations focused on creating a 21st century national transportation program. The coalition’s goal is to build a modernized infrastructure and healthy communities where people can live, work and play by aligning national, state, and local transportation policies with an array of issues like economic opportunity, climate change, energy security, health, housing and community development. www.t4america.org

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Tags: Climate, Transportation

Are you interested in learning more about the way that the Regeneration Act currently before Congress could aid struggling communities, or about how other struggling communities are developing forward-thinking approaches to rebuild their economies, create urban food systems, and supply amenities like parks and green space?

If you’re in the DC area next week, stop into a Congressional Briefing on H.R. 932, the Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act.  Speakers will include:

• Mary Cronin of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition
• Phil Kidd of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Project
• Terry Gillen of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
• Joe Schilling of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech
• Smart Growth America’s Jennifer Leonard of the National Vacant Properties Campaign

The hearing will take place on Thursday, October 29th at 2:30 in the Rayburn House Office Building Room 2253. Hope to see you there!

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Tags: Vacant Property

This is the latest edition of the Washington Update from Smart Growth America. The Washington Update is a typically policy-heavy newsletter covering federal policy developments here in Washington. If you want to know more about the details of policy and would like to receive this regularly via email, you can sign up for it (and others) here via the SGA website.

We will still offer regular opportunities to weigh in on important legislation, whether or not you choose to get knee deep into the details of policy.

- Stephen Davis
Communications Associate

Hearing schedule announced for Senate climate bill, markup expected in November

After some delay, hearings on the Senate climate bill introduced last month by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) are scheduled to begin the last week of October. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the legislation, but its analysis is expected to be completed before the start of the hearings. A markup of the legislation is expected sometime in November, although a week of recess for Veterans Day and another week for Thanksgiving limit the amount of time available in the schedule.

The first hearing on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S.1733) is scheduled for October 27 with a prominent panel appearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Witnesses at the first hearing will include Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, and Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Hearings are expected to continue on October 28 and 29, but witnesses have not yet been announced.

There is still time to ensure that the bill includes significant funding for clean transportation options such as public transportation and passenger rail, affordable neighborhoods around transit stops, and neighborhood projects that increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

TAKE ACTION by calling or sending an email to your Senator today.

Another stopgap resolution likely before appropriations work complete; no agreement yet on Interior-EPA or transport-housing bills

Last month, Congress approved a one-month stopgap resolution (Continuing Resolution, or CR) to extend government funding at FY 2009 levels until the end of October.  House appropriators are beginning work on a second continuing resolution, as it looks increasingly unlikely that the twelve annual appropriations bills will be completed in the next two weeks. Details on the duration of another continuing resolution have yet to be released.

The FY 2010 Interior-Environment spending bill, which includes funding for the EPA Smart Growth Office and many other key programs is said to be at least a week away from a conference agreement.  An agreement on the FY 2010 Transportation-HUD spending bill is possibly further outha, as there are differences in various spending levels to be worked out, as well as a disputed effort to exempt Great Lakes shipping from proposed EPA rules regulating emissions from oceangoing ships that operate on the Great Lakes.

House committee examines high-speed rail challenges

Last week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee took a look at some of the challenges facing the development of a high-speed rail network.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included $8 billion for high-speed rail. In the FY 2010 budget request, the Obama Administration made it clear that high-speed rail is a priority for them by requesting a total of $5 billion in additional funding over the next five years. Although the initial $8 billion was to be distributed for shovel-ready projects, not a cent has been granted to date.

During the hearing several lawmakers spoke on the need for true high-speed rail of 110 miles per hour or more and not just improvement to speeds of 70-90 miles per hour.  Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo cautioned that a complete network of high-speed rail includes service of varying speeds, not just trains going 200 mph.  Szabo explained that the FRA received requests for more than $50 billion in funding for long-term projects and about $7 billion in shovel-ready and planning projects.  Rather than rush to distribute quickly, the agency has chosen to spend more time evaluating how the money can best be spent. For this reason, funding will not be granted until next year and it is unlikely that the money will be limited to shovel-ready projects.

EPA releases the Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan,  Administrator testifies before House committee

On Thursday, EPA Administrator appeared before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to discuss the release of the Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan, which details how the agency plans to improve enforcement of clean water laws.   According to Jackson’s testimony, the three main goals of the report are to target enforcement to the most important water pollution problems, strengthen oversight of the states, and improve transparency and accountability.

A recent investigation found that a miniscule amount of Clean Water Act violators are punished by the states and that the EPA frequently chooses not to force states to comply or prosecute offenders.  Overall, the largest reason cited for EPA’s enforcement failure is poor coordination and a lack of data about inconsistencies.

Representative Blumenauer announces Livable Communities Task Force, adding Congressional component to Administration initiative.

Congressman Blumenauer in partnership with the House Democratic Caucus announced the launch of the Livable Communities Task Force.  The task force will promote policies and legislation to make the federal government a strong supporter of local efforts to link transportation, housing and land use strategies to create sustainable, livable communities. Congressman Blumenauer described the work of the Task Force in a statement released today: “With a diverse group of members from around the country, this new Democratic Task Force will play a vital role in coordinating with the administration to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in communities big and small, urban and rural.” More information can be found on the LCTF website.

Current Livable Communities Task Force Members: Earl Blumenauer (OR), Sam Farr (CA), Rush Holt (NJ), Doris Matsui (A), Jim McDermott (WA), Richard Neal (MA), Tim Ryan (OH), Allyson Schwartz (PA), Dina Titus (NV), Paul Tonko (NY), Peter Welch (VT), George Miller (CA), Martin Heinrich (NM), Lois Capps (CA), Andre Carson (IN), Hank Johnson (GA), Albio Sires (NJ), John Olver (MA), Russ Carnahan (MO).

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Tags: Climate, Livability, washington update, Water

Liberty Harbor Townhomes in Jersey City Originally uploaded by Hoboken Condos

Facing budget shortfalls, Washington, D.C. is making cuts to homeless services to the tune of some $20 million. But the District isn’t alone in either the problem or the solution — San Fransisco is also reducing shelter and employment service funding by nearly $3 million. The homeless are finding life in Minneapolis more difficult as well. Advocates say that the homeless everywhere are finding it more difficult to get the help the help they need.

It isn’t merely that there are more people who need assistance in rough times. It’s also that the government continues to prioritize the dream of buying that home with a white picket fence over the dream of making sure everyone has a place to call home.

In this week’s Citiwire column, Neil Peirce says that the federal government needs to stop treating homeownership as a “sacred cow,” one heavily subsidized with homeowner tax credits. The federal tax credit for first-time homeowners goes blindly to all first-time buyers — regardless of whether or not they need it to afford a home or would have bought without it.

Peirce suggests its perhaps a good time for the feds to recognize that renting is a good solution for many people, particularly the increasing over-65 population and young, single adults just out of college — and that $15 billion in tax credits are offered at the expense of assisting those who can’t even afford to rent:

While the ranks of renter households have been increasing rapidly – by 1 million alone in 2007, by one count – the supply of available rental units has shrunk dramatically, partly because of foreclosures, abandonment and demolitions of older apartment complexes.

In time, the natural dynamics of the market will trigger new construction and likely correct the most serious shortages. But that leaves a huge equity issue, posed by Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition:

“Affordable housing for the lowest income people has been in short supply for a long time; the housing bust and the recession have only made it worse.”

The situation has been exacerbated, housing expert John Kromer reports for Planetizen, by the last two decades’ unprecedented decline in units subsidized by the federal government. A prime reason: demolishing rotting and dangerous older public housing projects. They’ve been replaced by much more desirable “Hope VI” and other lower-density projects offering a mix of sales and rental units – great for livability and safety and a boon for cities, but sharply contracting overall supply.

Plus, the recession has forced a big squeeze in the federal government’s so-called “Section 8″ program of housing vouchers that help local agencies provide very low-income families with leasing assistance in the private market. The vouchers generally fill the gap between 30 percent of a family’s income and the rent they have to pay.

But Washington appropriates a finite number of dollars for the vouchers. With unemployment and poverty rising in the recession, there’s a severe pinch. Examples: cutbacks by the Monterey (Calif.) Housing Authority mean some tenants will have to pay up to 60 percent of their income for housing. The Birmingham, Ala., authority has cancelled 300 recent vouchers, threatening many families with evictions.

Want to read more about issues that affect our metropolitan areas? Sign up to receive weekly columns from Neil Peirce and other great thinkers on where we are— and where we ought to be.

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Tags: Equity, Housing

New Jersey has an awful lot of titles to its name, despite being small in size. It’s the most densely-populated state, as well as one of the wealthiest. It’s also one of the most-developed states in the nation. As such, residents of New Jersey have tried to tread carefully when it comes to development, with varying levels of success.

From Jay Corbalis of Smart Growth America coalition partner New Jersey Future, here is a look at some key aspects of New Jersey and smart growth in the last 20 years. (Check out their new blog called Garden State Smart Growth to learn more about what New Jersey and its residents want for the next 20 years.)

• After four decades of population loss, New Jersey’s eight urban centers, as designated in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, reversed course and resumed growing in the 1990s, though at a rate less than one-eighth that of the rest of the state. They further rebounded to about a quarter of the statewide growth rate between 2000 and 2008.

• Residents in 30 of the state’s most distressed cities (as identified by the Housing and Community Development Network’s “Cities in Transition” study) remain poor, on average, with a combined per-capita income half that of the statewide average — and less than one-sixth that of the state’s 30 wealthiest municipalities. Their collective unemployment rate was 8.6 percent in 2008, compared to 5.5 percent statewide.

• Between 1995 and 2002, a total of 54,000 acres of land were developed in areas designated primarily for conservation by the State Plan. This is an area nearly the size of Union County.

• Only 5 percent of people who work in New Jersey (i.e., excluding commuters to New York and Philadelphia) ride transit to work, which is no better than the national average. New jobs in New Jersey have been appearing predominantly in places not easily accessible by transit (e.g., Parsippany, Bridgewater, Mount Laurel), while they have been disappearing from transit-friendly locations such as Newark, Elizabeth and Camden.

If you need more New Jersey in your life, this week the Sundance channel is re-airing their celebrated 5-part documentary “Brick City” about revitalization efforts in troubled Newark.  (I missed the documentary the first time around, but I’ve heard great things.)  Newark’s history of poverty and violence goes back to the riots in 1967; its corruption ran so rampant that the last three mayors were indicted on criminal charges.  Mayor Cory Booker has been doing some astounding things in an embattled city. (Read a profile of Booker in Next American City.)

Last year, for instance, its homicide rates decreased by more than 30 percent.  As a New Jersey native, I can only hope that both Newark and New Jersey continue to make these great strides towards a better, smarter future.

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Tags: New Jersey, SGA partner

Photo from domesticfuel.com

We wrote last week about how you should tell your Senator to put more funding for clean transportation in the climate bill.  Here’s a few more details:

Last Wednesday, Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts released their version of the climate bill, “The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.” It was somewhat more ambitious than its counterpart in the House, requiring a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020.

These are strong measures, and the Kerry-Boxer bill tops the House’s 2020 goals by a full 3%.  According to the Washington Post,

“This is our time,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, who held a rally on the East Front of the Capitol before a huge American flag and a group of veterans, clean-energy entrepreneurs, and state and local lawmakers. “Global warming is our challenge.”

The Senate bill would require states and metropolitan planning organizations to make plans for reducing transportation-related emissions, and then require them to spend a small amount of their cap-and-trade revenues on cleaner transport options that can help them meet those targets. (If you’d like to see all the wonky details on smart-growth and transportation in the climate bill, it can be found on the SGA Action page.) The framework for reducing emissions from transportation is strong, but there is some concern over how strong it can be if it is inadequately funded.

While the Senate bill doesn’t currently contain exact numbers, the House version returns up to just 1 percent of all revenues to invest in things like public transportation, vanpooling, and bicycle and pedestrian projects. And that one percent of spending is optional, not required. In the Senate version, the percentage will be required, but the percentage (1%, 2%?) is yet to be established.

Tell your senators; if we are serious about meeting the challenge of climate change, clean transportation must be a bigger part of our solution.

The major focus of the Boxer-Kerry bill is the establishment of a carbon allowance trading market in the business and industrial world. Considering how much of our greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation (33%), the attention — and funding — given to reducing transportation’s share of greenhouse gas emissions is wildly inadequate.

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Tags: Climate

The Boxer-Kerry bill requires states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to come up with long-range plans for greenhouse gas reductions from transportation, providing funding for planning and strategies that can help them meet their targets. The House bill gave clean transportation only one percent of total revenues, even though transportation is responsible for one-third of our emissions.

The results are in — and the Senate has chosen to support clean transportation.  They allocated 2.4% of climate bill revenues towards smart growth and clean transportation — more than double what the House offered.

Tell your Senators to support the Boxer-Kerry bill, and to protect their investment in clean, affordable transportation alternatives.

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Tags: Action Alert, Climate

The latest batch of annual census data examining Americans’ travel patterns came out this week . The American Communities Survey surveys a cross-section of the country at random to find out, among other things, how they get to work. Do they take transit, do they walk, do they ride a bike?

Portland continued their national dominance of percentage of people who ride bikes, jumping all the way from 4.2% to 6.4% in one year. The city has invested in making biking safer and more attractive, which has paid off with more people biking, fewer cars on the road and cleaner air. With biking growing in popularity each year, scores of enterprising people have started bike-related businesses to ride the rising tide of bike culture in the city.

One enterprising Portland realtor combined the growing demand for homes in convenient locations with Portland’s biking fervor to boost her bottom line — filling a niche that was previously empty. When Portlanders want to buy a home that lets them bike to the office, the grocery store, or the post office, they call Kirsten Kaufman, whom Portland Live calls the “Bike Broker.”

Riding around Portland on her custom-built bicycle, she showcases homes that provide easy access by bike, by foot, and by public transportation — that is to say, the kinds of homes that more people want these days, but that other Realtors might not think to showcase. Kaufman has capitalized on the fact that convenience, short commutes, and access to the community without having to drive everywhere is as much a marketable selling point as good schools or low crime with a growing segment of homebuyers.

Riding on bicycle also gives her a better sense of the neighborhoods she’s selling in.  Of her strategy, Kaufman says:

“I started doing focus groups by showing homes by bike to cycling advocates. All of the feedback I got was positive. Once I actively started marketing to people who want to drive less, my business increased. This year versus last year, I’ve almost doubled my business in the worst real estate market ever. I took that to mean it was a good idea.”

Doubled her business? Sounds like she’s onto something.

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Tags: Bicycling, Oregon, Walkability

A search party for the missing women and people of color at a MnDOT work-site. Uploaded by HIRE Minnesota; see the rest of the set on flickr

For 17 straight years, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has failed to meet their own, not-remarkably-ambitious hiring goals: that at least 11% of their workforce should be people of color and at least 6% should be women.  (Minnesota is 85% white, though not 94% male.)

The economic stimulus was meant to benefit everyone in hard economic times, partially through job creation in the transportation sector. African-Americans are hit disproportionately by job losses in a recession, but in Minnesota they haven’t received the full benefit from the stimulus money, an investment meant to aid everyone.

The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, one of Smart Growth America’s partners examining state stimulus spending, has been working as part of a large coalition of 70 groups called HIRE Minnesota (or HIRE-MN) to ensure equity for low income communities and communities of color, not just in allocation of the stimulus money, but to ensure that people of color and low-income people get more opportunities to train for family-supporting jobs in infrastructure and green-collar work.

HIRE-MN includes social justice organizations, environmental organizations, political organizations, grassroots organizations, and training organizations.

Recently, HIRE-MN has been showcasing the lack of attention paid to MnDOT’s “old boy’s club” hiring practices, and, more broadly, how this means the stimulus funds are not getting distributed equitably.

Last week, HIRE-MN showed up at a Department of Transportation worksite on a “missing-persons search party” for the women and people of color “missing” from the workers. Next week they have planned a funeral for the construction season, and for the lost chance for MnDOT to get it right — though HIRE-MN still hopes 2010 will be a better year for getting more women and people of color into MnDOT’s ranks.

“There’s been a lot of talk about the benefit of the stimulus,” said Jennifer Jimenez-Wheatley, an organizer and researcher for Alliance for Metropolitan Stability.  “We want to make sure these investments don’t bypass us.”

Also this year, HIRE-MN organized five town hall meetings, which culminated a rally at the Capitol to ask that legislators specifically grant low-income people and people of color opportunities with stimulus money.

A state legislator noted the impressive size of the crowd and how it differed from the usual Capitol day-to-day scene. “I’ve never seen so many people here not in suits,” he reportedly said.

All told, about 2000 community members were involved. Due in large part to the work of HIRE-MN, the Minnesota legislature allocated $1 million for training of low-income people for weatherization jobs (the stimulus is the largest weatherization program in history), $1 million for training of low-income people for other renewable energy jobs, and $500,000 for programs to perform outreach in the community — for a grand total of $2.5 million. HIRE-MN is currently watching the spending carefully to make sure that the money is allocated properly on the ground.

“For many low income communities and communities of color, even as change occurs they’ve always been left behind,” said Jimenez-Wheatley. “They’ve been shut out of the benefits.  So we were coming for that point of view: if change is coming, then we want the real change. If Obama is talking about green jobs, then we want to make sure low-income communities and communities of color are part of that.  We’re not going to be shut out again.”

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Tags: Economic Stimulus, Equity, Jobs, Minnesota

The National Academies recently released a report on driving and the built environment in which they concluded that increasing job and population density in city centers would benefit the environment by reducing vehicle travel, energy use, and CO2 emissions. (We reported on the release of that report a few weeks ago.)

Two years ago, Smart Growth America and a number of other organizations collaborated on a report called Growing Cooler which similarly demonstrated the impact of our built environment on curbing climate change. However, Growing Cooler’s findings showed that the built environment’s impact on the environment was far greater than the conclusions of the National Academies’ report.

Reid Ewing, Arthur C. Nelson, and Keith Bartholomew of the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center (none of whom work for Smart Growth America) have issued a response to the authors of the National Academies report detailing how their original numbers remain more valid than the “moderate” findings of the new report. They were kind enough to allow us to post their very detailed response here. Fair warning: it’s quite complex.

You can download the pdf of the response here, or click through to the jump to read the full-text version. If you want to quote their response online, attribute the source to them with the information below. …CONTINUE READING »

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Tags: Climate, Driving, Growing Cooler

“Nationwide, transit is estimated to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by more than 102 billion miles driven per year.”  — Via Environment America, photo Jessica Darmawan

A new report released yesterday chronicles how the record public transportation ridership of 2007 and 2008 helped cut carbon dioxide emissions by 37 million tons in 2008 — and more importantly, how increasing transit ridership in the future is an essential strategy for helping us reach our ambitious national goals of cutting emissions and preventing climate change. Read the report (pdf)

Last summer was a revelation for many people.

With gas topping $4 a gallon in some places, behaviors that seemed natural or immutable, like spending huge amounts of time in the car, were found to be deeply dependent on cheap, easily-available gasoline — which was not so cheap anymore. This trend helped speed an already growing movement towards public transportation up to a fever pitch.

So a year later, Environment America asked the question:  What were the environmental benefits of this surge in transit ridership?

Environment America, a partner with SGA on many state projects, released a report today called “Getting on Track: Record Transit Ridership Increases Energy Independence” which chronicles the positive benefits of that booming transit ridership on our energy use and emissions.  2008 saw record ridership on streetcars, trolley, rail, buses, and commuter rail, as well as a drop in the time that people spent driving their cars.  According to Environment America, this was no coincidence.

Not only did Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) go down, but people actively switched to other modes of transportation.  Based on the places where VMT dropped the most, EA concluded that “the fewer miles people drove, the more they utilized transit.”

Switching modes provided several important benefits.  It saved money spent nationally on gasoline.  It reduced our dependence on foreign countries that are sometimes hostile or in turmoil. Further, Environment America reports that “in terms of global warming, public transportation reduced carbon dioxide emissions, the leading cause of climate change, by 37 million tons in 2008.” Take a look:

At the same time that many transit agencies across the country are facing growing demand for their services, they are also facing immense budget shortfalls. The EA report recommends that if we want to cut emissions and increase the positive impacts on the environment, providing more support and flexibility to transit agencies, despite tight budgets, would be a good place to start. They lay out an ambitious, but reachable, goal for increasing transit ridership. (Some portions bolded for emphasis):

Growing demand and preference for transit warrant an overhaul of public transportation policy, rather than a business-as-usual approach. This would fully capitalize on the growth opportunity evidenced in 2008 and 2009, deliver significant energy and environmental benefits, and put the nation firmly on track to energy independence.

Such an overhaul could take the form of setting a high yet realistic target for increasing transit ridership by 10 percent annually. This level was achieved across many states and transit systems in 2008 and 2009, and in 15 years such an approach could reduce transportation oil consumption by 20 billion gallons per year — equivalent to what we currently import from the Persian Gulf. This would also result in an annual reduction of 180 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution — more than four times the current benefit conferred by public transportation.

In 30 years, a 10 percent annual growth in transit ridership would save more than 80 billion gallons of gasoline per year, more than three-quarters of the oil that America consumes currently for transportation. Also, carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by more than 700 million tons per year, or 12 percent of current total U.S. emissions.“

Elana Schor at Streetsblog Capitol Hill points out that increasing transit ridership 10 percent and cutting 180 million tons of CO2 would get us halfway to the stated targets in the current House climate bill:

That annual cut of 180 million tons of CO2 would amount to 3 percent reduction below 2005 emissions levels every year. The climate bill passed by the House in June aims to reduce emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels over the next 11 years, making a national transit-ridership target a key weapon in the arsenal of climate policy-makers.

Stay tuned; you’ll hear more from us in the next few weeks about what you can do to get more support for clean transportation as we move toward a less wasteful and more environmentally-friendly future.

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Tags: Climate, Gas prices, Transit