Stephen Lee Davis was the communications associate for SGA from July 2006 - July 2010. He now serves as Deputy Communications Director for SGA's Transportation For America campaign. Learn more at t4america.org. For more information about staff and contact information, visit our staff page.
Tweet Smart Growth America is seeking an enthusiastic candidate for a wide range of communications work to support a national communications effort on smart growth issues and organize and engage with supporters on and offline. This position requires comprehensive knowledge of website maintenance, HTML, CSS, knowledge of traditional and new media, and is a fantastic [...]
On a Friday where anyone can bring up a live video stream on their computer of oil still pouring from a broken well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps you, like a lot of Americans, feel a little powerless about it and aren’t sure what we can really do to prevent such a disaster in the future. While certainly not responsible for the spill itself, that well and thousands of others are there because we need quite a lot of oil every day.
Some of us here at SGA, through our other work at Transportation for America and the National Complete Streets Coalition, joined with other advocates for biking and walking to ride to the US DOT last Friday to thank Sec. LaHood for recent policy changes to include the needs of bikers and walkers in transportation planning. Check out the video from the T4America youtube channel.
Supported by encouragement and recommendations from Smart Growth America, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a new policy in late March to guide how billions in annual federal water funds should be used. The new guidance ensures that water facilities that communities depend on every day aren’t neglected in favor of running new systems out to undeveloped areas, saving taxpayer money in the process.
Remember the great video series we were promoting earlier this week? Help Smart Growth America become a sponsor of American Makeover. We’re trying to raise $500 by Saturday, May 8 to have the SGA logo and a brief message included in the opening credits of a future episode.
Tweet The makers of a viral sensation from last year (Built to Last) are back with a new video series that takes a hard look at America’s collective frustration with sprawl and the smarter alternatives for growth and development happening in communities across the country. ”With ugly sprawl everywhere you look in America, it’s time for [...]
The makers of a viral sensation from last year (Built to Last) are back with a new video series that takes a hard look at America’s collective frustration with sprawl and the promises it failed to deliver on and the smarter alternatives for growth and development happening in communities across the country. [VIDEO]
LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System Launches as Benchmark for Green Neighborhood Design Environmental Leaders Partner to Advance Walkable, Sustainable and Economically Thriving Communities
Washington, D.C. – (April 29, 2010) – Today, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) announced the launch of the LEED for Neighborhood Development green neighborhoods rating system. LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building and benefits communities by reducing urban sprawl, increasing transportation choice and decreasing automobile dependence, encouraging healthy living, and protecting threatened species.
Senate Lawmakers Working on New Climate and Energy Bill
LEGISLATION EXPECTED TO BE INTRODUCED MID-APRIL
After months of meetings with congressional members, stakeholders and industry leaders, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) have decided to wait to release their climate and energy bill for a few more weeks to ensure they have broad support for the proposal. Senator Kerry has indicated that the bill could be introduced the week of April 19, although any concrete timeline for its passage remains uncertain.
Tweet A new national poll conducted for Transportation for America, Smart Growth America, and the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that American voters overwhelmingly support broader access to public transportation and safe walking and biking. The poll shows strong support for increased transportation options, and accountability for future spending, across both geographic areas and political [...]
From the President down to the Secretary of Transportation, administration officials have spent the year vocally supporting a focus on livability from the federal government — doing what’s in their power to encourage smarter, people-centric planning to create more great places to live where residents have numerous options for getting around and a high quality of life. Perhaps unsurprisingly in this polarized white-hot political era, there’s been a backlash in Congress from some rural legislators. But isn’t livability really a quintessential small-town value? Part two of a personal reflection on small city livability.
Tweet The administration’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities testifies before Congress, representing Housing, Transportation, and the Environment. Photo from DOT. This is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here. From the President down to the Secretary of Transportation, administration officials have spent the year vocally supporting a focus on livability from the federal [...]
It’s one of our most basic needs, and one we take most for granted — clean, fresh water. But polluted stormwater runoff, overtaxed sewer systems, increasingly urbanized areas and shrinking forests and grasslands are threatening Americans’ water quality. Tell your Representative to support green infrastructure now!
A few of the record-breaking 1,700 attendees at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Seattle might have been pinching themselves on Thursday night after hearing three of President Obama’s cabinet secretaries emphasize the importance of smart growth, sustainability and livability as core goals shaping the work of their three massive federal agencies. Demonstrating the Obama Administration’s commitment to making neighborhoods more livable, sustainable and affordable, Secretaries Ray Lahood and Shaun Donovan of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development came to Seattle to discuss their plans to use their giant agencies’ budgets and programs in unison to help American families in rural, suburban and urban communities have better options for affordable housing and getting where they need to go each day.
President Obama’s budget for the 2011 fiscal year, released this morning, contains more than $1 billion in programs and grants that will help create and support livable, sustainable communities and neighborhoods across the country. “This is good news for anyone looking to cut their transportation costs, find an affordable home in a walkable neighborhood, or live in a community with a multitude of transportation options,” said SGA President Geoff Anderson.
The recession may have slowed growth in many places across the country, but the economic difficulties have only reaffirmed the need to be smarter than ever about what we build, and where we build it. Earlier this week, four municipalities from across the country were recognized by the US EPA for their innovative work in promoting smarter growth and creating places worth caring about. EPA created the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement back in 2002 to recognize outstanding and innovative approaches to development that “respect the environment, foster economic vitality, and enhance quality of life.”
With a lot of cities and states in dire budgetary straits, the tendency is often to focus on what they consider “the basics” — meaning that a lot of necessary projects to fix dangerous intersections, build pedestrian facilities, finance a new transit line, or preserve green space might be on the chopping block. So how did these sorts of projects in communities across the country fare in the November elections a few weeks back?
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.”
Tweet The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science yesterday released a Congress-commissioned report entitled, Driving and the Built Environment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use and CO2 Emissions. The study by a panel of transportation planning experts looked at the role smarter planning and development could play in reducing [...]
Tweet During the housing crash it became clear that not all parts of the country were being affected equally — and not even all areas within a metro area were performing the same. In the DC region, foreclosures were rising and home prices were falling rapidly in several exurban counties, while prices were holding mostly [...]
Tweet For a few years now, EPA and the Smart Growth Network have been sponsoring a regular series of terrific lectures on smart growth and related issues here in Washington, D.C. at the National Building Museum. They’ve had well-known authors, innovators and special guests from all over the country come to talk about different aspects [...]
Tweet Smart Growth America State Policy Director Will Schroeer was on Fox Business this morning, discussing our 120-day report from Minneapolis.
Tweet The report we released yesterday analyzing the first 120 days of transportation stimulus spending — with the help and leadership of many state partner groups — has been getting some good media coverage from coast to coast. Here’s a roundup of coverage from the first full day of the report release. Articles that have [...]
Tweet Smart Growth America president Geoff Anderson was a guest on Fox Business this morning, discussing the our report analyzing the first 120 days of transportation stimulus spending. Click here to watch the video.
Tweet Download the full report (1mb pdf) Within the $787 billion stimulus bill that became law in February, Congress provided states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) with $26.6 billion in flexible funds for transportation projects. Today marks 120 days from the apportionment of the funds to the states. The 120-day mark is significant because it [...]
Tweet Within the $787 billion stimulus bill that became law in February, Congress provided states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) with $26.6 billion in flexible funds for transportation projects. The first half of the funding was to be committed within 120 days, by Monday, June 29th. Smart Growth America, in conjunction with state coalition partners, [...]
There’s some exciting news out of Washington, DC to report this morning, where US EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced in Senate testimony this morning that EPA is joining with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (USDOT) in a special partnership to work together to promote smart growth and more livable, sustainable communities across America.
Tweet Today in Louisville, Kentucky, hundreds are taking part in the opening day of the second Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference. The conference is a ray of hope in the midst of our housing and economic crises — and an incubator for the ideas and solutions that can bring prosperity back to the cities, communities and [...]
The Transportation for America campaign, of which Smart Growth America is a co-chair, debuted a new site today to help frustrated commuters and travelers to share their awful commuting stories — and learn about the connection that transportation policy and Congress have to the state of our transportation system. Check out the site, share your story, and tell your friends.
If you’ve been around the conversation on growth and development for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard someone bring up Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is the bit of Virginia just across the Potomac River from the monumental core of Washington, DC that leveraged the arrival of two Metro rail lines in the 60′s and 70′s to renew and revitalize their county into a prosperous, enjoyable and livable community that is a sought-after destination for employers, businesses, residents and visitors.
Tweet Investing first in repair and maintenance can prevent another disaster like Minnesota’s I-35W bridge collapse. Tell your Governor to invest in the future with smart, proven, ready-to-go transportation spending. Creative Commons Flickr photo by Poppyseed Bandits. Earlier this week, we highlighted a new Smart Growth America report that details 20 proven and ready-to-go ways [...]
Tweet Click to learn more about the report Governors and state departments of transportation around the country are burning the midnight oil to prepare lists of transportation projects that could be funded under President Obama’s economic stimulus package, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. As they develop these lists of transportation projects to be funded [...]
Tweet You’ve probably seen some of the anecdotal evidence in newspaper stories or other outlets recently about how many center cities have experienced a resurgence of residential growth within their borders over the last 10 to 20 years. Many of us had wondered if there had been any systematic examination of building permit trends to [...]
Tweet There’s an old problem in government — probably at all levels, but most notably at the federal level — of agencies working at cross purposes with each other. For example, new transportation investments in unneeded highways in exurban areas works against the EPA’s effort to reduce emissions and satisfy the Clean Air Act. Sometimes [...]
Tweet Smart Growth America is looking for someone to serve as our State Campaign Manager. We are seeking a smart and motivated individual to grow a national campaign into an excellent field operation. The Campaign Manager will direct the day to day expansion of, and tasks to build, a diverse coalition of prominent national, state, [...]
Tweet While many of us may futilely try to verbally explain abstractions like ‘auto-dependency,’ ‘resource depletion’ or ‘density,’ aerial photographer MacLean heeds the ancient wisdom about the power of a picture. Transcending usual limits of geography and scale, he rises above and captures in rich detail those scenes we only catch brief unsatisfying glimpses of [...]
Tweet During his time as Governor, Tim Kaine of Virginia has been one of the best in the country in leading their state towards a more sustainable future. He came along at a time when plenty of other Governors nationwide were creating smart growth offices in their administrations or looking for ways to replicate or [...]
Tweet It’s right around the corner, but it’s still not too late to register and attend the biggest smart growth conference of the year. The 8th annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference will be held January 22-24 in Albuquerque, NM, and the last date to register without incurring a late fee is January 9th. [...]
Tweet The results of November’s Presidential election may have represented a change of direction for our country, but at least one trend at the ballot box remained unchanged from the past few elections: Taxpayers across the country again approved a bevy of ballot measures to conserve land, protect farmland, promote smart growth; and expand public [...]
Tweet Smart Growth America / Transportation For America Communications Director David Goldberg was interviewed for the current issue of Mother Jones Magazine. In the wide-ranging interview, he discusses some of the history of SGA — but also discusses the prevalent economic and market forces that are reshaping consumer preference and affecting our growth patterns. Read [...]
Tweet Yesterday, on the heels of the Wall Street bailout and hours before the final presidential debate, policymakers, community and business leaders, activists and citizens gathered in six cities across the country to call on the next President and Congress to strengthen our economy by building a 21st Century transportation system. They were joined by [...]
Tweet While we have our offices here in Washington, D.C., we try our best not to come at things with a DC-centric focus, thinking “outside the Beltway.” So pardon me for just a moment while we toot the horn of our hometown. It may be local for us, but it’s certainly national in significance, representing [...]
Tweet There is a fascinating story on the cover of this month’s Wired Magazine about Shai Aggasi and Better Place, Inc., and his out-of-this-world plan to turn the car industry as we know it on its head. His plan is essentially to replace the car as the primary commodity being sold by automakers, and turn [...]
Tweet “All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as [...]
Tweet Guest post by Barbara McCann, coordinator of the National Complete Streets Coalition A new poll out from AARP documents how incomplete streets are making it tough for older Americans to avoid paying the high price of gasoline. Almost 40 percent of those polled say they don’t have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhood, 55 percent [...]
Tweet You may have seen oilman T. Boone Pickens around lately. If not, then you haven’t turned on your television, radio, or opened a newspaper in the last few weeks. He’s been touting his new Pickens Plan nonstop to nearly any outlet that will listen, taking out full-page ads in newspapers from coast to coast [...]
Tweet Just for fun and in the same vein as last year’s post about Buffalo Bills quarterback J.P. Losman loving life in downtown Buffalo, I noticed this story about some other professional athletes eschewing what perhaps most would expect to describe the lifestyle of a professional athlete — drive an expensive vehicle and live in [...]
Tweet Good story today in the Washington Post as part of their ongoing “Oil Shock” series, with this one focusing on the consumer impacts of rising prices. If it’s not already, this is beginning to sound like the theme of 2008, as rising energy prices are like a rudder in the water turning the ship [...]
Tweet The students who live 100 yards from the school are probably still driving to this mega-campus. Around 30 to 40 years ago, the percentage of kids that walked to school was around 60-70 percent. Go into a room of older adults and ask them to raise their hands if they walked to elementary or [...]
Tweet It’s worth taking a look around in your city or small community, and noticing that some of your most beloved neighborhoods were probably built in the era of the streetcar or interurban rail system. Some of the best, most desirable, walkable neighborhoods in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta; where streetcar systems are [...]
Tweet The CEO’s for Cities study from a few months ago, “Driven to the Brink,” has gained some traction, this time in video form. YouTube’s editors picked it up last week to highlight on the main page, and as a result, it’s gotten over 120,000 plays and nearly 800 comments. Do check it out below. [...]
Tweet SGA President (and Transportation for America spokesman) Geoff Anderson was on MSNBC discussing last week’s release of Walk Score’s city rankings. Geoff talks about how in light of 4 dollar gas, walkability is fast becoming a major selling point in today’s real estate market as people look for housing that doesn’t come with a [...]
Tweet We’ll probably start adding new stories into these two existing posts in the future, but here are a few more pertinent stories about the release of Walk Score‘s neighborhood rankings over the last few days: Site makes strides to score walkable cities USA Today “With the surge in gas prices, people are really considering [...]
Tweet Here’s a roundup of some of the morning’s coverage. See something we’re missing in your local paper? Pass it along in the comments. —- The most walkable cities are looking even better in the age of $4 gas Marketwatch “Most Americans agree we will never see cheap gas again,” said David Goldberg, spokesman for [...]
Tweet You might remember the online tool Walk Score that debuted to rave reviews last year and was immediately all over the web. (It was one of our first blog entries last year). It became extremely popular, and was responsible, at least by some measure, for how popular the term “walkability” became over the course [...]
Tweet After years of inactivity while gasoline was cheap, leaders are now scrambling to “do something” about the high gas prices that are making life difficult for everyday Americans. The solutions range from short-sighted (drill ANWR) to ultimately ineffective (national speed limit), and most fail to address the core issue that makes gas prices matter [...]
Tweet I posted the link to day two of Kaid Benfield’s series on our post from yesterday below, but here is a fresh post with the new link as well. You can read yesterday’s post of ours for the summary, but these paragraphs were certainly worth noting: I also think that, at least with regard [...]
Tweet Quit this blog forthwith and head over to Kaid Benfield’s two part series on his blog at the NRDC Switchboard. (Part one here, part two here) Kaid is an SGA board member, a veteran of the smart growth and environmental movements, and a fellow Southerner (which is why I can join him in saying [...]
Tweet This video comes to us from Sightline up in the Pacific Northwest. I’d summarize it myself, but Sightline’s Eric de Place does it better himself: It’s difficult to illustrate the opportunities that are available now on our roads. We don’t need big expensive building projects, just smarter systems that protect both our pocketbooks and [...]
Tweet The picture is the same everywhere you look. You’ve been reading it here, in your newspaper, or watching it on the television nearly nonstop for the last few weeks: Gas is expensive, driving is down, transit systems are packed. Here in D.C., people are abandoning their cars and taking Metro in record numbers to [...]
Tweet Unfortunately for the owners of either, they’re both losing value. That’s the connection — echoed by SGA — in a Wall Street Journal piece this morning on today’s front page by Ana Campoy on gasoline consumption and miles driven trending downwards, and how it’s beginning to drastically affect Americans’ housing and transportation choices: Meanwhile, [...]
Tweet As we mentioned earlier, SGA communications director David Goldberg testified earlier this morning before the House Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence. If you are so inclined, you can download the testimony of all the presenters on the committee’s home for this hearing. David’s testimony is available to download here (pdf). Some [...]
Tweet The hearing before the House Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence just wrapped up on Capitol Hill a few minutes ago. SGA’s David Goldberg, along with Steve Winkelman of the Center for Clean Air Policy, did a superb job in their testimony before the committee. They made a good case for how [...]
Tweet It’s about to start, but we wanted to let you know that SGA communications director David Goldberg is testifying with several others in front of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming this morning (6/18). The panel of experts will be talking about how better planning, more transit, and increased walkability [...]
Tweet Almost overnight, it has become the most pressing issue in the minds of most Americans. CNN’s most popular topic this week? “Fueling America.” Gas prices are now competing with Iraq, the economy at large, and even Angelina Jolie for primacy in the national consciousness. If you’re interested in the numbers, do check out Google [...]
Tweet Another tale of two cities: One is up, one is down. We’ve noted with regularity for the last few months how rising gas prices were complicit in the housing crisis. (here and here, for example). With every escalation in the cost of fuel, new subdivisions and neighborhoods already in a struggling market face another [...]
Tweet MSNBC reported this morning on yesterday’s theme of transit ridership continuing to trend upwards, which is placing a heavy burden on a lot of systems that are running at or near capacity. As they say, transit ridership is at its highest point in 50 years right now. It’s continuing to reach new levels, but [...]
Tweet In a society nurtured on cheap gasoline, the high fuel prices are having disparate effects: the end of free pizza deliveries at major franchises, a plunge in the sales of sport-utility vehicles, a steep drop in the price of houses that are far from jobs or mass transit. – Washington Post, June 10, 2008 [...]
Tweet In regards to the news stories about people adjusting their behaviour in light of high gas prices, we’ve been wondering: What will people in metro areas do when they’ve squeezed all the efficiency they can out of their car, combined all the trips they can, and elminated as much driving as they can, but [...]
Tweet [UPDATE: 12:33 p.m. Do read Andrew Revkin's post on the NYT's Dot Earth Climate blog for some other thoughts about the debate and political wrangling going on with the bill.] After many months of behind-the-scenes work, the first piece of comprehensive climate legislation reached the floor of Congress this week. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security [...]
Tweet We noticed this new report from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, entitled “Primer on Transportation and Climate Change.” (H/T to David Crossley of the Gulf Coast Institute.) In it, they say some really terrific things about facing up to the realities of climate change while acknowledging we have to change our [...]
Tweet Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein had his own version today of a James Kunstler column on our economic “readjustment” going on right now — just without JK’s colorful metaphors. Most of it is about all the “mirage economies” and the bubbles that were all very related to each other. But there was one [...]
Tweet I know you’ve probably been reading the same stories ad nauseum over the last few weeks about the changes that many Americans are making in the face of 4 and 5 dollar gasoline. As the Department of Transportation noted in numbers released in the past week, driving was down in March 2008 over March [...]
Tweet I noticed some numbers on oil prices that Ryan posted on The Bellows a few days ago, and thought that they were screaming out for some sort of graphical representation. Rather than spend a lot of time crafting some sort of polished graphic to illustrate the point, I resorted to the kind of design [...]
Tweet I’m back from a weeklong vacation, so you probably already saw Paul Krugman’s wonderful column in the New York Times last week that was subsequently posted and emailed all over the place, but it’s worth posting for posterity. In “Stranded in Suburbia,” Krugman muses on the differences in how high gas prices are devastating [...]
Tweet Gas prices are up. People are turning to transit in record numbers these days. But as you probably know, not everyone has access to a decent public transportation system, and many current systems are woefully underfunded or neglected, much like the rest of our national infrastructure. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) [...]
Tweet I quickly mentioned the Capitol Hill policy briefing on Growing Cooler that was put on by the Urban Land Institute and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute a few weeks ago. SGA’s Geoff Anderson joined authors Steve Winkelman, Reid Ewing, and others in a discussion on where we live and how much we have [...]
Tweet If once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and thrice a trend, where are we now? More evidence continues to roll in that the high costs of fuel are pressing more and more Americans towards making lifestyle changes to reduce their consumption. Two stories over the weekend, one in the New York Times [...]
Tweet SGA communications director David Goldberg appeared on KGO in the San Francisco Bay Area last night, discussing how America is fundamentally changing in light of rising gas prices — as well as a plethora of other factors and trends all converging at the same time. People have been coming back in [to cities] for [...]
Tweet While we hope that Congress passes a global warming bill with a hard cap on emissions (cap-and-trade) to limit our overall emissions and incentivize even more reductions, people are beginning to realize that much of the power and leadership required to fight global warming will come at the state, regional, and local level. Consider [...]
Tweet Gov. Glendening recently gave a keynote address at the EcoCity World Summit a few weeks ago in San Francisco. The EcoCity World Summit is one of the most exciting, innovative events in discussion solutions for making our towns and cities better, more sustainable places to live. The summit brings together the many leaders and [...]
Tweet A few months ago, I was in Baltimore for a summit conducted by the Regional Plan Association on the Northeast Megaregion maintaining its economic competitiveness while addressing climate change. Rep. Earl Blumenauer had one bit of narrative that stuck with me about our nation’s history of rising to the challenge of infrastructure with visionary [...]
Tweet Colbert: “I have no oil dilemma. I go to the gas station, I pay money, they put gas in my car. What’s the dilemma?” Kunstler: “You’re probably one of these people who thinks that the world has a creamy nougat center of oil, but it doesn’t.” Video from Comedy Central.
Tweet How can we cut our emissions, fuel consumption, while also reducing congestion and providing more space for jobs and housing? The US EPA’s smart growth office released a new study (5 mb pdf) examining the impact that good infill development can have on reducing transportation demand and lowering emissions. In some ways, this study [...]
Tweet In this entry from Greater Greater Washington — one of my daily must-reads here about DC growth and urbanism issues — he digs up a 12-year-old op-ed from Russell Baker in the New York Times about the pain of rising gas prices. (Back when they were spiking over a dollar:) Sure I’m mad about [...]
Tweet If you, like a majority of Americans, think that any proposal to suspend the gas tax is a bad idea — bad for the environment, bad for our infrastructure, bad for our dependence on foreign oil, and bad for our wallets— you’ll be interested to see an online petition that was sent to us [...]
Tweet The losers: You, me, and infrastructure A terrible idea that failed Bob Dole 12 years ago, gained second life as a recent John McCain economic proposal, and then became (perhaps surprisingly) a recent centerpiece of Hillary Clinton’s platform, is leading the daily news from the campaign trail as Americans feel tightening pressure from rising [...]
Tweet Walking in the ditch to Pleasant View Elementary School in Franklin, Wisconsin on an incomplete street, left, and a complete street that is safe and accessible for all users, right. updated 5/3/08: Photo source of left photo added at bottom. If you’ve been feeling pinched at the pump lately and tried cutting down on [...]
Tweet Chart on housing prices against gas prices from the CEO’s for Cities report, Driven to the Brink (2001 recession shaded) If you look back over the last two weeks at what we’ve been pointing to in the news and circulating on the blog, there was a clear trend emerging: Rising gas prices and escalating [...]
Tweet To the old conventional wisdom for real estate, …you have been replaced: You may have already read about WalkScore when we covered it last year, or seen the widget in our sidebar here on the blog. (SGA office = Walk Score 100!) It’s been a good year for Matt Lerner and the other Seattle [...]
Tweet Author James Howard Kunstler looks at the trends we’ve been discussing for the last week — home prices in suburbs with long commutes depreciating — as well as some that we haven’t talked much about, like escalating food prices and the debilitating effect that high fuel prices are having on airline and retail industries, [...]
Tweet American Public Radio’s Marketplace this morning featured a very brief snippet on Growing Cooler and how the economic downturn and rising energy costs have altered the dynamics of the housing market. As the similar story on NPR showed earlier this week, markets with short commutes or in close proximity to transit and the core [...]
Tweet Gov. Parris Glendening, left, and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman with their award from Partners for Livable Communities. The Partners for Livable Communities recognized former Governors Christine Todd Whitman and Parris Glendening a few weeks ago for their work in creating the Governors’ Institute on Community Design. The PLC presented them with a Bridge Builders [...]
Tweet High gas prices are squeezing the housing market on the fringes of metro regions. It can be scary to turn on CNBC or CNNMoney these days. Watch for just a minute or two, and you’re likely to hear that not only is the housing market in trouble, but we might not be able to [...]
Tweet Last week, we mentioned the release of a new tool from the Center for Neighborhood Technology that measures the true cost of housing affordability, by also considering the transportation costs of each area. (Note: the Washington Post had a good story about the index here.) A few other outlets have done their own local [...]
Tweet The situation: Bridges are falling down, traffic congestion is worsening, gains in fuel efficiency are reducing gas tax revenues, worthwhile transit projects are sitting on the shelf, and the Highway Trust Fund — funded by the 18.5 cents a gallon gas tax that is already inadequate for funding transportation investments — is about to [...]
Tweet It’s not just gas prices that make transportation expensive… Yesterday, The Center for Neighborhood Technology, an SGA coalition member, along with the Brookings Institution, released a new web-based tool to measure housing affordability — by also measuring the transportation costs inherent in a home’s location. Traditionally, affordability is measured at 30% or less of [...]
Tweet “We” love the “we” campaign, but it has some glaring omissions Many of you may have seen the hopeful television commercials over the last week with pictures of windmills, solar panels, and all things “green.” Former Vice President Al Gore launched a three-year, $300-million dollar campaign last week, officially called The Alliance For Climate [...]
Tweet As we’ve highlighted this week, Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change is out in its final, sharp-looking book form. Released in a preliminary technical form last fall, the book has been revised, updated, and published as a beautiful hardcover book, replete with informative graphics, pictures and illustrations. The crux? It [...]
Tweet Pass this on to your friends, colleagues and others to let them know about the release of this exciting new book! Forward this announcement with the link below to your friends and colleagues, or add it to Digg, Reddit, Google Bookmarks, and other social sites. Visit our Growing Cooler page for more information. There, [...]
