Smart Growth Around America

The Chesapeake Bay, one of our country’s most precious natural resources and one of its most troubled, is suffering in a new way these days. Agriculture was once its biggest problem; improperly treated waste from farmland contaminated the rivers that lead into the estuary. As farmers have gotten smarter and more diligent about their role in contaminating the waterways, a new problem has emerged: development.

Washington, D.C., has been a dreary, snowy place of late. For those of you in the immediate area, we invite you to shake off those winter blues and join us at Next American City Magazine’s Spring 2010 issue launch here in Washington, co-sponsored by Smart Growth America. The launch is at March 10, 2010 from 6-8pm at the AIA Headquarters, 1735 New York Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. You can RSVP to rsvp [at] americancity.org

In the first ten months of the 2009 economic stimulus package, investments in public transportation created twice as many jobs per dollar as investments in highways, according to a new analysis by Smart Growth America. With the 2009 stimulus providing three times more money for highways than transit, Congress missed a chance to put more [...]

David Crossley is a busy man. He’s on the board of Smart Growth America and serves on the National Committee of America 2050. His organization, Houston Tomorrow, a SGA coalition partner, works within the Houston region to promote livability, transit, efficient infrastructure, and planning decisions that would benefit the environment. Their ambitious motto: “To improve the quality of life in the Houston Gulf Coast region.” So what do they mean by “improving the quality of life” for Houstonians? Crossley was recently featured in a cover article in a local Houston magazine about his vision for the Houston of his grandchildren, and what will need to change:

Photo by Flickr user zpeckler

In August, I wrote about a successful program that brought a supermarket into a Philadelphia “food desert” where numerous chains had previously refused to locate — an area “redlined” by supermarkets and banks. Food deserts are locations in urban or rural areas where fresh food is hard to come by; residents [...]

Smart Growth America coalition member TransForm has developed a certification program called GreenTRIP to encourage building the kinds of places we need to reduce our carbon emissions. The certification program rewards developers and municipalities that reduce traffic and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. It acts as a complement to the LEED for Neighborhood Development program (LEED-ND), one that focuses specifically on the place transportation occupies in sustainable land use.

A few weeks ago, we asked what you loved about your communities.  As promised, we’re highlighting some of the best or most engaging answers – though not chosen through any rigorous process.  There are plenty of really interesting comments about interesting places all over the country.  If you haven’t done so, check out all the [...]

Ten years ago, the Menomonee Valley in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was dead land. Today, after many years of clever ideas, careful planning, and hard work, people are fishing in the Menomonee River again — which runs right through the heart of Milwaukee. Commuters and recreational bicyclists are using the new bike paths. There’s a soccer field and even a canoe launch. The land hasn’t merely been cleaned of environmental hazards. It’s been transformed into a place where people want to spend their leisure time.

Those of us on the ground working to make better places often get so focused on the changes happening in our cities and communities that we may forget the many things we love and cherish about the places we call home.
The holidays are the time of year when we can take stock of all the [...]

One of the biggest reasons to break down barriers and allow the market to deliver more compact, walkable development in the coming years is the changing demographics (and consumer preferences) resulting in growing segments of people preferring that lifestyle — especially the rapidly-growing group of people over the age of 65. By just 2030, nearly 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65. David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington writes that walkable urbanism is great for empowering seniors who can no longer drive:

A fishing boat on the Chesapeake Bay. Photo from WikiCommons.

The Chesapeake Bay is the country’s biggest estuary — and one of its biggest failures. Despite over 20 years of clean-up efforts, we have barely made a dent in the extreme levels of pollution from which the Bay suffers. In today’s Baltimore Sun, an op-ed [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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)

Yesterday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced several new ways her department will further the Sustainable Communities Partnership — including interagency cooperation in the technical assistance program offered through the EPA Smart Growth program.
Administrator Jackson is spending three days touring the country with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan [...]

As we said yesterday, vacancy is a serious issue—and due to increasing foreclosures, job layoffs, and bankrupted businesses, more houses are sitting vacant in our communities than ever before. In some cities — like Buffalo, NY, Youngstown, OH, or Charleston, WV — population loss and abandonment have been part of the story for a long [...]

Vacant homes are becoming an increasingly visible problem in this country — some 15% of all homes in the second quarter of 2009 are sitting empty, according to the US Census Bureau. That’s 18.7 million unoccupied homes slowly decaying on lots across the country.
Yet there’s no lack of people in this country who need a [...]

Artists and community developers are not the most obvious partners — except for how strongly both believe in the possibility of transformation.
Community Partnership for the Arts and Culture is holding Rust Belts to Artist Belt II, a conference held in Cleveland September 17th-18th, in the belief that artists and their work can affect strong change [...]

When the federal government created an $8 billion pool of stimulus funds for worthy high speed rail projects, few anticipated how eagerly states would vie for the money. California alone submitted 42 applications for a total of $1.1 billion dollars in federal money.

Smart Growth America CEO Geoff Anderson spoke to WNYC public radio after this Monday’s application deadline about what the application process, what the money can buy, and what high speed rail can do for the United States. Here are some excerpts:

Too often, communities are built with housing meant to serve only one segment of the population. People have different housing needs as young adults than they do as part of a family, or as empty-nesters. And as our population skews older and older, we need to ensure our communities can accommodate older [...]

We’ve said before that houses close to retail and jobs are good for public health, traffic congestion, and air quality. Aside from those worthwhile external benefits for everyone, people simply like living in walkable neighborhoods, within walking distance of the places they need to go.
The massive popularity of Walk Score — the site that measures [...]

During a recession, city officials often eye park budgets as an easy way to save money without cutting “essential” services. Yet even during the recession, voters supported green space and park ballot initiatives at far higher rates than most ballot initiatives. The 2008 election rounded up $7.3 billion in new spending for parks and open-space preservation, less than a month after the stock market crashed hard. What is it about parks that inspires this kind of public support? Most communities have few public, non-commercial spaces — except for parks. Believers in the “broken windows” theory will also say that upkeep in parks and other public spaces are important for community pride — and for keeping crime rates down.

Inner cities and rural areas can be full of areas known as “food deserts” — areas where fresh food is hard to come by. Large supermarkets choose not to locate in these areas because of higher security costs, creating a food equivalent of old housing redlining practices, leaving whole neighborhoods or communities without decent access to fresh food. Residents either have to make do with unhealthy convenience stores or fast food, or spend precious time and money traveling to other towns or sections of the city for each trip for food.

Ever wish you could see your words on this blog? Smart Growth America is seeking an excellent candidate to serve as a Communications Associate. In addition to other responsibilities, the Associate will work with our Communications Director and other members of the communications team to produce materials for print and web — including organizational brochures [...]

Smart Growth America (SGA) is seeking an excellent candidate to serve as a Federal Policy Fellow. The Fellow will work with Smart Growth America’s federal policy team and coalition partners to engage and educate Congress and the Administration on the benefits of smart growth principles. Applications are due by Monday, August 17th.
Responsibilities will include:

Research [...]

In addition to keeping up with Smart Growth America right here on the blog, you can now get news, action alerts, and other announcements — all in 160 characters or less. If you already have a twitter account, follow us @smartgrowthUSA.

Do you know what happens to your food before it gets to your plate?
Don McCorkell’s new documentary, A River of Waste: The Hazardous Truth about Factory Farms, demonstrates how ruthlessly efficient factory farm operations across America are failing to adequately protect against serious environmental and health problems that can arise from the necessary [...]

The public health community, increasingly alarmed over Americans’ increasing waistlines, has sided wholeheartedly with the need to make our streets safe for walking and biking.
But it was still big news this week when CDC researchers pushed forward community recommendations for preventing obesity in the highly-influential and trusted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).  Out of [...]

In a recent landmark decision, Cleveland Judge Raymond Pianka held lender Wells-Fargo responsible for failing to maintain their large holding of foreclosed properties. This will be the first lending institution to be held accountable for neglecting to maintain their foreclosed properties, abandoning them, and leaving cities to “clean up the mess.” The problem is a significant one for cities trying to keep foreclosure and vacancy from causing even greater damage to cities already under pressure. As Smart Growth America staff member Mara D’Angelo writes in Next American City:

The town of Edmonston in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., is a small hamlet of under 2000 residents, most of them blue-collar workers. Like many other cities in America, times are tough in Edmonston, which has high rates of unemployment and foreclosure. What makes life particularly hard for Edmonston is that it is bisected by the Anacostia River. Due to poor environmental practices, the Anacostia periodically floods the town, wreaking devastation on a place already struggling to get by.

There’s a handy interactive map accompanying the Trust for America’s Health new report, titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing America.” The results of the 2009 edition are fascinating — and frightening. Adult obesity rates dip below 20% in just one state (Colorado.)  The percentage of obese and overweight children is [...]

Abandoned Flint home; image courtesy NPR

Times are tough in Flint, Michigan. And truthfully, times have been tough for quite some time now.
Once home to General Motors and to more than 230,000 people, this rust-belt city has been losing residents for decades. The population of Flint today is nearly half of what it was at its [...]

While states may typically be excellent at spending federal money quickly, the big question is: are states also good at spending federal money wisely?
Within the $787 billion stimulus bill that became law in February, Congress provided states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) with $26.6 billion for transportation projects. States and MPOs were given considerable flexibility [...]

In a long overdue move, the US EPA formally pledged to work in tandem with the departments of transportation and housing and urban development to “help American families gain better access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs,” according to an EPA statement.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testified before a Senate Committee this morning [...]

Huge, sprawling “mega-schools” built at the edges of town aren’t required by law in Minnesota. But minimum acreage recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Education have forced local communities into a one-size-fits-all approach, resulting in new schools that are unwalkable and unconnected to the rest of their communities. On July 1st, this is going to change in Minnesota.

Update, Monday 6/8: All free copies have been given away. You can purchase the DVD at the NCI website.

We’re giving away this DVD to the first 500 people that register. Click here to get your free copy.

“Just off Florida’s west coast, south of the Caloosahatchee River, there’s a tale of two cities. Downtown Fort Myers [...]

One-third of Americans either can’t drive or choose not to. Yet, most communities around the country are
laced with roads that are inhospitable, at best, to people traveling by foot, bicycle, or public transportation. For older Americans, children, and people with disabilities, these kinds of streets are especially dangerous.

Complete streets dramatically change the fabric of a [...]

A new study, released by the Center for Housing Policy, compares housing costs in over 200 U.S. metropolitan areas with the wages earned by workers in 60 occupations — and finds that often, workers in key professions are unable to afford buying a house even after the recent drop in housing prices. Some in [...]

Freiburg-im-Brisgau - Quartier Vauban : commerces et immeuble Originally uploaded by adeupa de Brest

A walkable, car-free street in the upscale suburb of Vauban, Germany. The community has easy rail access into Freiburg.

With thrift the latest necessity in today’s economic struggles, people are not only trimming the fat from their budgets — they’re reconsidering what’s [...]

2008_09_08_bos-ord-sna_069 Originally uploaded by dsearls

Randhurst Mall in Anaheim, California Mt. Prospect, Illinois with a nearly empty parking lot. Compare the size of the building to the size of the total lot.

In many places around the United States, the construction of the enclosed shopping mall sounded the death knell for historic downtowns and small town centers, [...]

The National Complete Streets Coalition is seeking a Federal Policy Fellow to work with a diverse coalition of prominent national organizations working for the adoption of complete streets policies across the country. Applications are due by May 26th.
We are looking for a go-getter that will help us advance our federal policy efforts by moving [...]

Photo credit WBZ

Facing staggering budget problems, government agencies everywhere are scrambling for funds. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is no exception—it has an estimated $165 million budget deficit. The MBTA has spoken of raising fares and cutting back services, including bus cuts, Boston subway cuts, and a 50 percent cut in evening [...]

Clips available on Planetizen’s site. Watch them there.

The way our communities have been developed for more than half a century — houses separated from schools separated from businesses separated from nearly everything else you need — didn’t just happen by accident. Though it’s been the status quo of development for more than 50 years, many [...]

Geoff Anderson, Smart Growth America CEO

Smart Growth America CEO Geoff Anderson appeared on a recent Island Press panel to discuss “How Policy Influences Development,” specifically with regard to transportation infrastructure. He spoke alongside Chris Leinberger, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution; Lawrence Frank, Bombardier Chairholder in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia; [...]

Last spring, Chris Leinberger wrote in The Atlantic that the pendulum was slowly shifting away from suburban life due to our country’s changing demographics, growing public demand for “urban” amenities like walkable neighborhoods and better transportation options, and the overbuilding of exurban housing — far from jobs and highly inconvenient when gas gets expensive.

View of Puget Sound. Creative Commons Flickr photo by Chas Redmond.

Learn more about the work of the Coalition For Smarter Growth

Learn more about the work of the Piedmont Environmental Council

Learn more about CSG & PEC’s “Blueprint for a Better Region” vision for the DC Region

While we’ve done much to clean up our water sources [...]

Governor Glendening addresses the conference attendees in Albuquerque after receiving his lifetime achievement award.

Governor Parris Glendening, who serves SGA as the President of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, received a few notable recognitions earlier in 2009.
In January Gov. Glendening received a lifetime achievement award at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Albuquerque, [...]

Smart Growth America’s Restoring Prosperity campaign, which provides help for revitalizing our aging industrial cities, recently released four more policy packages for use by state advocates.  These packages are the part of a series of six policy recommendations for how state and city governments can transform struggling cities into places where anyone would want to [...]

Happy Earth Day everyone! One of the smartest things about smart growth is the way it takes care of the needs of people alongside the demands of the environment.
So whatever your Earth day plans — if you’re planting a tree in the park, going to see the new Disney “Earth” movie, making a spherical cake [...]

Tell your Members of Congress to support Complete Streets today!

Half of all trips taken in metro areas are three miles or less and 28% are one mile or less — yet 65% of those trips take place in a car.
A recent poll from the National Association of Realtors found that 83% of respondents would prefer [...]

News of continued foreclosures comes on top of the painful slow motion train wreck we’ve been watching for several years, with the foreclosure rate skyrocketing since 2006.  No one knows how many of these now-foreclosed properties are vacant or will soon be abandoned, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the numbers are dire. Community leaders are [...]

John Frece, left, with former Maryland Gov. Harry Hughes in 2006. Photo by Jed Kirschbaum / Baltimore Sun.

The EPA Smart Growth office, featured here regularly over the years, has been a valuable ally in the movement for better growth and development across the country. Over the last ten years, they’ve helped countless communities strengthen their [...]

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.

While states develop these lists of transportation projects to be funded with stimulus money, Smart Growth America has partnered with [...]