Smart Growth Around America

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?

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 “Despite occupying just 12 percent of U.S. land mass, the nation’s 100 largest metro areas account for 65 percent of its people and 75 percent of its economic output. They hold the keys to America’s future prosperity…” As a nation where economic success or failure hinges firmly on the backs of our largest metropolitan [...]

Tweet As you could see from our last two posts chronicling the candidates’ positions on energy and climate, it varies from being a core issue among 11 or 12 others, all the way down to not being mentioned much at all. And as interested as some candidates may be in the issues, they still haven’t [...]

Tweet This is part two of our rundown of candidates’ energy, climate, and transportation positions. Today, we’ll cover the Democrats. (Click here for the Republicans) As a reminder, Smart Growth America is endorsing neither a candidate nor a party. This is solely for informational purposes. Have we missed something or has a candidate changed their [...]

Tweet After watching some of the debates over the last few weeks, and partially inspired by a similar post from Rob Goodspeed on the Planetizen Interchange, I pieced together this very abridged summary of where some of the current candidates stand on some of the environmental, transportation, energy and urban issues that our coalition cares [...]

Tweet Thanks to a Board of Supervisors elected in 1999 that basically bent over backwards to let any and all growth come to Loudoun County, Va., this formerly rural county on the fringe of Washington, DC quickly become one of the fastest growing counties in America. But the growth came with a great cost as [...]

Tweet Oregon voters decided Tuesday that they went too far in 2004, with 62 percent of voters approving Measure 49, a partial fix to the mess created by Measure 37 three years ago. Though billed in 2004 as a way for families to build a few houses on their land, Measure 37 basically removed the [...]

Tweet Voters decided on a handful of ballot measures related to transit and transportation funding yesterday, but it’s worth pointing out two specific cases here from opposite sides of the country. Charlotte: Transit funding upheld An overwhelming 70 percent of Charlotte voters renewed their commitment to the city’s ambitious transit plans, upholding a half-cent tax [...]