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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 so [...]
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 innovators [...]
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 award [...]
When speaking about the Maryland smart growth program that he helped create more than 10 years ago, former Governor Parris Glendening is fond of telling the story of how the state’s decision to locate a University of Maryland campus in downtown Hagerstown sparked revitalization of the traditional town center. Just a couple of weeks ago, [...]
Since 2001, Governor Ruth Ann Minner has been blazing a path for the First State by advocating an agenda known as Livable Delaware — designed to slow sprawl, guide growth to appropriate areas, preserve open space and promote high-quality redevelopment. She is one of many governors who have embraced the power of the state government and budget to help shape the rules of the development game…
Last year, Ontario, Canada raised the bar in the realm of forward-looking planning when they released the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, after more than five years in the making. With nearly a quarter of Canada’s entire population nestled in this horseshoe-shaped region around the lake stretching from Niagara Falls through Toronto to the eastern edge of the Province around Lake Ontario, the leaders recognized that adding a projected 4 million more people in the coming years while continuing to grow in the same sprawling fashion will surely spell disaster. So they rallied everyone together, studied the outcomes, built consensus, and authored a gem of a plan…
