Smart Growth Around America

Since 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Brownfields Program has helped communities across the country assess and clean up thousands of those contaminated, vacant properties known collectively as “brownfields,” leveraging more than $14 billion in public and private investment and contributing to the creation of more than 60,000 jobs in the process. Over the last several months, Smart Growth America has been working as part of the National Brownfields Coalition to help reauthorize this vital program, with a series of amendments to improve it.

Tweet 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 [...]

Tweet 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 [...]

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 From the NBA’s Tim Donaghy referee scandal, to Michael Vick’s contemptible dogfighting, and the surly Barry Bonds pursuing Hank Aaron’s all-natural home run record, the summer of 2007 has been a rough ride for sports fans. It’s hard to notice when negativity rules the front page every day, but for every Michael Vick, there [...]

Tweet ed. note: this essay by David Goldberg originally appeared in September 2005. On the second anniversary of Katrina, we remember the storm, its aftermath, the people affected—and ponder the future. There’s something about an event such as Katrina’s devastation of the Gulf coast region that tempts hyperbole. Just as we fell into the habit [...]

Tweet For those who live in urban areas, especially neighborhoods in the process of returning from decades of disinvestment, you may sympathize with the difficulty of trying to find a good grocery store nearby. The dearth of food outlets in cities can be partially attributed to national chains failing to adjust their largely suburban business [...]