Smart Growth Around America

“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 areas, Bruce [...]

The Alaskan Way Viaduct is a three story barrier, separating Seattle from its historic waterfront.
Continuing the thread started yesterday on urban freeways and the CNU Teardown Survey, we have a guest blogger today. Cary Moon is the co-founder and director of the People’s Waterfront Coalition, which is a grassroots group that formed a few years [...]

San Fran capitalized on damage from the Loma Prieta Earthquake to remove the Embarcadero Freeway. Before and after at Market Street
This is part one of a series. Click here for part two on Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Take a peek at the road atlas or Google Maps for any major American city and there’s [...]

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 stance? Let [...]

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 about.
Mind [...]

I recently spent five wonderful days in Houston. When I tell people that, they think I’m joking. Most people outside of Texas seem to regard Houston as little more than a bloated, polluted, overheated hellhole. Not a baseless assessment, I’ll grant you, but the smugness with which it is delivered is utterly unwarranted.
First off, as [...]

Richard Layman beat me to posting this video, but a Bay Area expat living in Beijing named Luke Mines sent us this video about the opening of the new “5″subway line in Beijing and the rise of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) there.
BRT has been implemented in a limited scale in the U.S., but the sytem(s) [...]

The New York Times gave some love this weekend to Portland, Oregon. First, a story about the growth of the city focuses on how maintaining a small-town big city designed for people, connected to the environment, and with options for transportation, has resulted in a population boom in younger people, as well as older people [...]

Joel Kotkin teamed up with Ali Modarres last Sunday to pen a piece for the Washington Post entitled “Hot World? Blame Cities, ” in which they ignore most of the scientific evidence about lower per capita carbon emissions of city residents, placing the blame for global warming largely on the shoulders of city-dwellers, and proposing [...]

Atlanta has been a region typically known for its affordable housing stock and rapidly-growing suburbs and exurbs. But a new study being released in Atlanta this week chronicles affordability in the region and finds that not only is there a dearth of affordable housing, there is a disconnect between affordable housing and its major job [...]

Ed. note: Read the “background” below for a detailed explanation of what this means.
Contact Your Senator or Congressman TODAY as they work on the Transportation Appropriations bill. Ask them to STOP the proposed rule for New Starts and Small Starts and give US DOT clear directive that FTA must:

Comparably weigh all 6 project justification criteria, [...]

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 are [...]

On the whole, America’s central cities are coming back, with growing employment and increasing numbers of young people, empty-nesters, and others choosing city life. Unfortunately, many cities are lagging behind their peers, especially older industrial communities that are still making the transition from manufacturing-based economies to more knowledge-oriented activities…

n introducing his bold, comprehensive plan for a sustainable New York on Earth Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg pointed to research showing that New Yorkers already had the lowest per capita carbon emissions in the nation. While most news outlets focused on the controversial idea of congestion pricing for Manhattan below 86th Street, they missed the larger point: Well-planned urbanism is likely to be our best hope for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and cutting oil dependency…