Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Quality of Life

The Assumption of Inconvenience

By Ryan Avent | Sep 30, 2009 | 5 Comments

Early this week, I noticed a number of my favorite bloggers linking to this Elisabeth Rosenthal essay at Environment 360, on the mysterious greenness of European nations. The average American, as it happens, produces about twice as much carbon dioxide each year as your typical resident of Western Europe. Rosenthal attributes much of this difference […]

Could Ending the ‘War on Drugs’ Help Ease Urban Budget Crises?

By Elana Schor | Aug 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

Despite talk of a nascent economic recovery, the brutal toll exacted on state budgets by the recession continues — with palpable consequences for transit riders and already lower-income urbanites. Could the cure for cities’ fiscal woes be a dramatic shift in drug policy? A class on dispensary management in Oakland, where drug sales are taxed […]

Livable Streets Win: Concealed Weapons Amendment Falls in the Senate

By Elana Schor | Jul 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

Debate over the incendiary urban policy issue of gun possession came to a head today in the Senate, as a proposal to let individuals carry concealed firearms into states with strong weapons limits — such as New York and Illinois — was defeated by a narrow margin. The gun amendment, proposed by GOP Sen. John […]

New Report on Transpo-Health Dynamic Makes Case for National Targets

By Elana Schor | Jul 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

The link between transportation and public health, explored on this page days ago, is plumbed further in a report released today by PolicyLink and the Prevention Institute with an introduction by Jim Oberstar (D-MN), chairman of the House transport committee. The report brings together the key pivot points in the transportation debate, many of which […]

Obama Keeps Roads Out of National Forests — For a Time

By Elana Schor | May 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

Paved roads are a fact of life in most of the country, but should they be permitted in the nation’s protected forest areas? The Obama administration says no, as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack affirmed today in a directive that prohibits road construction in nearly 50 million acres of forest land. Alaska’s Copper River Highway runs […]

Does Your Commute Suck? Tell Us About It.

By Sarah Goodyear | May 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

This morning our friends over at Transportation for America are launching a new site called My Commute Sucks, designed to give people around the country a place to vent their frustration over the nation’s overburdened and inefficient transportation systems. Commuters can share their tales of commuting woe, upload photos and videos, and also take action […]

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