Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Smart Growth

Arlington Strikes Walking Gold in a River of Highways and Pentagon Sprawl

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 9, 2013 | 7 Comments

Urbanists have long told tales of the success story of Arlington, Virginia. Named a gold-level walk-friendly community by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, this Washington, DC suburb made the smart decision in the 70s to develop along the metrorail line. Because of that, Arlington workers drive alone at a rate 25 percent lower than […]

Study: Kids Who Live in Walkable Neighborhoods Get More Exercise

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 11, 2013 | 15 Comments

A study published this month in the American Journal of Preventive Health finds that children who live in walkable places — “smart growth neighborhoods,” to use the authors’ phrase — get significantly more exercise than their peers who live in suburban environments designed for driving. Researchers from UC Berkeley monitored the activity of 59 children […]

Ft. Belvoir: Pioneering the U.S. Military’s Brand of Smart Growth

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 8, 2013 | 3 Comments

Ft. Belvoir, just south of Washington, DC, has been infusing military base planning with a smart growth mentality since before it was cool. While new guidelines in the past year have compelled all U.S. bases to start building smarter and more efficiently, Ft. Belvoir has been working under a master plan that champions walkability and connectivity […]

Q & A With a Military Architect of the Smart Growth Revolution

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 21, 2013 | No Comments

We’ve spent this week exploring the ways in which the Department of Defense is overhauling its master planning procedures to turn their sprawling military bases into compact, walkable communities with mixed-use development and town centers. They’re hoping to bring back some of the people who have moved off base in recent decades, with the promise […]

The Defense Department’s Embrace of Livability Will Save Money — and Lives

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 20, 2013 | 4 Comments

On Tuesday, we wrote about the Defense Department’s new rules for the design of their bases and installations. These rules make smart growth the law of the land on hundreds of vast military installations in the U.S. and abroad. There’s more to the story: In this post we examine how a smart growth development model […]

New Pentagon Mandate: Make Military Bases Livable, That’s an Order!

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 18, 2013 | 18 Comments

This article is the first in a series about the U.S. military’s new embrace of smart growth planning. “The largest redevelopment opportunity in the world is at the Department of Defense.” Rep. Earl Blumenauer wasn’t exaggerating when he uttered those words to an audience of smart-growth developers earlier this month. While U.S. DOT, the EPA, […]

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