Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Sprawl

The Urbanist Case Against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

By Elana Schor | Jan 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), an advocacy group working to reform local development practices, is seizing on House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) recent call for a new system of housing finance to replace government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mixed-use developments, such as Atlanta’s Atlantic Station (above), are often incompatible […]

A Common Thread in the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit and ‘Cash for Clunkers’

By Elana Schor | Jan 20, 2010 | 1 Comment

Back in the days of "cash for clunkers," which saw the Obama administration send nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded rebates to boost the sagging auto industry, our Ryan Avent and several other economics wonks pointed out an inconvenient fact: Many participants in the program would have bought cars anyway, and the rebates only pulled their […]

Message From Copenhagen: Climate Plan Must Include Walkable Urbanism

By Ben Fried | Dec 9, 2009 | No Comments

The energy-saving benefits of transit aren’t limited to the transportation sector. (Image: Jonathan Rose Companies via Richard Layman) At a panel discussion yesterday at the Copenhagen climate summit, American policymakers and transit experts delivered a clear message: Walkable urban development must be part of any effective plan to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to […]

Just How Regressive is America’s Federal Housing Policy?

By Chris Bradford | Nov 20, 2009 | 4 Comments

(ed. note. Please welcome contributor Chris Bradford, author of the economics blog Austin Contrarian.) As this recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report reminds us, the answer is "very regressive." Even in lean economic times, the average rent in San Francisco (above) is close to $2,000/mo. (Photo: BinBin.net) The disparity between the federal government’s support for […]

Congress Set to Double the Size of Sprawl-Centric Home Buyer’s Tax Credit

By Elana Schor | Nov 4, 2009 | No Comments

The $8,000 tax credit for new home buyers — which was wracked by fraudulent claims after its creation as part of the nation’s economic recovery effort — is on the verge of a significant expansion by Congress. Just how much will the tax credit mushroom thanks to the deal reached in the Senate? As the […]

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 […]

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