Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Transit-Oriented Development

Twin Cities Rein in Highway Expansions, Tame Runaway Transpo Spending

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 12, 2011 | 1 Comment

The Twin Cities region is reassessing the role of highways in its transportation system. Like many communities throughout the country, Minneapolis-St. Paul is moving beyond the decades-old assumption that the only way to eliminate congestion is with more outward-stretching asphalt. This fall, officials in the Twin Cities voted to roll back highway expansions and increase […]

Livability and the GOP: A Conversation With HUD’s Mariia Zimmerman

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 23, 2010 | 4 Comments

Perhaps the Obama administration’s greatest contribution to building more livable, less traffic-choked communities has been the new partnership between three agencies — DOT, EPA, and HUD — which are helping towns and cities grow more sustainably, using strategies from brownfield redevelopment to the provision of affordable housing along transit corridors. The agencies have collaborated to […]

What Does It Take to Win a Planning Grant From the Feds?

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 10, 2010 | 3 Comments

Reconnecting America has crunched the numbers on which projects won planning grants from the feds last month. Planning awards were announced through three programs: Sustainable Communities Regional Planning (SCRPG), Community Challenge, and TIGER II. It’s worth noting that these are the types of competitive grant programs that John Mica is planning to put under the microscope […]

Avoiding the Unintended Consequences of Transit-Oriented Development

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 25, 2010 | 24 Comments

We see it over and over again in our cities. Migration out of central cities hollows out neighborhoods and leaves the people who remain struggling with the consequences of disinvestment. But when development returns to urban areas, the arrival of new residents can impose burdens on people who never left. Often, as amenities come into […]

If You Come, They Will Build It: Notes on Livability From Rail~volution

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 21, 2010 | No Comments

Those looking for hope in this era of transit service cuts took heart from the words of William Millar, President of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), at Rail~volution yesterday. In his keynote speech, Millar reasons to hope for a better future — despite the fact that 84 percent of APTA members were cutting service, raising fares, […]

Five Reasons Reformers Are Rallying Behind Obama’s Transpo Push

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 13, 2010 | 2 Comments

When President Obama announced his push for a long-term transportation bill on Monday, he introduced a report by his Council of Economic Advisors and the Treasury Department analyzing the economic impact of infrastructure investment [PDF]. At face value, the numbers in the president’s plan might not look so impressive. It calls for rebuilding 150,000 miles […]

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