Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Barack Obama

Hope Springs Eternal for American Transpo Policy

By Ben Fried | Feb 18, 2009 | 8 Comments

In case you missed the broadcast on Friday, watch this episode of NOW. Told mostly from the perspective of Charlotte’s Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor who brought light rail to North Carolina’s biggest city, the show hits just about every major transportation issue to surface during the stimulus bill debate. Federal policies that discriminate against […]

Final Stimulus Bill Slaps Transit Riders in the Face

By Ben Fried | Feb 12, 2009 | 24 Comments

The final tally is in, and we now have a breakdown for transportation funding in the stimulus bill that President Obama will sign, barring some unforeseen turn of the screw. Via Transportation for America: $29 billion for highways and bridges $8.4 billion for transit $8 billion for high-speed rail $1.3 billion for Amtrak To compare […]

Obama: The Days of “Building Sprawl Forever” Are Over

By Ben Fried | Feb 10, 2009 | 14 Comments

Obama in Ft. Myers This is encouraging. On the stump in Fort Myers, Florida to campaign for the stimulus bill, President Obama took a detour from his well-worn "roads and bridges" infrastructure spiel to deliver some brief remarks on transit and land use. Obama’s answer came in response to a city council member who said […]

Did Team Obama Gut Transit Funds From the Stimulus Package?

By Brad Aaron | Jan 21, 2009 | 10 Comments

Reporting on last week’s stimulus letdown — when a proposal by US Rep. James Oberstar’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for $17 billion in mass transit spending was slashed by the Appropriations Committee, while $30 billion in proposed allocations for roads and bridges remained the same — Grist got word that the then-incoming Obama administration may […]

The Last Thing This Nation Needs

By Aaron Naparstek | Jan 21, 2009 | 21 Comments

I hate to nitpick at an outstanding and historic speech but it’s January 21 and time to start talking about the stimulus bill, so, well, I’ll let James Howard Kunstler do the nitpicking… “We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars…” — Barack Obama’s inaugural address.“The last thing […]

Bloomberg to Obama: Stimulus Aid Should Go Directly to Cities

By Ben Fried | Jan 9, 2009 | 8 Comments

A face-to-face back in April. Photo: Scoop08. Yesterday the President-elect unveiled the broad strokes of his economic recovery plan at a DC press event, and Mayor Bloomberg was there to give his response. Bloomberg’s message is critical for the prospects of green transportation in the upcoming stimulus package. Here’s the abbreviated version via Liz Benjamin […]

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