Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Obama Previews His New Budget’s Urban Policy Moves

By Elana Schor | Jan 22, 2010 | No Comments

When it comes to re-centering the Washington bureaucracy to better accommodate cities’ needs, the first year of the Obama administration has brought its share of progress (a three-agency partnership set to spend $150 million on sustainable development) and hiccups (a White House urban affairs office with lots of talk but little action). (Photo: whitehouse via […]

Feds on New Miami HOT Lanes: Good for Transit

By Elana Schor | Jan 22, 2010 | 2 Comments

Miami’s conversion of HOV lane space to new high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes as part of the federal Urban Partnership program, which also prompted New York City’s congestion pricing push, is cutting travel times for local transit and boosting use — but overall bus ridership in the corridor has stayed static, according to a new report […]

Defining the ‘Public’ in Public-Private Partnerships

By Elana Schor | Jan 22, 2010 | No Comments

In a must-read piece for the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), Matt Lewis digs deeper into the network of cities and towns that employ D.C. transportation. He begins with a thought-provoking anecdote: A ribbon-cutting in Dubuque, IA, for IBM’s new tech center. (Photo: Gazette) Last September, city fathers in Dubuque, Iowa, lured three members of […]

What if America’s Urban Economies Were National Ones?

By Elana Schor | Jan 21, 2010 | 6 Comments

The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report this week with some dire conclusions for the nation’s cities: Even the payroll growth that many prognosticators anticipate this year won’t make a dent in double-digit urban unemployment. Half of the 363 biggest metro areas won’t return to their pre-recession jobs levels until 2013 or beyond. (Chart: […]

How Will Obama’s Sustainability Team Spend Its $150M? A Preview

By Elana Schor | Jan 21, 2010 | No Comments

Before the U.S. DOT gave some early clues as to how the agency would craft its new transit funding rules, deputy housing and urban development (HUD) secretary Ron Sims answered another question that’s been on the minds of transit and local-planning wonks: How will the Obama administration’s three-agency partnership for sustainable communities spend its $150 […]

U.S. DOT Previews How New Transit Rules Could Define ‘Livability’

By Elana Schor | Jan 21, 2010 | No Comments

When the Obama administration announced an ambitious revamp of transit funding rules to, as the Transportation Secretary put it, "take livability into account," urban planners and transit advocates alike were pleased — but also uncertain. Baltimore’s rail network, with the proposed new Red Line — which could get a boost from the U.S. DOT’s livability […]

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