Category: SGA News Clips

How to curb street backlog? Curb sprawl
Record-Searchlight (CA) – May 22, 2013
And according to a new report from Smart Growth America, there are real financial benefits to cities to building in a more compact form — measurably lower costs to build infrastructure, maintain it and serve residents.

Suburbs Show New Life With Sunbelt Growth After Housing Crash
Businessweek – May 23, 2013
Another study put out this week by Smart Growth America found that roads, sewerage lines and other infrastructure cost 38 percent more for typical suburban neighborhoods than for high-density areas. Meanwhile, the Washington-based neighborhood-advocacy coalition said, high-density developments yield about 10 times more revenue on a per-acre basis in tax revenue than suburbs produce.

U.S. Cities Growing Faster Than Suburbs
Wall Street Journal – May 23, 2013
America’s biggest cities are continuing to outgrow their suburbs as the economy’s plodding recovery makes it harder for city dwellers to move to greener pastures.

DOT nominee rides smoothly through confirmation hearing
The Hill (DC) – May 23, 2013
President Obama’s Transportation Secretary nominee Anthony Foxx (D) steered his way through his first confirmation hearing on Wednesday without facing any major objections.

Quantifying the Cost of Sprawl
Atlantic Cities – May 22, 2013
A new report out today from Smart Growth America, which surveyed 17 studies of compact and sprawling development scenarios across the country, sizes up the scale of the impact this way.

Taxes Too High? Try Building Walkable, Mixed-Use Development
Streetsblog – May 21, 2013
Smart Growth America recently conducted an analysis of research examining the impact of efficient development patterns on municipal bottom lines.

The Fiscal Benefits of Smart Growth
Bacon’s Rebellion – May 21, 2013
Compared to conventional suburban development, smart growth development can save 38% in up-front infrastructure costs and 10% of the cost of supporting police, ambulance, fire and other public services, according to a new report by Smart Growth America (SGA).

Report shows smaller cities can save with smarter development
Central Valley Business Times (CA) – May 21, 2013
A national report from Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, finds:

Why Suburban Poverty Is Less Visible and More Insidious
Atlantic Cities – May 21, 2013
We’ve been talking today – both at Atlantic Cities and across town with our Washington, D.C. neighbors the Brookings Institution – about the suburbanization of poverty in America, a geographic trend particularly notable for two reasons: It confounds our long-entrenched stereotypes of suburbia as the home of the American dream, and it creates a dramatic mismatch between the social services infrastructure we began building during the War on Poverty and the poor people who now live nowhere near it.

A $750 Billion Infrastructure Bank – With No Federal Funds
Transportation Issues Daily – May 21, 2013
Can you imagine an infrastructure bank loaning up to $750 billion to state and local agencies, using no federal funds?

Do We Suddenly Hate Driving?
National Journal – May 21, 2013
United States policy on transportation hasn’t caught up to this phenomenon, the report argues.

Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust
New York Times – May 19, 2013
Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland.

Presidential Memorandum — Modernizing Federal Infrastructure Review and Permitting Regulations, Policies, and Procedures
Whitehouse.gov – May 17, 2013
Reliable, safe, and resilient infrastructure is the backbone of an economy built to last.

The Suburbanization of Poverty
Atlantic Cities – May 20, 2013
There is no word more evocative in the urban vernacular than “suburb.” For most of us, those two syllables conjure a very specific type of place, with a specific kind of people comfortably living there.

PATH/Fail: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Train Station
New York Observer – May 15, 2013
At $3.74 billion, plus another $200 million in contingencies, the “Transportation Hub” at the World Trade Center—not even the busiest station in the Financial District—will be far and away the most expensive train station built in modern history.

Cities Gain a Brain; But Will They Lose Their Souls?
Planetizen – May 20, 2013
In the quest to improve efficiency and effectiveness, “smart” technologies are helping cities become more intelligent machines.

Workshop targets future growth
South Padre Parade – May 16, 2013
The City of Port Isabel is one of 22 cities to be awarded Smart Growth America’s 2013 free technical assistance.

Nonmetro Areas as a Whole Experience First Period of Population Loss
USDA Blog – May 16, 2013
Population growth rates in nonmetro areas have been lower than those in metro areas since the mid-1990s, and the gap widened considerably in recent years.

Are streetcars the future of public transportation?
Salon – May 17, 2013
When President Obama nominated Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Anthony Foxx to head the U.S. Department of Transportation last month, he cited among Foxx’s other relevant accomplishments “a new streetcar project that’s going to bring modern electric tram service to [Charlotte’s] downtown area.”

Gas tax alternative drive takes wrong turn: Our view
USA Today – May 16, 2013
As revenue falls, states turn to punitive, complex or intrusive alternatives.

Announcing the 2013 Vanguard Class
Next City – May 16, 2013
we’ve selected 40 people whose bright ideas for cities, experience in the field and ambition for the future all show great promise. (Congratulations, Alex Dodds!)

It’s Time For City Planners To Adapt A New Model
Forbes – May 15, 2013
Mayors and city councils are somehow more informed as to how to meet the future with ten and twenty year plans in file drawers.

Where Americans Want To Live: New ULI Report, America In 2013, Explores Housing, Transportation, Community Preferences Survey Suggests Strong Demand for Compact Development
ULI Blog – May 16, 2013
A new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) underscores the influence that growing demographic groups in the U.S. – in particular Generation Y, African Americans, and Latinos – will have on reshaping urban growth patterns by spurring more development of compact, mixed-use communities with reliable, convenient transit service.

Bike Lane Battles Heat Up
Governing – May 16, 2013
The share of Americans commuting by bike has grown by 47 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey.

Do American Households Really Prefer “Sprawl” Development?
Bacon’s Rebellion (VA) – May 15, 2013
As Smart Growth America has documented, 84% of the $2.2 trillion in loans, loan guarantees, tax benefits and direct subsidies that the federal government directed to the real estate sector between Fiscal 2007 and 2011 went to single family housing.

Despite Driving Decline, U.S. Builds for Far More Cars
Streetsblog – May 14, 2013
A new study from U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group projects three scenarios for Americans’ future driving patterns that all fall short of current government projections.

Officials Hold Meeting On Brownfields In Atlanta
41 NBC (GA) – May 15, 2013
Environmental and government officials are planning to hold a conference on brownfields in Atlanta.

Secretary of Transportation: Who Is Anthony Foxx?
AllGov.com – May 15, 2013
Winning election for mayor in 2009, Foxx focused on helping small businesses, improving government efficiency and public safety, and implementating a 10-Year-Plan to End Homelessness.

Young Americans Lead Trend to Less Driving
New York Times – May 14, 2013
For six decades, Americans have tended to drive more every year. But in the middle of the last decade, the number of miles driven — both over all and per capita — began to drop, notes a report to be published on Tuesday by U.S. Pirg, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Could L.A. Mayoral Candidate’s Smart Growth Advocacy Cost Him the Election?
Planetizen – May 14, 2013
As L.A.’s mayor race enters its final week, polls suggest the two candidates are essentially tied.

Complete Streets policy has full backing of GDOT commissioner
Saporta Report (GA) – May 14, 2013
State transportation Commissioner Keith Golden says his department is committed to the Complete Streets policy adopted by the board in September.

Obama Designates Day, Week for Transportation Recognition
Journal Of Commerce – May 14, 2013
President Obama has designated the third Friday in May of each year as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week during which that Friday falls as National Transportation Week, in an effort to recognize the importance of U.S. transportation infrastructure.