Smart Growth Development

The Senate struggled to approve a $15 billion jobs bill and has yet to enact additional fiscal relief for the states, but lawmakers continue to approve trillions of dollars for wars and defense appropriations.  In fact, ignoring the almost $1 trillion spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, military spending has grown 41 percent since 1998.  If progressive leaders intend to reduce long-term deficits and ensure a robust economic recovery, cutting inefficient and costly areas of the defense budget should be a top priority.

This Dispatch will outline how funds allocated in the ARRA aim to support broadband initiatives and how states can leverage broadband to create efficiencies, increase opportunities and begin to bridge a major resource divide in our country by implementing progressive broadband initiatives.

One of the biggest topics of conversation in Massachusetts these days is the proposed additional 19 cent gas tax which would go toward roads, bridges, regional transit authorities and public transit improvements throughout the state. More than half of state and local bridges of 20 feet or longer are structurally deficient, while 82 percent of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority's (MBTA) rapid transit rail cars are in poor or marginal condition, according to a report by TRIP. Furthermore, a 2007 report by the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission found that “the condition of our roads, bridges and transit systems are all in broad decline…we have no money for transit or highway enhancements or expansions without further sacrificing our existing systems and exacerbating our problems.”

Marking the largest change in California land use laws in a generation, the California legislature has approved SB 375, a bill which promotes both affordable housing and less sprawl in the state.  In a coalition as landmark as the legislation itself, affordable housing advocates, the building industry, environmentalists, and local governments came together to endorse legislation that will encourage more compact development along transit corridors.  The legislation's key feature is to integrate what are now three separate planning processes -- regional development, affordable housing and transit development -- into a synchronized system.  This is considered a critical step in achieving California's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as established in 2006 through AB 32.

With gas prices now topping $4 per gallon and rising concern over global warming, the public policies that accommodated and often subsidized wasteful driving habits in the past need to change.

On Earth Day, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed his plan to create the "first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city," and integrate an estimated population growth of 1 million people by 2030. PlaNYC is comprised of 127 proposals for environmental improvements in six areas: land, water, air quality, transportation, energy, and climate change. The proposals range from reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% to improving transit connections to planting 1 million new trees. 

When you hear the term "smart growth" what comes to mind?  Anti-sprawl?  Open-space preservation?  Often overlooked in discussions of smart growth policies is the need for affordable housing as a key component of growth planning.

There's a piece of rhetoric out there that smart growth policies increase housing costs, therefore driving working families out of urban areas to the exurban fringe. Daniel Goldberg of Smart Growth America responds with this post emphasizing that the real problem is that the principles of smart growth -- ensuring that "development makes efficient use of land and the roads, sewers, schools and other infrastructure we all pay for" -- have still only had minimal impact on suburban sprawl.

After winning the Governor's seat in New Jersey, Jon Corzine decided to keep a Republican in the position of Agriculture Secretary. It was a good move. Charlie Kuperus has held the position in 2002 and has won broad support from both parties for his support of a number of measures in support of rural New Jersey.