Alexis Smith on San Francisco's parklet program
Alexis Smith, Planner/Urban Designer for San Francisco’s Planning Department, talks about the city’s parklet program. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Author: Administrator
Adam Arredondo on Kansas City's growing startup movement
Adam Arredondo, CEO and Co-founder of Local Ruckus in Kansas City, MO, talks about Kansas City’s Startup Village and the role of urban design in attracting the startup community. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Ariel Ben-Amos on parklets in Philadelphia
Ariel Ben-Amos, Senior Planner/Analyst for the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities in Philadelphia, talks about the city’s parklet program. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Jeff Aken on combining transfer of development rights with infrastructure financing in Washington
Jeff Aken, former Communities Program Manager with Forterra – Seattle, WA, talks about an innovative program that combines Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) with infrastructure financing to help cities grow in a responsible manner. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Erik Calloway on designing cities for a 21st century economy
Erik Calloway, Principal with Freedman Tung & Sasaki, an urban design firm out of San Francisco, CA; talks about designing cities to compete in today’s growing innovation economy. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Councilmember Dave Richins on building better in Mesa, AZ
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County Commissioner Sheila Eckman on building better in Auburn, AL
“When I first got on [the City] Council there was just a mindset of, ‘Annex, annex, anything you can just grab it.’ One night we annexed 1,600 acres at one time. And since that time, in our 2030 plan, it is actually written that that is not a good idea. That now we should see … Continued
County Board Member Chris Zimmerman on building better in Arlington, VA
“Arlington has long been known as a community of neighborhoods. It’s one of the things that for many, many decades has been most appealing about Arlington. People like living in a place where they know their neighbors, where they can walk to things nearby, so their kids’ schools are close, where parks are nearby. Really … Continued
Congressional testimony on brownfields highlights economic opportunities of redevelopment
Smart Growth America President and CEO Geoff Anderson testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week at a hearing titled “Cleaning Up and Restoring Communities for Economic Revitalization.” Joining him were Mathy Stanislaus, Assistant Administrator at the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Honorable Debbie O’Malley, Bernalillo County Commissioner from New Mexico, and Dr. Kendra Kenyon, President of the Idaho Council of Governments.
House of Representatives calls economic redevelopment programs "nice-to-have," moves to eliminate all funding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Program helps communities clean up abandoned land and put it back into productive use. Tomorrow Congress will begin considering whether the program will continue this work in 2014.
The Brownfields Program is rebuilding local economies across the country, and that’s not work we consider “lower-priority.”
On Wednesday, July 31, the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee will mark up the Interior and Environment and Related Agencies funding bill, which allocates funding for all EPA programs, including Brownfields. Last week, a House subcommittee passed a draft version of the bill. The draft bill would cut funding for the EPA by 34% overall—and zero out funding for the Brownfields Program.