Author: Aidan O'Shea

Transportation in the City event highlights the changing the face of transit in DC

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TranspoInTheCityCrowd

On Wednesday, September 25, Smart Growth America’s Transportation in the City event brought together a panel of transportation and startup experts, representatives from innovative transportation services operating in DC, and Washington residents to discuss the growth of transportation options over the past few years – and the challenges that lay ahead.

The panel included Donna Harris, Co-founder, 1776; Sita Vasan, Executive Director, SwitchPitch; Martin Di Caro, Transportation Reporter, WAMU; and Tom Fairchild, Director, Mobility Lab. Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth made the opening remarks and the panel was moderated by Smart Growth America Vice President and Chief of Staff Ilana Preuss.

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Southeastern San Diego to replace brownfields area with community's smart growth vision

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Community members help plan the Village at Market Creek development. Image courtesy of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation.
Community members plan the Village at Market Creek development. Image courtesy of the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation.

After extensive planning and dozens of community meetings, the Village at Market Creek in San Diego, CA, is ready to break ground on the next phase of a visionary smart growth project.

For two decades, San Diego has been working to remediate and redevelop the former home of aerospace manufacturer Langley Corp. The company left San Diego in the 1990s, but leaking underground storage tanks and other potentially hazardous materials on the numerous factory sites remained. That meant the 60 acres were not only blighted, but potentially dangerous to redevelop.

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Madison, IN and Milton, KY are repairing a landmark and boosting biking and walking

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Milton Madison bridge
The Milton-Madison bridge undergoing construction. Photo via the Milton Madison Bridge Project.

The reconstruction of a bridge spanning the Ohio River between Madison, IN and Milton, KY is more than just a long overdue repair. It is a restoration of a landmark, a way to better connect two interdependent communities and a means of bringing smart growth improvements to both sides of the river.

The existing Milton-Madison bridge had become functionally obsolete, deteriorating badly despite multiple rehabilitations. Its 20-foot wide road deck was too narrow to handle modern traffic and in August 2008, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Indiana Department of Transportation launched the Milton-Madison Bridge Project in an effort to replace the bridge.

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Councilmember Eric Olson works to ensure Prince George's County's legacy neighborhoods stay well connected

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Olson speaks with Governor Martin O'Malley at the announcement of new state offices near New Carrollton station. Photo via Flickr.
Prince George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson (right) speaks with Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (left) at the announcement of new state offices near New Carrollton station. Photo via Flickr.

Prince George’s County, MD has no lack of ways to get around or places nearby to go. The largely suburban county just outside of Washington, DC contains fifteen Metro stations and is served by two MARC commuter rail lines, among other transit routes. But regulatory red tape has made it difficult for developers to build near stations and as a result, many stations are most easily identified by the parking lots that surround them.

Local Leaders Council

City Councilmember Kristin Palmer on smart growth and resilience in New Orleans, LA

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Kristin Palmer had long been interested in smart growth strategies, but smart growth really became a focal point of her first term on City Council in 2010, as New Orleans still struggled to rebuild five years after Hurricane Katrina.

“When you’re trying to rebuild from nothing, from ground zero, what are the things that make sense when you come back and rebuild? Access to public transportation and economic corridors was really part of that success,” says Palmer. “If you had access to grocery stores and you had a walkable community, and you could get to the resources you needed, those are the communities that rebuilt faster and better.”

Local Leaders Council

Warwick, RI Mayor Scott Avedisian on preservation and new development going hand in hand

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Warwick, RI is the state’s second largest city, and with 39 miles of coastline and a “small town village feel,” Warwick could rest on its laurels. But Mayor Scott Avedisian, a member of Smart Growth America’s Local Leaders Council, has an ambitious vision for his city, and is working to create a more vibrant public waterfront and a more diverse local economy.

Local Leaders Council

Mayor Nancy Chaney on building a healthier, better connected community in Moscow, ID

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Moscow IdahoFarmers’ market on Friendship Square in downtown Moscow, ID. Photo via the Moscow Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Nancy Chaney of Moscow, ID, is working to help residents be healthier AND better connected to the broader region, and she sees smart growth strategies as a way to achieve both those goals at the same time.

“We pride ourselves on being a walkable, bikable community in the midst of rolling wheat fields, dried peas, and lentils,” Chaney says. “Smart growth means connecting people in the physical and social sense. It includes gathering places and public centers like Friendship Square in the heart of our downtown. And smart growth means providing for all residents regardless of their preferred mode of transportation—bicycles, strollers, wheelchairs. Smart growth gives Moscow’s residents this flexibility to choose whether to be in a motorized vehicle or to walk to a doctor’s appointment. Smart growth is about how people and place are interrelated.”

Local Leaders Council

Now hiring: Intern for Smart Growth America's LOCUS Coalition

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Smart Growth America is seeking an enthusiastic intern for advocacy work with LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors. The intern will provide direct support to the LOCUS network of real estate developers and investors advocating for smart growth policies at the federal and regional levels. Core responsibilities include: drafting legislative summaries for network members, organizing Hill briefings and meetings, drafting advocacy materials on core network issues, managing correspondence with network members, following up with and providing materials to potential recruits, and assisting the President of LOCUS with scheduling and general administrative tasks as needed.

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Cambridge Main Street wanted to support local businesses—and new zoning is helping to make it happen

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Downtown Cambridge
Main Street in downtown Cambridge, MD. Photo by Eli Pousson, via Flickr.

It took a golf course to make the city of Cambridge, MD, reconsider how it was planning development.

The 1,000-acre project would have added 3,200 homes to Cambridge, a city of just over 12,000 people on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore. After several rounds of city approval followed by fierce public opposition, the Maryland Board of Public Works purchased 70% of the land back from the developer and committed it to preservation.

“That experience was a major impetus to rewrite the City’s comprehensive plan,” said City of Cambridge Planner Anne Roane. In 2008 the City began the process of updating its plan for growth. And city planners weren’t the only ones excited about the new initiative.

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View our 500 Complete Streets Policies Celebration in full

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On August 14, 2013, Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition hosted a 500 Complete Streets Policy Celebration in which complete streets leaders the 500 communities across the United States that have made their streets safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them with Complete Streets policies, and looked ahead to the … Continued

Complete Streets