What the Departure of New York and Chicago’s Transportation Leaders Means for Cities
Governing – November 5, 2013
“They’ve taken what, for a long time, was a backwater and not a sexy position, and made it very public and shown how much it impacts people on a daily basis,” says Geoffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Smart Growth America.

Code Green
Sustainable Industries – November 5, 2013
Now Vice President of a nonprofit called Smart Growth America, Millar has organized workshops throughout the country to identify and remove barriers, offer incentives, and fill in gaps in zoning and land use codes to encourage more sustainable building.

End of the Road
The Economist – November 4, 2013
Half a century of heavy use later, and with little maintenance in between, America’s arteries have become clogged and cracked.

Biden Visits Ohio to Pitch Infrastructure Spending
WKEI (OH) – November 6, 2013
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx also is expected to be on hand.

America’s Bad Bike Infrastructure
Chicago Magazine – November 1, 2013
And it’s absolutely not inevitable—it’s the result of decades of confused policy, based on the essential flaw that bikes should be treated and operated like cars, being confusingly remedied.

Local

Change Agent: DC’s City Planner Harriet Tregoning
The Washingtonian (DC) – November 1, 2013
Her vision of DC is bigger, greener, and maybe taller. But the city planner says she really just wants it to be smarter.

Pedestrian Safety Concerns Spur Rally
Las Vegas Review-Journal – November 4, 2013
The demonstrators were upset with Las Vegas City Council for a perceived lack of action in making the intersection safer.

Congress for the New Urbanism Speaker Highlights Need for New Planning, Development
Community Impact Newspaper (TX) – November 4, 2013
“What I told our tax payers is that if you do not support compact development in the right places what you’re really saying is, ‘Raise my taxes. I’ll take care of the tax load.’”

Millennials’ Failure To Launch Is A Function Of Poor U.S. Housing Policy
Forbes – October 31, 2013
Expensive housing disproportionately hurts Millennials, who carry an average student loan debt of $35,200 and suffer from rampant unemployment and underemployment.

Washington’s Historic Opportunity to Help Low Income Americans
The Huffington Post – October 31, 2013
Even though the deduction is popular, IRS statistics show that only a quarter of filers actually claim it. In addition, the mortgage interest deduction tends to benefit wealthy individuals disproportionately.

Booker Joins Senate Transportation Committee
The Hill – October 31, 2013
Newly-minted Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is joining the Senate committee that deals with transportation and commerce issues.

Local

Walkability Factor: New Report Shows Neighborhood Trend
Atlanta INtown – October 31, 2013
A study of Walkable Urban Places, or WalkUPs, in the Atlanta region is being heralded as a “harbinger” for the rest of the country as urban sprawl ends and more pedestrian-friendly communities emerge.

Club for Growth Presses Republicans to Block Housing Nominee
Reuters – October 29, 2013
Obama nominated the North Carolina Democrat to head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency on May 1, but the nomination has stalled due to Republican resistance.

Aging in Place Becoming the New Norm
The Dallas Morning News – October 30, 2013
We need to make suburbs more livable for adults who don’t drive, rebuild a sense of community, and find ways to reduce social isolation.

Local

Houston’s Trick-or-Treat Test
The Houston Chronicle – October 30, 2013
Walkable neighborhoods don’t have to mean multi-use mid-rises.

Phoenix Area to Get Regional Bikeshare Next Spring
WNYC – October 30, 2013
“If our region is going to compete globally,” Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement, “we need Grid to help attract those high-wage employers and bright, educated young workers who want livable cities and multiple transit options.”

Head of Mayors’ Group Disgusted by Shutdown
Politico – October 29, 2013
“Today, we recognize that where you build a road, and where you build a light rail should be driven by economic issues, it should be driven by housing concerns and what makes sense as these three come together.”

Local

How to Fix Dallas: Cut the Noose of Interstate 345 and Let it Breathe
The Dallas Morning News – October 29, 2013
If Dallas can summon the will to implement them, it will be in a position to recast itself as a home to the kind of walkable, high-density urbanism that is driving city growth around the globe.

Americans’ Appetite for Amtrak Service Growing
The Des Moines Register – October 29, 2013
While politicians can’t agree on much, Iowans and the majority of Americans surely agree on one thing: They want more Amtrak service, not less.

Stanton: Transportation Projects Can’t Wait on Federal Aid
Arizona Newszap – Ocotber 29, 2013
“We can’t design a big project and then go to Washington and hope they’ll pick up 80 percent of the tab like maybe we did in the past.”

Commuting’s Hidden Cost
The New York Times – October 28, 2013
While there is still a long way to go before the majority of Americans live in communities that foster good health, more urban planners are now doing health-impact assessments and working closely with architects, with the aim of designing healthier communities less dependent on motorized vehicles for transportation.

Infrastructure: Where Bipartisanship Works
National Journal – October 28, 2013
If you want a lesson in bipartisanship, check out the transportation committees in both the House and the Senate over the last several years.

Reverse Commutes Now Often a Daily Slog, Too
NPR – October 29, 2013
Census figures show surging population growth along rail lines in Chicago, especially those leading to the suburbs.

Amtrak CEO to Lawmakers: “Stop Taking Northeast Corridor for Granted”
The Hill – October 28, 2013
“We must stop taking this vital infrastructure for granted and start investing in the future of the region and the nation.”

Amtrak Supporters Hopeful They Can Win Fight With Congress
The Hill – October 25, 2013
It’s been five years since Congress passed legislation to authorize Amtrak funding, and it’s considered a tougher lift than the water bill.

Tax Breaks for Housing Reform Look Safe This Year Despite Reform Efforts in Congress
The Washington Post – October 25, 2013
At the bottom line, so the theory goes, the country would get a much simpler system with lower tax rates on incomes but far fewer tax preferences that favor one group of citizens over another — one of the main critiques of current housing tax breaks.

Local

Two Groups Criticize Chafee on RI State House Parking, Transit Support
The Providence Journal – October 25, 2013
Grow Smart Rhode Island and the Capital Center Commission, accused Governor Chafee of breaking the law by expanding a parking lot on the State House lawn.

Affordable Housing is Boon to Economy
The Tennessean – October 26, 2013
America’s main tool for creating affordable housing and the only significant source of new affordable-housing supply, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (housing credit), is under threat of federal tax reform.

Focus on Housing Policy
The Hill – October 23, 2013
The Senate Banking Committee is trying to produce a bill by the end of the year that will incorporate a broad range of ideas that have been floated from lawmakers and housing industry leaders that will reduce the government’s role in the market.

Local

TDOT Offering New Fund for Local Transit Projects
The Times-Union (TN) – October 24, 2013
According to the department, projects eligible under the new Multimodal Access Fund include sidewalks, pedestrian crossing improvements, bus shelters, park-and-ride facilities and bicycle lanes.

Filner’s Incubator Lives On
Voice of San Diego – October 24, 2013
“The entire city should be an innovation city,” Fulton said. “We shouldn’t confine our efforts to one floor in City Hall.”

Smart Growth Summit Ponders Valley’s Future
The Morning Call (PA) – October 24, 2013
“Walkable, intergenerational communities is the new normal.”

How One DC Suburb Set a Gold Standard for Commuting
NPR – October 24, 2013
In itself, communities built around a subway line that people use to commute into a city is not unique. What’s different here is the metamorphosis, from a downtrodden suburb where everyone drives to a place where people live, walk, bike, eat, play and commute, all without ever getting behind the wheel.

Heroes of Detroit: America’s Great Comeback City
The Los Angeles Times – October 22, 2013
“What we’re seeing in Detroit is a network of business and philanthropic and civic leaders really building off these — this good platform, this solid foundation, grow businesses, attract residents.”

Local

Developer Federal Realty plotting second phase of Pike & Rose development in Rockville
The Washington Post – October 23, 2013
Owners of strip malls, shopping plazas and auto dealerships in the Washington suburbs are tearing their properties apart and trying to create places that have most everything one would find in the span of a few city blocks, despite their location in congested suburbs.

What’s Next for All Aboard Florida in Orlando
The Orlando Business Journal – October 23, 2013
The $1.5 billion privately funded Orlando-to-Miami intercity passenger rail got another big nod this week, moving it closer to being able to start construction next year.