Karl Dinkelspiel, Senior Project Manager at the Portland, Oregon Housing Bureau, talks about the importance of incentivizing growth around transit and the steps the city has taken to encourage the development of affordable housing. See more interviews with issue experts here >>
Coalition members visited Winthrop, MA, pictured above, to learn about smart growth strategies in the small coastal town. Photo via Facebook.</span
Smart Growth America works with over 50 organizations from across the country as part of our coalition of allied non-profits. Many of these organizations work exclusively on smart growth issues in their respective states, and last month these partners came together to discuss shared challenges and goals.
This month, we’re looking back at some of Smart Growth America’s brightest moments and greatest accomplishments from 2013. Today’s highlight? Our recommendations for how Congress could improve how it supports real estate while saving billions of dollars at the same time.
The federal government spends approximately $450 billion each year on programs that influence the private real estate market. From loan guarantees to commercial tax credits, these programs span multiple agencies and were created at different times for different purposes over the past several decades. Perhaps as a result, there are problems with these programs.
Maintenance activities, such as repaving a roadway, offer an opportunity for modest, low-cost improvements toward more complete streets. Photo by Barbara McCann.
This post is the sixth in a twice-monthly series of excerpts from Completing Our Streets: The Transition to Safe and Inclusive Transportation Networks, the new book from Island Press by Barbara McCann, founder of the National Complete Streets Coalition. The book discusses the keys to the movement’s success, and how places and practitioners in the United States are tackling the challenges of putting a new transportation paradigm into daily practice.
All National Complete Streets Coalition Platinum Partners and those who upgrade to the next Partnership level will receive a signed copy of Completing Our Streets. Become a Coalition Partner today!
Integrating a Complete Streets approach into maintenance and operations projects allows change to begin to happen right away, and such projects also have value precisely because they are pedestrian in the first sense of the word. In Anniston, Alabama, city councilman Jay Jenkins told the Anniston Star that the city’s new Complete Streets policy would be “a plodding kind of change.” The initial changes made to complete the streets can be modest and unimaginative, but within this drudgery lies the makings of metamorphosis.
The City of Greer had a vision for turning around their downtown. Mayor Rick Danner talks about they went about implementing that vision through a Master Plan created with the help of a public-private partnership and turned their downtown from a couple of restaurants into a vibrant center that includes a new city hall, a … Continued
This month, we’re looking back at some of Smart Growth America’s brightest moments and greatest accomplishments from 2013. Today’s highlight? Our July report that showed just how much smart growth strategies can benefit municipalities’ bottom lines.
Building Better Budgets: A National Examination of the Fiscal Benefits of Smart Growth Development set out to find how much cities and towns have saved, on average, by using smart growth strategies. The report collected 17 studies from cities across the country that compared two or more development scenarios. The majority of these studies found that a smart growth approach would improve the city’s finances, whether by saving money on upfront infrastructure, reducing the cost of ongoing services or by generating greater tax revenues in years to come.
The City of Boulder, CO created this poster following their February workshop on cool planning.
The application window for Smart Growth America’s 2014 free technical assistance workshops is closing soon! If your community is considering applying for one or more of these workshops, applications are due by this Friday, December 6, 2013 at 5:00 PM EST.
In 2013, 22 communities were awarded these free workshops, including small towns like Blue Springs, MO and Campbell, NY and major cities like Houston, TX. These communities have used what they learned at our workshops to inform new projects, new plans—and even posters!
The City of Somerville, MA collected ideas from residents for new development around forthcoming Green Line stations at a public meeting. Photo by Interactive Somerville via Flickr.
In November LOCUS joined two events in Massachusetts to connect real estate developers there with both local and state officials, and to discuss the policy changes needed to facilitate walkable, sustainable development throughout Massachusetts.
This month, we’re looking back at some of Smart Growth America’s brightest moments and greatest accomplishments from 2013. Today’s highlight? Our annual free technical assistance workshops.
Each year Smart Growth America makes a limited number of technical assistance workshops available to interested communities for zero cost. This competitive award gives communities a chance to understand the technical aspects of smart growth development through a one- or two-day workshop.
Want to learn about new, innovative strategies for creating great places? Several upcoming webinars provide ideas and inspiration for local leaders.
A Conversation with Barbara McCann
December 4, 2013 — 1:15 PM EST
Join the Security and Sustainability Forum to discuss smart urban transportation practices with Barbara McCann, the founding Executive Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition. More than 500 jurisdictions, including more than half the states, have now adopted Complete Streets policies to make streets safe for all users. Register >>
Are ‘Green’ Cities Sustainable?
December 4, 2013
Countries in which many of the “green” cities are located include those with the world’s heaviest ecological footprints. This webinar will explore some reasons for this apparent disconnect between “green” cities and the “bigfoot countries” in which they are located. It will critique the utility of ecological footprint calculation to assess a nation’s “sustainability.” And it will conclude with some contrasting views on how nations and the global community can secure a future in which we earthlings are living within the earth’s capacity to support us. Learn more >>
Tips for Successful Brownfields Grant Proposals
December 4, 2013 — 2:00 PM EST
Join NALGEP, the Center for Creative Land Recycling, and the KSU Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities Program for a webinar to get the latest advice on preparing a successful application. This webinar will walk listeners through basic (but surprisingly often overlooked) advice for applicants, as well as new changes in grant guidelines, and funding trends. Speakers will provide special tips for small and rural communities and lend their insight into common mistakes and special advantages for these applicants. Register >>
