Protected: SGA Coalition Updates – 12/7/10
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Protected: Smart Growth America Coalition Update, Dec. 7, 2010
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Help Us Seize the Moment in 2011
In just the few short years since we coined the term Complete Streets and created our Coalition, we have shifted the way millions of Americans think about how streets should serve communities. With your help and support, we can translate this incredible momentum into long-lasting, sustainable change.
Protected: Coalition Update – 12/7/10
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Happy Anniversary, Complete Streets!
Today marks an anniversary for the complete streets movement: the term ‘complete streets’ was coined seven years ago, on December 3rd, 2003. Executive Director Barbara McCann reflects on how the Coalition and Complete Streets movement have grown in the past seven years.
Wasteful Development Subsidies Among Cuts Proposed by Debt Commission
This post was originally published on the Huffington Post.
In its report yesterday, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform encouraged Congress to cut from the federal budget “wasteful spending, including subsidies that are poorly targeted or create perverse incentives…” People who care about making great neighborhoods, take notice. Unbeknownst to most, the federal government plays a massive role in the real estate market by subsidizing and enabling all kinds of development in our communities. With ballooning deficits, now seems like a good time to revisit these subsidies and make sure they are achieving a legitimate public purpose -and not, in the commission’s words, “creating perverse incentives.”
Triggering Economic Growth in Denver, CO
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| The Denver Skyline overlooking I-25, originally uploaded by Flickr user mandymooo. |
The South Platte River has been an integral part of Denver, Colorado’s history, spanning 14 neighborhoods across the city and bordered by a railroad track dating back to the mid-1800s. Unfortunately, the river has also endured pollution from a variety of sources over the life of the city: early railroad cars dumped their waste directly into the river, gravel quarries along its banks were later converted to landfills that leached pollution into the water, and a number of abandoned gas stations, smelters, and coal burning plants line the river as well.
In October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the City and County of Denver an Area-Wide Planning Pilot Grant to clean up the South Platte River and the properties along its banks. The area also received a Community Challenge/TIGER II Grant from HUD and DOT to create a new transit station nearby.
EPA’s 2010 smart growth awards go to innovative urban redevelopment and rural revitalization
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| Clockwise from top left: Smart growth projects in Baltimore, New York City, San Francisco and Maine. |
The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 National Awards for Smart Growth Achievement were awarded yesterday to five projects from across the country deemed “exceptional approaches to development that respect the environment, foster economic vitality, and enhance quality of life.” The awards were given in five categories.
The Civic Places award went to San Francisco’s Mint Plaza, which turned a derelict alley into a public plaza that reclaims stormwater and provides a flexible gathering place for neighborhood residents. The Rural Smart Growth Award went to the Gateway 1 Corridor Action Plan in midcoast Maine, a collaboration of 20 townships in the state to preserve the environment and economy along the corridor. The Programs, Policies and Regulations award went to Portland, OR, which has used city ordinances to encourage sustainable land use for future population growth. The Smart Growth and Green Building Award went to Miller’s Place in Baltimore, MD, which rehabilitated an abandoned building on a brownfield site to create housing and office spaces for teachers and non-profits. And the award for Overall Excellence went to New York City’s Smart.Growth@NYC program, a multiagency coordination to bring smart growth ideas to all five boroughs.
New Complete Streets Partner Benefit – Dinner with Dan Burden!
We’re pleased to announce our newest perk for Complete Streets Partners: an intimate dinner with Dan Burden to discuss the next frontier in Complete Streets.
Call for Complete Streets Workshop Instructor Trainees
Applications due December 17, 2010 Due to increasing demand for its Complete Streets Implementation Workshop series, the National Complete Streets Coalition, in cooperation with the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, will train 6 to 8 nationally recognized professionals to co-instruct these workshops. These policy-oriented workshops help agencies fast track making their streets more complete. … Continued