Protected: SGA Monthly Coalition Call, Oct. 28, 2010
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If The Onion covered last week’s TIGER 2 announcements
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| Kittery-Portsmouth Memorial Bridge, originally uploaded by cmh2315fl. |
If The Onion were covering last week’s TIGER 2 announcements, the headline would be: “DOT to replace the deteriorating Kittery-Portsmouth Memorial Bridge; other 70,997 bridges out of luck.”
Serious policy analysts don’t talk like that, but in fact the US Department of Transportation rates 12 percent (71,000) of the nations’ bridges as “structurally deficient,” which means that a bridge has a major defect in its support structure or its deck is cracking and deteriorating.
TIGER 2 will repair of three (3) of them.
HUD, DOT, EPA and White House announce "unprecedented collaboration" supporting sustainable communities to "create good jobs today"
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| Melody Barnes, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, at a press conference on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities today. |
Leaders of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House joined together today to discuss the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a joint effort between the three agencies to use taxpayer money more efficiently by coordinating federal investments to meet multiple economic, environmental, and community objectives with each dollar spent. This week, the Partnership has awarded a combined $400 million to communities across the country to help plan and build sustainable communities. Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, called this an “unprecedented collaboration.”
DOT and HUD Grants Connect Housing, Employment, Transportation and Economic Development
The U.S. Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) jointly announced today the award of $68 million to 62 communities across the country for projects that integrate affordable housing, create more good jobs and support better public transportation options.
HUD’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Grants and DOT’s TIGER II Planning Grants are the latest examples of interagency federal programs that aim to create economically robust and sustainable communities through better transportation, housing and development coordination – helping communities make themselves even stronger through a more thoughtful use of every available dollar for their local economy.
More TIGER, More Complete Streets
The Department of Transportation just announced the recipients of its $600 million TIGER II competitive grant program. Complete streets projects across the country will be funded.
Pedestrian Death Prompts New Infrastructure in Chaska, MN
In 2008, Jerome Meuwissen was killed by a car while walking to church. Two years later, Complete Streets improvements have been finished, making the street and intersection safe for pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
New Report Offers Lessons and Insights for Vacant Property Revitalization
In the wake of a major housing crisis and rising foreclosure rates, American cities and towns are experiencing a glut of vacant properties. Once a sign of urban blight, empty lots and abandoned buildings now mark the landscape of neighborhoods in rural and suburban areas as well, negatively impacting housing values, tax revenues, crime rates, and more. The sheer scale of the issue has helped bring national attention to the challenges these properties present, and the need for new solutions to blight and disinvestment.
On Friday, the Center for Community Progress released Restoring Properties, Rebuilding Communities: Transforming Vacant Properties in Today’s America. The report, completed with writing and research help from Smart Growth America, offers a systemic look at the legacy of vacant properties in many of our older towns and cities, as well as new vacancy trends, and some of the innovative initiatives that have been implemented to address these trends.
Metro Boston wins $4 million for Sustainable Regional Planning
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| Metro Area Planning Council. |
The following is a guest post from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a member of the Smart Growth America coalition. Congratulations to the Council for Metro Boston’s recent award of a HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant!
Smart Growth in greater Boston, Mass. scored a major victory recently with the region’s receipt of a $4 million Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This grant will support the implementation of MetroFuture, the region’s blueprint plan for sustainable and equitable long-term growth. MetroFuture was developed with the participation of over 5,000 “plan-builders,” including individuals, academic institutions, business organizations, community based organizations, and others.
President’s Infrastructure Push is Critical to Complete Streets
Recent actions from President Obama and the US Department of Transportation are showing us the way toward mainstream transportation programs that take all users of the transportation system into account.
Restoring Properties, Rebuilding Communities: Transforming Vacant Properties in Today’s America
From the 2010 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference.