This week, the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee released the text of its FY19 appropriations bill, which allocates funding for the U.S. Departments of Transportation (DOT), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and other related agencies through September 30th, 2019.
This month on Building Better Communities with Transit we’re joined by the Executive Director of the KC Streetcar Authority, Tom Gerend. In 2016, Kansas City, MO opened the first streetcar the city has seen in almost 60 years and transformed the city’s downtown. Former skeptics of the line are now some of the KC Streetcar’s biggest proponents as businesses have boomed and more people are moving to—and spending in—the center city. The 2.2 mile KC Streetcar, akin to a downtown circulator, is “a demonstration of the possible.”
Back in April, we took at trip to Silver Spring, MD to see how it’s transformed from a car-oriented suburb into a much more walkable, accessible town with an active downtown. In Silver Spring, we were met by some of the town’s leaders and transit experts to discuss the future Purple Line light rail.
Last December, we selected the cities of Aurora, Arvada, and Westminster, CO to participate in the second Complete Streets Consortium Series. Throughout the series, teams from these three Denver suburbs, along with staff members from regional agencies, will work together to develop actionable Complete Streets policies that help them achieve their goals, including building transportation networks to serve all people who use the streets and providing more and better first-mile/last-mile connections to transit. This April, we met in Westminster, CO for the first of three workshops in the series.
Following Intersections: Creating Culturally Complete Streets a few weeks ago, our two senior staffers behind the conference reflect on an incredible few days in Nashville where artists came together with transportation experts to talk about how we all can be part of building safer, Complete Streets.
The Brownfields Utilization, Investment and Local Development, or BUILD Act was signed into law in March 2018 and is the first major legislative change to brownfields law since passage of the original statute in 2002. Specific changes include: increased funding for cleanup, program eligibility expanded to include non-profit organizations, additional liability protections, and changes to grant … Continued
Cities of all sizes are facing a shortage of housing for their poorest, most vulnerable residents. And a smaller set of booming cities are becoming completely unaffordable to even the middle class. To ensure enough attainable housing is built to satisfy demand, particularly as new transit service comes to an area and raises land values, such housing has to be planned for and spread out as much as possible.
The breadth of topics covered at the LOCUS Leadership Summit: Rebuild America’s Neighborhoods reflected the breadth of expertise among attendees. Here’s a look back at the walking tour, keynotes, sessions, and Capitol Hill lobby with the First & Main coalition that were caught live on Twitter with #LOCUSsummit2018.
Later this month, some of the top leaders at the Form-Based Codes Institute will be talking at CNU26 (May 16-19) in Savannah, GA. See the sessions where you can learn from and connect with them.
Yesterday a group of more than 30 elected local leaders from across the country carried a clear and unified message up to Capitol Hill on behalf of the First & Main coalition of nearly 100 local elected officials from small and mid-sized towns and cities. Their message? “We need reliable federal partners to support our homegrown efforts to rebuild our downtowns, restore our economies, and improve opportunity for everyone.”