Sarah Goodyear

As we noted the other day, First Lady Michelle Obama has launched a multifaceted initiative to reduce child obesity in the United States called Let's Move. It's a campaign that emphasizes the ways in which getting children up and active can help to improve their health for a lifetime.

We got an e-mail late last night from Kevin Buchanan, who runs the Fort Worthology blog down in Fort Worth, Texas, with some very good news for that city's streets. Here's what Kevin had to report:

We turn to the Streetsblog Network for a little inspiration this morning, courtesy of Robin Chase -- author of the blog Network Musings and former CEO of Zipcar. Chase shares a story from a friend in India, Vinay Jayaswal, who believes that meaningful change on the most overwhelming issues can, and must, begin with the actions of individuals:

Today on the Streetsblog Network, Connecticut Smart Growth asks for a reconsideration of the cul-de-sac. As the post notes, a couple of important studies in recent years have highlighted how this iconic type of suburban development causes unsafe and costly traffic problems. Now governments in several parts of the country are discouraging such dead-end developments:

Today on the Streetsblog Network, a post from Aaron Renn on New Geography about the anti-urban bias in transportation spending. Renn points out that when it comes to the amount of taxes they contribute and the amount of funds they get back from the government, the nation's cities all too often get the short end of the stick -- to the ultimate detriment of regional economies.

Cities and counties across the country are struggling with the funding of their transit systems in these hard times. In New York City, the payroll tax solution touted in Albany last year has failed to meet projections. In Lorain County, Ohio, the rejection of a sales tax by voters resulted in crippling cutbacks to that region's bus service.

This morning on the Streetsblog Network, Cap'n Transit is talking about setting budget priorities in lean times. Maintaining efficient, low-cost transit, he argues, should take precedence over keeping bridges toll-free -- especially if there's no political will to raise taxes:

The other day, we wrote a post in hopes of starting a conversation about the way certain groups of people who ride bicycles -- notably, immigrants who ride to work and for work -- tend to get overlooked by bicycle advocacy groups and planners. The post (which grew out of an item by Streetsblog Network member Honking in Traffic) got a lot of responses, including a few from people who thought we were stating the obvious or being patronizing. (On Twitter, @feedmeshow put it this way: "Wealthy white person notices that some ride of necessity, as opp. lifestyle choice." Ouch.)

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we've got a post from M-Bike.org weighing in on a new crosswalk treatment in a Michigan town:

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we're featuring a post from Alex Steffen at Worldchanging that takes on the ever-burgeoning fetish for "green" technologies. Everywhere you look these days, there's talk of "going green." But Steffen, who's been paying attention to these issues for 20 years, says the ecofads are hopelessly inadequate.