Streetsblog Capitol Hill
What Should We Learn From Moses and Jacobs?
There is probably no more beloved figure in urbanism than Jane Jacobs, who fought to preserve some of New York City's most treasured neighborhoods and who gave urbanists some of the field's fundamental texts. As Ed Glaeser notes in the New Republic this week, Jacobs died in 2006 "a cherished, almost saintly figure," while her principal antagonist, Robert Moses, remains popularly reviled as a villain.
September 9, 2009
Was the Auto Industry Bailout Legal? It’s Debatable, Oversight Panel Says
The Treasury Department sent $81 billion in taxpayer-subsidized aid to General Motors and Chrysler -- which is unlikely to be recouped in full -- using legal authority that "is the subject of considerable debate," according to a report released today [PDF] by the congressionally appointed bailout oversight panel.
September 9, 2009
How Many Trips Are ‘Captured’ By More Diverse Urban Land Use?
Current methods of predicting the traffic-calming effects of mixed-use development are "woefully lacking" and risk underestimating the transportation benefits of more compact, diverse land use, according to a new report from the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
September 8, 2009
D-Day Approaches for Detroit Transit Riders
As the recession squeezes the pocketbooks of the nation's cities, Detroit has become an unfortunate symbol of urban decline -- so much so that Time Warner recently bought a house there for reporters to use while covering the locals' struggle for financial survival.
September 8, 2009
Compromise or Concession: Congress Faces Tough Transport Choices
Health care and transportation funding are very different items on Congress' to-do list, but the Washington Post's assessment of the former issue fits the latter as well: Lawmakers return today from a month-long recess to find a political landscape that has barely shifted from the impasse of late July.
September 8, 2009
Happy Labor Day Weekend
President Obama faces some difficult transportation and environmental choices this month: Should he insist on an 18-month delay for a new infrastructure bill or strike a compromise with House transport committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN)? Should he push the Senate forward on a climate bill before year's end or tell the EPA to step in?
September 4, 2009
GOP Guv Hopeful Hit Motorcyclist With His BMW But Wasn’t Ticketed
New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie, who holds a solid lead over incumbent Jon Corzine (D) despite a less-than-stellar political climate for his part, today was forced to explain away his poor driving record for the second time in two weeks.
September 4, 2009
LaHood on Transport: ‘We Don’t Want to Pit One Mode … Against Another’
While Vice President Biden was giving a candid take on cities' difficulties taking advantage of the economic stimulus, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was giving a recovery speech of his own in Chicago -- where he sent a message of transport reform to an audience that might not have expected it.
September 4, 2009
Mmmm, This ‘Pork’ Sounds Tasty: Senators Serve Up Transit Aid
One of Washington's most enduring truisms is that "pork" is in the eye of the beholder. Self-styled anti-earmark crusaders are fond of bashing clean transportation projects as improper uses of taxpayer money, but most of them recognize privately that rail, bus, and bike investments are a good thing.
September 3, 2009
Feds Still Forcing Transit Agencies to Bow to Private Charter Buses
Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported yesterday that the U.S. DOT would end a Bush-era mandate to reward new transit projects for using private contractors -- but a similar pro-privatization rule for bus service remains in effect, preventing local transit agencies from competing with private charter companies.
September 3, 2009