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Filner to alternative transit advocates: Just do it
San Diego Union Tribune - August 20, 2010
By Robert J. Hawkins
Recalling his days as a 1960's civil rights Freedom Rider in the South, Rep. Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) on Thursday evening urged a group of local alternative transportation advocates meeting at San Diego State University to adopt the spirit if not the strategies of that era to create a louder voice for mass transit, bike paths and a walkable city.
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Citizen groups rally neighbors to halt I-5 expansion
San Diego Union Tribune - August 20, 2010
By Robert J. Hawkins
As many as 300 people gathered in a Solana Beach church hall on Thursday night -- some of them facing loss of part or all of their land to the expansion of Interstate 5 -- heard words that were music to their ears. "These projects can be stopped," said environmental attorney Rachel B. Hooper. "This is not a done deal."
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County Proceeds with Caution in Finalizing Targets for Transit, Land Use Strategy
Noozhawk - August 19, 2010
By Alex Kacik
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors decided Thursday that it needs more facts before determining whether its planning agency’s proposed targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are satisfactory. The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments has proposed a 6 percent increase in per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, which ranks 17th out of 18 regions in its projected ability to reduce emissions.
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City working to make car-sharing more popular
San Francisco Chronicle - August 17, 2010
By John Wildermuth
While San Francisco may make life tough on car owners, it's working to give people who car-share a boost.  The city Planning Commission last week voted unanimously to expand the city's unique car-share requirements to new non-residential buildings everywhere in the city and promote its use "as a tool to offset the urban impacts of new development."
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California's choice: Build the future, or burn the planet
Salon - August 17, 2010
By Andrew Leonard
As midterm elections go, California faces a doozy this November. There's a juicy governor's race, with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican, determined to spend whatever it takes to deny Jerry Brown a second go-round in Sacramento. There's an equally high-profile senatorial showdown, featuring former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's attempt to dethrone the longtime Bay Area liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer. 
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New Stress Added to the Heart of Los Angeles Gridlock
The New York Times - August 14, 2010
By Adam Nagourney
The intersection of Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard, cutting through a prosperous stretch of rolling Los Angeles hills and estates, is notorious for its knots of traffic and frustrating delays. Traffic is so bad that it is hard to figure out how it could get any worse. Well, a $1.3 billion highway reconstruction project that began with a blizzard of alarming detour signs the other day is about to make it much worse.
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How Obama could make housing policy greener
Grist – August 16, 2010
By Jonathan Hiskes
On Tuesday, the Obama administration is holding a large summit on how to reshape federal housing policy and eventually offload mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the government bailed out in 2008. It'll be a Very Serious event in which the health of the economy gets top billing and the health of the planet will be lucky to get even a passing mention.
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Fall from bike spins LA mayor into cycle advocate
The Washington Post – August 15, 2010
By Daisy Nguyen
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the new champion of cyclists' rights in the nation's second-largest city, a conversion that came after a bone-breaking fall from his own bicycle. The mayor, who said little on the topic during five years in office, is campaigning to make streets safer for cyclists after a parked cab abruptly pulled out across a bike lane, causing him to shatter an elbow.
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Free Parking Comes at a Price
The New York Times – August 14, 2010
By Tyler Cowen
In our society, cars receive considerable attention and study — whether the subject is buying and selling them, the traffic congestion they cause or the dangerous things we do in them, like texting and talking on cellphones while driving. But we haven’t devoted nearly enough thought to how cars are usually deployed — namely, by sitting in parking spaces.
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In this case, zero is a good target for gas emissions
Record Searchlight – August 14, 2010
By Scott Mobley
Shasta County is a tiny part of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions problem, transportation planners say. So the greater Redding area will play a minor role in the proposed solution to that problem — at least in the near future.
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Billions earmarked for Bay Area transportation projects
San Jose Mercury – August 13, 2010
By Gary Richards
Recession? What recession? Nearly $30 billion worth of major transportation projects are under way or about to begin in the Bay Area and adjoining counties -- the biggest building boom in almost two decades.
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Trying to shed light on a shadowy figure in Proposition 23 battle
Los Angeles Times – August 13, 2010
By Michael Hilzik
Since last spring, the outstanding riddle of the campaign for Proposition 23 has involved one of its leading donors, the mysterious Adam Smith Foundation of Jefferson City, Mo.
Proposition 23 is the November ballot initiative aimed at overthrowing AB 32, the state's pioneering regulation of emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
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Valley officials ask parents to help cut ozone
Frenso Bee – August 11, 2010
By Mark Grossi
Hoping to head off a spike in lung-corroding ozone, air officials are asking parents to have their children walk, bicycle, take the bus or ride in a car pool next week when many schools open.
Reducing the annual surge in traffic would not only be healthier for the children, it might also help the Valley's economy, according to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
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Global warming mission could survive Prop. 23, experts say
Los Angeles Times – August 9, 2010
By Evan Halper
Even if voters decide to suspend California's landmark global warming law at the polls in November, most of its goals to reduce greenhouse gases can still be met, according to experts. Such a vote would be a political blow to the governor and environmentalists, undermining their campaign to expand California's greenhouse gas reduction efforts here and elsewhere, but it wouldn't freeze most of the pioneering programs that carry out the state's fight against global warming, said legislative analysts and others.
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Our Waistlines Are Expanding In Sync With Our Car-Dependence
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – August 9, 2010
By Adam Voiland
Two reports released last week underscored the increasing severity of America's obesity epidemic. And the eye-opening findings add to the mounting evidence that stopping the spread of obesity and its attendant health risks will require changes to the nation’s transportation system as surely as it demands altering our diets.
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California’s future about to be reshaped 
Central Valley Business Times – August 9, 2010
California may take on a mass transit-centric, almost European, look in the future, now that the California Air Resources Board is about to adopt recommendations in SB 375, a 2008 law that dramatically reshapes how land use decisions are made. CARB’s staff has issued a report that proposes targets to “guide” planning that will be more regional in nature and centered around mixed use developments along rail or express bus corridors.
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City walk
Los Angeles Times – August 8, 2010
By Christopher Hawthorne
Usually the trajectory that neighborhoods go through as they gentrify is entirely predictable -- and more than a little depressing. First a scruffy, down-at-the-heels area welcomes a few urban pioneers drawn by an attractive and affordable housing stock. 
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Air board to release proposed greenhouse gas targets
Press-Enterprise – August 7, 2010
By Jim Miller
Communities in Inland Southern California would need to expand public transit, curb sprawl and take other steps to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets soon to emerge from state air-quality regulators.  The proposed targets, to be released as early as Monday, will be a major step in the implementation of SB 375, a 2008 bill that aims to reduce emissions linked to global warming by influencing local governments' land-use and transportation policies.
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Brown Puts Whitman on the Defensive over Greenhouse Gases
Time – August 6, 2010
By Kevin O’Leary
How does California attorney general Jerry Brown fight billionaire Meg Whitman in the battle to be the next governor of the Golden State? Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, spends nearly as much per day (an average of $531,378 over the past six weeks) as Brown has spent all year — $633,205.
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Minorities Drive California Environmental Movement
New America Media - August 4, 2010
By Ngoc Nguyen
Ethnic Californians are at the forefront of support for environmental policies in the state, according to a new poll released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). The poll, which asks state residents their perspectives on a wide range of environmental issues, found that ethnic Californians were more likely than whites to perceive air pollution and climate change as serious threats, and favor a role for government in fixing the problems.
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Big Plans for a Struggling Neighborhood
Voices of San Diego – August 3, 2010
By Adrian Florido
Five miles east of downtown, amid rolling hills and weathered homes, empty and dusty parcels pock the neighborhood surrounding Euclid Avenue and Market Street in southeastern San Diego -- physical reminders that, for decades, this community has been starving for an economic lifeline. But new signs are appearing behind the empty lots' chain link fences.
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Smart Money in Real Estate Is on Smart Growth
ABC News – August 3, 2010
By Helen Chernikoff and Al Yoon
This suburb of Washington, D.C. inspired R.E.M.'s 1984 song about the soul-sucking blandness of a suburban adolescence that has been a staple of rock and roll. "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" described a town of empty houses, "where nobody says hello." But some experts in the real estate business believe that in the future, more and more of us will be going back to places like the revamped Rockville -- quite happily, in fact.  Rockville's renaissance over the past four years shows how the shift toward urban-style living has reached the suburbs. And urban planners insist the trend has legs.
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George Shultz challenges California to lead
Los Angeles Times – August 2, 2010
By George Skelton
Former U.S. secretary of State George P. Shultz believes it's crucial to fight global warming to protect national security. Global warming is created by burning fossil fuel, he says, and payments for foreign oil sometimes wind up financing terrorism.
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AB32 will improve lives of low income and minority Californians
San Jose Mercury News – August 1, 2010
By Teresa Alvarado and Shellye Archambeau
This November, California voters have a clear choice: Accept our continued dependence on foreign oil or embrace the opportunity to lead the worldwide clean-energy revolution.
Texas oil companies have taken advantage of our initiative system to place Proposition 23 on the ballot in an attempt to undo California's Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. 
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City OKs $881K climate action plan
Stockton Record – July 30, 2010
By Daniel Thigpen
The city will spend more than $881,000, most of it grant funded, to complete an elaborate climate action plan aimed at curbing Stockton's greenhouse gas emissions, under a contract approved earlier this week. In a separate action Tuesday, the City Council also approved a new set of environmentally focused building rules - minus a provision that would require some homes to undergo energy-efficiency audits. 
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House Approves Transpo Spending Bill After Stripping Out $ for Livability
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – July 30, 2010
By Noah Kazis
The House of Representatives passed its 2011 appropriations bill for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development yesterday, significantly increasing the amount going to both highways and transit while decreasing spending overall. A fight over $200 million in funds for the Obama Administration's new livability initiatives, however, showed that substantive changes in federal transportation policy will remain difficult to achieve until Congress tackles the long-term transportation reauthorization bill. 
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Home Front: Housing project near light-rail station is pitched
Sacramento Bee – July 30, 2010
By Jim Wasserman
The worst thing about Sacramento's miles of light-rail lines is what you often see out of the train windows: warehouses, parking, the sense of nowhere. More housing is key to making this transit investment work to capacity.
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MTC Adopts Aggressive 15 Percent Target for Reducing Emissions by 2035
Streetsblog San Francisco – July 29, 2010
By Bryan Goebel
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), in a historic vote Wednesday that will help guide the future for more sustainable land use and transportation planning in the Bay Area, recommended a 15 percent per capita target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2035, the most aggressive goal to date among California's metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). 
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Merced County starts its own ballot measure on growth
Sacramento Bee – July 28, 2010
By Jonah Owen Lamb
A Merced County initiative meant to hinder the destruction of farmland and open space by residential development could be watered down come November. The Merced County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to put an additional referendum on the ballot that would fundamentally weaken the "smart growth" ballot initiative by exempting 2,437 acres.
Link to article

 

Allies take opposing stands on Prop. 22
San Francisco Chronicle – July 27, 2010
By Marisa Lagos
A November ballot initiative aimed at protecting local transit, transportation and redevelopment funds from state raids is pitting normally allied groups against one another. Proposition 22 is supported by transit, redevelopment and city leaders who want to bar Sacramento politicians from dipping into their revenue streams in bad budget years.
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Sacramento County may open 20,000 acres to development
The Sacramento Bee – July 27, 2010
By Robert Lewis and Philip Reese
Despite a home construction collapse caused by the recession, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is considering opening 20,000 acres of land to future development. When combined with existing open parcels, the expansion could hold a city two-thirds the size of Sacramento.
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Climate change plan collapses in Senate
San Francisco Chronicle – July 26, 2010
Editorial
There is plenty of blame to share for the political demise of climate change legislation in Washington. Timid Democrats, obstinate Republicans, a risk-averse White House and a sour public outlook that green groups couldn't counter. 
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Governor: Freezing AB32 'would be devastating'
The Sacramento Bee – July 25, 2010
By Carla Marinucci
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says political candidates and forces in his own party who argue for the suspension of the state's climate change law are "trying to pull the wool over people's eyes" and have "the intention of eliminating" the landmark climate change bill he signed in 2006.
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L.A. officials to mark 20th anniversary of Metro Rail system
The Los Angeles Times – July 23, 2010
By Dan Weikel
Los Angeles officials will hold a major event Friday near Staples Center to mark the 20-year expansion of urban rail service in the county and what they see as a dynamic shift that will transform the nation's car capital into a model for mass transit. But although the region now has a gleaming system of subways and light-rail trains, some transportation experts say the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $8-billion effort — less operating costs — has done little to reduce traffic congestion or increase the use of mass transit much beyond the level in 1985, when planning for the Metro Blue Line began.
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San Diego Sets Green House Gas Reduction Goals
KPBS – July 22, 2010
By Alison St. John
The San Diego region is poised to come up with goals for reducing greenhouse gases over the next 25 years. San Diego’s regional leaders will give it their best shot tomorrow; they have to decide targets for cutting carbon emissions by 2035.
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Don’t fall for the myths about AB 32
San Francisco Chronicle – July 21, 2010
Opinion - Barry Cinnamon
We're fortunate to live in a state that is the world leader in the clean energy economy. California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32) provides a foundation for this leadership by requiring the state to reduce global warming pollution to 1990 levels by 2020.
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The high price of BART’s expansion
The San Francisco Examiner – July 18, 2010
By Will Reisman
Four planned BART expansion projects could provide passage for hundreds of thousands of new Bay Area riders, but they could come at the expense of necessary maintenance and throw the agency into fiscal peril. Last month, federal approval was granted for the first section of BART’s proposed extension to Silicon Valley, a major milestone in the transit agency’s plan to provide passage for 90,000 new South Bay riders.
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Senators Aim to Reintroduce Transportation Into Climate Bill Debate
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – July 16, 2010
By Noah Kazis
As the threat of a Republican filibuster continues to prevent the Senate from passing climate legislation, leading Democrats have tried to scale back their proposal in an attempt to peel off a few votes. In the process, serious attempts to put a price on carbon have fallen by the wayside, taking with them the best hope of reducing transportation emissions
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Prop 23: A Meaningless Vote?
NBC San Diego – July 16, 2010
By Larry Gerston Ph.D
Nearly four months before the Nov. 2 general election, partisans are taking sides on Prop 23. Officially dubbed the California Jobs Initiative, Prop 23 would roll back implementation of the state's global warming legislation, AB 32, until the state's unemployment level goes below 5.5 percent for four straight quarters.
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Merced supervisors send land-use measure to voters
The Sacramento Bee – July 14, 2010
By Jonah Owen Lamb
A countywide initiative to protect farmland, which may change the face of land use and planning in Merced County for the next three decades, will go before the voters in November. The Merced County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to send the initiative to the ballot instead of enacting the initiative without changes.
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Laying Tracks: L.A. business titans get behind downtown streetcars
Los Angeles Business Journal – July 12, 2010
By Howard Fine
A plan to bring streetcars back to downtown Los Angeles is getting on track as three of the city’s most prominent businessmen have climbed aboard. Billionaire philanthropist and downtown booster Eli Broad, shopping mall magnate Rick Caruso and AEG Chief Executive/L.A. Live boss Tim Leiweke have agreed to lead a September fundraiser for a streetcar project that would link L.A. Live with the cultural attractions of Grand Avenue and the historic theaters on Broadway.
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Tax truth: We need to raise the levy on gasoline
The Washington Post – July 8th, 2010
Editorial
Summer driving season is upon us. This year, the annual migration of vacationers coincides with rising concerns over the federal debt and a nasty oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. What better time to revisit the enduring, maddening, illogical contrast between how little Americans actually pay to drive -- and how fiercely they resist even modest gasoline tax increases that would go a long way in addressing the nation's environmental and fiscal crises?
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Will California Achieve Its Anti-Sprawl Targets?
Streetsblog Network – July 13, 2010
By Matthew Roth
As California’s big four metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) try to determine how much they can influence growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, significant questions remain. The state’s Senate Bill 375, typically referred to as the Anti-Sprawl Bill, requires planners and policymakers to develop meaningful solutions to curb sprawl, reduce driving, and promote growth in areas that will have the least impact on the environment.
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Viewpoints: Climate change could decide gubernatorial, Senate races
The Sacramento Bee – July 13, 2010
By Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts
While the campaign for governor has been marked so far by attacks over character and biography, a more substantive issue defines the fundamental difference between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman: California's landmark climate change legislation.
Link to article  

Will SB 375 help achieve the Governor’s Vision for California?
NRDC Switchboard – July 12, 2010
By Amanda Eaken
For those of us who support a healthier, smarter, more sustainable California, the last few weeks have given us much to write home about. The centerpiece of California’s efforts is Senate Bill 375 –the nation's first law to control global warming pollution by curbing sprawl.
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Clovis council to consider higher-density housing
The Fresno Bee – July 12, 2010
By Marc Benjamin
Market forces may finally produce what regional planning couldn't -- higher-density developments in a region known for suburban sprawl. But although city planners and developers say new subdivision plans will help preserve farmland and reduce pollution, residents say more crowded subdivisions will cause traffic and other urban problems.
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PG&E, cleantechs fight Prop. 23
San Francisco Business Times – July 9, 2010
By Lindsay Riddell
The Bay Area cleantech industry says California’s leadership on climate change and renewable energy is growing jobs and efforts to thwart climate change legislation will only delay the inevitable.
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Car-Dependent States Hit Hardest by Obesity Epidemic
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – July 8, 2010
By Noah Kazis
Transportation is a public health issue. As profiled in the recently released report from the Trust for America's Health, "F as in Fat," obesity rates continue to rise across the nation, increasing the risk of serious health problems like diabetes and hypertension. 
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Planning for LA’s future
The Los Angeles Times – July 7, 2010
By Mark Elliot
In "Shaping the city of L.A." on July 2, The Times' editorial board declares, "Now is the time ... to streamline the land use process and make it smarter and more efficient." At the same time, it urges policymakers to "take charge" and commit to a vision for community planning.
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Link to “Shaping the city of LA” article

In Westside Los Angeles, a Rail Line Stirs a Revival
The New York Times – July 6, 2010
By Terry Pristin
Slowly, mass transit is taking hold in a city synonymous with the car. Now a light-rail line is finally coming to the affluent and traffic-choked Westside after years of local resistance, and at least some urban-style development is likely to follow.
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Keep traditional California dream, or is it time for a new vision?
Sacramento Bee – July 6, 2010
By Dan Walters
California experienced immense economic and social change during World War II and the initial postwar era. It saw massive population growth, primarily migrants from other states and the postwar baby boom, that nearly tripled between 1940 and 1970 as it changed from a semirural farm state into an industrial powerhouse.
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What’s farmland protection worth to California? Pocket change, apparently
Sacramento Bee – July 3, 2010
By Denis C. Theriault
Need another example that California's fiscal crisis has taken a turn for the absurd? Then consider that the state spent $1.14 million this year to run a program that allocated — get this — $1,000 statewide to compensate cities and counties for helping to preserve farmland and open space.
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High-Rise, or House with Yard?
The New York Times – July 2, 2010
By Tara Siegel Bernard
The question starts to hang in the air sometime after the children arrive, and the apartment in the city begins to feel a little tight: Should we consider moving to a house in the suburbs? But that would mean leaving friends behind, along with easy access to work, the theater, great ethnic restaurants and just the general stimulation of urban living.
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A Walker’s Guide to Home Buying
The Wall Street Journal – July 2, 2010
By Nancy Keates
Jennifer and Andrew Greenberg didn't fall in love at first sight with the 1950s ranch house they just bought in Portland, Ore. But they did feel that way about the neighborhood. They saw people out walking and noticed how close the house was to coffee shops and wooded paths. 
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Green Developments, and Tension Aplenty
The New York Times via The Bay Citizen – July 2, 2010
By Jonathan Weber
In his new book, Peter Calthorpe, the renowned Berkeley-based urban designer, sounds many a familiar environmentalist note. Paying explicit homage to Buckminster Fuller, he talks of “whole systems design” and “climate responsive buildings,” and issues dire warnings about global warming and peak oil and the dangers of our car-based lifestyle.
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Housing Element Bill Stakes Grow Higher
California Planning & Development Report – July 2, 2010
By Paul Shigley
A bill that would permit a lawsuit challenging a housing element to be filed at almost any time advanced through a state Senate committee earlier this week and is headed to the Senate floor. Assembly Bill 602 passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on a party-line vote of 6-3 vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed.
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Transit Oriented Development Doesn’t Just Happen!
The Planning Report – June 2010
By Renata Simril
Transportation networks are fundamental to how we grow, develop, and prosper. We, being here today, are the converted. We are a key demographic in driving TOD development. For about 50 years, our national, state, and local funding programs have driven decentralization of settlement patterns and, ultimately, suburban sprawl. 
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Bus cuts drive Americans back to cars
The Guardian – June 29, 2010
By Sasha Abramsky
Just at the moment when the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill has generated two months of non-stop headlines about the dangers of oil dependency and the federal government in America finally has something of a platform to call for Americans to wean themselves off oil dependency, cities, counties and states across the US are decimating their public transit systems and forcing people, willy-nilly, to return to their cars.
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Social Justice Leader Condemns BART for Proceeding with OAC Funding
Streetsblog San Francisco – June 25, 2010
By Matthew Roth
While BART will soon take a funding plan to its Board of Directors for the Oakland Airport Connector, Carl Anthony, the founder of Urban Habitat and a fellow in the Department of Geography at Berkeley, has called on the agency to wait to proceed with funding the OAC until the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) deems the project compliant with federal Title VI civil rights standards.
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The State's Green Ways Are Under Attack
New York Times via The Bay Citizen – June 25, 2010
By Jonathan Weber
Californians, and especially politically liberal Northern Californians, take a lot of pride in the state’s history of aggressive environmental regulation. This is the state whose air-quality initiatives all but invented automobile emissions controls.
Link to article

Cut suburban sprawl, save energy, study urges
San Francisco Chronicle – June 24, 2010
By Will Kane
New development in California needs to be designed from the start to conserve electricity and water, decrease driving time, improve air quality and promote a sustainable lifestyle, according to a landmark study of the state's future growth.
Link to article

Smarter Regional Planning Necessary to Reduce Car Use
NPR's California Report - June 24, 2010
By Lauren Sommer
The California Air Resources Board is expected to release goals for the state's regional planning agencies aimed at getting more of us out of our cars and onto public transit.
Link to listen to the report

Can San Joaquin valley cities afford not to plan? Some question wisdom of planning staff layoffs
Modesto Bee – June 21, 2010
By Garth Stapley
A golden opportunity for quality community planning is partly slipping away because government agencies can't afford to keep planners on the payroll. The recession has smothered demand for reviewing subdivision blueprints, allowing planners more time for long-range work that helps determine whether a city grows well or becomes a sprawling target for ridicule.
Link to article

To Address Demand for Oil, We Must Focus on Transportation
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – June 21, 2010
Commentary - By Earl Blumenauer
Last week, President Obama delivered his first speech from the Oval Office on the single greatest challenge our nation faces: how we supply and consume energy. The searing images we’re seeing from the Gulf Coast -- of the families who lost loved ones, of people out of work and of oil-coated birds and dolphins -- are daily reminders of what’s at stake when we drill, baby, drill.
Link to article

Urban Institute Panel analyzes California law on denser city development
Los Angeles Times – June 15, 2010
By Catherine Saillant
A California law that encourages home building that is both compact and close to public transit has the potential to help the state accommodate future growth in ways that are economically and environmentally sound, a report by the Urban Land Institute says. General plans that encourage redevelopment within a city's core and squeeze more residences onto smaller lots are an important component of Senate Bill 375, which was enacted in 2008 to help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to the report released earlier this month.
Link to article

The Moral Imperative of the BP Oil Spill: Drive 20 Percent Less
Streetsblog San Francisco - June 14, 2010
By Jason Henderson
After almost two months of failed attempts at "topkills," "tophats," "junkshots," "cofferdams," and "caps-on-the-diamond-cut-riser" it is evident that the BP wellhead spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico has unleashed an unprecedented catastrophe. We made a mistake in wishing away the risks of deepwater drilling.
Link to article

High-Speed Rail Will Spur Growth in Hub Cities, Says Mayors Report
The New York Times - June 14, 2010
By Gayathri Vaidyanathan
Billions of dollars of new business and tens of thousands of jobs will flow to four hub cities -- Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando and Albany, N.Y. -- where plans for major high-speed rail networks are located, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Their report, released in Oklahoma City today, is the first attempt to put numbers on the widely held belief that high-speed rail can stimulate local economies and act as a driver of growth.
Link to article

Advocates: Brentwood Sprawl Measure a Litmus Test for SB 375
Streetsblog San Francisco - June 10, 2010
By Matthew Roth
While municipal planning organizations around California try to develop the metrics and models required to meet the goals of SB 375, a law mandating smarter growth, a local voter initiative in Contra Costa County is being held up as a bellwether of the public's support for strategic and sustainable development.
Link to article

Mayor Villaraigosa's 30/10 plan: Moving forward
Los Angeles Times - June 9, 2010
By Tim Rutten
The 30/10 transit plan is the most important initiative ever proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. If, as seems increasingly likely, it's embraced by Congress, it will become one of the nation's most significant public infrastructure projects. Essentially, 30/10 proposes leveraging the half-cent sales tax increase to which 68% of Los Angeles County residents agreed when they passed Measure R with federal loans secured by those tax revenues.
Link to article

Transit improvement key to state greenhouse law
The Sacramento Bee – June 7, 2010
By Tony Bizjak
If California's sweeping greenhouse emissions reduction law, SB 375, is to succeed, the state will have to do a better job of providing public transportation, a new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) has determined. The 2009 law, known as the Sustainable Communities Strategy, by Sacramento Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the Senate Pro Tem, and based in part on Sacramento's "Blueprint" land use process, requires metropolitan areas to design growth so that new communities are less dependent on automobiles. The ULI report concludes the law could help urban areas become more economically and environmentally sustainable, if implemented correctly.
Link to article

Volunteers cut back on car use for a week
San Francisco Chronicle – June 7, 2010
By Will Kane
Amber Evans, a self-described soccer mom from Berkeley, had to get her son to a Concord soccer tournament at 8 a.m. Sunday. For many moms the most challenging part of the trip would be getting their child out of bed and in uniform in time. But Evans and her husband, Simon Troll, had a vastly more difficult challenge: They'd vowed not to drive their Toyota Prius. Evans and her husband pledged to go carless from June 1 to today as part of the Car Free Challenge sponsored by TransForm, an Oakland-based transit advocacy group.
Link to article

Like They Say, It Really Is All About Location
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – June 7, 2010
By Sarah Goodyear
How the heck can we get people to drive less? That’s one of the most vexing questions facing sustainable transportation advocates. Higher gas prices seem to do the trick, although anecdotal evidence suggests that watching an entire ecosystem being destroyed by a busted oil well doesn’t have much effect. The fact is, too often we are engaging in guesswork and speculation when we talk about strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). But thanks to a new study of how land use affects transportation choices, we now have a great new source of actual data. The study, a meta-analysis of 50 previous studies, is called "Travel and the Built Environment," and it’s published in the Summer 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association.
Link to article
Download Report (PDF)

Brentwood measure to expand urban growth line
San Francisco Chronicle – June 5, 2010
By Robert Selna
Just as the state is getting ready to set its first targets for cutting carbon emissions related to sprawl, developers in eastern Contra Costa County are battling conservationists over an old-fashioned plan to build single-family homes on agricultural land. In what is expected to be a close contest on Tuesday, Brentwood residents will vote on Measure F. It asks whether the city, whose population doubled to 52,492 during the past decade, should create a new urban limit line by adding 740 acres to an existing development boundary and locking in zoning for up to 1,300 new homes.
Link to article

SB 375 could build more environmentally sustainable communities
Sacramento Business Journal – June 4, 2010
By Melanie Turner
If Senate Bill 375 is implemented wisely, California’s urban areas could become more economically and environmentally sustainable, an analysis of the law by the Urban Land Institute concludes. SB 375 requires metropolitan planning organizations to create and implement land use plans that use compact, coordinated and efficient patterns to reduce the use of vehicles. The law requires regional transportation plans to include such strategies that better coordinate planning for transportation, housing and other land uses. The SB 375 Impact Analysis Report examines the potential effects of the law on the state’s economy and its impact on quality of life.
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Urban Land Institute backs sprawl-limiting law
San Francisco Chronicle – June 4, 2010
By Robert Selna
A developer-backed research group with 30,000 members worldwide has endorsed a landmark California law that aims to reduce vehicle miles traveled and emissions by pushing dense urban development and limiting sprawl. The Urban Land Institute, which has an office in San Francisco and elsewhere in the state, says that SB375 could improve the ecology and boost the economies of the state's urban regions. The group's support of the legislation contributes to the bill's legitimacy as preliminary regional targets to cut carbon dioxide from cars and trucks are due at the end of the month, but also as some are calling for the delay of a broader state climate change bill until the economy improves.
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Warming threatens state’s coast, scientist say
San Francisco Chronicle – June 4, 2010
By David Perlman
Northern California's two great marine sanctuaries and nearby coastal regions will be severely threatened by the planet's changing climate over the next several decades as the sea level rises, the ocean water warms, marine animals migrate and coastal storms and erosion intensify, a panel of scientists warned Thursday.
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Bay Area air board approves guidelines to limit greenhouse gases from development
San Jose Mercury News – June 2, 2010
By Denis Cuff
The Bay Area's air pollution board on Wednesday adopted the nation's most far-reaching local development review guidelines aimed at limiting greenhouse gases and toxic air contaminants.
Planning for new Bay Area houses, apartments, gas stations, sports arenas, chemical plants and shopping centers could be affected. The guidelines approved by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District give cities and counties numerical pollution thresholds to use in deciding whether to require developers to conduct studies on ways to remove pollution during the land-use review process.
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 “Grow Smart Bay Area” Promotes Development as a Tool for Change
Streetsblog San Francisco – June 2, 2010
By Matthew Roth
Even as our freeways and bridges in the Bay Area are choked with traffic for hours every day, the population in the region is projected to grow from over 7 million now to over 9 million by 2025. Deciding where to build housing to accommodate the growth will be one of the most significant regional decisions and one that must account not only for issues like infrastructure capacity, but climate change, open space management, job growth and health impacts. That's the message the Greenbelt Alliance has delivered with its series of public workshops to promote "Grow Smart Bay Area," a regional plan for infill development near transit coupled with the protection of open space and agricultural land.
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10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit
Grist – June 2, 2010
By Jonathan Hiskes
With the Gulf oil spill continuing unabated, powering a 21st century economy on a 19th century fossil fuel looks less and less smart by the day. Luckily, we've got other options. I described the most promising steps the federal government could take toward reducing oil use in transportation systems last week. But local governments don't have to wait for federal action. Through smart land use, cities, towns, and many rural areas can give residents the option of driving less -- a direct way to stem the demand for offshore (and foreign) oil. I spoke with leaders of the Smart Growth movement, along with advocates for economic justice, to learn about solutions that don't require new technology and, in many cases, pay for themselves.
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New map will guide Valley Springs growth
Stockton Record – June 2, 2010
By Dana M. Nichols
Valley Springs got a new map Tuesday to guide its fate as county officials craft a General Plan, and it isn't the map that was crafted with $250,000 in California Department of Transportation money. The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 with board Chairwoman Merita Callaway opposed, to adopt instead a map hammered out since May 4 by Supervisor Gary Tofanelli and an impromptu committee he organized. That vote also relegates the earlier Valley Springs plan crafted during a year of often-stormy public meetings to secondary status as an alternative that will get a lower level of analysis. That earlier plan sought to promote "rural smart growth," a concept pushed by Caltrans that is intended to compact growth in town centers, reduce sprawl and preserve open space.
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Viewpoints: Transit crunch also a livability crisis
The Sacramento Bee – June 1, 2010
By Terry Preston
Last Tuesday, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., introduced legislation to provide $2 billion in emergency funding for cash-strapped public transportation agencies across the country. More transit riders find themselves needing more services due to higher gas prices and less household income, yet transit agencies have been forced to drastically cut service and raise fares as government funding has plummeted. Nowhere has this been felt as severely as in Sacramento. Regional Transit has lost one-third of its funding since 2007 – $50 million – and recently cut 28 weekday routes and 13 weekend routes. Paratransit is facing a 30 percent cut to its services for riders with disabilities, a $3.5 million hit.
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Measure F puts developers, environmentalists at odd
ABC 7 – May 31, 2010
By Laura Anthony
A powerful local environmental group says the Bay Area's population will increase by 1.7 million people in just 15 years. That kind of projected growth is once again pitting developers against environmentalists, and East Bay voters are about to weigh-in on one of those battles. If you think Contra Costa County is crowded now, wait a couple decades. According to the Greenbelt Alliance, in the next 30 years the population of that East Bay county will grow by 250,000 people. And where will all those people live? The Bay Area-based group advocates smart growth; high density residential communities built close to public transportation. The new Avalon Bay Transit Village at the Pleasant Hill BART station is one example.
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Caine: Does Merced slow-growth imitative reflect a trend?
The Modesto Bee – May 27, 2010
By Eric Caine
Merced County citizens have taken a cue from Stanislaus County — they're circulating a petition that would require voter approval for residential development on farmland. The purpose is to wrest control of land use from county supervisors. If the group, Citizens for Quality Growth, can get enough signatures, the slow growth initiative would appear on the November ballot. Predictably, Merced County supervisors aren't happy about the prospect of losing control. Some claim citizens aren't informed enough to decide whether farmland should be covered with houses and strip centers.
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Napa County, American Canyon strike housing deal
Napa Valley Register – May 27, 2010
By Kerana Todorov
A new deal between Napa County and American Canyon officials means the county will have less pressure to build housing, while American Canyon will be able to take further steps to build a town center. The city of American Canyon and Napa County recently agreed to swap a portion of the county’s future housing requirement in exchange for a share of property taxes on lands east of the city’s borders slated for annexation. The properties — roughly 320 acres east of Highway 29 — include county lands known as Town Center and Lower Watson areas that are proposed for development by McGrath Properties Inc. of Oakland.
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Editorial: California’s green jobs fleeing, too?
The Orange County Register – May 27, 2010
Advocates for government picking and choosing winners and losers tout "green jobs" as the saviors of the economy. Although it is sometimes grudgingly conceded that higher taxes and Draconian regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions harm conventional businesses, the idea is that green employers and green jobs will more than pick up the slack. At least, that's the argument. But will they? Or will green employers, excuse the phrase, seek greener pastures, as have so many conventional businesses?
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LaHood Envisions The Future of Transportation
NPR – May 26, 2010
Neal Conan, Host
In March, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood drew both praise and derision when he declared that from now on, bicyclists and pedestrians would get the same priority as cars and trucks. Much of the latter from the trucking industry. Then came news this week that four House Republicans signed on with Democrats to a letter that lauds the policy change. If you'd like to talk with Secretary LaHood about transportation priorities, our phone number is 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website.
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How Portland Sold Its Bank on Walkable Development
Streetsblog New York – May 25, 2010
By Noah Kazis
Gresham, Oregon used to look like your typical suburb. Lots of lawns and lots of parking. When Portland's MAX light-rail line expanded to Gresham, developers saw an opportunity to bring something different: walkable development. But a downturn in the local real estate market interceded. One developer trying to build a four-story condo project decided that he'd be better off with a video store surrounded by surface parking. Metro -- Portland's regional government -- decided that wasn't good enough. They bought the site outright. Then Metro proceeded to double down on the original plans for the project, which it called The Crossings.
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Ford Foundation to Send $200M to Local Transit-Oriented Development
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – May 18, 2010
By Elana Schor
The Ford Foundation, created seven decades ago by a U.S. car industry scion, notably diverged from its past today by announcing a new, $200 million grant program aimed at promoting the local integration of transportation and land use planning and a movement beyond auto-based development. A "transit village" in the San Francisco area, cited by the Ford Foundation as an example of projects eligible for its new grants.
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San Joaquin Valley growth woes intrigue scholars elsewhere
The Modesto Bee – May 16, 2010
By Garth Stapley
Fascinating growth issues around Modesto are capturing the fancy of scholars in places such as Illinois, New York and even Paris. Interest in rampant sprawl before the recession has evolved into morbid curiosity at the valley's subsequent foreclosure scourge. Other nonvalley academics are drawn by misery and lack of representation in poor neighborhoods resulting from past land-use decisions.
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East Bay housing groups plan cost, climate moves
San Francisco Chronicle – May 15, 2010
By Carolyn Said
Facing mandates that they may no longer have the resources to meet, East Bay housing groups gathered this week to discuss how to reach new goals for affordable housing and climate change, even though the state has just raided their funding. As part of Affordable Housing Week, several dozen representatives from nonprofits, government agencies and developers met at Berkeley's David Brower Center on Thursday to focus on a new law that could buttress their work and a funding loss that could undermine it, against the backdrop of a crippling economic recession.
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San Diego Emits More CO2 Per Person Than Other Regions
KPBS – May 14, 2010
By Alison St John
Global warming is already affecting San Diego’s regional planning. California’s Air Resources Board will set new carbon emission reduction goals this fall. San Diego’s Association of Governments, or SANDAG - made up of the mayors of all 18 cities and the county - met today to discuss how new greenhouse gas reduction goals will affect their growth.
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Fixes needed for L.A. public transit system
Los Angeles Times – May 13, 2010
By David Lazarus
I knew Tuesday's column on public transportation would get a big reaction from frustrated commuters. But I wasn't expecting the message that was waiting for me that afternoon on my voice mail:"The mayor is trying to reach you. He wants to speak with you." And that's how I found myself in City Hall the next day sitting at a big table opposite Jaime de la Vega, the deputy mayor for transportation.
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Fare increase won’t fix public transit
Los Angeles Times – May 11, 2010
By David Lazarus
Public transit systems throughout Southern California are preparing to jack up fares this summer. They could use the extra money — the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority alone is facing a $181-million budget shortfall. But fare hikes aren't the whole solution to public transit's money woes. It's time that the dozens of city- and county-run systems that make up the region's transit network get together and hash out a plan to expand ridership, rather than repeatedly reaching deeper into the pockets of those who already ride the bus.
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Opinion: Affordable housing continues to be an obstacle for Silicon Valley businesses
San Jose Mercury News – May 11, 2010
By Jay Glasscock
As local governments struggle to balance their budgets, the term "structural deficit" has become a household phrase. It is also a term that can be applied to our persistent housing problem — the widening gap between the number of homes needed and the number of homes built. This gap is one that affects our region's ability to grow and thrive as companies such as ours struggle to recruit and retain the type of talent needed to keep our businesses innovative and productive.
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Green Palo Alto could do a better job of getting people out of their cars
San Jose Mercury News – May 10, 2010
By Adam Landers
Many cities develop reliable transit systems because improved commuting options correlate with their community's economic progress and quality of life. Even Los Angeles — a city synonymous with cars and freeways — completed an underground rail system in the 1990s. It is surprising that Palo Alto, a high-tech city in Silicon Valley with many "green" programs, lacks efficient public transit alternatives and is not actively addressing this oversight.
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Washington’s anti-urban bias
The San Francisco Chronicle – May 9, 2010
By Harry Moroz
The American psyche has long fixated on the farm and the frontier. Emerson once concluded that cities and their inhabitants would die off without their rural counterparts to sustain them, reasoning that "the city is recruited from the country." When Emerson published those words in 1844, around 90 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas. Even the first novel of the quintessential urban beatnik, Jack Kerouac, was a lament for the quaintness of small town life lost in the tumult of the city.
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AB 32 will help drive a sustainable economic recovery
The Turlock Journal – May 7, 2010
By Stephen Coyle
Just a few years after passing AB 32, our state's challenge to reach a clean energy future, a handful of reactionaries in Sacramento (including Sen. Jeff Denham) are trying to repeal it, a move that will create economic uncertainty for thousands of businesses and stymie billions of dollars of investment in solar, wind, and other clean tech projects in the Central Valley.
Why reactionaries?  Because a real conservative supports legislation that conserves energy, protects environment, and invests in the future.
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Terms, mind-sets must be changed to encourage and enable more walking in cities
The Washington Post – May 8, 2010
By Roger K. Lewis
The time has come to acknowledge that walking will be an indispensable component of 21st-century transportation. Today's plans for urban and suburban growth envision walkways as a vital part of multi-modal transportation networks. Walking is great exercise and beneficial to health. Unlike cars, buses, trams and trains, walking consumes no fossil-fuel energy and leaves no carbon footprint. Equally important, walking can be a positive aesthetic experience.
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SCAG to ARB: 7-9% GHG Reduction Possible
California Planning and Development Report – May 6, 2010
By Bill Fulton
It's possible to reduce greenhouse gas reductions in Southern California 7-9% per capita by 2020 with a mid-range growth scenario that "achievable and ambitious," Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, said Thursday. In a long-awaited presentation to the SCAG General Assembly in La Quinta, Ikhrata said SCAG would convey the estimate to the California Air Resources Board, which is scheduled to provide SCAG and other regions with a per-capita GHG target in June under the terms of SB 375.
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EPA ties water aid to ‘smart’ growth
The Washington Post – May 5, 2010
By Alec MacGillis
The Environmental Protection Agency is instructing states to adopt “smart’’ growth principles in allocating the $3.3 billion in funding for water infrastructure that the federal government doles out each year. That new emphasis, part of a shift in priorities in the agency, calls for more money for projects that upgrade existing drinking water and wastewater facilities in cities rather than for new projects intended to serve new suburban development. The guidance arguably arrives five years too late — after a home building boom that swallowed up vast swaths of land.
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San Diego Plans For Future Housing, Transportation
KPBS – May 5, 2010
By Alison St John
San Diego is the first region in California to tackle what seems to be an impossible task: planning for a major population expansion while at the same time cutting back on greenhouse gases.
Terry Roberts drove down from L.A. to attend a planning workshop put on by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG. Roberts works with California’s Air Resources Board, which she says is about to hand down greenhouse gas reduction targets.
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Costs put transit agencies on 'road to ruin'
San Francisco Chronicle – May 3, 2010
By Philip Matier and Andrew Ross
From Sonoma to San Jose, the Bay Area's 28 mass transit systems are bleeding money and riders at a rate that will require a projected bailout of about $1 billion a year for the next 25 years, according to a new report by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
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Suspension of AB32 headed to state ballot
San Francisco Chronicle – May 3, 2010
By Carolyn Said
California voters will decide the fate of the state's landmark global-warming bill in the November election after a big-bucks battle that may break records for political spending on an initiative. Today, a group heavily backed by Texas oil giants Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. plans to submit signatures for an initiative seeking to suspend AB32 until California's unemployment rate improves dramatically.
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Commentary: Keep Drilling, Stop Driving, Use Oil Wisely
Streetsblog San Francisco – May 3, 2010
By Jason Henderson
For almost a century my native Louisiana has been expendable when it comes to America's voracious appetite for oil. Now after over a week of national media attention, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is suddenly big enough to bring President Obama down for a disaster tour this past Sunday. No one can say when the gushing river of oil will stop. But as we watch and ponder this sorry state of affairs, environmentalists will demand loudly that Obama retract his earlier proposal to loosen offshore drilling policy.
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Land-locked Singapore shows the way on smart growth
The Sacramento Bee – May 2nd, 2010
By Jim Wasserman
For several days now I have seen how the other half lives - in Singapore - and it's enviable, everything that SACOG has been talking about for years in Sacramento. Transit ridership is 62 percent of trips here and the goal is 70 percent. This little country has congestion pricing that makes cars entering downtown pay extra. It has incredible public transportation, including a subway that is being expanded. It is developing welcoming people places out of all its riverfront and flood control reservoir properties.
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Back to the City
Harvard Business Review – May 2010
By Ania Wieckowski
United Air Lines is set to move its operational headquarters, starting this year, from the Illinois suburb of Elk Grove to downtown Chicago. Quicken Loans, also citybound, recently began leasing space in Detroit and plans to build its headquarters there. And in February, Walgreens announced its acquisition of New York drugstore chain Duane Reade, signaling a deliberate decision to improve its capabilities in urban settings.These companies are getting a jump on a major cultural and demographic shift away from suburban sprawl. The change is imminent, and businesses that don’t understand and plan for it may suffer in the long run.
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Jerry Brown Defends Embattled State Climate Law but Is Open to 'Adjustments'
The New York Times – April 30th, 2010
By Colin Sullivan of ClimateWire
SAN FRANCISCO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown defended the state's climate change law yesterday, explaining that he sees room for "adjustments" but would not support an outright suspension of greenhouse gas reductions until the economy improves. Brown, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in the state, said his likely GOP opponent in the November general election, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is mistaken in her view that freezing the law for a year or more would help the California economy and jobs rebound.
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A Clean, Green, Vertical Los Angeles – The 30/10 Love Train
Streetsblog Los Angeles – April 30th, 2010
By Gloria Ohland
Let’s be clear: The “30-10” transit plan to build nine new rail and three new bus rapid transit lines over a decade is a really big deal. That infusion of investment ($18 billion for transit capital out of a total $30 billion for capital and operations) and jobs (166,000) could jolt LA County at least part-way out of the recession. But even more importantly, the coalition that has come together in support of 30-10 – business, labor, enviros, elected officials, Metro board members – is also a big deal. Some say it’s the first time the L.A. County Congressional delegation has ever united in support of something.
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AB 32 will have impact on California
The San Bernardino Sun – April 29th, 2010
Opinion - By Jim Mulvihill
In an April 19 op-ed in The Sun, County Supervisor Gary Ovitt voiced support for a proposition being placed on the November 2010 ballot called the "California Jobs Initiative." The purpose of the proposed proposition is to delay implementation of AB 32 passed by the state Legislature in 2006.
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Los Angeles is still the nation’s smoggiest city
LA Times – April 28, 2010
By Margot Roosevelt
Metropolitan Los Angeles, extending to Riverside and Long Beach, remains the smoggiest city in the United States, with an average of more than 140 days a year of dangerous ozone levels, the American Lung Assn. reported Wednesday in its annual assessment.  All of the nation's 10 smoggiest counties are in California, with San Bernardino, Riverside, Kern, Tulare and Los Angeles leading the pack. And the state's cities and counties, with their ports, refineries, power plants and crowded freeways, rank near the top for particle pollution.
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Tea Party with a Difference
The New York Times – April 25th, 2010
Opinion -- By Thomas L. Friedman
I’ve been trying to understand the Tea Party Movement. Sounds like a lot of angry people who want to get the government out of their lives and cut both taxes and the deficit. Nothing wrong with that — although one does wonder where they were in the Bush years. Never mind. I’m sure like all such protest movements the Tea Partiers will get their 10 to 20 percent of the vote.
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A National Network of Bike Trails? It Could Happen
NPR – April 25th, 2010
By NPR Staff
A quiet revolution is starting in the world of transportation.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced what he's calling a "sea change" in transportation policy: He wants to make biking as important as driving. "We’re elevating it to the point where as we develop new road systems, as we develop communities where people can use light rail or street cars or buses, bike trails and walking paths will be equal partners, if you will, and equal components of those kinds of transportation opportunities in communities across America," LaHood tells NPR's Guy Raz.
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California Teamsters oppose effort to delay global warming measure
Los Angeles Times – April 24th, 2010
By Margot Roosevelt
The Teamsters, with more than 250,000 members in California, is the first major union to officially oppose the measure, which is backed by a group of oil companies, Republican legislators and conservative activists. The group is gathering signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot. "We must reject efforts to move backwards on protection of the environment," said Randy Cammack, co-chairman of the Teamsters Public Affairs Council, which unanimously agreed to oppose the measure Friday. "Our members are citizens and neighbors as well as workers. We breathe the same air, drink the same water and live on the same planet with every other human being. …There is no inconsistency between protecting our environment and building a strong and vibrant economy."
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Smart growth incorporates lessons from planning mistakes
The Washington Post – April 24th, 2010
By Roger K. Lewis
Suppose you are a homeowner living in a subdivision in suburban Maryland or Virginia. Along an arterial road not far from you are acres of favorably located but underdeveloped or unwisely developed land with potentially high real estate value. Aging, low-rise commercial structures with little architectural coherence or aesthetic quality are scattered throughout the area, along with extensive surface parking. Landscaping is minimal or neglected. Haphazardly deployed signage, lighting and utility structures add visual clutter.
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Region begins new drive to curb greenhouse gases
San Jose Mercury – April 24th, 2010
By Denis Cuff
Four regional agencies have launched a major drive to rein in greenhouse gas pollution by reducing vehicle use, increasing public transit use and promoting compact development in the Bay Area's nine counties. Cities and counties will be asked to designate areas for developing compact housing and businesses in established areas with good access to rail lines, buses and ferries. Leaders around the Bay likened the plan to pioneering environmental initiatives such as saving the Bay from fill in the 1960s and founding the East Bay Regional Park system in the 1930s. Transit and land-use planners will be asked to determine how they can jointly help the Bay Area meet vehicle travel reduction targets to be set by the California Air Resources Board.
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Palm Desert council updated on emissions bill
The Desert Sun – April 23, 2010
By Gina Tenorio
Financial incentives could be in the cards for six Southern California counties — Riverside included — which must participate in California's Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act. Sharon Neely, deputy executive director of Policy Strategy and Public Affairs with the Southern California Association of Governments, which is directing the bill's implementation, delivered the news Thursday to Palm Desert staff and City Council members at a study session. The presentation was an update on the progress of Senate Bill 375, a component of Assembly Bill 32.
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MTA endorses Villaraigosa’s ambitious transit plan
Los Angeles Times – April 23rd, 2010
By Dan Weikel
Stepping into uncharted territory, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Thursday unanimously endorsed Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's ambitious plan to accelerate billions of dollars in transit projects with help from a federal assistance program that is still on the drawing board. The so-called 30-10 plan seeks to reduce construction times up to 20 years for a dozen transit projects, including the Westside subway extension, that were approved when voters passed Measure R, the half-cent sales tax that promised to deliver $40 billion in transportation improvements in Los Angeles County.
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Cities back state's emission-cutting law
San Francisco Chronicle – April 23rd, 2010
By Peter Fimrite
A group representing California's cities voted overwhelmingly Thursday to support the state's landmark efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, rejecting efforts by some of the group's members to seek a delay in implementing the law. The proposal by a committee of the League of California Cities to ask the state to consider moving back deadlines for cutting emissions coincided with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the world's largest celebration of environmentalism. Some city officials were concerned that the legislation would cost businesses and local governments too much, given California's struggling economy.
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U.S. strategy needs to save the Earth
CNN – April 22nd, 2010
By Patrick Doherty
Transportation costs account for 17 percent for average American households and increasing energy costs would overburden a fragile middle class economy. Instead, now is the time to reduce America's "vehicle miles traveled." Reducing VMT requires a decisive federal commitment to commuter transit, freight rail, and smart growth. Indeed, if all new communities in the United States were designed "smart" we would reduce carbon emissions 10 percent over 10 years and save smart-growth households $220 billion a year. More importantly, this strategy puts America back to work, building healthy communities people can afford and have the time to enjoy.
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Suburban Housing Market Declines a Result of Demographics Shift
Urban Land Institute – April 22nd, 2010
By Lori Hatcher
The current decline in demand for suburban “trade up” housing is more than just an economic correction; it is the result of a seismic shift in demographics and consumer behavior according to James Chung, president of Reach Advisors, speaking at the ULI Real Estate Summit at the Spring Council Forum in Boston last week. According to Chung, the wave of the Baby Boom population passed the mid-forties—the age that buyers typically move up, and will be 30 percent of the 65-plus age group by the end of the decade. Coming along behind them is Generation X, a smaller cohort that is unwilling to pay for premium housing features and prestigious, exclusive communities, instead choosing attractive community characteristics.
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A green jobs generator
Los Angeles Times – April 21st, 2010
Opinion - By Carol Zabin and David Graham-Squire
We are the authors of an often-cited study about the economic impact of California's landmark global warming law, AB 32. The law was passed in 2006 to control the state's greenhouse gas emissions; now some in Sacramento want to see it shelved. And to bolster their case they are misrepresenting our research — despite the facts and over our objections. Our research, "Addressing the Employment Impacts of AB 32, California's Global Warming Solutions Act," which was released in February 2009, has been used by groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., AB 32 Implementation Group and the California Jobs Initiative as part of their campaign to stop the implementation of AB 32.
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MTC Report Shows Dismal Future for Transit Operators
Streetsblog San Francisco – April 19th, 2010
By Matthew Roth
The 2009 Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Annual Report paints a sobering picture of funding crises at nearly every Bay Area Transit operator -- crises we've covered extensively on Streetsblog -- and sums up the situation bluntly: "There is no way to sugarcoat it: These are difficult, daunting days for public transit in the Bay Area." The report rightly points to endemic land-use and auto-centric development problems in the Bay Area that make transit less attractive for many than driving: "The Bay Area's transit system operates under the difficult combination of unpredictable revenue sources and unsustainable cost structure on the one hand, and underpriced auto alternatives and insufficiently transit-supportive land uses on the other."
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Download Report (pdf)

Foes of California's global warming law pour money into a campaign to delay it
Los Angeles Times – April 19th, 2010
By Margot Roosevelt
Oil companies and conservative activists poured nearly $1 million last week into their campaign to place an initiative on the November ballot that would delay enforcement of California's global warming law. The effort, which also sought to enlist “tea party” activists, came as organizers failed to meet their original goal of gathering the 433,000 necessary signatures by Friday. But with the infusion of $930,000 to pay signature gatherers, bringing the total million to $1.9, "We will all do what it takes to win," said Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville), an initiative backer. "This will be an epic battle like no other between environmental extremism and job growth."
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Report: Climate Law Healthy for Ethnic Communities
New America Media – April 16th, 2010
By Ngoc Nguyen
California’s efforts to tackle climate change could benefit poor and minority communities long burdened by industrial pollution if the state takes into account the needs of communities hurt most by climate change, a new report finds. The report makes the case that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will not only slow warming trends, but also improve air quality in neighborhoods with high levels of pollution. “If California gets its climate change policy right, it means we can target our greenhouse gas reductions…in communities most affected by dirty air,” said report co-author Rachel Morello-Frosch, associate professor of environmental science, policy and management at the School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley. “This would ensure we could reap immediate public health benefits from climate change policy now.”
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The Metro Moment
The Wall Street Journal – April 15th, 2010
By Bruce Katz
Amid recent calls that government needs to be put in the hands of the states, people seem to be forgetting that many state governments are bordering on dysfunctional. In November, 37 states will hold elections for governor. State candidates will likely hit the campaign trail calling for a heavy dose of reform: Tighter ethics rules for legislators and more aggressive enforcement of those rules. New codes for lobbyists and lobbying. A commitment to transparency in decision making. Yet the Great Recession and the fiscal meltdown require states to do more. Most critically, they must do the hard work of overhauling their bloated networks of local governments (all created by state law) so that they align more closely with the metropolitan geography of the economy and set the conditions for market growth and innovation. 
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Cities cleaning the air with draft plan
The Ventura County Reporter – April 15th, 2010
By Paul Sisolak
Sometime in the 1960s, leaders in Oxnard included in their general plan document some very ambitious ideas for what the city would look like far, far into the future: the Year 2000. “There’s a phrase in there from the consultant who prepared the plan that says, ‘Orange County is the model, and that’s what we should be doing.’ That was the smart growth of the time,” says Chris Williamson, a senior planner for the city today. “Oxnard was caught up in that, like all cities.” In its 2000 General Plan, the Oxnard “grid” is filled out with a busy criss-cross of freeways, arterial roads and interchanges at every turn, like some sci-fi city without the flying cars. But for modern-day planners, it’s a vision that’s anything but smart, already 10 years past, and one that, thankfully, has not come true.
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Menendez Proposes Tax Credit for Transit-Oriented Development
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – April 15th, 2010
By Elana Schor
New construction projects that are within a half-mile of transit stations and exceeding national energy-efficiency standards would be eligible for a tax credit under legislation introduced today by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the senior member of the Banking Committee's transit panel. Menendez's "green buildings" tax credit is aimed at spurring denser development in both rural and urban areas, particularly mixed-use properties that allow residents to walk between home, work, and other daily errands.
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Construction workers rally in support of transit project plan in Los Angeles County
Daily News Los Angeles – April 14th, 2010
By Rick Orloy
Wearing hard hats and carrying picket signs, nearly 1,000 construction workers demonstrated Wednesday in support of a plan asking the federal government to expedite funding for transit projects in Los Angeles County. The rally was led by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, with county Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky, who urged workers to lobby Congress to approve the so-called 30/10 program. Local officials hope to get an advance of $40 billion – the amount expected to be raised by the Measure R half-cent per dollar sales tax. The advance would allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the projects in 10 years, but repay the money over a 30-year period.
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Former Trash-Strewn Lot Becomes An “Off-Ramp Park”
Streetsblog San Francisco – April 14th, 2010
By Michael Rhodes
San Franciscans don't often spend their days contriving ways to spend more time near freeway off-ramps, especially when proximity to freeways can be a risk to your health, but the city's newest park along the I-280 exit at Sixth and Brannan Streets may make you think twice about it. City leaders officially launched the park with an opening ceremony this afternoon, and with the success of the Pavement to Parks program, which reclaimed underused street space for public parks and plazas, the Department of Public Works and Caltrans have now embarked on a series of upgrades across the city on what we'll unofficially dub, "Off-Ramps to Parks."
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Valley officials weigh emission law
The Fresno Bee – April 10th, 2010
By Russell Clemings
A state-mandated effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions is turning into a struggle by local governments to maintain control over development. This month, Fresno County political leaders expect to vote on proposed targets for cutting emissions of those climate-changing gases -- mainly carbon dioxide from burning gasoline and other fossil fuels. In the long term, making those cuts will change how cities grow and how their people move around. The local effort is intended at least partly to head off more aggressive targets that could be imposed this year by the state Air Resources Board, which oversees California's climate-change program.
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Bay Area Cities Rediscover the Creeks Under Their Streets
Streetsblog San Francisco – April 9th, 2010
By Matt Baume
The proposal to convert Center Street in Berkeley from an asphalt thoroughfare to a park-like promenade -- revealing a long-hidden underground creek -- is the latest twist in the interesting and often-controversial story of the Bay Area's heavily-modified waterways. The Center Street project is a striking reversal of a century-old trend towards burying Berkeley's creeks below ground. It's also an example of the relatively new practice of "daylighting" forgotten waterways, a trend said to have been unintentionally sparked forty years ago in nearby Napa.
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California Activists Urge Boycott of Valero Gas
AOL News – April 9th, 2010
By Richard C. Paddock
California activists are calling for a boycott of Valero gas stations after the Texas oil company contributed $500,000 toward a ballot measure that would delay implementation of the state's landmark global warming law. The Courage Campaign and CREDO Action, two progressive grassroots organizations, called on the public to stop buying gasoline at Valero and Beacon stations after the oil company became the largest single contributor to the campaign to qualify the initiative.  "What is particularly troubling is that anyone who buys gasoline from Valero is now helping to fund audacious attacks on California's air quality standards," CREDO Action President Michael Kieschnick said in a statement released by the two groups. "Valero believes it will be cheaper to deceive California voters than to compete in the new energy economy."
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Boosting Property Values Near BRT
The City Fix – April 6th, 2010
By Megan McConville
Many transit advocates agree that bus rapid transit (BRT) can provide high-quality, efficient transportation at a fraction of the cost of rail. However, a common concern about BRT is that routes are not as permanent as tracks – in theory, they could be moved if land use patterns change – so BRT has a limited ability to attract transit-oriented development. But recent research shows that BRT can spur development around its lines and stations. With new BRT systems opening up across the United States, this finding can help guide development and transportation policy.
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Merriam Mountains Falls to Environmental Laws: Questions Over Implementation of New State Regulations at the Heart Of Vote Against Development
San Diego Business Journal – April 5th, 2010
By Lou Hirsh
As lawmakers and regional planners work to implement California laws aimed at curbing greenhouse gases, the impact on future residential and commercial developments remains murky. The latest local sign of uncertainty came with the San Diego County Board of Supervisors’ March 24 rejection of the massive Merriam Mountains housing development in North County. That project, in the works for the past decade, includes 2,630 homes to be built in several phases on more than 2,000 acres north of Escondido
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Q.&A.: Transportation Secretary on Biking, Walking and ‘What Americans Want’
New York Times – April 5th, 2010
By Leora Broydo Vestel
The United States transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, recently caused a stir when he proclaimed that bicycling and walking should be given the same consideration as motorized transport in state and local transit projects. Supporters, who continue to post notes of adulation and thanks on Mr. LaHood’s Facebook page, say the acknowledgment of biking and walking as legitimate modes of transportation is long overdue. Critics, conversely, believe the secretary is taking the country in the wrong direction.
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Americans rebuild for the 'new urban century'
CNN – April 1st, 2010
By John Blake
In Charlotte, North Carolina, commuters zip along a sparkling new light rail system into a booming downtown district. In Sacramento, California, construction workers hammer away at the next generation of green buildings. And in New York City, rush-hour commuters pedal across popular bike paths that have spread like kudzu across the metropolis. Those snapshots from cities across America offer a glimpse of the future. Americans are rebuilding their cities and communities to make people, not cars, the center of a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, urban planners and transportation experts say.
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New Survey: 84% of Transit Agencies Facing Fare Hikes, Service Cuts
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – April 1st, 2010
By Elana Schor
Budget shortfalls exacerbated by the lingering recession have forced 84 percent of local transit agencies to hike fares, cut service, or begin considering one or both of those options since the beginning of 2009, according to a report released today by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). APTA's bleak survey reflects data from 151 rail and bus systems throughout the nation, which together carry more than eight of every 10 U.S. transit riders. Sixty-nine percent of that group reported looming budget gaps for the coming fiscal year, with 11 agencies facing a deficit larger than 20 percent.
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Council approves EIR for Curtis Park Village project
Sacramento Bee – April 1st, 2010
By Jim Wasserman
Plans to build a new generation of housing and stores on an abandoned railyard in Sacramento's historic Curtis Park made a significant leap Thursday as the City Council voted 9-0 to approve the 72-acre project's massive environmental impact report. "If we can't develop this, we can't do infill. If we can't do infill, we can't meet the objectives of SB 375 (a state law to encourage more development in existing areas)," said City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond, minutes before voting on a Curtis Park Village project years in the making and located on a toxic state Superfund site.
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Rev. Jackson Joins Labor, Enviro Groups in Call for Transit Funding
Streetsblog New York - April 1, 2010
By Noah Kazis
At a rally yesterday headlined by Rev. Jesse Jackson, a new coalition of labor unions and environmental organizations stood together to demand more funding for transit agencies across the country. With service cuts afflicting bus and train riders in dozens of major cities, the "Keep America Moving" coalition is focused on securing funds to maintain transit service. Their first goal is passing legislation in Congress that would make federal operating aid for transit permanent. The star of the rally was Jackson, introduced by Congressman Charlie Rangel as someone who "not only brings a political stimulus, but answers to a higher power." Calling the budgetary woes of the nation's transit agencies part of "the heart of the urban crisis," Jackson told the crowd that "we must now bail out from the bottom-up," beginning with urban transit. 
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Candor useful when tackling new policies
Ventura County Star – March 31st, 2010
By Rachel Morris
What kind of seminar would a coalition of business, real estate, construction and housing professionals host to discuss California’s sweeping climate change and stormwater laws? With a title like “The Perfect Storm ... A Tsunami of New Legislation,” the forecast didn’t smack of objective dialogue. As a green advocate feeling like a chicken at a pot-pie-tasting contest, I headed over to the Camarillo Education Conference Center. As it turns out, the dramatic language was just the ticket to pack the hall with over 250 planners, elected officials, business advocates and green advocates like myself on March 19. The crux of the topic was how to include the third “E” — the economy (the other two being environment and equity) — when implementing AB32, SB375, and MS4.
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New Poll: Support For Transit Expansion Transcends Rural-Urban Divide
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – March 30, 2010
By Elana Schor
Despite the frequent reluctance of rural lawmakers to support more federal investment in transit, a majority of rural and urban voters alike believe their home towns would gain from a local transit expansion, according to a new poll released today by the infrastructure reform group Transportation for America (T4A) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  When asked if increased transit investment would help their community, 69 percent of poll respondents answered in the affirmative, including 74 percent of suburbanites and 55 percent of rural residents.
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U.S. officials eager to climb aboard Villaraigosa's L.A. transit plan
LA Times – March 29, 2010
By Richard Simon
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to secure federal funds for fast-track expansion of the Los Angeles region's transit system is gaining support from Washington officials who say it could serve as a national model for speeding economic recovery and reducing pollution and traffic congestion.  The Obama administration and influential members of Congress are exploring ways to aid the car-clogged city with a federal loan, economic stimulus funds or other assistance so it can build 12 transit lines in 10 years instead of 30.
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Smart Growth' Taking Hold in U.S. Cities, Study Says
New York Times – March 24th, 2010
By Gabriel Nelson (E & E News)
Redevelopment of urban centers has continued to outpace construction in the outskirts of suburbia, according to a recent U.S. EPA study, suggesting a "fundamental shift" has begun in the real estate market as the Obama administration pushes denser development through its "livability" initiative. Though the nation's urban centers emptied for decades as suburbs sprawled outward, developers in many large cities are increasingly looking inward for building opportunities, according to the study, titled "Residential Construction Trends in America's Metropolitan Regions."
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Climate law won't hurt California economy, report says
LA Times – March 24, 2010
By Margot Roosevelt
California's overall economy will not suffer, and many parts of it will prosper under the state's landmark global warming law, according to an analysis by the California Air Resources Board that rebuts an industry-led ballot effort to suspend the regulations. The 103-page report, to be released Wednesday, comes after earlier projections were criticized as flimsy. It was vetted by a panel of independent academics and policy experts. "This shows we can implement the law and that growth in the California economy will be large and unabated," said board Chairwoman Mary D. Nichols, who acknowledged that "shifting the economy away from fossil fuels and toward more renewable energy means that some businesses, including green technology, will benefit, while others will see their costs go up.
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Governor OKs bills to create jobs, alter gas tax
San Francisco Chronicle – March 23, 2010
By Marisa Lagos
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed three bills Monday evening just hours after the Legislature approved them, including two measures to create jobs and a change in the gas tax that the governor threatened to veto just last week.  "The package of bills as written will provide significant benefit to the state's general fund and will help put Californians back to work," Schwarzenegger wrote in his signing message. "I commend the Legislature for your strong bipartisan actions on these measures. I encourage you to maintain this momentum." Schwarzenegger said he was signing the gas tax bill - which will restore some funding to struggling transit agencies around the state - because lawmakers fixed what they characterized as technical flaws in the measure.
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Senate Health Bill Approved: What it Means for Transportation
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – March 22, 2010
By Elana Schor
After 14 months of drama, deal-making, and declarations of its demise, the health care legislation envisioned by President Obama and congressional Democrats finally cleared its biggest hurdle last night, with the House approving the Senate-passed measure on a 219-212 vote. The process isn't quite finished yet -- the Senate still must take up a series of tweaks to its original bill under the filibuster-proof reconciliation framework for debate -- but the meat of the upper chamber's health proposal is set to become law by week's end. Once that occurs, a new pool of federal "Community Transformation" grants would be established, with local governments and nonprofit groups eligible for a share of the funding.
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Save farmland, save the Williamson Act
Sacramento Bee – March 22, 2010
Editorial
The Williamson Act, a linchpin in preserving California's open space and farmland, is on life support. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature must step up and revive it.  Under the 1965 law, farmers and ranchers who agree to keep land in agriculture or as open space pay property taxes at a lower rate than the full market value. The state then reimburses local governments for the lost tax revenue. About 16 million acres is protected, including 180,000 acres in Sacramento County and 400,000 in Yolo, nearly two-thirds of all county land. During last year's budget crisis, the governor slashed $28 million for the reimbursements. If the program is not funded this year, counties might not be able to pick up the slack and it could start an irreversible slide. Many farmers would likely option their land, ensuring it is developed when the economy rebounds.
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Legislative Analyst rips business reports
San Francisco Chronicle – March 19, 2010
By Wyatt Buchanan
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office has sharply criticized the research in two reports, one funded by taxpayers, that have been used by some Republicans as the basis for calls to roll back regulations in the state, labeling the research "unreliable" and "essentially useless." One report sought to calculate the costs of state regulation on small businesses, finding that regulations in California have cost the state's economy $492 billion and 3.8 million jobs.  The other report looked at the costs associated with implementing the greenhouse gas reduction plan created through Assembly Bill 32. It concluded that small businesses would lose $183 billion in output annually. "The two studies ... have major problems involving... data, methodology and analysis. As a result of these shortcomings, we believe that their principal findings are unreliable."
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Sadik-Khan Packs the House, Then Brings It Down
LA Streetsblog - March 19, 2010
By Damien Newton
Last night, the L.A. StreetSummit kicked off with a rousing keynote address and slide show by the groundbreaking New York City DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn.  Three levels of Occidental College students, bike advocates from around the county, and others interested in Livable Streets packed the auditorium to hear Sadik-Kahn show the changes that have come to New York City's streets under her and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's leadership in the past three years.  Sadik-Khan's lecture was continually interrupted by cheers, which were in part a more polite way of "booing" our beloved LADOT who seems to operate under the exact opposite working theories of their Big Apple Counterparts, and even gasps of astonishment for the "before" and "after" pictures of the now car-free pedestrian plaza at Herald Square.
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Freeways Responsible For Emptying Out Cities
Planetizen – March 18, 2010
By Tim Halbur
A recent study shows that for every significant freeway that gets built in a major city, population declines by about 18%. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, author of the study, talks with Planetizen.  Nathaniel Baum-Snow is a professor of economics at Brown University. His research has been remarkable consistent and urban-centric since writing his dissertation in 2000 on "The Effects of New Public Projects to Expand Urban Rail Transit." Baum-Snow’s work came to our attention when he was cited in a recent Boston Globe article quoting his study that concluded that each new federally-funded highway passing through a central city "reduces its population by about 18 percent." The implication of this type of data-driven evidence of the effect of highway construction on cities is often hard to find, so we went to the source.
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Builders predict more problems: Panelists expect stormwater limits to return
Ventura County Star – March 19, 2010
By Tony Biasotti
Builders and developers got what they wanted last week when water regulators agreed to revisit the stormwater runoff permit issued last year for Ventura County, a permit the development industry claims would cripple business. But at a housing and development conference in Camarillo on Friday, the general consensus was that the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will issue a new permit that’s very similar to the old one. The conference, an annual event that typically focuses on housing, was called “A Perfect Storm” this year. The organizers believe that term describes the dual effect of the new stormwater regulations and pre-existing state laws to limit greenhouse gas emissions. There’s an inherent conflict, some panelists said, between the two types of new regulations.
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Alameda land-use ruling could reshape state
San Francisco Chronicle – March 17, 2010
By John King
When an Alameda County judge this month ruled that Pleasanton must loosen its development rules to allow large amounts of new housing for all income levels, he sent a message that could ricochet around the state. The ruling by Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch found the prosperous city of 68,000 at fault for a voter-approved cap on the number of housing units allowed within its borders. Roesch based his decision on a California law that requires cities to make land available to accommodate their share of regional housing needs - and that is a standard that most municipalities don't meet. If the Alameda decision stands, and if other cities face legal challenges, the result could reshape the landscape of California suburbs and small cities - conceivably forcing them to reconsider height limits or increasing the density in their downtowns.
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Rural states hurt most in gasoline price spike
Reuters – March 17, 2010
By Tom Doggett
As U.S. gasoline prices head toward $3 a gallon, states with many drivers in rural areas would take the biggest financial hit if pump costs spiked to record levels again, according to a new report released on Wednesday.  Consumers in all states are dependent on oil for their transportation needs, but drivers in some states would have to spend a bigger share of their income on motor fuel and are more vulnerable to oil price shocks. The national price for gasoline hit $2.79 a gallon this week, the highest level since October 2008, according to the Energy Department. The department's forecast arm expects the pump price to top $3 a gallon this spring and summer, as demand picks up and crude oil prices remain high.
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How San Jose small business owners have become transit advocates
KALW News, CrossCurrents – March 15, 2010
By Nathanael Johnson
For years, people in the Bay Area have been talking about the idea of Bus Rapid Transit: give a bus its own lane, special loading docks and control over stoplights, and you have a form of transit that’s faster than streetcars at a fraction of the price. But it hasn't happened anywhere yet – in part because of local resistance. In San Francisco, a plan to run so-called “BRTs” down the center of Geary Street has drawn opposition from a group of merchants who worry that it would make it harder for bus riders to get to their stores. That’s exactly the opposite of what proponents say the plan will do.
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State transit projects may be U.S. models
San Francisco Chronicle – March 12, 2010
By Carolyn Lochhead
The Obama administration said Thursday that it is looking at projects in the Bay Area and potentially Los Angeles as a model to build and repair hundreds of billions of dollars of rail, road, bridge, port and other projects as the nation's infrastructure is crumbling but new federal funds are drying up. The idea is to use federal loans, backed by local tax revenues, to speed up huge transit and other local projects while taking advantage of bargain-basement prices in the recession-hit construction industry and creating jobs at the same time.
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Broad national vision can patch potholes in transportation funds
Sacramento Bee – March 12, 2010
Opinion by James Corless and Stuart Cohen
Two events in Washington, D.C., last week carried important implications for every Californian who relies on public transportation or navigates our increasingly rutted highways and besieged bridges.  First, a U.S. senator attempted to obstruct a jobs bill extending both unemployment aid and the federal highway trust fund. For the first time since it was created in 1956, the federal program that pays for transportation projects and highway safety literally shut down. For several days, ready-to-go California projects worth $37.5 million were in jeopardy, and construction firms made plans to keep their beleaguered workers at home. A 30-day extension eventually passed, but the core problem remains: While Congress keeps our nation's infrastructure on life support through stopgap measures and last-minute extensions, states like California suffer, and the nation as a whole falls farther behind our international competitors.
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Is 2010 the Year for Federal Bike Aid? The Answer: A Big ‘Maybe’
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – March 12, 2010
By Elana Schor
This week's National Bike Summit culminated in an ambitious new campaign to recruit a million bike advocates and the unveiling of a new Google Maps bike feature. But in a Wednesday session dedicated to the outlook for federal bike investments, cycling advocates hesitated to declare that they could secure new commitments from Washington. "If Congress is going to act" on a new long-term transportation bill, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy president Keith Laughlin said, "it's definitely going to be our year. If we are ready." Laughlin's phrasing was aimed at stoking cyclists' appetite for lobbying Congress in favor of pro-bike legislation, such as Rep. Earl Blumenauer's Active Community Transportation Act.
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Leaders move toward setting vehicle emissions limits
North County Times – March 12, 2010
By Paul Sisson
Local planners met with civic leaders Friday to map out their strategy for reducing car and truck emissions in order to meet the goals of Senate Bill 375, a legislative bombshell that requires all urban regions in the state to cut emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. Planners told elected representatives from San Diego County, and from each of its 17 cities, that they plan to create "target" levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that would represent about a 10 percent cut over the next decade.  San Diego County is the first urban county in the state to have to deal with the new global warming mandate because it is the first to have to update its "regional transportation plan" a document that governs how roads are funded in the region.
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A Time to Consider Local Fuel Fees
New York Times - March 12, 2010
By Daniel Weintraub
San Francisco, California -- Democrats in the Legislature threw a fiscal lifeline to public transit last week, bolstering financing for buses and trains at a time when the state is cutting just about everything else.  But leaders of the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission saw the moment as a lost opportunity for fundamental change in the way California pays for public transit.  The Bay Area commission is perhaps the state’s strongest advocate for a proposal that would allow voters to adopt local fees on gasoline and diesel fuel to finance transit service and pay for street and trail improvements that would benefit pedestrians and cyclists.
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Going Green vs. Going Broke
LA Times – March 11, 2010
Editorial
Will cutting carbon kill jobs in California? That's the premise of a November ballot initiative proposed by Republican lawmakers, whose cause got a boost this week from a report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that concluded the state's landmark global warming law might hurt employment. The report made headlines because it contrasts sharply with an earlier analysis by the California Air Resources Board, which concluded that the law, AB 32, would actually create 120,000 jobs by 2020. So which agency is right? And does it matter?  The Legislative Analyst's Office is right about one thing: It's almost impossible to predict what's going to happen to the economy a decade down the road.
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Bay Area Workshop Seeks Ways To Reduce Emissions
CBS 5 – March 11, 2010
Proposals for drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks for the nine-county Bay Area were discussed Wednesday at a packed workshop hosted by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments.  Leslie Szeto, an air pollution specialist for the California Air Resources Board, said the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, formally known as Assembly Bill 32, requires that greenhouse gas emissions for the state in 2020 be reduced to the level of emissions in 1990.  Szeto said the bill says that the goals for 2020 are not the endpoint and that there should be an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050.
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U.S. DOT Cagey on Funding New Transport Bill as Senators Seek Solutions
Streetsblog Capitol Hill – March 11th, 2010
By Matthew Roth
Senators began searching today for new strategies to connect local planners with an ever-dwindling pot of federal infrastructure dollars, even as a senior U.S. DOT aide declined to say whether the White House's upcoming principles for the next long-term transportation bill would include funding specifics.
The star witness at the Senate environment committee's hearing was Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who sought congressional support for federal loans to expedite his city's ambitious 30/10 transit expansion project. Environment panel chief Barbara Boxer (D-CA) threw her weight behind the 30/10 plan as the mayor pitched his approach -- reliant on voters' approval of higher sales taxes to pay for new infrastructure -- as a model for the rest of the nation. 
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AB32 plays on economic fears
San Francisco Chronicle - March 10, 2010
Editorial
Petitions are being circulated for a November ballot initiative that would undercut California's landmark legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Perhaps not surprisingly, it appears that the seed money for the petition drive is coming from two oil refiners, Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., based in San Antonio. Each owns refineries in California, including the Valero facility in Benicia. The campaign to repeal Assembly Bill 32, signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, is expected to play to fears that the changes in lifestyle and commerce required to slow climate change would have a negative effect on the economy. Many California businesses, including a strong contingent of Silicon Valley innovators, recognize the false choice being presented by those who would ignore this growing threat to our planet.
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CA Transit Operators Hopeful State Diesel Tax Will Create Stable Funding
SF Streetsblog - March 9, 2010
By Matthew Roth
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the sales tax on gasoline in his new budget, transit operators and advocates saw the announcement as a move to subvert a California Supreme Court ruling that required the state to stop raiding transit funds. Rather than comply with the court's ruling, they argued, the Governor was eliminating the voter-established rules that required the state to fund transit operations with the sales tax on gasoline. Nevermind that several of those ballot initiatives passed by more than two-thirds margins and put explicit restrictions on how taxpayer money could or couldn't be used for transportation projects.
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U.S. Transit Trips Hit 10.2B in 2009, With Light Rail Up in Nine Cities
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - March 9, 2010
By Elana Schor
The nation's transit systems hosted 10.2 billion trips last year, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reported yesterday. While that figure represents a 3.8 percent decline from 2008, APTA's data showed light rail ridership rising in nine cities and the long-term increase in transit use continuing to outpace growth in population and vehicle miles traveled.  APTA President William Millar portrayed the new ridership figures as a win for transit, given the economic recession and the fact that fuel prices declined last year relative to their 2008 highs. Since 1995, APTA has reported a 31-percent increase in transit ridership nationwide, compared with a 15-percent increase in population over the same period and a 21-percent increase in highway miles traveled.
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What Happens to Transportation Reform if AB 32 Does Get Repealed?
LA Streetsblog - March 8, 2010
By Damien Newton
Last week, the New York Times broke the news that Texas based oil companies were funding the ballot initiative that would "temporarily" place the Greenhouse Gas reforms required by A.B. 32 on hold until California's unemployment rate reached 5.5%.  When discussing the news with some of my friends, it was greeted with a yawn.  After all, this is hardly the first time an out-of-state interest has placed a lot of money behind a ballot proposition, and A.B. 32 spends a lot more time promoting clean fuel than it does human powered transportation or transit.  
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Cities not on track with Calif high-speed rail
Sacramento Bee – March 8, 2010
Daisy Nguyen, Associated Press
Buena Park, CA. -- Mayor Art Brown spent years pushing for a commuter train station combined with nearby housing in his community. But as townhouses are being finished around the $14 million Metrolink station, he's facing the prospect that California's high-speed rail line may plow right through his beloved project.  "The only option they presented to us was either losing the condo units or losing our train station," Brown said of an engineering presentation to city leaders last year.  That a successful effort to get car-dependent Californians to embrace mass transit could be derailed by another transportation project may strike some as ironic.
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California Forests in 'Top 20' for Carbon Storage
California Public News Service – March 8, 2010
By Chris Thomas
The national forests of northern California are some of the hardest-working in the United States when it comes to keeping global warming pollution out of the atmosphere. Of the top 20 forests in the country for storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, seven are in California. A study of U.S. Forest Service data indicates dense West Coast forests contain about twice as much carbon in their branches, roots and soil as forests in other parts of the country. Study author Mike Anderson, senior resource analyst with The Wilderness Society, says a combination of older trees, longer growing seasons and fewer wildfires allow a forest to store more carbon, and some parts of California fit that profile.
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Why the anti-urban bias?
The Boston Globe – March 5, 2010
Opinion by Edward Glaeser, Harvard University Professor of Economics
The billions of dollars being spent on infrastructure across the nation provide an opportunity to plan for a better America, but politics-as-usual favors sprawl over city. This anti-urban bias of national policies must end. Over the past 60 years, cities have been hit by a painful policy trifecta: subsidization of highways, subsidization of homeownership, and a school system that creates strong incentives for many parents to leave city borders. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, an economist at Brown University, has documented that each new federally-funded “highway passing through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent.’’
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Texas Refiners Mum About Funding Push to Halt Calif. Climate Law
New York Times – March 3, 2010
By Collin Sullivan, ClimateWire
The money behind a campaign to suspend California's landmark climate law and place the proposed delay before voters in November is coming from a pair of refiners based in San Antonio, Texas, according to several well-placed sources in Sacramento.  These sources said two refiners based in San Antonio -- Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp. -- are the sole funders so far behind a proposed ballot initiative that would bring a temporary halt to A.B. 32, which would cut greenhouse gases across California's economy to 1990 levels by 2020, starting in two years.  Reached in San Antonio, a spokesman for Valero did not deny the assertion, but he did refuse comment, referring further calls to a public relations firm in Sacramento that has been hired by advocates of A.B. 32 suspension.
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We don't need to abandon our economic roots in order to grow new, green ones
The Bakersfield Californian – March 1, 2010
Opinion by Bob Gorson, Taft City Manager
More and more communities are embracing sustainability and not just because they are trying to save the planet or do the right thing. Communities across the country are improving their financial well-being as a result of reducing their consumption of energy and water. As Mayor Mary Hamman-Roland of Apple Valley, Minn., puts it, "Green keeps the green in your pocket." The San Joaquin Valley is making some marked strides in developing green jobs. "Many Shades of Green," by Next 10 (www.next10.org) found that the green jobs concentration in alternative fuels in the Central Valley is three times the state average.
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Want to Foster Walking, Biking and Transit? You Need Good Parking Policy
SF Streetsblog – February 23, 2010
By Ben Fried
The high-water mark for American parking policy came in the early 1970s, when cities including New York, Boston, and Portland set limits on off-street parking in their downtowns. They were compelled to do so by lawsuits brought under the Clean Air Act, which used the lever of parking policy to curb traffic and reduce pollution from auto emissions. This level of innovation went unmatched over the ensuing three-and-a-half decades. Only now are American cities implementing effective new parking strategies that cut down on traffic. A report released today by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy highlights the new wave of parking policy innovation that could pay huge dividends for sustainable transport and livable streets.
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Windfall barely nicks Bay Area transit deficit
San Francisco Chronicle - February 22, 2010
By Michael Cabanatuan
The $70 million in federal funds that Bay Area transit agencies will split since the money was diverted from BART's Oakland Airport Connector won't stop service cuts or layoffs, solve budget problems or go very far toward filling vast deficits.  Rather than being a huge windfall, transit officials said, receiving the unexpected allotment of federal stimulus funds is more like a destitute person finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk. "One might think there's $70 million going to the transit system that's going to do a lot of good," said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "But I would urge people to think about the numbers, about the huge deficits."
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LaHood Talks TIGERS and Stimulus, While Boxer Pledges Support for “30 in 10″
LA Streetsblog - February 19, 2010
By Damien Newton
It was billed as a day to discuss the reauthorization of the Federal Transportation Trust Fund, it turned in to a stirring defense of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and ended with a commitment from a United States Senator to do all she could to help turn Los Angeles into a transit town within the next ten years.
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Study: Even in Car-Centric Atlanta, Transport Reform is Health Reform
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - February 16, 2010
By Elana Schor
The connection between transportation reform -- an emphasis on land use that makes biking and walking as viable as auto travel for routine trips -- and health reform is one that's not often made, despite the best efforts of the Obama administration. But a team of researchers led by Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia took a particularly novel approach to the relationship between transport and health for a study recently published in the journal Preventive Medicine. For their observations, the group eschewed Chicago, New York, Portland, or other highly walkable cities in favor of sprawl-heavy Atlanta.
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Giving transit what it needs
February 14, 2010
Editorial – LA Times
There they go again with their raids and gimmicks, right? Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the sales tax on gasoline but raising a separate excise tax almost, but not quite, as high, so taxpayers would feel like they're getting a break at the pump. But the scheme eviscerates Proposition 42, a 2002 voter initiative designed to put an end to transportation fund raids, and wipes out funding for public transit. Now Senate Democrats are countering with a plan that raises the excise tax by an additional nickel and uses that amount to fund transit -- while getting around the two-thirds vote requirement for raising taxes and still gutting the initiative.
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FTA Won’t Fund BART Airport Connector, $70 Million to Go to Transit Ops
SF Streetsblog - February 12, 2010
By Matthew Roth
In a stern letter to BART, Federal Transit Association (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff informed the agency that it would not be able to develop a suitable action plan by March 5th to comply with equity and race requirements for the $70 million in stimulus funds for the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), a move that may kill the project. "Given the fact that the initial Title VI complaint against BART was well founded, I am not in a position to award the ARRA funds to BART while the agency remains out of compliance," wrote Rogoff. In his letter, Rogoff said he was sure the project opponents that filed the original complaint with the FTA would proceed with further lawsuits, jeopardizing the tight timeline on stimulus funds. He advised BART and MTC to reallocate the money or the region would risk losing the funds altogether.
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White House Economic Report Touts TIGER, High-Speed Rail, Transit
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – February 12, 2010
By Elana Schor
The White House Council of Economic Advisers' first annual report under President Obama made headlines today for its gloomy job-creation outlook, but tucked inside its 462 pages is a tangible reflection of a changed outlook on transportation policy under the new administration.  In a section entitled Rescuing the Economy From the Great Recession, for example, the president's economic aides name-check a series of "Responsible Policies to Spur Job Creation."  One of those policies -- which neither the House nor the Senate has chosen to add to their jobs bills this winter -- is an expansion of the stimulus law's merit-based TIGER grant program, which many transport reformers view as a step towards a leveling of the playing field between transit and roads.
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Drive to Delay Calif. Climate Law May Be Stuck in Neutral
New York Times – February 11, 2010
By Colin Sullivan (of ClimateWire)
An election-year push to suspend California's climate change law appears to be struggling amid rumors that supporters are having trouble raising enough money to gather the signatures needed to place the issue on the November ballot. The brains behind the initiative in the state Assembly, Republican Dan Logue, recently told the Los Angeles Times that his campaign had $600,000 available to fund the signature-gathering operation, which requires 433,000 signatures by April 16 to qualify for the general election. His measure as currently drafted would repeal the law, A.B. 32, until the state's unemployment rate dips to 5.5 percent. But many close to the process, including an ally of Logue, say the effort has flagged in recent weeks and has yet to begin gathering signatures with about two months left until the deadline.
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Slumburbia
New York Times - February 10, 2010
By Timothy Egan
LATHROP, Calif. — Drive along foreclosure alley, through new planned communities that look like tile-roofed versions of a 21st century ghost town, and you see what happens when people gamble with houses instead of casino chips. Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California’s San Joaquin Valley.  Nobody is home in the cities of the future. In a decade, they saw real property defy reality in real time in these insta-neighborhoods that sprouted in what had been some of the world’s most productive farmland.
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'Columbo' fights gas emissions law
Sacramento Bee – February 10, 2010
By Jim Sanders
As mismatches go, "Columbo" vs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may not rank with David vs. Goliath, but California's environmental and energy policy would be dramatically altered if the little guy wins this fight. "Columbo" is the nickname of freshman Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, who is battling to suspend a landmark greenhouse gas emissions law pushed by Democrats and touted as part of Schwarzenegger's environmental legacy. Never count Logue out, no matter the odds, warns Assemblyman Mike Villines, a Clovis Republican who pinned the "Columbo" nickname on his zealous but mild-mannered colleague.
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EPA and HUD Make Big Investments in Sustainable Development
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – February 8, 2010
By Elana Schor
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are making significant progress on their joint effort, with the U.S. DOT, to connect cleaner transportation options with affordable  housing and denser urban development. The latest moves came as Obama administration officials gathered in Seattle for the annual New Partners for Smart Growth conference, where HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan officially tapped Shelley Poticha and Ron Sims as leaders of his agency's sustainable communities office.  
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Racking up miles? Maybe not.
Washington Post – February 7, 2010
By Ashley Halsey III
Within a few years, a driver who pulls up to the gas pump may pay two bills with a single swipe of the credit card: one for the gas and the other for each mile driven since the last fill-up. That may be the result of what many transportation experts see as an inevitable revolution in the way Americans pay for their highways.  
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Effort underway to suspend California's global-warming law
LA Times – February 6, 2010
By Margot Roosevelt
Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.  Supporters say they have "solid commitments" of nearly $600,000 to pay signature gatherers for a November initiative aimed at delaying curbs on the greenhouse gas emissions of power plants and factories until the state's unemployment rate drops.
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Study Finds Livable Streets Even More Important for Kids than Adults
SF Streetsblog – February 5, 2010
By Michael Rhodes
By most measures, San Francisco is a great place to walk and bike, with its compact street grid, mixed-use neighborhoods and relatively mild weather. But a new study conducted by UC Berkeley professor Michael Jerrett suggests the city may need to focus on taming traffic before kids will get the full health benefits of that dense development.
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Bay Area transit projects get federal dollars
San Francisco Chronicle - February 2, 2010
By Michael Cabanatuan
Muni's Central Subway and its Van Ness Avenue rapid bus project, plus AC Transit's bus rapid transit project, each will be awarded tens of millions of dollars in federal funding today. 
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A Modest Proposal: Ask Developers to Help Pay For Better Transport
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - February 2, 2010
By Elana Schor
At today's debate on conservative support for transit, developer Chris Leinberger had a modest proposal for lawmakers who are desperately seeking new transportation financing strategies in an era of diminishing gas tax returns: Ask real-estate developers to pay for projects that will increase their profits. The concept is often referred to by the wonkish term "value capture," evaluated by the University of Minnesota in a groundbreaking study last fall.
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White House Budget Includes $530M for Local Sustainability, $1B for HSR
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - February 1, 2010
By Elana Schor
The White House officially unveiled its $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011 this morning, seeking $1 billion to continue its high-speed rail investment and $530 million for the transportation leg of the Obama administration's inter-agency push to promote sustainable planning on the local level.  The budget also proposes a $4 billion National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance Fund, a rechristened National Infrastructure Bank that would use federal money to leverage private capital for large-scale projects improving the nation's built environment. 
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State lawmakers take aim at free parking
LA Times – January 29, 2010
By Patrick McGreevy
State lawmakers are taking aim at what some of them see as a menace to California's environment: free parking.  There is too much of it, the legislators say, and it encourages people to drive instead of taking the bus, walking or riding a bike. All that motoring is contributing to traffic jams and pollution, according to state Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), and on Thursday he won Senate approval of a proposal he hopes will prompt cities and businesses to reduce the availability of free parking. 
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MTA Directors Get Another Earful on Muni Service Cuts and Fare Hikes
SF Streetsblog - January 29, 2010
By Michael Rhodes
Muni's budget saga continued today as the MTA Board heard details on proposed service cuts and future deficits, prompting a growing outcry from the city's transit riders. The cuts would include eliminating ten percent of Muni service, bringing frequencies on many routes to historic lows.  More than 45 members of the public spoke at the meeting, decrying the cuts and fare increases.
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Stimulus money will spur construction on California high-speed rail project, officials say
LA Times - January 29, 2010
By Dan Weikel
The $2.25 billion in federal stimulus funds awarded this week to the California high-speed rail project ensures that construction can proceed on a 520-mile route between Anaheim and San Francisco within three years, rail officials said Thursday.  Mehdi Morshed, executive director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the infusion of federal dollars would pay for completion of the project's engineering and environmental reviews and provide a significant amount of seed money to start building the system by September 2012, as required by the federal grant.
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New Report Links Homeowners’ Auto Dependence With Foreclosure Risk
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – January 28, 2010
By Elana Schor
Homeowners in car-dependent areas without access to alternative transportation are at greater risk of foreclosure, according to a report released yesterday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that calls for mortgage underwriting standards to begin taking so-called "location-efficiency" into account.  The NRDC examined data for 40,000 mortgages in Chicago, Jacksonville, and San Francisco, seeking to test the contention -- emphasized most often by the nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology -- that affordable housing should include transportation costs as well as mortgage bills.
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Download the report

Oakland’s Stimulus Flap: A Shot Across the Bow for Transport Equity?
Capitol Hill Streestblog - January 27, 2010
By Elana Schor
The Obama administration's warning that the Bay Area has jeopardized federal stimulus funding for its Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project could have national consequences for other urban transit proposals that risk harming low-income riders, civil rights and transit advocates predicted yesterday. Several Bay Area advocacy groups briefed the media on the civil-rights complaint they filed against the OAC, which the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) heeded last week in a letter that threatened to yank $70 million in stimulus money from the project unless planners comply with federal equity rules.
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Link to the FTA’s letter to the MTC and BART

New homes getting smaller
North County Times – January 23, 2010
By Eric Wolff
With homebuyers unable to borrow the tremendous sums that blew up the housing bubble, and buyers suddenly uninterested in the McMansions of yore, builders are focusing on smaller, more affordable houses that offer floor plans with reduced square footage and new amenities such as improved energy efficiency.  "We're offering the feel of a really large home with a smaller footprint, and more environmentally friendly," said Steve Ruffner, president of KB Homes of Southern California, one of the largest American homebuilders.
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Oakland airport connector could lose $70 million
San Francisco Chronicle – January 21, 2010
By Michael Cabanatuan
BART and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission could lose $70 million in federal stimulus funds to build the Oakland Airport Connector unless the agencies quickly complete an analysis of whether the project adversely affects minority communities.  Transit advocates and social justice groups have argued for the past year that BART needs to do such an analysis, and consider less-costly alternatives to the 3.2-mile automated rail link between the Oakland Coliseum BART Station and Oakland International Airport.
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How Will Obama’s Sustainability Team Spend Its $150M? A Preview
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – January 21, 2010
By Elana Schor
Before the U.S. DOT gave some early clues as to how the agency would craft its new transit funding rules, deputy housing and urban development (HUD) secretary Ron Sims answered another question that's been on the minds of transit and local-planning wonks: How will the Obama administration's three-agency partnership for sustainable communities spend its $150 million in funding for this year?
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Transit-oriented report creates a vision for 250-acre site in Ontario
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin – January 19, 2010
By Liset Marquez
A report released by the Urban Land Institute on Tuesday affirmed the city's vision for the 250-acre site known as the Meredith property. The city has long envisioned creating a core development centered on a transit plaza on the vacant land just north of the 10 Freeway and east of Vineyard Avenue. It is one of the few remaining large undeveloped sites in the city.
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New Transit-Funding Rules Make Streetcars More Desirable
Wall Street Journal – January 15, 2010
By Melanie Trottman And Josh Mitchell
The Obama administration said it was revamping rules on federal transit funding to funnel more of the money to streetcars, bus routes and other projects that promote "livability." The new policy announced Wednesday, part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to use transportation and housing programs to reduce driving, contain sprawl and create transit-related jobs, could lift the fortunes of makers of light-rail and other transit equipment sold to states and cities. 
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EPA Air Chief: We Need to Do More to Reduce VMT
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – January 14, 2010
By Elana Schor
Obama administration officials "need to align together" to work on reducing the nation's total vehicle miles traveled -- work that should go beyond a pending congressional climate bill -- the Environmental Protecti on Agency's (EPA) air-quality chief said today. Gina McCarthy, EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, acknowledged in a speech at EMBARQ's transportation conference that her agency as "less effective" working alone on crafting strategies to cut VMT.
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Big Transit News: Bush-Era Rule Tossed, Enviro Benefits on the Table
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - January 13, 2010
By Elana Schor
Transportation reformers and members of Congress have long clamored for changes to the federal government's major transit grant program, otherwise known as "New Starts," and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood answered today with an announcement of sweeping changes in the works.  The first move: LaHood's DOT will rescind a 2005 rule that elevated "cost-effectiveness" above all other criteria used to determine whether a local transit project can receive federal funds.
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What it will take to fix Bay Area transit crisis
San Jose Mercury News – January 13, 2010
By Mike Rosenberg, Bay Area News Group
For Bay Area transit agencies to emerge stronger from their plight, extensive changes will be required, most likely including new taxes and a shift in the way commuters travel and leaders plan cities. Experts, politicians, commuters and others interviewed for this series offered many ideas that could spur ridership and help public transit providers crawl out of budget holes. But there is doubt that the region can muster the political will to make the solutions happen. Several experts say land use and planning will play a key role.
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California Panel Considers Money From Climate Rules
New York Times - January 12, 2010
By Jesse McKinley
SAN FRANCISCO — Offering an early glimpse of how California might manage a central element of its ambitious greenhouse-gas law, a state committee has recommended that residents receive cash or tax breaks resulting from auctions of emission allowances to industries and other polluters.  Under the proposal, described by the committee as a “household friendly” approach, Californians would receive 75 percent of the proceeds from emissions auctions, either in tax decreases or checks sent directly to residents.  
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Should a Climate Bill Even Try to Fight Sprawl?
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – January 11, 2010
By Elana Schor
The potential for a cap-and-trade climate bill to set aside significant amounts of money for reforming local land use and transportation planning is often touted by Democrats, environmental groups, and this particular Streetsblogger.  But what does Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board and administrator of the state's landmark effort to cut emissions by changing development patterns, think of the idea of tackling sprawl via climate legislation?  "I don't necessarily think SB 375 [the California land-use bill] should be in a cap-and-trade bill," Nichols said today during a session of today's Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference devoted to climate change.
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Obama Administration Working on Its Own Six-Year Transportation Bill
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - January 11, 2010
By Elana Schor
The annual powwow of thousands of transportation workers, planners, and wonks that's known as the Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference kicked off in the capital yesterday with a candid admission from some senior U.S. DOT officials: reorienting American transport planning to accommodate the overlap with housing and environmental sustainability is proving pretty difficult. The subscription-only ClimateWire news service caught remarks from Beth Osborne, the Obama team's deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy, who said the administration's livability work has been slowed by laws that impede federal participation in local planning.
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Santa Ana Changing Laws to Allow Density
Orange County Register – January 11, 2010
By Doug Irving
City officials are working on a sweeping rewrite of the development rules for Santa Ana's downtown core that would clear the way for high-rise towers and hundreds of new homes. The city has not yet released a public draft of the proposal, which would represent an entirely new zoning code that tells developers what they can build, and where. But the city's director of redevelopment, Cynthia Nelson, said it comes directly from an earlier effort to refashion Santa Ana's downtown into a more-urban place.  That effort was known as the Renaissance Plan, and it envisioned hundreds of new lofts and apartments sharing space with shops, restaurants and offices.
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Public transit cuts will make Bay Area economic recovery difficult
San Jose Mercury News – January 11, 2010
By Mike Rosenberg, Bay Area News Service
The Bay Area may be headed down a longer, bumpier road in its journey from recession to recovery if public transit continues to carry fewer commuters.  As the region attempts to push toward economic recovery in 2010, transit agencies expect to be moving in the opposite direction, stuck offering service levels and fares established during the downturn - or worse. Experts question whether transit operators will be ready when residents start getting back to work, and whether service funding problems will in turn slow the region's economic recovery.
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Biggest loser in Bay Area transit debacle may be the environment
San Jose Mercury News – January 11, 2010
By Mike Rosenberg, Bay Area News Service
In the war over the future of public transit in the eco-obsessed Bay Area, the biggest casualty could prove to be the environment. Without a doubt, air quality inventories show that the best way to cut greenhouse gases in the region is by removing cars from the road. However, with the cost to drive plummeting and fare increases and service cuts making transit less practical, transit agencies are having problems retaining their old passengers, let alone attracting new ones. If that continues, the effects could be dramatic — more cars on the road could endanger human health, produce hazier air and contribute to rising sea levels.
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Committee rejects suspending Calif. greenhouse gas law
Legal Newsline – January 11, 2010
By Chris Rizo
A business-backed measure to put California's landmark climate change law on hold until the state's beleaguered economy improves was rejected Monday by a legislative committee. The state Assembly Natural Resources Committee, led by Democrats, rejected a call by state Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, to suspend a California law that calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions until the state unemployment rate has dropped below 5.5 percent for at least four consecutive quarters. The proposal would have suspended provisions of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, or Assembly Bill 32, signed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Running on empty: Bay Area transit in crisis
San Jose Mercury News – January 10, 2010
By Mike Rosenberg, Bay Area News Group
After enduring the most brutal year in the history of Bay Area public transit, train and bus operators are barreling down a track toward bankruptcy. The near-inevitable result will be costlier and longer commutes for all, whether they ride or drive. From BART to Caltrain to the Valley Transportation Authority, every Bay Area transit agency has increased fares and reduced train and bus service to plug deep budget holes. But the changes have produced fewer riders and even less revenue — leading some to worry that the transit system has entered a death spiral. Already, more than a million riders are spending extra money and time each day just to get around. And a staggering 66,000 daily riders have abandoned Bay Area transit in the past year — twice the number of drivers that go through the Dumbarton Bridge toll plaza every day.
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Viewpoints: With 'no regrets' we can lead the way
Sacramento Bee – January 9, 2010
Opinion -- by Tom Tomich
Tom Tomich is Director of the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute. 
After a buildup of lofty expectations, last month's climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, ended in disappointment. It could be a long time before the international community can come up with a united strategy to confront global warming. In the meantime, there are things Californians can do that will improve our lives, at little cost, that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and align us to where most of the world is heading on this important issue. These are what are known as "no-regrets strategies." They go beyond ideas for individual action, such as buying cloth grocery bags and compact fluorescent bulbs.
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Schwarzenegger declares budget emergency, proposes deep cuts
Sacramento Bee – January 8, 2010
By Steve Wiegand
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled an $82.9 billion state spending plan today that calls for no tax hikes but envisions pay cuts for state workers, reductions in services to California's neediest residents - and relies on the benevolence of the federal government.  The governor also declared yet another fiscal emergency, and called for yet another special session of the Legislature, designed to keep a projected $19.9 billion budget deficit from growing by another $2.4 billion.
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It’s Official: Governor’s Budget Shorts Public Transit Once Again
SF Streetsblog – January 8, 2010
By Bryan Goebel
Governor Schwarzenegger's budget, unveiled today at a Capitol press conference, confirms what transit agencies and advocates across the state have been fearing: a $1.5 billion proposed scheme to divert funds that would otherwise provide critical relief to California's struggling transit agencies."Once again, the governor offers shell games instead of solutions, and transit riders in California again suffer the consequences," said Joshua Shaw, the Executive Director of the California Transit Association (CTA). "The governor wants to disguise this as some sort of tax relief for families. What about the thousands of families who depend on public transit to get to work or to go out and buy food to put on their tables, the kids who need transit to get to school, or the elderly and disabled persons who rely on transit to access medical services? I guess they don't count."
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Oakland proposes bus and bike lane across city
San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Blog - January 7, 2010
By Jonathon Bair
It's been ten years since the cities of Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro decided to move forward with the creation of a 17-mile Bus Rapid Transit system from downtown Berkeley to downtown San Leandro. Bus Rapid Transit, also in the planning stages in San Francisco, is a successful and cost-effective means of expanding transit service, using bus-only lanes to take the buses out of car traffic and achieve rail-like reliability. Next week, Oakland will hold the first of six pubic meetings on its plan to implement Bus Rapid Transit on Telegraph Avenue and International Blvd. The plan proposes creating what may be California's longest complete street, with bike lanes, bus lanes, and pedestrian improvements across Oakland's portion of the entire 17-mile route.
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Effort to limit Valley sprawl hits crucial stage
Fresno Bee – January 4, 2010
By Russell Clemings
San Joaquin Valley leaders spent three years hammering out a plan to control urban sprawl. That was the easy part.  Now, as the Valley Blueprint Planning Process enters its fourth year, regional planners are shifting their focus to a thornier issue: How to change decades-old development patterns and put more people on less land.
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Economic Downturn Hits Transit Ridership — But Not in These Cities
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – January 4, 2010
By Elana Schor
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) got the mainstream media's attention during the holiday season after reporting that the dismal economy had helped push transit ridership down by 3.8 percent during the first three-quarters of 2009, when compared with the previous year.  But amid the bleak data from cities such as Cleveland, where rail ridership fell by more than 14 percent during the first nine months of 2009, and Miami, where the funding-starved Tri-Rail system saw more than 10 percent fewer riders during that period, the APTA report found some transit success stories. Los Angeles' Metro subway, one section of which topped 2020 ridership projections in its first year of operation, saw ridership grow by nearly 6 percent during the first nine months of 2009.
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Coalition fighting diversion of funds: State takes money to fix budget holes
San Diego Union-Tribune - January 3, 2010
By Steve Schmidt
A powerful alliance of interest groups wants to put an end to what it considers highway robbery. The League of California Cities, California Transit Association and other organizations have launched an initiative aimed at stopping state lawmakers from raiding transportation funds and other locally dedicated revenues to cover California’s chronic budget shortfalls. “We have to erect substantial roadblocks to keep this from happening,” said Chris McKenzie, executive director of the league. The coalition is collecting signatures for a proposed November ballot measure that would close any loopholes in the law that have allowed billions of dollars — much of it in sales taxes on gasoline — to be diverted from local agencies in recent years.
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Ambitious S.F. Downtown Transit Project Is at Hand
New York Times – January 2, 2010
By Brad Stone
In 2010, San Francisco will finally bring out the wrecking balls and cement mixers and embark on a grand overhaul of its downtown. The project could eventually result in a half-dozen new skyscrapers, including a 1,200-foot tower whose gracefully tapered top would add a defining element to the iconography of the upwardly mobile skyline. Much of this grand transformation, which would leave the 853-foot Transamerica pyramid as the second-tallest structure in the city, is still in the conceptual stages. The ambitious plan for a new urban neighborhood could be scaled back. But the centerpiece of the project — a $4.2 billion public transit hub — has enough financing to begin construction, and the first dirt could be turned as early as March.
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Air Quality Guidelines Face Unexpected Critics
NY Times – December 27, 2009
By Daniel Weintraub
California’s battle against greenhouse gases is likely to come to the Bay Area soon — with rules designed to reduce the carbon footprint of new housing and commercial development. That is a concept you might expect to be welcome in a region known for its environmental advocacy and hostility to growth. But some environmentalists and city planners fear that the new set of guidelines being considered by the region’s air quality regulators could have an unintended consequence, making it more difficult and more expensive for developers to construct buildings within already urbanized areas.
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Job woes reduce transit ridership
USA Today – December 20, 2009
By Marisol Bello
After a record year in 2008, the number of people riding buses and trains dropped in 2009 as unemployment rose and fewer people traveled to work. Last year, public transit ridership hit a 52-year high of 10.7 billion rides. This year, January-through-September ridership was down 4% from the first nine months of last year to 7.7 billion trips, according to new figures from the American Public Transportation Association. The number of rides fell in 146 of 197 bus systems and in 50 of 64 rail systems from January through September, compared with the same period in 2008. William Millar, the association's president, says Americans going to and from work make up 60% of transit use, so ridership drops as unemployment increases. Yet, he says, "the ridership fall is greater than expected because unemployment rose so quickly."
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Bay Area Advocates Unveil New VMT Reduction Incentive for Developers
SF Streetsblog - December 22, 2009
By Matthew Roth
Among the many strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and attendant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private vehicles, Bay Area smart growth advocate TransForm has developed a new certification called GreenTRIP to encourage architects, developers, and municipal officials to build transit-oriented development and implement transportation demand management (TDM) solutions for future tenants.  "What we strive to do with GreenTRIP is create something that is very easily implementable so that it can be done early in the development process," said Jeffrey Tumlin, Principal of Nelson Nygaard Consulting Associates and a member of GreenTRIP's advisory board. "We want to focus on the key things that developers and municipalities can do to have a positive impact on greenhouse gases."
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Bay Area Transportation Commission Starts Climate Sustainability Fund
SF Streetsblog – December 21, 2009
By Matthew Roth
Transportation advocates were thrilled last week when the nine-county Bay Area regional transportation planning and funding body, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), established a fluid pot of money for innovative transportation projects, from Safe Routes to School programs and bicycle educational campaigns, to parking policies and demand management strategies meant to reduce the over-reliance on automobiles.   "This is the first program in the country dedicated to sustainability through travel demand management, not more capacity," said Stuart Cohen, Executive Director of TransForm, a smart growth and transportation advocacy organization.
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California has keen interest in Copenhagen
San Francisco Chronicle – December 20, 2009
By Robert Collier
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a swarm of California officials came to the U.N. climate summit last week to brag about their state's accomplishments and show foreigners that it is the cutting edge of U.S. action to curb emissions. But like President Obama, they got caught in a train wreck of discord in the 13-day meeting that ended Saturday, as the 193 nations present agreed only to "take note" of a U.S.-brokered, nonbinding statement of intentions that glossed over the world's differences on who should shoulder which responsibilities in the fight against climate change.  The diplomatic clash set up a catch-22 for California. The inconclusive results of the climate negotiations have made the state's leadership in climate policy all the more important.
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Merced residents get a view of high-speed rail line options
Merced Sun-Star – December 19, 2009
By Jonah Owen Lamb
As the state's multibillion- dollar high-speed rail project steams ahead, the rail line's impacts on the Valley remain to be seen.  Several major decisions on the project remain and will not be decided until the environmental studies are complete in 2011. Those decisions include the route through Merced, its impact on agriculture land and whether or not a maintenance yard, and its jobs, will end up here. On Thursday night local residents and farmers voiced their concerns and enthusiasm for the project at an information session in the Merced Senior Center.   While excitement about the project was palpable, there were many on Thursday who were guardedly skeptical about the project.  Most of that concern came from local growers.
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Another Court Decision in Favor of California Transit Agencies
SF Streetsblog - December 17, 2009
By Matthew Roth
In another rebuff to California's practice of moving spillover funding from the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund to fill the hole in the state's General Fund, a Superior Court ruled on Monday that the state had to pay back the approximately $1.2 billion it diverted from transit operators in the 2007-2008 budget cycle. The state has until April 1st to present the courts with its plan to restore the STA and replenish its reserves, though transit operators and their lobbying association hope negotiations and the blueprint for repayment come much sooner. "It continues the trend of legal rulings in our favor," said California Transit Association (CTA) spokesperson Jeff Wagner, though he cautioned that the ruling would not move mountains overnight and the state is still strapped for cash. "For practical purposes, this just serves as a guideline to work out some way the state to restore those funds."
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Transit Jobs Nearly Twice as Cheap to Create as Roads — By Congress’ Math
DC Streetsblog - December 17, 2009
By Elana Schor
During the first stimulus debate, House Democrats and the White House famously sparred over how quickly infrastructure money could be spent -- with the data later proving that transit was just as "shovel-ready" as roads, if not more so.  Now that transportation policymakers have turned to stemming the rising unemployment rate, three transit advocacy groups examined the age-old question of how many jobs are created per $1 billion of spending on transit versus roads.  But this study, conducted by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), Smart Growth America (SGA), and the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, used numbers taken directly from the stimulus job-creation reports that every state sends to the House transportation committee.
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Senate Climate Bill Invests Big in Transit, Reaps Big Deficit Reduction
DC Streetsblog - December 17, 2009
By Elana Schor
As the Copenhagen climate talks reach a turning point, congressional negotiations over emissions cuts are taking a back seat to global debate. But some undeniably good news on the domestic front came late yesterday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  The CBO found that the Senate environment committee's climate bill, which would nearly triple the House's investment in clean transportation, would decrease the federal deficit by "about $21 billion" during its first 10 years and result in net spending decreases even after that point.   
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Bus vs. Rail: Transit’s Quiet Culture Clash?
DC Streetsblog – December 14, 2009
By Elana Schor
The question of running buses or building rail has preoccupied transit planners in many an American town, with Maryland's Montgomery County being the latest locality to choose between trains and bus rapid transit (BRT), which tends to be the less expensive option. But another, far thornier aspect of the bus versus rail debate has made its way into the public dialogue, giving fodder to transit-minded bloggers from Matt Yglesias to Atrios: Is there a cultural bias against buses? The issue, fraught with social equity implications, made its way into a debate on conservatives and transit held today by Transportation for America.
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MTA approves South L.A.-South Bay light-rail line
LA Times – December 11, 2009
By Ari B. Bloomekatz
A new light-rail system through South Los Angeles and the South Bay was approved by transit officials Thursday, but some local politicians and residents worry that the rail line could pose similar problems that have hampered other projects.  The 8 1/2 -mile line is the biggest beneficiary to date of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects that L.A. County voters approved last year. But some residents and officials want more of the line underground, saying that it would reduce accidents, ease community concerns and speed up the line.
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More costly, complicated bridge tolls ahead
San Francisco Chronicle - December 10, 2009
By Michael Cabanatuan
Commuting across Bay Area toll bridges would become more complicated as well as more costly under a proposal recommended Wednesday. Under the plan, which would take effect in July to cover seismic upgrade projects and increased operating costs, Bay Bridge commuters would have to start paying different tolls during commute and noncommute hours, carpoolers would begin paying for their passage, and drivers crossing the other six bridges would see their tolls climb $1 to $5. Truck drivers would see their tolls rise sharply, but they wouldn't have to start paying the higher fees until 2011.
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A Message from Copenhagen: Climate Plan Must Include Walkable Urbanism
New York Streetsblog – December 9, 2009
By Ben Fried
At a panel discussion yesterday at the Copenhagen climate summit, American policymakers and transit experts delivered a clear message: Walkable urban development must be part of any effective plan to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the magic of live webcasts, I can relay a few highlights for Streetsblog readers. Without directing future development toward walkable urbanism, the climate impacts of sprawl will overwhelm other efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, said Robert Cervero, a professor specializing in transportation and land use policy at UC Berkeley.
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House and Senate Agree on $2.5B for High-Speed Rail — And More
DC Streetsblog - December 9, 2009
By Elana Schor
After lengthy negotiations, the House and Senate agreed last night on a massive "omnibus" spending bill that includes $2.5 billion for high-speed rail -- a compromise between the two chambers -- as well as $150 million for the Obama administration's sustainable communities effort and $150 million for the Washington D.C. Metro system.  The final legislation omits the $5 billion the White House had sought for its proposed National Infrastructure Bank, with Appropriations Committee members noting in a statement that "due to the complexity of this proposal, it should be considered through the regular authorization process."
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EPA: Greenhouse gases a public health threat
CNN – December 7, 2009
Greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to public health and welfare, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday.  "The overwhelming amount of scientific studies show that the threat is real," she said.  The announcement stems from a Supreme Court ruling which ordered the agency to determine the impact of carbon emissions not only on the environment, but on public health. "These long-overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the year when the United States government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean energy reform," Jackson said.
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NY and CA: How Did They Spend Transportation Stimulus Money?
DC Streetsblog - December 7, 2009
By Elana Schor
In an economic recovery report released today by New York Gov. David Paterson (D), the state broke down its plans for the estimated $31 billion it received as part of the Obama administration's first stimulus law.  A chart of New York's stimulus spending shows that, out of a total of $2.4 billion in expected transportation aid, the state plans to direct $1.12 billion to highways and bridges and $1.22 to transit.  With the federal government still dividing its transport funding along an 80-20 split that favors roads, New York's decision to spend $100 million more stimulus aid on transit represents a welcome break from tradition. In California, where San Francisco and Los Angeles maintain large transit networks, roads received slightly more than double the amount of stimulus aid going to rail and buses. Directly comparing New York and California's transportation funding choices would be the epitome of the old idiom about apples and oranges. But as the congressional jobs debate sharpens its focus on infrastructure projects, it's worth noting that the roads-transit split is only one chapter in a bigger story.
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Transit Advocates Will Push Lawmakers to Rethink Transit Funding Cuts
SF Streetsblog - December 4, 2009
By Michael Rhodes
It's no secret that transit agencies across California are reeling from years of raids on state transit assistance funds. A third of the MTA's $129 million budget shortfall this spring resulted from those raids, a $42.8 million loss for the agency, and statewide, nearly $3.4 billion in transit-dedicated funding has been diverted from local agencies over the past three years. Just two months after a court ruling that found that raiding to be illegal, without requiring the funds to be returned, transit advocates are planning to let the Legislature know how deeply the cuts have impacted transit, in the hope that lawmakers won't scheme to raid the funds again as California inevitably faces future budget crises.
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Google Earth explores climate risks to California
Associated Press – December 3, 2009
By Samantha Young
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Google Inc. launched a new feature in its Google Earth Web site Wednesday designed to let Californians see the risks of climate change.  Google unveiled the new interactive tool in San Francisco as part of a climate change press conference by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The feature, called CalAdapt, was one of the recommendations of a 200-page state report detailing how California should prepare for climate change.  The report warns rising temperatures over the next few decades will lead to more heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods. It recommends avoiding development in low-lying areas vulnerable to rising sea level, storm surges and coastal erosion. Not all the responsibility lies with state government, however. "The 800-pound gorilla is land-use and making changes at the local level," said Tony Brunello, deputy secretary for climate change and energy at the California Natural Resources Agency, who helped prepare the report.
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Sierra Madre withholds dues from regional planning organization
Pasadena Star-News – December 2, 2009
By Alfred Lee
SIERRA MADRE - City officials say they are taking a symbolic stand against statewide planning mandates "not based on reality" by withholding membership dues to a regional planning organization. Officials are frustrated with the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), which is charged with implementing statewide mandates that include affordable housing requirements and a recently passed anti-sprawl bill. The mandates could bring unwanted development to the city and are based on unrealistic population and job growth projections, some city officials say. At the most recent City Council meeting, officials decided for the second time to defer paying a $1,000 membership fee to SCAG. Officials had previously deferred fee payment in September, when the payments are supposed to be due. "It's more of a symbolic thing. It wouldn't matter if it's a thousand dollars or a hundred dollars or ten dollars or a dollar," Councilman Don Watts said. "We're basically sending them a message that we're not happy with the way things are being done in Sacramento.
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Bay Area pollution district eyes first guidelines for reducing global warming
Contra Costa Times – December 1, 2009
By Denis Cuff
California developers seeking city or county building approval have to look at how their projects affect traffic, schools, water, smog and wildlife. They may have to add a new concern: global warming. The Bay Area's air pollution district is proposing the nation's first-ever guidelines for when projects would produce enough global warming gases to warrant an environmental review of ways to reduce them. Pollution agency administrators call their plan a bold step to guide local governments in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from new housing subdivisions, office buildings, schools, baseball parks, movie theaters and other developments. Projects typically lead to more energy and vehicle use, producing more carbon dioxide and other global warming gases.
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Lancet Study: We Must Reduce Auto Dependency
Streetsblog Network – November 30, 2009
By Sarah Goodyear
Streetsblog Network group, Austin on Two Wheels, threw a link up on Twitter to a very intriguing article published last week in the influential medical journal The Lancet. According to the Montréal Gazette, the researchers concluded that infrastructure spending should be diverted from road building to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure for a variety of public health reason
Link to Streetsblog post
Link to Lancet article, “Cutting Carbon, Improving Health” (registration required)

Ruling jeopardizes some affordable housing laws
San Francisco Chronicle – November 27, 2009
By Robert Selna
Housing developers in San Francisco and across the state appear to have won a major victory in the battle over whether they must provide affordable housing as part of new projects.  Late last month, the California Supreme Court declined to review and therefore let stand a lower court decision precluding the city of Los Angeles from enforcing affordable housing rules on a new apartment development.  The ruling in the case, Palmer/Sixth Street Properties vs. City of Los Angeles, appears to mean that builders in California would prevail in challenges to local rules mandating that a percentage of units in new apartment buildings be rented at rates affordable to residents earning below the area median income.
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Life Without Measure R: Massive Transit Cuts in Orange County
LA Streetsblog – November 23, 2009
By Damien Newton
Earlier today the Orange County Transit Authority's Board of Directors voted, by a 14-1 margin, to cut 150,000 hours of transit service by early next year.  Believe it or not, the plan was actually an improvement from an earlier draft of the cuts had 300,000 hours of service. While transit advocates, such as the outstanding writers at Transit Rider O.C., have focused their advocacy efforts at the Board of Directors; the fiscal mess at the state level and the Governor's illegal desire to raid transit funds to alleviate said mess made today's vote a decision on where to make cuts not if to make cuts. 
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Housing bust halts growing suburbs
USA Today – November 20, 2009
By Haya El Nasser
The recession and housing collapse have halted four decades of double-digit growth for nearly half of the nation's biggest rapidly expanding suburbs. Twenty-four of the 53 cities of 100,000 or more that grew by at least 10% every decade since 1970 lost population in the last two years. Fifteen are likely to end the decade with less than a 10% gain in population, largely because of recent losses. 
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Transit Use is Growing, But Not Where You Think
Planetizen – November 19, 2009
By Nate Berg
Since the 1950s, public transit hasn't exactly been the primary focus of most American cities. But it's out there, in pockets. New York City's subway system carries 1.5 billion riders per year. Washington D.C.'s metro sees a little more than 200 million annually. Chicago's carries about the same. By U.S. standards these systems are well-used and extensive. But the big boys of American transit aren't the whole story. Transit use is growing in many U.S. metropolitan areas, and the strongest growth is occurring where you might not expect. Metro areas like Charlotte, NC, Detroit, MI, and Riverside, CA, have seen the nation's highest increases in transit use between 2006 and 2008.
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Judge rejects challenges to Sacramento railyard project
Sacramento Bee – November 18, 2009
By Tony Bizjak
A Sacramento judge has handed the city a key court victory in a dispute over the future of retail growth in downtown. Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly ruled the city adequately studied traffic and other impacts of its planned railyard development project – a mix of stores, housing and offices on vacant land in the northwest corner of downtown. The city's environmental analysis was challenged in two lawsuits, one by Downtown Plaza, LLC, the struggling shopping mall centered on K Street a few blocks from the railyard.  Sacramento officials called the Nov. 6 ruling a validation of the city's analysis for what they say will be a densely packed, transit-oriented project on the 240-acre site, even though it means increased traffic downtown.
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Regional workshop in Ontario discusses reducing greenhouse emissions
Contra Costa Times – November 18, 2009
By Liset Marquez
ONTARIO - It was just the beginning, the start of discussions on a new state law that targets reducing greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles for 2020 and 2035. Local government and planning officials on Wednesday gathered at the Ontario Convention Center to talk about how future growth will impact the progress of implementing Senate Bill 375. Members of the committee discussed the part of the bill - a sustainable community strategy - that integrates planning elements of transportation, land-use and housing with the targets to reduce greenhouse emissions.  "We have to take ownership of the issue and having a sustainable community strategy is the best way to go about it," said panelist Linda Parks, a Ventura County supervisor.
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Counties diverge on plan to widen the 405 Freeway
LA Times - November 17, 2009
By Tami Abdollah
Orange County's plan to widen a traffic-clogged stretch of the 405 Freeway is facing unexpected opposition from some residents along the route and has generated new debate over the divergent transportation priorities of L.A. and Orange counties. The plan targets one of the region's biggest traffic trouble spots, where 300,000 cars travel each day between Irvine and the L.A. County border. Without the improvement, Orange County transportation officials said maximum commute times during peak hours will continue to increase. But critics say the project is a prime example of a lack of regional coordination between Orange and Los Angeles counties.
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Homes approved as part of flea market conversion to transit village
Mercury News – November 16, 2009
By Ian Bauer, Berryessa Sun
City officials have paved the way for transit-oriented housing next to the proposed Bay Area Rapid Transit station near San Jose Flea Market. San Jose City Council voted 8-2 on Oct. 20 to approve a rezoning ordinance to allow 88 detached single-family housing units on 3.5 acres on the north end of an overall 120.4-acre parcel.  
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After decades of waiting, their trains have arrived
LA Times – November 16, 2009
By Ari B. Bloomekatz and Hector Becerra
The sun had not yet risen when the first commuter train in nearly half a century set off from downtown to East Los Angeles, extending a new line of public transportation to some of the city's most underserved neighborhoods. At 3:40 a.m. Sunday the first passengers were train enthusiasts, students and workers for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which built the six-mile Gold Line extension. A few hours later, the neighborhood showed up.  More than 50,000 people were estimated to have taken part in a festive day of celebration and free rides.
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Feds Propose to Expand Opportunities for Biking and Walking to Transit
DC Streetsblog - November 16, 2009
By Elana Schor
When it comes to infrastructure improvements that encourage more people to walk or bicycle to transit stations, how long will commuters be willing to travel? The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has officially answered that question, proposing a significant expansion of the rules governing how close bike-ped projects should be to transit in order to receive government funding.  The FTA's new rules, released for public comment on Friday, replace the previous definition of the so-called "structural envelope" surrounding a transit station.
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State exploring detailed strategy for growth
San Francisco Chronicle - November 8, 2009
By John King
With little fanfare and a modest budget, work has begun that could lead to something California has never had - an explicit government vision for how and where the state should grow.  The official action is modest, a $2.5 million contract to devise a set of detailed growth scenarios for California, from classic suburban sprawl to compact development focused on older cities. The goal is to produce a single "preferred scenario" - one that conceivably could be used to prod local governments to accept or reject new construction.  This sort of top-down planning would alter politics in California, where cities and counties for decades have deflected any initiatives that might crimp their autonomy. The difference now: legislative efforts to reduce the state's carbon emission levels, and voter support of a high-speed rail system that could put now-distant portions of the Central Valley within commuting distance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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S.F. transportation costs lower than in suburbs
San Francisco Chronicle - November 4, 2009
By John King
Planners and transit buffs routinely make the case that Bay Area residents can reap benefits by living close to their jobs and the errands of the day.  Now comes a study that translates the payoff into dollars and cents - such as how the average San Francisco household spends roughly $500 less on transportation each month than households in such suburban outposts as Antioch or Livermore.  The estimates are contained in a report being released today by the Urban Land Institute with the all-encompassing title of "Bay Area Burden: Examining the costs and impacts of housing and transportation on Bay Area residents, their neighborhoods and the environment."
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Imagine: L.A. bicyclists in the driver's seat, one day a week
La Times - November 4, 2009
By Matthew Fleischer
Imagine Los Angeles without cars. A town where people ride their bikes and walk in the streets and the smells of tacos and veggie burgers drift through the air instead of exhaust.  Sound like a pipe dream? Not if a group called cicLAvia is successful. A volunteer coalition of bicycle advocates, transportation experts, artists and academics, cicLAvia wants to make Sundays in Los Angeles virtually car-free -- transforming the city's streets into giant bike lanes and creating a public space that connects every neighborhood in the city.
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Cities grapple with state law on land use and greenhouse gases
The Press-Enterprise – November 4, 2009
By DUANE W. GANG
Elected leaders from throughout Riverside County continued debating Wednesday about how to handle state legislation designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by changing how officials plan future growth. The bill known as SB 375, which took effect in January, calls for the planning of new development and communities around transportation hubs, the idea being to reduce the number of cars and light trucks on the region's roads and freeways. But many Inland leaders have viewed the legislation skeptically, arguing the bill strips local officials of their land-use authority. Many are worried about the costs.
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Senate Democrats Poke Holes in GOP’s Climate Change ‘Boycott’
DC Streetsblog – November 3, 2009
By Elana Schor
Republicans on the Senate environment committee made good on their vow to boycott this morning's first meeting on climate change legislation, leaving Democrats to poke holes in the GOP's insistence on a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis of the bill.  Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) visited the environment panel this morning to read a statement (viewable above) calling for the EPA to take more time examining the climate bill's costs while using a more negative model than the agency used in its initial analysis of the legislation, released late last month. Voinovich left the committee room soon afterward, leaving the panel's Democrats to question David McIntosh, the EPA's associate administrator for congressional affairs, on the relative irrelevance of performing another climate bill analysis.
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San Jose Provides Model for Bay Area Growth and Transportation Needs
SF Streetsblog, October 30, 2009
By Matthew Roth
In our ongoing coverage of the adverse affects of traffic engineers' over-reliance on automobile level of service (LOS) measurements, we've examined how new amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) would allow local jurisdictions greater freedom in choosing whether they want to develop their cities for cars or for transit, cycling, and livable streets.  Simply put, if the CEQA amendments are codified, cities all over the state could become more like San Jose.  While San Francisco labors with the development of its auto trip generation (ATG) metric and could spend a year or more setting a development impact fee that would go to improving transit, cycling and pedestrian safety, San Jose completed a citywide transportation environmental impact statement (EIS) in 2002 and adopted its vision for sustainable, transit-oriented growth in 2005.
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Senate Climate Bill Triples the House’s Investments in Clean Transportation
DC Streetsblog - October 26, 2009
By Elana Schor
The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances" -- the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system -- that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American economy.   And the release brought good news for clean transportation: The Senate has largely tripled the share of allowances set aside by the House for transit, inter-city rail, and other efforts to trim transport-based emissions.
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Transit Creates As Many Jobs As Roads — But it Could Do Even Better
DC Streetsblog - October 22, 2009
By Elana Schor
Members of Congress remain intensely focused on health care this fall, but as the unemployment rate hits double digits in more states, their No. 2 priority is best summed up in three words: Jobs, jobs, jobs. House Democrats held a job-creation powwow yesterday that gave transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) an opening to press yet again for speedy enactment of his long-term infrastructure bill as a means to boost hiring.  And transit advocates lent their voice to that call today, releasing a report on the green jobs generated by investment in rail and buses. Today's report, released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) offers a definitive completion of the Washington idiom that estimates how many jobs would be created by $1 billion of federal spending.
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Download the report ("Economic Impact of Public Transportation Investment")

How to Get More Bicyclists on the Road: To boost urban bicycling, figure out what women want
Scientific American – October 16, 2009
By Linda Baker
Getting people out of cars and onto bicycles, a much more sustainable form of transportation, has long vexed environmentally conscious city planners. Although bike lanes painted on streets and automobile-free “greenways” have increased ridership over the past few years, the share of people relying on bikes for transportation is still less than 2 percent, based on various studies. An emerging body of research suggests that a superior strategy to increase pedal pushing could be had by asking the perennial question: What do women want?
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Congestion Pricing: Still Good For Basically Everyone
DC Streetsblog - October 13, 2009
By Ryan Avent
Urbanists often find themselves falling into a pattern of thinking that boils down to the dictum that what's good for drivers must be bad for walkability, and sustainability, and all the things that they prize about well-designed cities. Drivers seem to believe this too, which is interesting because it often isn't true. Take performance parking. Both urbanists (and drivers) seem to believe that it's good (or bad), because it makes parking more expensive, which is bad (or good) for drivers. But this assumes that a free parking system, where open spots are almost never available, is desirable for drivers.
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How Traffic Jams Help the Environment
Wall Street Journal – October 9, 2009
By DAVID OWEN
By requiring car drivers to pay a fee to drive in a city at peak hours, congestion pricing reduces traffic and raises money that can be used to support public transit—both worthy goals.  Yet congestion pricing has dubious environmental value. Traffic jams, if they're managed well, can actually be good for the environment. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or pedestrians.
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Work to start on new Sacramento light-rail route
Sacramento Bee - October 9, 2009
By Tony Bizjak
It may look like the train to nowhere. But Sacramento Regional Transit officials are convinced it's an example of how to do transit right.  Despite financial woes, RT breaks ground next week on step one of a long-standing plan to build light rail from downtown to Natomas and, eventually, the airport.  The first step is a short one, running a lonely mile through vacant land from the county courthouse at Eighth and H streets to a terminus amid warehouses and back offices in a largely industrial area on Richards Boulevard. Extension of the line over the American River is unlikely to happen before 2014, the airport connection not before 2017, RT officials said.
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Two More Senate Dems Back Plan to Devote Climate Money to Transit
DC Streetsblog – October 8, 2009
By Elana Schor
This week has brought news of a brewing compromise on the Senate climate change bill, introduced last month amid signals that the upper chamber would give only a bit more to clean transportation than the House's meager 1 percent set-aside of revenue from cap-and-trade carbon regulations.  The stirrings of a Senate climate deal, first reported by ClimateWire, focus on expanding the bill's nuclear incentives and offshore drilling provisions to win over conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans.
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High court says state can't raid transit funds
San Francisco Chronicle – October 2, 2009
By Matthew Yi
The California Supreme Court has left intact a lower court's ruling that the state illegally raided money intended for local public transit projects, a decision that could leave the cash-strapped state on the hook for up to $3.6 billion.  The lawsuit is one of several facing the state over its spending plans, which have repeatedly relied on accounting gimmicks such as the transfer of funds from one state account to another.  This week's case began in 2007 when the California Transit Association sued the state after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature approved a budget that took $1.2 billion from public transit for other uses.
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New Findings Suggest 4 Degree Warming Could Happen Within a Human Lifetime
From the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
One of the UK’s leading climate scientists has presented new research findings on the increasing potential for a 4 degrees Celsius rise in global temperatures if the current high emissions of greenhouse gasses continue.  Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, will present the new findings at a special conference called 4 degrees and beyond at Oxford University. The Met Office research describes the possibility of a 4 degree warming happening before the end of the century, with some extreme regional implications. This high emissions scenario is based on no action being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, starting in the next few years. If carbon cycle feedbacks are strong then a 4 degree warming could occur even earlier.
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State reveals detailed high-speed train plans from San Francisco to San Jose
San Mateo County Times – October 1, 2009
By Mike Rosenberg
Love it or hate it, the California high-speed train will bolt through each neighborhood along the Caltrain tracks on either 20-foot high rail bridges, alongside the current railroad, or underground, according to state plans revealed Wednesday.  The California High-Speed Rail Authority released the much-anticipated "alternatives analysis," by far the most detailed view yet of how the massive project will forever transform the region from San Francisco to San Jose. The $40 billion bullet train will whisk passengers at speeds up to 125 mph along the Caltrain corridor and travel to Los Angeles, with service expected to begin late next decade.
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New Report: 10% Transit Growth Would Help Meet House Climate Target
DC Streetsblog - September 22, 2009
By Elana Schor
A 10 percent annual increase in U.S. transit ridership would reduce CO2 emissions by 180 million tons each year, taking the nation halfway to the target set by the House climate change bill within three years, according to a report released today by Environment America and the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The report, timed to coincide with the growing debate over transit's role in the final version of the congressional climate bill, includes a wealth of useful and surprising data about how last year's much-discussed rise in transit use translates into reduced driving and environmental benefits.
Link to article
Download report (502 KB pdf)

Obama Administration Sends $100M in Stimulus Aid to 43 Transit Agencies
SF Streetsblog - September 21, 2009
By Elana Schor
The U.S. DOT announced today that 43 local transit agencies from more than two dozen states would share the $100 million in competitive clean-transport grants included in this winter's $787 billion economic stimulus law.  The big winners in the bid for extra transit stimulus money were Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Oakland, and the state of Connecticut, all of which won more than $4 million in federal aid to modernize and upgrade their transit systems.
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Judge rules for bullet train backers, allows work to go forward
San Jose Business Journal - September 15, 2009
By Eric Young
California high-speed rail officials may continue environmental studies on a large section of the planned bullet train route, following a judge’s ruling.  Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny denied efforts by bullet train opponents to stop environmental studies on a proposed route between San Francisco and the Central Valley.
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Study: Denser development may cut pollution
USA Today – September 9, 2009
By Haya El Nasser
Would Americans drive less if they stopped living on big lots far from urban centers? If so, would that reduce pollution and dependence on energy? By how much? Meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in neighborhoods designed to encourage walking could significantly reduce the number of miles Americans drive while giving people more housing choices, a national research panel has concluded.  How much it would shrink the nation's carbon footprint is not as clear. Such questions, which have dominated the debate over "smart growth" for two decades, are getting the attention of lawmakers.
Link to article

How Much Would Most People Pay For a Shorter Commute?
DC Streetsblog – September 9, 2009
By Elana Schor
As Washington conventional wisdom has it, raising gas taxes or creating a vehicle miles traveled tax to pay for transportation is impossible during the current recession. After all, who would want to squeeze cash-strapped commuters during tough economic times?  As it turns out, the public is very willing to pay for the shorter commuting times that result from less traffic -- and they're willing to pay top dollar, as IBM's new Commuter Pain Index (CPI) shows. When asked what value they would place on every 15 minutes sliced from their daily commute, 36.5 percent of CPI respondents said between $10 and $20. That's about five times the recent trading price of a ton of carbon emissions on the nation's climate-change exchanges.
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State cuts imperil program to preserve farmland
LA Times - August 30, 2009
By Catherine Saillant
Reporting from Visalia, Calif. - Strolling through emerald groves of orange trees, Tulare County citrus grower Allen Ishida said he reckons he'll have to sell some of his 270 acres to pay higher property taxes should his county pull out of a threatened farmland preservation program. Thirty miles down California 99, third-generation almond grower Don Davis was making similar calculations.  Davis figures he could rip out rows of almond trees stretching over 480 acres near McFarland in Kern County and sell the land, if necessary. He'd have no choice, Davis said. His property taxes would probably triple from $44,000.
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When the housing crash ends, how will Sacramento grow?
Sacramento Bee – August 27, 2009
By Jim Wasserman
Someday this housing crash will end. Judging from history, Sacramento's ranks of developers will snap right back into growth mode – building a fresh wave of new homes. The big question: Will this new wave of growth create a more urban, compact Sacramento, as many community activists and politicians hope? Or will it follow the time-tested pattern of past booms in the late 1970s, the second half of the 1980s and the first half of this decade, pushing ever-larger homes farther into farmland?
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Momentum Builds for CA High Speed Rail
LA Streetsblog - August 25, 2009
By Damien Newton
The case has already been made that California is ahead of the game when it comes to planning for High Speed Rail.  In addition to having a route ready to go, last November voters approved a $9.9 billion bond for the project that will cover nearly one quarter of the $40 billion project. In fact, California is so far ahead of other states, that The Business Insider, a publication that until recently had been questioning the potential success of sending money towards High Speed Rail, suggested that instead of helping every deserving project around the country the federal government should send all of the money to California.
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The Power of Transit-Oriented Development
DC Streetsblog – August 25, 2009
By Ryan Avent
Back in the late 1970s, when Washington's Metrorail system first began operating in Arlington County, Virginia, the future of Arlington and other old, inner suburbs was far from certain. Meanwhile, Fairfax County was enjoying a stunning period of growth. People were flocking by the hundreds of thousands to Fairfax's sprawling residential subdivisions, and employment centers popped up and grew rapidly around freeway interchanges.  The future looked as though it belonged to Fairfax County, and Arlington's decision to target development around its new Metro stations seemed quixotic and anachronistic.  But now, with the benefit of thirty years of hindsight, Arlington seems to have been extraordinarily foresighted in its decision to grow around Metro.
Link to article

Crunching June Stimulus Numbers: Roads Create Pricier Jobs Than Transit
DC Streetsblog - August 19, 2009
by Elana Schor
Transportation spending under the economic stimulus law created close to 15,000 jobs in June, or three times as many as were created in May, according to estimates released today by the U.S. DOT.  Those numbers are bound to hearten Obama administration officials who have defended the stimulus' 6-percent investment in infrastructure in the face of congressional criticism.  But they also lend credence to transit advocates who have long promoted their sector's ability to create the "green jobs" the White House craves.
Link to article

Public transportation stalled by US recession - study
Forbes.com - August 18, 2009
By Reuters News Service
Faced with dwindling funds and increased demand, public transit agencies across the United States are weighing service cuts or fare increases to deal with budget deficits, with San Francisco raising its ticket fees the most over the last year, a study released on Tuesday said.   Several of the largest transit agencies are facing projected deficits, with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority topping the list with a deficit equal to 18 percent of its operating budget, according to the study by transit advocates Transportation For America and Transportation Equity Network.
Link to article

Sacramento Project ‘Almost a City in Itself’
New York Times – August 11, 2009
By MORRIS NEWMAN
SACRAMENTO — The western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad is a forlorn place these days. All that is left of the historic railyards are seven immense brick buildings, the remnants of an era when this site was the busiest industrial center in northern California. There is little indication yet of a $5.3 billion redevelopment plan to transform the site.  But the old railroad buildings are expected to come back to life as the retail portion of a huge project called the Sacramento Railyards.
Link to article

Opinion: A gas tax makes the most sense for California
The Mercury News – August 10, 2009
By Joseph Bankman (Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School)
The bipartisan commission set up to reform California's tax system is considering reducing income tax rates and increasing the gas tax. That's a great idea. The income tax raises revenue but affects behavior in unfavorable ways. A tax on business discourages investment, and a tax on personal income discourages savings or labor. Increasing the tax on gas will also affect behavior, but in a favorable direction. Californians will drive less, and that will reduce pollution, urban sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Loss of tax break a 'recipe for urban sprawl,' farmers say
The Record – August 6, 2009
By Zachary K. Johnson
STOCKTON - Among the final millions of dollars shaved from the state's budget was $28 million the state would have paid into a program to give property owners a tax break as long as they make a long-term commitment to keep farming their land instead of selling it off for development. The move does not kill the program created by the 1965 Williamson Act, but it does end backfill payments to local governments who enter into contracts with farmers to keep property tax bills down while encouraging continued agricultural use of their land.
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Senators Propose $4 Billion for Transit-Oriented Development Grants
DC Streetsblog - August 6, 2009
By Elana Schor
Making good on a vow first reported in Streetsblog Capitol Hill, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and three colleagues today offered a bill authorizing $4 billion in grants to help states and cities pursue transit-oriented development, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and other green transport projects.
Link to article

Report: California must adapt to changing climate
Mercury News – August 3, 2009
By Samantha Young (AP)
Even if the world is successful in cutting carbon emissions in the future, California needs to start preparing for rising sea levels, hotter weather and other effects of climate change, a new state report recommends. It encourages local communities to rethink future development in low-lying coastal areas, reinforce levees that protect flood-prone areas and conserve already strapped water supplies.
Link to article

Modesto growth policies called poor: City ranks low in study of efforts toward sustainability
Modesto Bee – August 2, 2009
By Garth Stapley
Disunity at Modesto's highest level on how to approach growth contributed to the city's embarrassingly low score in a recent university study. Modesto also suffers from poor public support for planning and progressive transportation policies, University of California at Davis researchers found after looking at the Central Valley's 100 cities. "Achieving Sustainability in California's Central Valley" concluded that its largest cities embrace the best smart-growth policies, with Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton and Bakersfield ranking among the top nine. Modesto provided the sole exception, coming way down the list at No. 55.
Link to article

Complete Streets Could Help America Lose Weight, Says CDC
SF Streetsblog – July 30, 2009
By Sarah Goodyear
When non-transportation-geeks ask me why transportation policy is a topic worthy of more attention on the national stage, I often start by talking about the public health implications. Not only are tens of thousands of Americans killed and injured in car crashes every year, not only are countless thousands of others killed and sickened by air pollution caused by motor vehicles -- on top of that, the link between obesity and automobile dependence is increasingly well-documented.  Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has weighed in with a list of recommendations on fighting obesity in the United States, and 6 of the 24 suggested actions have to do with the creation of "complete streets," one of the major reforms advocates are asking for.
Link to article

U.S. Can Cut Half Its Carbon Emissions From Transportation by 2050, Report Says
New York Times – July 28, 2009
By Josh Voorhees of Greenwire
The United States can cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in half by 2050 with strategies ranging from cutting speed limits to imposing road pricing, according to a report released today by federal agencies and environmental and industry groups. Examining about 50 transportation strategies, the report found transportation emissions could be reduced 24 percent by 2050 by acting to change travel behavior and land-use patterns. The emissions reduction hit 47 percent by adding road pricing techniques, ranging from pay-as-you-go insurance to charging Americans for every mile driven.
Link to article

House to Vote on High-Speed Rail Funding, National Infrastructure Bank
New York Times.com – July 23, 2009
By Josh Voorhees of Greenwire
The House is set today to vote on a fiscal 2010 transportation spending bill that would provide $4 billion for high-speed rail and lay the groundwork for the creation of a national infrastructure bank. H.R. 3288 would provide a total of $75.8 billion for the Transportation Department, an $8.6 billion jump from fiscal 2009.
Link to article

L.A. transportation officials approve letting solo drivers pay a toll to use carpool lanes
LA Times (LA Now) – July 23, 2009
By Dan Weikel
With no discussion, the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board today approved opening carpool lanes on the 10 and 110 freeways to solo motorists willing to pay a toll. The idea is to use the so-called congestion-based pricing -- tolls that rise and fall in relation to the volume of traffic -- to keep individual motorists, carpools, van pools and buses in the high-occupancy lanes at a minimum speed of 45 mph, even during rush hour.
Link to article

Cardin & Carper Bullish on Transit’s Prospects in Senate Climate Bill
DC Streetsblog – July 22, 2009
By Elana Schor
Addressing a climate change forum this morning, two Democrats on the Senate environment committee said they are pushing for transit and other green modes of transport to get 10 percent of the revenue generated by the upcoming Senate bill regulating carbon emissions. Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), a chief sponsor of the 10-percent plan,  said he and other supporters have "asked for it to be included in" the climate bill that environment panel chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is slated to unveil in September. "If not, we will offer it as an amendment."
Link to article

Local Advocates Mourn “Death of Transit” as Part of National Campaign
SF Streetsblog – July 22, 2009
By Matthew Roth
Transit advocates, transit riders, politicians, and religious figures mourned the continual underfunding of transit operations by staging a mock funeral for public transit above the 12th Street/Oakland BART station today. The event was tied to a national campaign led by Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT), the Transportation Equity Network and Transportation for America to pressure Congress to provide funding for transit operations.
Link to article

NY and SF Demonstrate That Better Pedestrian Amenities Create Stronger Communities
LA Streetsblog – July 21, 2009
By Damien Newton
Recent pilot programs in New York City and San Francisco demonstrate something that Livable Streets Advocates have known all along: by opening "car space" to the public, one can dramatically reduce car traffic and increase livability and sense of community. 
Link to article

Is now the right time to build a railroad?
Sacramento Bee – July 19, 2009
By Dan Walters
California is mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, more than 2 million Californians are unemployed, its budget is riddled with deficits, its credit rating is dropping into junk status, and Sacramento is issuing IOUs in lieu of checks.
Is this the time to launch construction of a high-speed railroad line between Northern and Southern California that will cost at least $40 billion, much of it from bonds to be repaid from a state budget that's already gushing red ink?
Link to article

A Skinnier, Safer America
Forbes.com – July 16, 2009
By Christopher Steiner
Charles Courtemanche, an economist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has produced a study suggesting that permanent hikes in gas prices may slash obesity rates. The amount is hardly nominal: A sustained $1 increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline equals a 10% dip in the nation’s obesity rate--that’s about 9 million fewer obese people clogging up health care systems and costing society (and themselves) money.
Link to article

 

Senate Eyes Public Transit as Climate Change Solution
Washington Independent – July 15, 2009
By Mike Lillis
Federal strategies for tackling climate change are doomed to fail without concerted efforts to keep Americans out of their cars — efforts that will necessarily include a greater emphasis on public transit, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Senate lawmakers Tuesday.  The statement arrives just a few weeks after House lawmakers passed sweeping reforms aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, but included in the proposal only meager funding for public transportation projects.
Link to article

Lawmakers Cross Party Lines on Transpo Funding as Debate Rages
DC Streetsblog – July 15, 2009
By Elana Schor
An 18-month extension of existing transportation law cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today, but not before spirited debate on a proposal billed as a compromise with House members who remain strongly opposed to the Senate's stopgap.  The "clean" re-upping of the 2005 transport law, stripped of the few reforms the Obama administration had proposed, passed with one dissenting vote: Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), who lost a bid -- on his birthday -- to cut the extension down to 12 months.
Link to article

Highway Toll Lane Construction Bill Stalled in State Senate Committee
SF Streetsblog – July 10, 2009
by Dave Snyder
The Senate Transportation Committee met earlier this week to consider AB 744, a bill that would authorize the MTC to convert carpool lanes to toll “express lanes” and use the revenue to expand the regional carpool and bus express lane network. To its critics, the plan is the last gasp of suburban highway expansion. To its proponents, it’s the beginning of road pricing and a substantial enhancement for regional transit.
Link to article

Buses May Aid Climate Battle in Poor Cities
New York Times – July 9, 2009
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Like most thoroughfares in booming cities of the developing world, Bogotá’s Seventh Avenue resembles a noisy, exhaust-coated parking lot — a gluey tangle of cars and the rickety, smoke-puffing private minibuses that have long provided transportation for the masses. But a few blocks away, sleek red vehicles full of commuters speed down the four center lanes of Avenida de las Américas. The long, segmented, low-emission buses are part of a novel public transportation system called bus rapid transit, or B.R.T.
Link to article


Boxer Delays Senate Climate Bill Until September
DC Streetsblog – July 9, 2009
By Elana Schor
This was supposed to be a big week for action on climate change in the Senate -- but it's ending with Republicans rubbing their hands in glee as the Environment and Public Works Committee delays its unveiling of legislation on carbon emissions.
Link to article

Roads in Los Angeles, Orange counties most congested in the United States
LA Times - July 9, 2009
By Dan Weikel
Los Angeles and Orange counties continued to have the worst traffic congestion in the country in 2007, although motorists experienced slightly less delay as a surge in gasoline prices discouraged travel, a new national study shows.  Researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute said, however, that the current recession would prolong the respite only temporarily. When the economy rebounds, they added, the growth in traffic-related delay will resume.
Link to article

Lawmakers Aim to Bring ‘Sustainable Communities’ From Talk to Action
DC Streetsblog – July 8, 2009
By Elana Schor
When three agencies in President Obama's Cabinet -- DOT, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency -- banded together to promote "sustainable communities," the initiative sounded promising but somewhat lacking in concrete ideas.  Enter a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), who successfully attached their green housing legislation to the climate bill that recently cleared the House. Perlmutter and his co-sponsors took a victory lap of sorts today at the Library of Congress as a Senate counterpart to their plan was officially unveiled by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
Link to article

Berkeley wrestles with downtown development
San Francisco Chronicle – July 4, 2009
By Matthai Kuruvila
Berkeley is poised to rewrite its zoning rules for its downtown, raising height limits throughout the area and creating nine towers, including three as high as 225 feet - at least 45 feet taller than anything else in the city. City leaders see the array of taller buildings as an environmental beacon for the region, a hedge against sprawl and a model of how to curb dependence on cars.  Nonetheless, the idea has provoked a conflict in the environmental identity of a city that sees itself, with its heralded climate action plan, as a municipal vanguard of eco-consciousness.
Link to article

And Now, Climate Bill's Supporters Try Counting to 60 in Senate
New York Times – June 29, 2009
By Darren Samuelsohn
Over the eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, proponents of major global-warming legislation tried to spark action in Congress by focusing on the Senate.  There, heavyweights like Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut helped raise awareness of the climate issue even though they never approached the 60 votes needed to pass a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions. But with President Obama in the White House, strategists shifted their attention to the House.
Link to article

House Passes Bill to Address Threat of Climate Change
New York Times – June 26, 2009
By JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON — The House passed legislation on Friday intended to address global warming and transform the way the nation produces and uses energy.  The vote was the first time either house of Congress had approved a bill meant to curb the heat-trapping gases scientists have linked to climate change. The legislation, which passed despite deep divisions among Democrats, could lead to profound changes in many sectors of the economy, including electric power generation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction.
Link to article

Energy and climate-change bill narrowly wins a test vote in House
LA Times – June 26, 2009
By James Oliphant
A preliminary House vote on a far-reaching energy bill today demonstrated that Democratic leaders have narrow control over legislation that they hope to pass later today.  Republicans complained about being shut out of the opportunity to amend the massive 1,200-page measure.  Late Thursday night, House leaders decided to permit just two amendments to be included as part of the final package. That move was endorsed in a tight 217-205 vote today - an indication of the bill's course.
Link to article

Insurance Commissioner Poizner Unveils Innovative Framework to Encourage Californians to Drive Less and Lower Their Premiums
News Release – June 26, 2009
CA Dept. of Insurance
Insurance Commissioner Poizner today announced revised regulations that will allow companies to sell automobile insurance by the mile in California, potentially saving many consumers money by only paying for the miles they drive.  “These regulations expand insurance options for consumers, allowing a freer market to create incentives for driving less," said Commissioner Poizner. “By empowering consumers to take charge of their insurance bill, we may see fewer cars on the road; which means cleaner air, safer streets and lower premiums.”
Link to full news release

State sues Pleasanton over housing limit
San Francisco Chronicle – June 25, 2009
By Bob Egelko
State Attorney General Jerry Brown joined a legal challenge Wednesday to Pleasanton's 13-year-old limit on housing construction, arguing that the East Bay community is defying state housing laws and adding to urban sprawl, vehicle use and greenhouse gas emissions.  "Pleasanton's draconian and illegal limit on new housing forces people to commute long distances, adding to the bumper-to-bumper traffic along (Interstates) 580 and 680 and increasing dangerous air pollution," Brown said in a statement after filing suit in Alameda County Superior Court.
Link to article

House Dems Agree: Climate Bill Can Help Pay for Greener Transportation
DC Streetsblog – June 24, 2009
by Elana Schor
Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday struck a deal ahead of Friday's make-or-break vote on climate change legislation to give greener transportation a place at the table. The climate bill gives the states 10 percent of its carbon emissions allowances, the total worth of which is projected to hit $70 billion by 2010, to invest in energy-efficiency projects such as solar power or "smart" electricity grids.  Today's agreement allows 10 percent of those state allowances -- yes, 10 percent of 10 percent -- to help pay for transit expansions, new bike trails, or any other transportation efficiency project.
Link to article

Sacramento second on UC Davis sustainability index
Sacramento Business Journal – June 23, 2009
Sacramento is relatively well-prepared to accommodate the expected Central Valley population boom with sustainable-growth policies, according to a University of California Davis study.  The capital city scored second out of 100 Central Valley cities on the study’s sustainability index, which measured sustainable-growth policies and procedures. Fresno topped the list with an index score of 33, out of 50, while Sacramento scored 31.5 and Davis scored 30.
Link to article

Oberstar’s New Transportation Bill: Get The Highlights
DC Streetsblog – June 18, 2009
by Elana Schor
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN), the House transportation committee chairman is set to brief reporters this afternoon on his $450 billion, six-year federal transportation bill -- which he plans to pursue regardless of the Obama administration's push for an 18-month extension of existing law.  But Oberstar's early outline of the bill, which could get a vote in the committee as soon as next week, is already available. And it suggests that the Minnesota Democrat and Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR) have made good on their promises for a sweeping re-organization of the often debilitating federal transportation bureaucracy.
Link to article

But What About the Highways-Transit Split?
DC Streetsblog – June 18, 2009
by Elana Schor
As transit fans and policy wonks digest the details of House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar's (D-MN) new proposal, one question is coming to mind: Does it change the typical 80-20 split in the percentage of funding that goes to highways versus transit? The short answer is, not really. While road programs got a hair less than 80 percent of highway trust fund money under the 2005 transportation bill, they will get about 75 percent of trust fund money under Oberstar's plan, according to an analysis by the subscription-only Transportation Weekly newsletter.
Link to article

Room for Bay Area to grow, smartly
San Francisco Chronicle – June 16, 2009
Editorial
One of this region's most daunting challenges is to figure out how to accommodate the addition of an estimated 2 million residents by 2035. The discussion of such growth often turns to doom and gloom: more traffic, more pollution, a lower quality of life.  But a new analysis by Greenbelt Alliance, a group with a long history in the region's wars over sprawl, contains a refreshingly upbeat view of the future.  The alliance, building on research of potentially developable sites by UC Berkeley, has come up with what could become a blueprint for planners to guide new housing.
Link to article

Congestion pricing -- the only thing that works
LA Times - June 15, 2009
Opinion by Peter Gordon
There are three things to think about in light of Tim Rutten's concerns over congestion pricing on local highways, which he outlined in his June 10 Op-Ed column, "Congestion pricing — a slippery slope to toll roads.”  First, if price does not ration road space, something else will. This means that heavy traffic on roads and highways that aren't priced is a given. It is the default rationing mechanism. Anything made available without charge is quickly crowded. None of this is a matter of ideology, as Rutten seems to think.
Link to article

A (Radical) Way to Fix Suburban Sprawl
Time.com - June 11, 2009
By Lisa Selin Davis
There's something deeply wrong with Tysons Corner. For starters, Virginia's bustling commercial district — the 12th biggest employment center in the nation — has more parking spaces than jobs or residents. What was a quaint intersection of two country roads 50 years ago is now a two-tiered interchange with 10 lanes of traffic-choked hell; try to cross it on foot, and you're taking your life into your hands. Located about 14 miles west of downtown Washington, the nearly 1,700-acre area is home to fortresses of unfriendly buildings surrounded by oceans of parking lots, as well as single-story car dealerships, strip malls, fast-food joints, highways and a big toll road.
Link to article

Congestion pricing -- a slippery slope to toll roads
LA Times – June 10, 2009
Opinion by Tim Rutten
You can hang any number of shiny baubles on a mistake, like ornaments on a Christmas tree, but when you're done, all you've really got is a bad idea -- with glitter.  Congestion pricing is just that sort of bad idea. Here in Los Angeles, the idea of opening the high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the freeways to toll-paying single drivers first surfaced some months ago, not because it had been carefully weighed or debated but because there was federal money available to fund a couple of demonstration projects.
Link to article

Metro Moves Forward with Confused “Congestion Pricing”
LA Streetsblog - June 9, 2009
By Damien Newton
Yesterday, the Metro, aka LACMTA, announced the details of it's   Express Lanes proposal to take existing carpool lanes on the I-10 and I-110 freeways into and out of Downtown Los Angeles.  While the new plan has been tweaked from the one outlined last August in one aspect, it is still missing one of the basic precepts of congestion pricing: congestion pricing should reduce the demand for car travel.  First, let's outline the basics of the plan. 
Link to article

GOP-ers and Dems Agree: Feds Need to Get Their Transpo Act Together
Capitol Hill Streetsblog - June 9, 2009
by Elana Schor
Reports on federal transportation policy -- like campaign fundraisers and lobbying groups -- seem to proliferate in Washington, most of them drawing a few days' worth of news coverage before fading from memory. (Remember the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission and the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission?)
Link to article

House Boosts Transpo and Housing Spending Levels By 25%
Capitol Hill Streetsblog – June 9, 2009
by Elana Schor
The House Appropriations Committee has just released its "302(b)s," the allocations that determine how much money can be spent by each of the dozen appropriations panels that supervise federal agency budgets.  And in a fortuitous bit of news for transportation wonks, the panel known as "THUD" -- short for Transportation and Housing & Urban Development, the two agencies under its purview -- got $68.8 billion to work with for the fiscal year that begins in October. That's 25 percent more than the House THUD folks got during the last fiscal year, when the panel got a $55 billion allocation.
Link to article

Fuel emissions focus 'too narrow'
BBC News – June 8, 2009
By Mark Kinver
Policymakers must consider more than just "tailpipe" emissions when assessing the impacts of different modes of transport, say researchers. Many analyses overlook greenhouse gases emitted in constructing and maintaining travel infrastructures, they added.  The team found that, based on passenger kilometres travelled, off-peak urban bus services were more carbon-intensive than flights by commercial aircraft.  The findings have been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Link to article

1,000 units, near car-free, planned in Hayward
San Francisco Chronicle - June 8, 2009
By Robert Selna
Hayward, an East Bay suburb not known for pushing progressive ideals, quietly has laid the groundwork for a radical experiment in environmentally conscious living - a nearly car-free housing development. Quarry Village is a proposed 1,000-unit neighborhood that would fill a former quarry near Cal State East Bay and 1 1/2 miles from the Hayward BART Station. It's the brainchild of Sherman Lewis, a professor emeritus in political science at Cal State East Bay who created a nonprofit organization to promote the idea with local officials, investors and developers.
Link to article

Calif. law linking land use, greenhouse gas emissions passes court test
New York Times – June 8, 2009
By COLIN SULLIVAN
SAN FRANCISCO -- A California law aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from land-use changes has survived its first court challenge from a major oil company.
Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga tossed out an environmental impact report Friday for a proposed Chevron Corp. refinery expansion in Richmond, Calif., saying the analysis failed to account for the project's greenhouse gas emissions as is required by the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
Link to article

Sacramento area drivers take the 'Car-Free Challenge'
Sacramento Bee - June 7, 2009
By Tony Bizjak
Joan Edelstein of West Sacramento made a public vow last week. She will drive her car no more than 200 miles this month.  The go-green pledge puts her among a handful of Sacramentans who've announced similar intentions at the new "Car-Free Challenge" Web site - not for pocketbook reasons, they say, but because it's the right thing to do.  Just days in, however, Edelstein is learning an inconvenient truth about the movement to reduce driving.
Link to article

“Shovel Ready” High Speed Rail? CA Is Ahead of the Game
LA Streetsblog – June 4, 2009
by Damien Newton
Yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden, met with governors from eight different states that are competing for High Speed Rail funding.  Streetsblog's D.C. Correspondent wrote a story about the national implications of the meeting available at our New York site.  While neither Schwarzenegger nor another representative from California was present, there was good news for California.
Link to article

Transit Planners to Congress: Please Figure Out How to Fund Us
LA Streetsblog, June 4, 2009
by Elana Schor
To all but the most ardent transit wonks, the phrase "New Starts" sounds like a motivational tape sold on late-night TV. But those two words actually represent Washington's predominant mechanism to pay for major transit expansions -- everything from expanding an existing rail station to building a new bus line. Since its inception in the 1970s, New Starts has provided states and localities with more than $10 billion. Unfortunately, the program has forced local planners to clear cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles in order to prove their projects' cost-effectiveness while ignoring the economic-development benefits of transit.
Link to article

Industry Fears Americans May Quit New Car Habit
New York Times - May 30, 2009
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DETROIT — For all the drastic cuts and financial overhauls that are meant to secure a future for General Motors and Chrysler, their prospects in coming years will be determined more by the answer to a simple question: Can American drivers live without that new-car smell? In recent years Americans appeared to be hooked on it and took advantage of home equity loans, easy credit and cheap short-term lease deals to send new-car sales to levels of more than 17 million a year.  Now the market has collapsed by 46 percent to below 10 million, as people are making do with the cars they have, leaving the industry to debate — and worry — about what the new normal will be once the recession ends.
Link to article

Smart growth, evaluated
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Weblog, May 28, 2009
Several states engaged in what was first called growth management, and then smart growth, beginning more than 25 years ago -- and in the case of Oregon, it's been nearly four decades of promoting compact development to contain sprawl. But there has never been an assessment of how those states have fared with their policies -- whether and how smart growth has had an impact. Today the Lincoln Institute releases the first major evaluation of smart growth policies in the U.S., evaluating the performance of four states -- Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, and Oregon -- in five major objectives of smart growth: promoting compact development, protecting undeveloped land, providing a variety of transportation options, maintaining affordable housing, and achieving positive fiscal impacts.
Link to article

Locals Attack SB 375 As Inefficient Way To Go After Climate Change
CP&DR, May 27, 2009
By Bill Fulton
Even as local officials in Southern California attack the question of how to implement SB 375, they have slyly begun to suggest that the bill isn't the best way to attack the problem it supposedly addresses - greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is not clear what the locals will do with this line of attack, unless they are angling to try to go back to the Legislature to shift the responsibility for GHG emissions reductions away from land use and back toward technological improvements.
Link to article

Building 'Climate Positive' Communities
New York Times - Green Inc. Blog, May 26, 2009
By John Lorinc
It's one thing to put up a LEED-certified building, but quite another to develop an entire urban community with enough energy-efficient bells and whistles that its on-site emissions are actually less than zero.  That's the ambitious objective of the new Climate Positive Development Program, a joint venture between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the U.S. Green Building Council, unveiled last week at the C-40 Cities Climate Leader Group summit in Seoul, South Korea.
Link to article

Interview with ClimatePlan's Michael Woo
LA Streetsblog, May 21, 2009
By Damien Newton
Michael Woo has a long history fighting for a cleaner Los Angeles.  In the late 1980's, he was the rare City Councilman who was also a trained urban planner and had a strong showing in the 1993 Mayoral Election coming up short to Mayor Riordan.  He currently teaches urban planning at USC, and consultant to Climate Plan, a coalition promoting transportation and Land-Use strategy.  Streetsblog caught up to him in the USC faculty lounge on Bike to Work Day to talk about Climate Change, S.B. 375 and what all of us can do. 
Link to article

Federal Climate Bill Passes Energy & Commerce Committee
News Release - May 21, 2009
House Energy and Commerce Committee
The Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R. 2454, "The American Clean Energy and Security Act," by a vote of 33 to 25.  This legislation is a comprehensive approach to America's energy policy that charts a new course towards a clean energy economy. "Today the Committee took decisive and historic action to promote America's energy security and to create millions of clean energy jobs that will drive our economic recovery and long-term growth," said Chairman Waxman.
Click here for full press statement, which includes bill text and markup summaries.

BLUEPRINT AMERICA:  Road to the Future
PBS Documentary - May 20, 2009
Over the next 40 years, America's population will grow by more than an estimated 130 million people - most will settle in or near the country's major population centers. At the same time, an unprecedented multi-billion dollar public works investment has just been made by the federal government to rebuild both the weakened economy and stressed national infrastructure. And, Congress is about to consider a transportation bill that will determine the course of the nation's highways and transit for years to come.  Blueprint America: Road to the Future, an original documentary part of a PBS multi-platform series on the country's aging and changing infrastructure, examines the choices we can make as the country invests in its infrastructure, and how they can affect the way we live.
Link to full summary and video

Climate Change Legislation Misses Opportunity to Use One of the Most Powerful Weapons to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions- Public Transit
News Release - May 18, 2009
American Public Transportation Association
One of the most powerful tools an individual may have to reduce their daily carbon dioxide emissions - the use of public transportation -- is not part of the new climate change legislation.  Despite the facts that show providing greater access to public transportation may be the most effective weapon for combating climate change, there are no allowances from the cap-and-trade program for public transportation in the current climate legislation H.R. 2454 entitled the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), which is being considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week.
Link to news release

Sprawl Stall
The Press-Enterprise - May 17th
Editorial
Rapid development without much thought to the consequences is not a sustainable planning strategy. So if a new law aimed at curbing greenhouse gases also forces a change in longstanding planning habits, fine. Abandoning sprawl in favor of more sophisticated growth is long overdue for this region. SB 375, approved by the Legislature last year, addresses climate change through local planning. The law creates regional targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and requires cities and counties to create transportation and land-use plans to meet those goals. Southern California would need to reduce its annual emissions by about 2.5 million metric tons a year by 2020 -- the equivalent of taking 480,000 cars off the road.
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Cutting greenhouse gas may be a mandate: Valley, SoCal officials talk alternatives to driving
The Desert Sun - May 9, 2009
By K. Kaufmann
More efficient and more types of public transportation. More walkable communities. More density and development along major transportation corridors. Those could be major strategies for prying Southern Californians out of their cars and cutting 2.5 million metric tons of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 - a goal that Senate Bill 375 could mandate. Passed in 2008, the law is a follow-up to Assembly Bill 32, California's ambitious climate change mandate that commits the state to cutting greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.
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Denser urban areas advocated to cut greenhouse gas emissions
The Press-Enterprise - May 8, 2009
By Dug Begley
San Bernardino County and Riverside County officials might have to rethink where new homes and businesses will go, after talking for years about curtailing urban sprawl with only some results, because of California's attempts to curb pollution, regional bureaucrats said Friday morning.  Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, said during the regional planning agency's annual meeting in La Quinta that meeting state mandates to reduce greenhouse gases will require local agencies to encourage more residential building in urban areas. Building in existing neighborhoods, he said, will keep Southern California from spreading farther and farther away from city centers and lead to shorter trips for commuters.
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Regional Rapid Bus Transit Requires HOT Thinking
California Majority Report - May 4, 2009
Opinion by Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi
California's San Francisco Bay Area, a beacon for the world's most ambitious and entrepreneurial, is in some ways a victim of its own success. Decades of regional growth have created a highway and public transportation infrastructure incapable of meeting the demands of commuters. As a Contra Costa Times editorial recently explained:  "The worsening traffic congestion in the Bay Area is having an increasingly negative impact on the quality of life in the region. The millions of people who commute to work daily lose valuable time, waste gasoline and add to air pollution. Businesses suffer and new enterprises are discouraged from locating in the area, harming the Bay Area economy."
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Growth slows in most East Bay cities
Contra Costa Times, May 5, 2009
By Matt O'Brien
California's population growth slowed last year but a few Bay Area cities bucked the trend, welcoming hundreds or thousands of new residents at the same time that homes across the region fell into foreclosure.  As the state and most Bay Area counties grew by a fraction above one percent, state figures estimate that San Ramon increased by 3.3 percent last year, adding almost 2,000 people to a suburb that now has more than 63,000 residents.
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Road-use fees could solve our transit woes - Guest Comment
Washington Business Journal, May 1, 2009
by Alice M. Rivlin and Benjamin K. Orr (Brookings)
How would you like an extra 60 hours off from work? The average local commuter wastes that much time stuck in traffic annually. Suppose that reduced travel time was accompanied by better maintained roads, cleaner air and a faster, more reliable transit system?  Sound too good to be true? It might not be if the Washington area pioneers a new way of financing transportation — pricing road use by vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with higher fees for using congested roads. This opportunity reflects innovative thinking about transportation financing in response to growing concern about infrastructure maintenance, climate change and the inefficiencies caused by congestion.
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High-speed rail opposition picks up speed
SF Examiner, April 29, 2009
By Will Reisman
They backed the funding of high-speed rail, but as plans emerge for the system, Peninsula residents are starting to question the fine print beneath that historic decision. Just six months ago, a strong majority of Peninsula voters — 61 percent — supported a statewide measure to pledge $9.95 billion for the development of a high-speed rail system in California. The promise of the $45 billion project is a state-of-the-art train that will whisk passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in two hours and 40 minutes.
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