Author Archive
Farewell from a smart growth communications veteran
This post is a personal farewell from our friend and colleague David Goldberg, who was the founding communications director for Smart Growth America in 2002 and helped get Transportation for America off the ground in 2008-2009 as communications director. Other than former Gov. Parris Glendening at SGA, David was the longest tenured SGA/T4A employee, helping to steer this small part of the larger movement for transportation reform and creating better places over the last thirteen years. We’ll miss him deeply, and wish him the best in his new endeavors. Here are few thoughts directly from David as he departs.
As transit becomes ‘must-have economic development tool,’ will Congress help?
An excellent piece in the Washington Post this morning caught up to the topic we have been raising here for some time: Good transit service and walkable locations with nearby places to live, eat and shop are essential for economic development in today’s world. Which makes us wonder: Is Congress listening?
Obama budget cues start of serious negotiations over transportation funding
With the release of his budget proposal yesterday, President Obama at last offered some specifics on his plan to use the repatriation of taxable corporate profits to fund transportation. In doing so, he staked out a starting point for real-world negotiations over a possible six-year transportation bill – the first time such a prospect has seemed remotely realistic in six years.
Mayors’ challenge: Help us meet critical transportation needs
Last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx issued a public challenge to mayors to “take significant action to improve safety for bicycle riders and pedestrians of all ages and abilities over the next year.” Mayors, in return, have a challenge of their own to the federal government: Don’t leave us in the lurch when it comes to the funding for those – and many other – transportation needs.
Tell Congress to send real dollars where the real needs are
Applause rang out from both sides of the aisle during the State of the Union, when President Obama called for the ambitious, “bipartisan infrastructure plan” we need for a 21st century, “middle-class economy”.
As a bridge falls in Cincinnati, the future of federal support remains dicey
Is the bridge collapse in Cincinnati a glimpse of our future? You may have heard that on Monday night, an obsolete overpass undergoing demolition “pancaked” onto I-75, killing a worker and nearly crushing a passing tractor-trailer. The bridge didn’t fall from decay, per se, but the circumstances in many ways are more worrisome even than […]
Tell the President to back a bipartisan gas tax increase
The steep drop in gas prices offers the best opportunity in years to raise the revenue we need to rescue our transportation trust fund and build for the future. And, for the first time in recent memory, leaders in both parties are calling for a gas tax increase to avoid foisting monumental repair and construction bills on the next generation.
Last-minute budget deal holds good news for the safety of all who use our roads
In a rare weekend session, the U.S. Senate finally passed the FY2015 Omnibus Appropriations Act, sending it to the President and avoiding a government shutdown. Buried deep within the legislation, was a simple paragraph enacting a proposal that Transportation for America and many others have long advocated for.
Budget compromise keeps highways and transit steady, cuts TIGER
The $1.01 trillion spending agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday night freezes highway spending at $40 billion while avoiding the big cuts to transit projects in the House proposal.
House bill extends transit benefit through 2014, leaving permanent extension in doubt
Transit commuters would get two weeks’ worth of additional tax benefit under a House bill introduced yesterday.
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