Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Sprawl

A Metro Detroit Business Owner on the Talent-Repelling Effect of Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 14, 2011 | No Comments

The owner of a patent law firm in recession-battered metro Detroit may have to leave Michigan, and it’s not because of the taxes, says Andrew Basile, Jr. His firm, which employs 40 people in the city of Troy, spends “more on copiers and toner than we do on state taxes.” The problem, Basile says, is […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Charleston Highway Plan, Back From the Dead, May Finally Meet Its Maker

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 3, 2011 | No Comments

In the 1970s, engineers drew a horseshoe around Charleston, South Carolina — the planned route for Interstate 526, also known as the Mark Clark Expressway. The highway was to extend from Mt. Pleasant in the north to James Island in the south. It was to be a traditional highway bypass, the kind that were being […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Outside Milwaukee, Water Policy May Drain Cities and Destroy Rural Towns

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 26, 2011 | No Comments

Waukesha, Wisconsin is a city whose identity has always been tied to water. In the late 1800s, the town was known for its natural springs. So fresh-tasting was the water that people traveled from around the country to share in its purported medicinal properties. Among those who sought its healing powers was first lady Mary […]

Eight Ways State DOT Chief Joan McDonald Can Make New York Better

By Gary Toth | Jan 18, 2011 | 18 Comments

“By building more and more roads, we have made it almost impossible to solve our transportation problems” – Allen Biehler, Secretary, Pennsylvania DOT and Chair, AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways Every state Department of Transportation (DOT) is led by a chief executive. In some states, they’re called the “secretary.” In others, the “director.” In New […]

STREETSBLOG USA

“Gravity Always Wins”: How the U.S. Can Face the Crisis of Unsafe Bridges

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 20, 2010 | No Comments

If you left your grandma’s old wicker chair out on the porch all winter – and the next, and the next, and the next for 20 years – would you still trust that chair to hold you if you sat down? According to Barry LePatner, author of the new book Too Big to Fall: America’s […]

STREETSBLOG USA

Deficit Commission Pushes For Anti-Sprawl Reforms

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 3, 2010 | No Comments

If political pandering and bad economic policies have encouraged sprawl and an autocentric transportation system, better incentives can start to correct past mistakes. Here’s one place to start: the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform report, released this Wednesday. The report has plenty to make anyone squirm. As co-chair Alan Simpson said when he […]

Show More Stories