Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Transit-Oriented Development

Smart Growth Leader Tells Planning Commission: NYC Can Do Better

By Noah Kazis | Jan 5, 2010 | 12 Comments

According to the Smart Growth Manual, "It is the planner’s role not to incentivize driving, but to create a transit and pedestrian experience that makes not driving a pleasure." New York may be the most transit-rich city in the nation, but that doesn’t mean big changes to the city’s planning policies aren’t necessary. That’s the […]

A Message from Copenhagen: Climate Plan Must Include Walkable Urbanism

By Ben Fried | Dec 9, 2009 | 7 Comments

The energy-saving benefits of transit aren’t limited to the transportation sector. Image: Jonathan Rose Companies via Richard Layman. 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 […]

White House Urban Affairs Chief: Promising Words But Little Hint of a Plan

By Elana Schor | Oct 6, 2009 | 4 Comments

Adolfo Carrion Jr., director of the White House’s new Office of Urban Affairs, today vowed to begin reconnecting Washington with the needs of the nation’s cities — even as he offered few tangible plans for breaking through the morass of the federal bureaucracy and effecting change in the near term. White House Urban Affairs director […]

The Assumption of Inconvenience

By Ryan Avent | Sep 30, 2009 | 32 Comments

The secret of European eco-friendliness? Maybe not. Photo: romerican/Flickr Early this week, I noticed a number of my favorite bloggers linking to this Elisabeth Rosenthal essay at Environment 360, on the mysterious greenness of European nations. The average American, as it happens, produces about twice as much carbon dioxide each year as your typical resident […]

Can State DOTs Be Trained to Kick the Sprawl Habit?

By Ben Fried | Sep 25, 2009 | 2 Comments

I had the chance to listen in yesterday to top staffers from USDOT explain their collaboration with HUD and the EPA — the "Partnership for Livable Communities" that was first unveiled in March and touted again by President Obama in July. Three officials, including one of Ray LaHood’s top deputies, Beth Osborne, outlined their plans […]

The Power of Transit-Oriented Development

By Ryan Avent | Aug 26, 2009 | 7 Comments

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. Across the Potomac, the District of Columbia was suffering from depopulation, rapidly rising crime rates, and serious fiscal difficulties. Ballston Metro station, Arlington Co. Photo: Point […]

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