The draft bill contains few surprises, as the White House hinted at many favored reforms in its 2012 budget blueprint in February. The proposal, titled the Transportation Opportunities Act, boosts resources for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s core highway program while making significant investments in transit. High-speed rail receives $8 billion upfront and $53 billion over six years, and $27.5 billion is directed toward a new Livability Program that folds many existing pedestrian, bicycling and transit elements under one umbrella.

The current Highway Trust Fund is renamed the Transportation Trust Fund to better reflect what has for decades been a multimodal program.

As an opening bid, the administration proposal offers a lot to like for transportation reformers. The plan embraces the bipartisan consensus around consolidating duplicative programs and includes strong State of Good Repair standards for both highways and transit. Plus, $31.9 billion is directed toward new merit-based Transportation Leadership Awards targeting states that adopt best practices such as strong data collection, reduced traffic fatalities and consideration of housing and the environment.

Throughout a project’s lifespan, states and regions would have to measure their current performance at meeting infrastructure needs and then let citizens know how new investment would impact future performance under a number of scenarios. Constituents would actually be able to see what they are getting for their tax dollars.

While critical of the proposal’s lack of specificity on revenue, Ken Orski of Innovation Briefs noted:

Many of its programmatic provisions – for example, those dealing with accelerated project delivery, tolling, highway and motor vehicle safety, “state of good repair” policy, pursuit of VMT fees, performance management and freight policy — are worthy of consideration and will likely find their way into the final bill.

The administration’s livability program contains unprecedented investment in transit, biking and walking. However, the decision to consolidate existing programs under the livability banner has the potential to jeopardize resources for popular initiatives like Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements. It is unfortunate that livability —which folks outside of Washington seem to be perfectly comfortable with — has become subject to partisan fissures. The administration will need to tread carefully on these provisions to avoid losing ground.

While no one expects the administration proposal to emerge from the Congressional milieu untouched, it is sure to inform the relevant committees in the House and Senate as they continue drafting. A revised bill with the full and official backing of President Obama would both expedite this process and increase the prospects for meaningful and long overdue reforms.

Smith, the former 16-year Republican mayor of Meridian, Mississippi and President and CEO of Reconnecting America, was one of 40 transportation experts testifying before the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit this week.

Pointing to today’s release of our report assessing the condition of the nation’s bridges, Smith emphasized T4 America’s dual mission of repairing the infrastructure we have while building a transportation system for the 21st century.

He spoke about his own experience leading Meridian and seeing first-hand how improved transportation options improve quality of life in smaller cities and rural areas. “It may come as a surprise to some, but Americans who live in small towns have the same transportation needs as those that live in big cities,” Smith said. “They need access to their jobs, healthcare, education and services. Long commutes, rising gas prices, and shifting demographics all impact the prosperity of these communities and the people that live in them.”

During his tenure as mayor, Smith leveraged a mix of public and private investment to restore Meridian’s historic train station and build the South’s first multimodal transportation center. The station was “a catalyst for transforming our main street, increasing public transportation ridership, and helping to generate millions of dollars in private economic development in the surrounding neighborhoods,” he told the Subcommittee.

“Livability” has become a loaded and sadly partisan term in Congress, but as Smith pointed out, it describes something that really shouldn’t be controversial at all. He said:

When I came to Washington, D.C. almost two years ago, I realized as I heard this new word, livability, that that was just what we were doing in Meridian. The transit connections and ensuing economic development that occurred in my sixteen years as Mayor were empowering people to make decisions without being hindered by distance and gas prices.  You can put whatever label on it you want – but people should be able to live where they want to live, work where they want to work, and get there in a cost-efficient and timely manner.

Congress has the opportunity to heed Mayor Smith’s vision for repair, increased options and higher quality of life as the Subcommittee and full Committee consider a six-year, transportation reauthorization in the coming months.

You can read Mayor Smith’s entire testimony here.

Of course, just like most Americans, he knows exactly what “livability” is, once you get past the terminology:

Q. So tell me, what does this concept of “livability” really mean?

A. This is something I’ve never really talked about, but growing up, I lived on the east side of Peoria. When I was growing up, I could walk to my grade school. We had one car, but we would bike everywhere we went. We could walk to the grocery store. In those days, we had streetcars and buses, which people used to get to downtown Peoria, which was probably five miles from my house. I used to take a bus to my dad’s business. I grew up in an era [of] livable neighborhoods and livable communities — what we’re really trying to offer to people around America…

Seems like there’s a useful lesson in here somewhere about the power of words and language to not only illustrate meaning, but sometimes get in the way of clear understanding.

The 45 regional winners from communities small and large across the country embody precisely the kind of innovation and creativity federal policy should be supporting. All of the winning projects recognize the crucial link between economic and community development, and many have a strong transportation element as well.

The grants are some of the first tangible fruit of President Obama’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a partnership within that brings HUD together with the U.S. Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation around shared goals to transcend the usual bureaucratic silos — giving them the rare chance to work in concert to achieve a specific goal. The Partnership is already finding ways to make federal spending more efficient and promote local innovation.

“In awarding these grants, we were committed to using insight and innovation from our stakeholders and local partners to develop a ‘bottom-up’ approach to changing federal policy as opposed to ‘top-down,’” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan explained. “Rather than sticking to the old Washington playbook of dictating how communities can invest their grants, HUD’s application process encouraged creative, locally focused thinking.”

Among the grant winners are local agencies that have already received accolades for their path-breaking work on livable communities and transportation options. Two of them, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and Salt Lake County, have pioneered the idea of “blueprint planning” for transportation and land use.” The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation in North Carolina, Oregon’s Lane Council of Governments and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments were also awarded.

One of the most exciting winners is California State University Fresno, which received $4 million to implement a land use planning vision for 14 participating cities in the fertile San Joaquin Valley. The Valley has historically been agriculture-rich and auto-dependent, so a collaborative effort at planning that increases transit options and boosts the economy while protecting vital farmland is a major step. Smarter transportation could also go a long way toward relieving some of the pollution problems in San Joaquin.

Ashley Swearengin, the mayor of Fresno, said in a statement that her community is “excited about the promise of federal agencies working in such a focused, concentrated way with the city of Fresno. We hope this partnership will provide us with the technical expertise and resources to focus on one of the most challenging neighborhoods in the city.”

You can see a complete list of winners here.

This is a good opportunity to remind you to tell your Senator to support the Livable Communities Act, a program that would help equip local communities to do more of this kind of work.

The Diane Rehm show, which regularly receives more than 2.1 million listeners on its home of Washington-based NPR affiliate WAMU, tackled the topic of “Creating Livable Cities” during last Thursday’s broadcast.

Rehm was also joined by, among others, Barbara McCann, the director of the National Complete Streets Coalition. McCann noted that 23 states and 137 local jurisdictions across the country have adopted Complete Streets policies to turn the tide on the outdated single-minded approach to road construction that meets the needs of only those behind the wheel.

Describing some of the roadblocks to making America’s streets accessible to all users, McCann said it “varies by city.”

In some places, it’s just a doubt that anyone will do anything other than drive in places where driving is the only way people generally get around. Many sunbelt cities that grew up only with the car. Other places there’s a real debate about who gets the road space and the allocation of space beyond the automobile. And in other places, they have questions about costs. But in every community that’s moving forward on this, they really embrace the vision of wanting to do things differently. They accept that it’s going to take awhile and then they start to reap the benefits.

On the political front, former Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy noted that too often “people are locked in the status quo.” Part of that status quo is embedded in decades-old zoning laws that strictly separate where people live, work and shop. Those rules — sprawling residential areas with auto-oriented commercial growth on the fringe — are the norm for many metropolitan areas, but “cities increasingly now are changing the rules,” Murphy noted, citing suburban Bethesda near Washington, D.C., as a “great example” and a “place where you can live, work and play and you got good transit.”

So where does this leave us politically, and how does the advocacy work of folks like the Complete Streets coalition tie in? Murphy said the Obama administration is “grappling” with these issues in the course of working through infrastructure legislation. At stake in the next transportation bill are the severely limited funds that do go toward biking and walking, with some groups wanting to direct all funding away from these projects.

The transportation lobby wants to take all that money back to build more roads. And so there’s a huge battle that goes on that really begins the drive the conversation all over the country.

Unfortunately for them, making streets safe and accessible for all users is popular from coast to coast in cities and towns of all sizes.

You can read the entire transcript or listen to the broadcast here.

This morning’s post on Taos, New Mexico wraps up our series of 12 case studies on livability and transit in small towns and communities.

We hope you enjoyed these short snapshots of how livability resonates in these smaller communities across the country. Despite what you hear some skeptical lawmakers saying in hearings or in the press, livability is perhaps an essentially rural or small town value. These 12 short case studies help prove that point.

If you found this series useful, we’ve put all the case studies together into one full document (pdf) that you can save and print out. Thank you to everyone who tweeted about and shared this series and passed it along to your elected leaders here in Washington.

You can always find this and other useful resources on our “Resources” page.

Summary: This collection of 12 case studies helps put to rest the idea that livability is an exclusively “urban” idea. Small cities, towns and rural regions across the country are transforming themselves into more livable communities. While some of these communities face formidable threats – from job losses and shrinking populations to disappearing farmland and strained resources – their leaders have forged collaborations and created plans that are growing economies, benefiting people and protecting the land and lifestyles treasured by residents and non-residents alike.

Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

Taos, New Mexico

The EPA helped Taos officials improve access for bicyclists and pedestrians, make streets safer and pursue commercial and residential growth that fit with the town’s character.

The town of Taos, population 4,700 as of the 2000 census, is the country seat of Taos County in north-central New Mexico and adjacent to a major ski resort.

Town officials requested EPA assistance in their drive to increase development and economic opportunity along the Paseo del Pueblo Sur corridor on New Mexico State Highway 68.

The EPA, local residents and officials together identified three steps for meeting objectives: improving traffic management through increased bicycle and pedestrian access; street design policies that create distinct sections of town and make roads safer for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians; and pursuing mixed-use zoning along the corridor, including commercial and residential, in a style that fits the town’s character.

“The Town of Taos benefited from [EPA] assistance through increased public awareness of the traffic and development issues along the Paseo del Pueblo Sur Corridor,” according to a Town Resolution.

Following the EPA’s role in planning for the corridor, the Town Council authorized funding for additional assistance.

Source: Environmental Protection Agency

]]> http://t4america.org/blog/2010/09/13/livability-in-small-towns-12-taos-new-mexico/feed/ 0 http://t4america.org/blog/2010/09/10/livability-in-small-towns-11-mccall-idaho/ http://t4america.org/blog/2010/09/10/livability-in-small-towns-11-mccall-idaho/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:00:39 +0000 Sean Barry http://t4america.org/?p=7391 This collection of 12 case studies puts to rest the idea that livability is an exclusively "urban" idea — small cities, towns and rural regions across the country are transforming themselves into more livable communities. McCall officials worked with the EPA on effective planning along the town’s major corridor, resulting in new businesses and preserved open space. ]]> This collection of 12 case studies helps put to rest the idea that livability is an exclusively “urban” idea. Small cities, towns and rural regions across the country are transforming themselves into more livable communities. While some of these communities face formidable threats – from job losses and shrinking populations to disappearing farmland and strained resources – their leaders have forged collaborations and created plans that are growing economies, benefiting people and protecting the land and lifestyles treasured by residents and non-residents alike.

Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

McCall, Idaho

McCall officials worked with the EPA on effective planning along the town’s major corridor, resulting in new businesses and preserved open space.

McCall officials worked with the EPA on effective planning along the town’s major corridor, resulting in new businesses and preserved open space.

McCall, Idaho has a population of less than 3,000, which fluctuates wildly by season. The city is located near the middle of the state on the Southern end of Payette Lake.
People in McCall were concerned that the demands of new residents and visitors would interfere with the town’s history and charm. In response, city officials applied for and were granted EPA assistance in planning for new development along the East-West Loop Road, the roadway that runs through the town’s core.

The EPA worked closely with local officials and community members on a plan that brought in new business while meeting the needs of neighborhoods. McCall leaders were confident enough in the EPA’s work that they adopted the comprehensive plan.
McCall’s former chief planner, Roger Millar, said the EPA let residents take charge, while giving them the confidence and the tools they needed.

“Working with [the EPA] gave citizens a vocabulary that they didn’t have,” Millar told the Associated Press. “People know what they want, but they don’t know how to express it. What the team was able to do was put the tools in the citizens’ hands to say, ‘This is what we want – it looks like this.’”

Source: Allen, Anne Wallace. “EPA Planners Help McCall Prepare for Change.” Associated Press. December 26, 2005

Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

Wyoming

The state of Wyoming put together a blueprint for getting infrastructure up-to-date and preparing for new business while preserving its unique quality of life.

Wyoming has faced similar challenges to North Dakota. Although the state is rich in coal and natural resources, its population is in decline, especially among college graduates. Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal and state officials employed smart growth principles and visioning to keep talent in Wyoming and improve quality of life. Wyoming is one of the sparsest states in the country.

“We have arrived at a unique point in time in Wyoming,” Freudenthal said in 2008. “Our economy continues to surge ahead, unemployment remains at a record low and we’re seeing an encouraging increase in the number of companies that are looking to move to Wyoming and set up shop.” Although Wyoming has struggled alongside the rest of the country in the economic recession, it maintains one of the lowest unemployment rates of all 50 states.

Infrastructure in Wyoming has often failed to keep up with the movement of people in search of industrial jobs, and the state’s plentiful natural resources can be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they have kept the economy strong, but overuse of the land could come at the expense of the Wyoming’s beauty and unique appeal. With the benefits of growth come “serious challenges,” as Freudenthal put it.

“There is growing attention being given to the pace and pattern of growth in the state, especially as it affects our wildlife, our characteristic open spaces, our breathtaking mountain vistas and our wild and pristine places,” he said. “There are also mounting pressures for housing and infrastructure in cities, towns and counties around the state, where an influx of people and an increase in industrial activity have strained existing resources.

“When considering the most significant challenges facing Wyoming and its future, high on the list is how we can welcome growth and prosperity and still protect the things and the places that make Wyoming a special place to live,” he continued. “We need to foster conversations about how to build the Wyoming that we want for our kids and grandkids.”

Source: Office of Governor Dave Freudenthal

Check back each day for a new post and read the full series of livability case studies as they’re posted. The intro can be found here.

North Dakota

Facing a decline in population and lagging job growth, North Dakota’s governor initiated a long-range process to attract new employers and prepare North Dakotans for the 21st century.

In 2003, North Dakota Governor John Hoeven, a Republican elected in 2002 and re-elected overwhelmingly in 2006, launched a statewide smart growth initiative. The resulting Vision 2000 drew from people with a diverse array of perspectives, including business leaders, public sector employees and agricultural workers.

“During the decade of the 1980s, our state lost almost 14,000 people in population, our ag base was declining, and we were creating few new jobs in other sectors of our economy,” Hoeven said in his 2003 State of the State speech.

According to Hoeven, the visioning process – combined with the overall strength of the economy in the 1990s – aided the state in attracting and retaining new employers.

“In fact, communities like Bismarck and Fargo have seen significant growth of 12 to 22 percent, while other larger communities, and some smaller communities, have held their own, and even grown some as well,” he said. “But much of rural North Dakota has continued to struggle, and today we need a new focus that begins a second chapter in our quest for prosperity and quality of life.”

Hoeven’s smart growth vision included a commitment to excellence in education, using new technology to make the state attractive to employers and targeting industries like agriculture, tourism and energy where North Dakota has a competitive advantage.

“Through a unified vision called Smart Growth, we will build a dynamic new future for North Dakota,” Hoeven said. “Working together, we can achieve this bright future and a quality of life second to none, for ourselves and for our children.”

Source: North Dakota Office of the Governor.