Archive for the 'Transportation and Community Development' Category
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
On Monday, June 22, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced a bill that would reauthorize federal surface transportation funding to the tune of $450 billion and reform how the federal government invests in transportation infrastructure. Illinois transportation advocates commend Rep. Oberstar for his leadership on renewing federal surface transportation funding, which expires within a matter of weeks. They are working actively in coalition with Transportation for America (T4America) to help shape the bill so that it goes even further to ensure federal transportation investments help the U.S. and Illinois meet broader economic, energy, climate and health goals.
Today, Illinois and national transportation experts, including CNT’s Vice President for Policy, Jacky Grimshaw hosted a media telebriefing to discuss how the bill would affect Illinois and regional planning, and what specific reforms local advocates are pushing for to ensure Illinois and metropolitan Chicago have the transportation options necessary to remain economically competitive, environmentally sustainable, and socially equitable.
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Monday, May 18th, 2009
In response to recent developments in local transportation politics, CNT is reviving the TransitFuture coalition. Created in March 2007 to rally local support to avert the ‘Doomsday’ de-funding of public transportation in Northeastern Illinois, the TransitFuture’s organizing efforts paid off, and the crisis was averted. With the current funding crunch, that victory has revealed itself to be temporary, and the TransitFuture coalition is back in action to organize against the latest batch of harmful budget threats. Stay tuned to our website and listserv to learn how you can help stop Illinois’ budget crisis from doing irreparable damage to the public transportation system.
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Friday, May 8th, 2009
Sprawl has been a fascination with urban planners and historians alike, and is now gaining a heightened awareness due to the many linkages that can be drawn between the higher transportation costs one incurs to their ’sprawled out’ distance from an urban core. Current legislative initiatives like the partnership between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation, mean that policymakers are taking notice of the implications of where we live.
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Sunday, April 19th, 2009
Syndicated columnist, Neal Peirce, recently covered the groundbreaking collaboration between the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT).
This important partnership will lead to coordinated efforts in housing and transportation policies and investment. As Pierce puts it, “For federal departments, historically known for working in their own “silos,” largely oblivious to one another, it’s nearly a revolutionary step.” Better connecting working class people to their jobs has been lacking in existing policy and the agencies will now work to link where people live with how they travel around.
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Friday, April 10th, 2009
On March 26, CNT’s President Scott Bernstein and Reconnecting America’s CEO Shelley Poticha told Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee members and staff that transportation and housing policy and funding must be linked to unlock the market for development near stations and to enhance affordability.
Bernstein talked about the collapse of the “drive until you qualify” real-estate paradigm and the importance of redefining affordability to include consideration of both housing and transportation. He cited research showing that if a family making the median income of $52,000 a year in Milwaukee, WI, moved from a neighborhood requiring three cars per household and 35,000 miles of travel per year to an area where the household would need just one car, it would increase housing costs by $5,000 but reduce transportation costs by $12,000.
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Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
(From I-GO’s Motormouth blog)
Ever wonder what it’d be like to drive a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon? You don’t have to wait until 2015, the deadline President Barack Obama set in his New Energy For America plan to put one million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on the road. Thanks to generous support from ComEd, I-GO just added two plug-in hybrids to its fleet. On a fully charged battery, these cars are capable of achieving fuel economy in excess of 100 mpg and reducing CO2 emissions by up to two-thirds over the standard Prius.
The cars—converted 2009 Toyota Priuses—are located in the Millennium Park north garage at 201 E. Randolph Dr., and at 900 S. Clark St. in the AMLI 900 residential tower’s garage.
Read more about I-GO’s new plug-in electric vehicles >>
Addition: On April 21, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, will join I-GO and ComEd at the Thompson Center to unveil the two new plug-in electric hybrid vehicles. Read more in the Press Release.
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Friday, March 20th, 2009
CNT’s mantra that housing affordability needs to include transportation costs, and position that housing and transportation need to be considered together in planning for sustainable communities, have been heard and acted upon in unprecedented ways in key places in the federal government.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Secretary, Shaun Donovan, and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary, Ray LaHood, both testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development and announced the creation of an interagency partnership to promote sustainable communities through coordinating housing and transportation policy and investments.
CNT’s work—both our advocacy positions and the data from our research—was cited several times in their testimonies to demonstrate the key relationship between housing affordability and transportation costs.
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Posted in Featured Portfolio News, Transportation and Community Development | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
On March 5, Chicago residents celebrated Transportation Freedom Day, the date a typical area household has earned enough to cover its transportation costs for the year. To mark the occasion, CNT joined Illinois Public Interest Research Group (ILPIRG), Active Transportation Alliance, and Midwest High Speed Rail Association in calling upon the Governor Quinn and Mayor Daley to prioritize investment in transit. At a press conference at Union Station, CNT Research Director Linda Young stated “that families living in transit-rich neighborhoods can save up to $2,500 a year versus those living in dispersed communities with no access to transit.”
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Thursday, February 26th, 2009
CNT is part of the Transportation for America (T4America), a coalition of more that 225 organizations and 15,000 individual members, advocating for new federal transportation mission.
Today in Washington, D.C, T4America released its transportation platform (.pdf). In opening remarks, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) called the coalition perhaps the “most formidable” such coalition assembled on behalf of transportation reform. In a keynote address, Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian Mississippi noted that towns large and small, in every region of the country, would benefit from more transportation options, while the county as a whole would reap reduced oil dependency, lower carbon emissions and greater access to opportunity. Other panelists spoke on behalf of the public health benefits, implications for real estate development and the need for local areas to have greater latitude to address their mobility issues.
Read more in the press release.
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Friday, February 20th, 2009
CNT’s President, Scott Bernstein, recently spoke about the benefits of the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail in SE Wisconsin.
His talk, “Building Wealth through Investment” generated several editorials.
You can read a recap of Scott’s talk at the Transit Now website and his response to one of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorials.
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