Comments on: Why Stimulus Money Should Go to Cities, Not States http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/12/17/why-stimulus-money-should-go-to-cities-not-states/ Covering Los Angeles's livable streets movement Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:23:58 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: cph http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/12/17/why-stimulus-money-should-go-to-cities-not-states/comment-page-1/#comment-3449 cph Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:36:23 +0000 http://la.streetsblog.org/?p=1517#comment-3449 I'm not 100% convinced the cities would be any wiser, anyway. Has anyone seen the "Main Street Economic Recovery" (a.k.a. Mayors Wishlist) http://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery/documents/mser-report-200812.pdf Seems to be a lot of froo-froo-frippery in there. Nice, but at this time, we probably need to buckle down and concentrate on road/bridge repair, transit systems that will get people to work, etc. I'm not 100% convinced the cities would be any wiser, anyway. Has anyone seen the "Main Street Economic Recovery" (a.k.a. Mayors Wishlist)

http://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery/documents/mser-report-200812.pdf

Seems to be a lot of froo-froo-frippery in there. Nice, but at this time, we probably need to buckle down and concentrate on road/bridge repair, transit systems that will get people to work, etc.

]]> By: Dana Gabbard http://la.streetsblog.org/2008/12/17/why-stimulus-money-should-go-to-cities-not-states/comment-page-1/#comment-3444 Dana Gabbard Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:38:27 +0000 http://la.streetsblog.org/?p=1517#comment-3444 Circumventing the states to give funds directly to the cities is a non-starter. Trying to rewrite the process that has been built up over decades is too much for a new President to bite off in his first piece of major legislation. Trying to impose some set of vague criteria that fits the goals of a narrow band of activists is going to fail when this stuff starts working through the Congress. But instead of just posting a response blasting me for my poor sense of realpolitik, I suggest ped and bike activists promote their priorities by contacting their Congressperson and urge the stimulus package encourage green ideals. A brief polite phone call could make all the difference. And I think would be more effective than lobbhying Metro or local cities on the issue. You can find out who your Representative is via using this page on the House website: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml By the way, isn’t STPP basically moribund? Certainly not the force it was during the Ditmar years. Transportation for America looks to be a cobbled together attempt to have something in place with reauthorization impending, but it so far is unimpressive. Circumventing the states to give funds directly to the cities is a non-starter. Trying to rewrite the process that has been built up over decades is too much for a new President to bite off in his first piece of major legislation. Trying to impose some set of vague criteria that fits the goals of a narrow band of activists is going to fail when this stuff starts working through the Congress.

But instead of just posting a response blasting me for my poor sense of realpolitik, I suggest ped and bike activists promote their priorities by contacting their Congressperson and urge the stimulus package encourage green ideals. A brief polite phone call could make all the difference. And I think would be more effective than lobbhying Metro or local cities on the issue.

You can find out who your Representative is via using this page on the House website: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

By the way, isn’t STPP basically moribund? Certainly not the force it was during the Ditmar years. Transportation for America looks to be a cobbled together attempt to have something in place with reauthorization impending, but it so far is unimpressive.

]]>