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Streetsblog LA
Two Steps or Three? Timeline for Cyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance Heads to Full Council
Livable Streets advocates could have a full day in City Hall this Wednesday.
January 25, 2010
Times Covers Coming Metro Cuts, Avoids Mentioning Pols By Name
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times took a look at the coming budget crisis at Metro. The article just scratches the surface of the issue, correctly noting that there are a lot of reasons for the quarter of a billion dollar operating deficit including the state's budget grabs, lower than projected sales tax revenue and an 8% decline in ridership from Metro's record setting year in 2008.
January 25, 2010
Gov.’s Newest Transit Raid Receiving a Frosty Reception
As Governor Schwarzenegger presses forward with his newest scheme to rob funds dedicated to transit, he's receiving a frosty response from legislators and opinion makers that could spell doom for this plan to balance the budget.
January 22, 2010
Obama Previews His New Budget’s Urban Policy Moves
When it comes to re-centering the Washington bureaucracy to better
accommodate cities' needs, the first year of the Obama administration
has brought its share of progress (a three-agency partnership set to spend $150 million on sustainable development) and hiccups (a White House urban affairs office with lots of talk but little action).
January 22, 2010
More Proof That L.A. Isn’t Getting Its Fair Share of Stimulus and Other Federal Funds
The U.S. Conference of Mayors released a report
this week with some dire conclusions for the nation's cities: Even the
payroll growth that many prognosticators anticipate this year won't
make a dent in double-digit urban unemployment. Half of the 363 biggest
metro areas won't return to their pre-recession jobs levels until 2013
or beyond.
January 21, 2010
A Common Thread in the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit and ‘Cash for Clunkers’
Back in the days of "cash for clunkers," which saw the Obama
administration send nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded rebates to
boost the sagging auto industry, our Ryan Avent and several other
economics wonks pointed out
an inconvenient fact: Many participants in the program would have
bought cars anyway, and the rebates only pulled their purchases forward
in time.
January 20, 2010
Dodd and DeLauro Vow to Get Infrastructure Bank Done This Year
Supporters from every corner of the transportation universe joined
Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Sen. Chris Dodd
(D-CT) today at a press event aimed at jumpstarting a National
Infrastructure Bank (NIB), which the two Connecticut lawmakers vowed to
steer to passage this year.
January 20, 2010
We’re Number 1…In Auto Congestion
News website The Daily Beast crunches the numbers from the most congested areas in America and finds, to nobody's surprise, that the worst driving commute in America is right here in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Freeway ranks as the worst place to commute in the entire country based on rush hour congestion, the worst bottleneck, and the average amount of congestion per week at the worst bottleneck.
January 20, 2010
Obama Quietly Gets Federal Agencies Involved in Transport Planning
When President Obama signed an executive order in October requiring federal agencies to craft strategies for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, he described the mandate as Washington "lead[ing] by example" on the pollution-reduction front.
January 19, 2010
CBO Echoes Obama’s Candor on the Pitfalls of ‘Shovel-Readiness’
During last month's White House jobs summit, President Obama carved out
some common ground with critics of his first stimulus law's $47 billion
in infrastructure spending -- which was distributed mainly by the book
through state DOTs. "The term "shovel-ready," let’s be honest here,
doesn’t always live up to its billing," he acknowledged.
January 19, 2010