People
Streetsblog LA
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
Penetrating the Myth of L.A.’s Safety
At City Watch and his personal blog Soap Box, Stephen Box punched an SUV sized hole in the Mayor and Police Chief Charlie Beck's claim that the City of Los Angeles has become the "second safest big city in America, after New York." Box's contention is that because the city assumes that most traffic crashes are "accidents" even when there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, that the city can keep its official statistics low and avoid having to spend resources to keep the city safe.
January 15, 2010
LADOT: No Timetable on Sharrows Pilot Program; LACBC: How’s Next Month Work?
Yesterday, the City Council Transportation Committee met to discuss, once again, what the heck is taking so long to bring a Sharrows program to Los Angeles. For over two years, the program has been a top priority for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and funding has been in place for a pilot program for over six months. Conversely, the above painted-lane Sharrows program in Long Beach took four months to move from Mobility Coordinator Charles Gandy's head to the street.
January 14, 2010
LaHood Wants More TIGER Aid in the Congressional Jobs Bill
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made a splash yesterday by announcing that the U.S. DOT would look at the environmental and community-building benefits of transit projects, not just their adherence to a government cost-effectiveness standard.
January 14, 2010