Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Transportation Policy

Transport Debate Still Stalled As Oberstar Decries ‘Lack of Political Will’

By Elana Schor | Oct 16, 2009 | No Comments

Halfway through the extra month that Congress gave itself to resolve a long-simmering dispute over funding the nation’s transportation system, Democratic leaders remain deadlocked over whether — and how long — to wait before debating a broad reform of federal infrastructure policy. The Transportation Secretary and the president have a stalemate on their hands. (Photo: […]

What Washington Can Do For — And Alongside — Metro Area Planners

By Elana Schor | Oct 14, 2009 | No Comments

At one point midway through yesterday’s Brookings Institution forum on metropolitan planning, moderator Chris Leinberger quipped that Portland was deliberately not represented. It’s not that Portland isn’t a model of sustainability, he explained, but that "we all have Portland fatigue" — that urban policy thinkers are eager to expand the models of local development beyond […]

Obama Ally Breaks With White House on Timing of New Transport Bill

By Elana Schor | Oct 13, 2009 | No Comments

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the No. 2 Democratic leader in the upper chamber of Congress and a close ally of the president, broke with the White House yesterday and called for a new long-term transportation bill to pass by early next year — not after the Obama administration’s preferred 18-month delay. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin […]

Bridging the Local-National Message Divide: The Climate Bill is the Answer

By Ryan Avent | Oct 9, 2009 | No Comments

Urban areas have a lot to contribute to the congressional climate change debate. (Photo: SDOT Blog) This week, I was fortunate to attend the Open Cities conference in Washington (along with fellow Streetsbloggers Elana Schor and Aaron Naparstek), on the ways in which new media is shaping urban policy. The takeaway, for me at least, […]

Bush DOT Chief Urges More Transport Tech Funding

By Elana Schor | Oct 9, 2009 | 2 Comments

Former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who served for eight years in George W. Bush’s DOT, sat down with Streetsblog Capitol Hill this week to urge that Congress add a dedicated funding stream of $1 billion each year for transportation technology to the next long-term infrastructure bill. Since leaving office, Peters has transitioned to private consulting […]

Team Obama Adviser: Here’s How to Make Sustainability Mainstream

By Elana Schor | Oct 7, 2009 | No Comments

Shelley Poticha, head of the Obama administration’s inter-agency sustainable communities push, is so new to the job that the legislation creating her office has yet to be officially approved by Congress — but she has already hit upon two goals aimed at remaking the way Americans, and their government, view local development. Shelley Poticha (Photo: […]

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