New Additions To Resource Center Best Practices
October 29, 2012
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A trio of reports have been added to the Resource Center best practices database.
Monday Night Football Matchup No Contest In Competition For Complete Communities
October 29, 2012
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Visit the Are We There Yet? home It will be a battle between the cities of Sun and Fog. The San Francisco 49ers matchup against the Arizona Cardinals in a rough and tumble battle between bitter division rivals. But what about livability and complete communities? It should be no surprise to fans of livability and complete communities that the Bay Area scores higher than the Phoenix region. San Francisco gets all A’s, while Phoenix sits just above Atlanta, Riverside, and Dallas-Fort Worth with three C’s and a D. The Phoenix region does worst on “Living” and can thank its sprawling development patterns for much of that low score. The region has a highly successful light rail line with 27 stations, but only 2.3% of households live within walking distance of the line. A slightly higher percentage of people live in opportunity areas in the Phoenix region (and there are 82 of these places spread throughout), but…
Federal Policy Update: Effective Practices in Planning for Livable Communities at MPO Webinar
October 23, 2012
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Effective Practices in Planning for Livable Communities at MPO
A Federal Highway Administration webinar, "Effective Practices in Planning for Livable Communities at Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)" will be held November 13, from 1:00-2:30pm ET.The webinar will present innovative MPO programs that promote livability as a follow up to FHWA/FTA peer exchange (Details about peer exchange here).
Register for webinar Reconnecting America provides occasional email updates on federal activities related to transit, TOD, and sustainable communities. Updates may include key legislative or regulatory actions, grant opportunities, relevant resources, or original analysis. If you would like to receive these emails, visit our Join Our…
Register for webinar Reconnecting America provides occasional email updates on federal activities related to transit, TOD, and sustainable communities. Updates may include key legislative or regulatory actions, grant opportunities, relevant resources, or original analysis. If you would like to receive these emails, visit our Join Our…
Recap From Next American City Vanguard Conference In St. Louis
October 22, 2012
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In October 2012, 43 of the nation’s young urban leaders met up in St. Louis for the Next American City Vanguard conference, an annual competition to find the “40-under-40” urban leaders who have “bright ideas for cities, experience in the field and ambition for the future.” I was honored to take part in the two-day conference and meet some of my peers from around the country while also experiencing the sights and sounds that make the city of St. Louis one of America’s great cities.
Federal Policy Update: 2011 American Housing Survey Highlights Webinar
October 22, 2012
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The HUD Office of Policy Development and Research will hold a half-hour webinar on 2011 American Housing Survey Highlights on Oct. 23 from 1pm to 1:30pm EDT.
The Windy City vs Motor City: Monday Night Complete Communities Matchup
October 20, 2012
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Visit the Are We There Yet? home
It’s a can’t miss divisional matchup between these two monsters of the Midwest. The Detroit Lions take on the Chicago Bears, each looking to put a critical win in the books. But how do the two places compare when it comes to building complete communities? As we saw a couple of weeks back, Chicago isn’t a high achiever, but they make a decent “B” across the board, due to the combination of the region’s extensive transit network and compact growth patterns.
Detroit’s three “C’s” and a “D” indicate while not in the bottom of the bin, there is a need for more work to be done. The region’s fixed-guideway network consists of a people mover in the downtown today, and though a high share of households in the region (17%) do live in opportunity areas, there are many places doing better than that, including some small towns without NFL teams, such as Missoula, MT, and…
Compact And Complete Communities
October 18, 2012
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Two reports by Professor Gary Pivo that explore compact and complete communities have been added to the Resouce Center best practices database.
How to Make the Most of the Federal TIFIA Loan Program For Transit and TOD Projects
October 18, 2012
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The greatly expanded federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program under the recently enacted MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act) can provide more than $17 billion in loans to eligible projects. Equally important, MAP-21 includes several key technical changes that will make it easier for transit projects to access this program and secure funding. However, time is of the essence.
New Report Documents Rising H+T Costs Are Outpacing Family Income
October 18, 2012
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The combined costs of housing and transportation in the nation's largest 25 metro areas have swelled by 44 percent since 2000 while incomes have failed to keep pace, according to a new report. "Losing Ground: The Struggle of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation" details the challenges that American households face as the combined costs of housing and transportation consume an ever-larger share of household incomes.
Federal Policy Update: American Housing Survey Data & Making Most Of TIFIA Webinar
October 16, 2012
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HUD today made the American Housing Survey 2011 data available to the public. This survey provides high quality national housing data that is used by policymakers, public agencies, and others to analyze the state of housing in America. The 2011 AHS features many changes. The one that will strike data users first is that the files are a lot bigger. That’s because, for the first time, AHS national and metropolitan survey cases are integrated into the same dataset. Not only, that, but the 2011 data collection included a whopping 29 metropolitan surveys, at 4500 cases each! Thus, the core NEWHOUSE file contains 186,448 records, and the PERSON file has 339,453. The standard weighting variables (WEIGHT and WGT90GEO) allow you to use all of the metropolitan cases in your national-level analysis. There is also a new weight variable, WGTMETRO, which allows you to tabulate the metropolitan areas on their own.
The
