Reconnecting America People * Places * Possibility

News: LA's Changing Boulevards, Houston Supercommuters, Transport Bill Talks, Florida's Outsource City

Tracks News - In this section you'll find news from cities around the country as well as interviews and general reporting on issues.  It might be from a newspaper or a blog, but it counts as news.  The Chatter, commentary and opposition articles will be found towards the bottom.
TRANSPORT

Los Angeles: Boulevards Are Changing in LA

Los Angeles Times


As Los Angeles' boulevards reassert their place in the public realm, the transformation along Atlantic offers glimpses of a new city identity taking shape...

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Texas: Dallas to Houston Supercommuters Top of Nation

Dallas Morning News


Has that Frisco-to-Dallas commute got you down? Buck up, you could be headed to Houston every day for work. Plenty of your neighbors do, according to a study released earlier this year, and touted in the Dallas Business Journal today...

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San Francisco: Muni Looks to Add "Twitter" Express Bus

San Francisco Examiner


The resurgence of the mid-Market Street neighborhood could be boosted by another bus line serving the area. Muni has proposed adding an express route that would operate during peak weekday travel times...

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National: Transport Bill Talks Behind the Scenes

The Hill


Negotiations in Congress about a new federal transportation bill are moving out of committee rooms and behind the scenes, as lawmakers in the House and Senate continue talks about a possible deal...

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Dallas: Transit Agencies Work to Build System

Progressive Railroading


Dallas native Jim Cline recalls the days before the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system existed. It was the early 1980s, and expressways were under rapid construction to accommodate the Dallas-Fort Worth region's sprawling growth...

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National: On Transportation Enhancements

National Journal Transport Experts Blog


One of the most carefully negotiated provisions of the Senate highway bill involves "transportation enhancements," a program that provides government funding to help states "expand transportation choices and enhance the transportation experience," according to the Transportation Department...

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URBANISM/HOUSING/CITIES

Research: Urbanism as Material Discourse

Urban Geography Journal


This essay seeks to challenge the idea that those who consider themselves to be empirical urban researchers are necessarily concerned with a quite separate quest for knowledge than those involved in the interpretation of representations and narratives of the urban experience...

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National: Mayor Enters New Urbanist Lion's Den

New Haven Independent


It fills in a failed urban renewal highway. Does that make it "new urbanism"? That question has hovered above New Haven's biggest development project in a generation, Downtown Crossing. Another way of asking the question: Is New Haven undoing a major mistake and learning from its past? Or is it repeating the mistake?..

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Florida: City Gets by with 9 Public Employees

Governing Magazine


Weston, Fla., an affluent suburb 25 miles northwest of Miami, has one of the most unusual charters of any city: it specifically discourages the city from hiring employees. Since the 1980s, state and local governments across the country have increasingly sought to outsource various service to the private sector. But few do it like Weston...

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