Where We're Working

Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development will be participating in a number of sessions at Rail~Volution 2012 in Los Angeles during Oct. 14-17.  A listing of Reconnecting America and CTOD sessions is available here.

Reconnecting America Program Associate Bill Sadler will be in St. Louis on Oct. 10 as part of the the 2012 Next American Vanguard Class. Sadler is one of 43 people selected from nearly 200 applications by Next American City for this year’s class. Next American Vanguard Class members were chosen for their bright ideas for cities, experience in the field and ambition for the future. Read more here.

Reconnecting America President & CEO John Robert Smith is the keynote speaker for the 2012 Annual Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance luncheon and meeting Oct. 9 at the Union Station City Stage. A news report about the speech is available here.

Reconnecting America President & CEO John Robert Smith will be participating in Transportation for America's traveling "Thinking Outside the Farebox:  Creative Approaches to Financing Transit Project" project.  With local sponsors, Transportation for America is holding workshops on federal transit financing in a post-earmark era, bringing together high level officials from the U.S. Department of Transportation, national transportation financing experts, and leaders from other regions with transit success stories. Workshops will be held in St. Petersburg, FL (Sept. 19), and Seattle, WA (Oct. 4). These events are open to the public. For more information, contact Russ Brooks with Transportation for America at russ.brooks@t4america.org and 202-955-5543 x211.

Reconnecting America President & CEO John Robert Smith will give the keynote talk at the luncheon meeting of the Downtown Mobile, AL, Alliance on Oct. 3. The Downtown Mobile Alliance is a non-profit organization established to facilitate the work of the Downtown Mobile District Management Corporation and Main Street Mobile, Inc. Established in August 2006, the Alliance is a membership organization designed to create more exposure for downtown redevelopment efforts, both within the downtown community and throughout the city at large.

Reconnecting America Chief of Staff Allison Brooks will attend the 2012 American Public Transportation Association Annual Meeting in Seattle Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Brooks will be a panelist in the session on Planning Partnerships for Livable Communities. Session description: "As communities, regions, and states look to improve their “sustainability” and “livability” through coordinated transportation, land use, housing and environmental programs, productive organizational partnerships among service providers and stakeholder interests are essential. With the transportation element, transit agencies need to be engaged with regional organizations in order for transit plans and programs to be fairly considered in funding decisions. The partnerships between public transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and elected officials and stakeholders working together to develop sustainable transportation long-range plans and short-range programs will be the focus of the…

Reconnecting America President and CEO John Robert Smith will attend the Amtrak Civic Conversation in St. Paul, Minn., on Sept. 26.As part of the Great American Stations project, Amtrak hosts Civic Conversations in an effort to inform communities about station renovation and build partnerships with those working to revitalize the stations Amtrak serves.

Reconnecting America Project Director Chris Yake will be in Boston to work on Transit-Oriented Development Rating Systems. The Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) are partnering, with the support of the Barr Foundation, to develop a “rating system” for equitable transit-oriented development.  This project is scheduled to be completed by November 2012.