Quick Shout-Out to "The Examiner" for Smart Growth Article

Readers of this blog know that I am no huge fan of the free weekday DC tabloid "The Examiner", due to its irritatingly right-wing editorial slant. In fact, practically every week I say to myself "I am never reading that right-wing nut-job propaganda organ again."

However, I have to give credit where credit is due. Say what you will about the intellectual integrity of the paper's editorial rants against the President and Democrats: but the paper does the best job in town of covering traffic, commuting and development issues. Witness this article in yesterday's "Examiner" on smart growth. Here are a few excerpts:

Organizations like the Coalition for Smarter Growth are lobbying for transit projects that shy away from highway expansion and to focus more on encouraging development around transit hubs.

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the coalition, said that rather than widening lanes and building high-occupancy toll lanes, officials should examine charging peak rates for using existing lanes during rush hour, as Metro does.

The coalition was one of several groups that rallied against a Montgomery County plan this week to widen Interstate 270.

"We urge the County Council to reject the Planning Board's misguided transportation recommendations, the result of which would be more cars on the highways and more traffic jams," said Ben Ross, president of Action Committee for Transit, a Montgomery County citizens group.

***

Schwartz said the key was to adopt a model similar to Arlington County or Old Town Alexandria, namely, focusing development near rail stations and transit centers.

So, props to "The Examiner" - here's hoping they will continue to cover these very important issues in a "fair and balanced" manner.

I just fell in love...

... with Christopher Leinberger of The Brookings Institute. Thanks to the "Tranportation for America" blog for publicizing the fantasic interview (below) appearing in The Infrastructurist (http://www.infrastructurist.com/).

In this interview, Leinberger discusses the folly of suburban development, the reversal of "white flight" underway which is bringing professionals back to the urban core, the long road back from the current housing crisis, and ideas for a better way forward, including public transportation.

Here's the interview: http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/02/10/how-to-save-the-suburbs-an-interview-with-christopher-leinberger/

And here's a phrase I think we will be hearing a lot more in the years to come: "the emerging suburban slum" (used in a comment by Bruce McF below the article). My architectural-historian wife has voiced this same thought under the phrase "tomorrow's tenements", referring to the shoddily-constructed suburban developments now struggling to attract buyers.

We have to move beyond the notion of mass transit in this country being "poor man's transportation". Perhaps the current financial meltdown will give us all a push in that direction.

I'm on my way out the door to find Leinberger's book(s)...

Welcome to DC Metro Transit!

Welcome! This is the first post in this blog, which I hope will become a regular conversation about transportation issues in Washington, DC.

For this first post, allow me to share an article I saw today in the free "Examiner" newspaper distributed in the DC area. I am generally not a big fan of this paper due to its right-wing bias, but I applaud them for covering a study by the Urban Land Institute (being released today) which concludes that people who purchase homes in the distant suburbs to escape high real estate prices end up paying more for housing and transportation than those who choose a home closer to the center of the metropolitan area. This study is a nice piece of ammo against automobile-centric transportation policy.

Here's the link: http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Study-Home-savings-in-outer-suburbs-often-get-sapped-by-costly-commutes-39289052.html

(Bear with me as I get up to speed on editing the HTML coding...)

I will post more later on my personal thoughts regarding issues such as transit-oriented development (TOD), public transportation policy, and the relative value of enhanced transit systems versus ever larger automobile-centric transportation networks. I cannot think of a better way for this country to invest in its future, and stimulate the economy, than by focusing on transit-oriented development.