The Smart and Narrow

Stand in the shadow of any giant residential megablock in Seattle and you can't help but wonder: Isn't there a better way to do this? The reality of massive buildings now being auctioned off at fire-sale prices seems proof that bigness alone is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition for successful development in Seattle.

Developers have long crowed — and local politicians have cowed to — the notion that "we can't make money in Seattle unless we build six-story buildings." After a round of developer-driven up-zoning we now behold the post-bubble result: fleets of full-block behemoths standing half-empty, unsold, even half-built.

What will we make of this enforced economic pause? Will we carve out urban and mental space in which to think about growing smartly and sustainably instead of just bigger and faster? Or will we simply wait for the banks to resume shoveling debt so the bulldozers can resume shoving dirt?

A few blocks from the lively Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill is a place that could change our thinking about Seattle urban density. [more]

PLANNING IN THE WEST CONFERENCE, JUNE 17-18 IN BOISE

Why should towns in the West change the way they grow? And why should planners design healthier, greener communities?

Because if they don’t, they’ll suffer and fail.

Dire as that answer sounds, it's sparked something worth celebrating: a planning revolution and a move to sustainability across the West, according to land-use and green planning expert Christopher Duerksen.
[more]

Movie Q and A

If life is a highway, we’re in trouble--unless we start making highways safer for wildlife, wildlands and the planet. Simply put, America’s ever-expanding web of streets and freeways is a noxious force that threatens to "pave over the landscape.”

So says Division Street, a beautifully filmed and notable new documentary premiering Thursday, June 11, at the Roxy Theater in Missoula. The 7 p.m. showing will be followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmaker-producer Eric Bendick and officials from Transportation for America and American Wildlands.


[more]

From the Designing the New West Conference

The Montana Department of Transportation is receiving $211 million extra dollars from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for projects this year, says MDT director Jim Lynch.

On a typical year Montana can expect about $300 million for transportation projects from the federal government. With the extra ARRA money, the state will have more than $500 million to spend this year.

“(Congress) wanted to get it out into the states and out into contractors hands as quickly as possible,” he said.

The ARRA is largely misunderstood by the general public, Lynch said. At its heart, it's about jobs [more]

Fairness in Funding

Missoula officials, long aggrieved at what they consider unfair apportionment of state transportation funds, have approved a strongly worded resolution demanding that the city and county get a fair shake, both on new federal funds flowing from the economic stimulus program and on existing state and federal highway programs.

The resolution, approved by the city-county Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee on Tuesday and printed in full below, details major imbalances in the way the state allocates transportation funding. While greater Missoula accounts for some 8.5% of the state's population, it is projected to receive just 2.6% of all state and fedeeral transportation funds over the next 25 years. Further, Missoula residents receive only 5-7 cents of benefit for every dollar of state gas tax paid in Missoula.

The resolution comes as state, local and federal officials debate how to spend an anticipated $300 million in federal transportation funds that will flow from the national economic stimulus plan. City officials were furious that the initial state project wish-list included only a single Missoula project - about $3 million for the Scott St. overpass - out of some $1.5 billion in projects statewide that were cited as stimulus program priorities.
[more]

Vehicle Miles Decline

In a report that will doubtless find its way to the highest corridors of power in Washington, D.C., the Brookings Institute concludes that Americans’ love affair with the automobile is ending.

For the first time on record, U.S. vehicle miles traveled declined year-to-year in 2007, the study, entitled "The Road...Less Traveled," finds. “America is experiencing its longest and steepest drop in driving, signaling a permanent shift away from reliance on the car to other modes of transportation,” write study authors Robert Puentes and Adie Tomer.
[more]

Like everyone else, I take some pleasure in pulling into the gas station and filling up at $1.60 a gallon - down from $4.10 or so just a few months ago. Low gas prices are one of the few balms these days for worried and cash-strapped families, especially here in the West, where driving distances are long and transit choices few.

Yet I also know that low gasoline prices are the enemy of conservation and alternative energy. When oil prices go up, consumption goes down. When oil prices go high enough, alternatives like wind, solar, geothermal, and ethanol become economically feasible. When oil prices plummet, clean and green just doesn't add up.

There's a very obvious policy solution in this situation, one which I hope President Obama will have the political courage to pursue: a tax increase, either in the form of an oil import tax or higher gasoline taxes. [more]

Hitting the pocketbook from all sides

Transportation issues are bearing down on the economy of Montana. How is this affecting our farmers, industries and how we view our future strategies, policies and approaches?

The Burton K. Wheeler Center, at the Montana State University, hosted a conference on transportation in Billings last week, with the goal to discuss with leaders and legislators how this increase in fuel has forced a shift in our economy and how are we to approach the future.

Representatives from three of Montana’s major industries — tourism, farming and food distribution — discussed how Montana’s markets are being significantly affected by fuel costs. [more]

Where will the future take us?

As transportation becomes a looming question affecting Montana’s economic future with its large and rural expanse, the Burton K. Wheeler Center is hosting a timely discourse on this critical issue.

“This industry of transportation has opportunities and challenges, such as additional train service across the state and the future of air service in Eastern Montana,” said Julie Hitchcock, Associate Director for the Wheeler Center. What service will continue and new developments may happen in our rural and urban areas?

The Wheeler Center is the state’s oldest public policy forum, and is host to the upcoming conference “The High Cost of Fuel: What’s Down the Road for Montanans?” with efforts to create a non-partisan dialogue based around statewide difficult topics, on October 1st and 2nd in Billings, Montana. [more]

Smart Growth America Wants to Ask...

A Washington, D.C. group wants help from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus to transform the U.S. Department of Transportation from a pork barrel into a focused agency with a mission.

"We're funding bridges-to-nowhere while bridges in Minneapolis are collapsing," said Smart Growth America president Geoffrey Anderson, whose organization is part of a $4 million campaign called Transportation for America. The money goes toward grass roots organizing, research and lobbying for the group's platform. Click here for a list of partners behind Transportation for America. [more]