"Livability" Should Not be a Strictly Urban Concept

From conception, the transportation and growth policies of the Obama administration seemed to be focused on urban environments.  Maybe its the documented growth of urban populations in the U.S. or the redevelopment and infill that's occurring in many of the country's big cities.  Or maybe its a bit of my own personal slant.  

In any regard, though, I believe most people who read about "transportation alternatives" and "livability" think of these as concepts relevant only to urban environments.  Stephen Lee Davis of Smart Growth America both disputes that perspective and wonders why it is so prevalent in Washington, D.C., even among representatives of rural constituencies.  He relates his own experiences living in Bentonville, Arkansas, during a time when the city was booming under Walmart's influence.  (Bentonville is home base for Walmart operations.)  As a resident of the town's historic center city, he was able to observe the geographic expansion of Bentonville and contrast his lifestyle in Bentonville to those who inhabited the new suburban residential developments.  That contrast originated largely from the planning and layout of those newer "communities."

I will let Mr. Davis tell you the rest of his story, in Part I and Part II.  I have a hard time arguing that livability doesn't have as much rural applicability as it does urban.  After all, is choice not essential to freedom? 

Some Health Care Stuff

The link below is a good resource for anyone who wants a relatively concise explanation of some of the new health care bill's provisions, particularly as they relate to Medicare, the CHIP programs, and the low-income persons and families that participate.

http://ccf.georgetown.edu/index/cms-filesystem-action?file=ccf%20publications/health%20reform/health%20reform%20package%20final.pdf

I am interested to see if and how opponents' perspectives might change about the reform bill as some of the benefits begin to become apparent.  I have a feeling some folks who have been opposed to reform in principle might find some of the provisions quite beneficial, particularly if they have health problems, problems finding affordable insurance, or are currently unemployed.  I could be wrong about that; only time will tell, I suppose.

Sharing

If I were going to write a health care post in the wake of Sunday's vote, I probably would have written something like this.  But instead of the hypothetical scenarios I would have posed, these are real.

Plus, the flyer in this post is flat ridiculous.  Free speech is great and all, but seriously...

Dooce.com: This is mommyblogging

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Don't Drink & Drive.

Bueller . . . Bueller . . .

Sorry for the radio silence lately.  I have engaged some other projects that have forced me to neglect my effort here, though not completely by choice.

If you can't get enough of me, you can find me writing at other places right now.  I've been hired on to ghost write for a law firm blog that you can find here.  I was honored when my post about a repeat DWI offender made the annual St. Patty's "don't drink 'n' drive" lesson. 

I'm also working on a blog that is tailored more toward the law practice that is my real job.  Some of the topics will overlap, though the writing is meant to be more informative and less ranting.  You can find that blog over at davidmcdaniellaw.com. 

I hope to be able to pick this back up as time allows.  Until then . . .

Is the party over?

Today I heard that progressive talk radio station AM 760 out of Boulder, Colorado, is sponsoring a discussion with two of my favorite hosts, David Sirota and Thom Hartmann, entitled "Is It Time to Abandon the Democratic Party?"  

Being completely honest, this is a question that I have been personally kicking around even before Scott Brown nabbed Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.  The results of that special election really pushed over the edge.  To illustrate, I give you two unedited emails I sent to friends on January 20, 2010.

I've been thinking for a while - LONG before this election clusterf*ck in mass. - what the heck is any different than it was in January of 2007?  I'm not sure.  Sure maybe the goals are different, the ultimate aims.  Take a look at the health care bill.  The insurance mandate with no public option or no additional opportunities to get Medicare just means more $$ straight to the insurance companies.  Its the same corporatist bullcrap that the dems campaigned against.  I mean, you can only campaign on hope and change for so long before voters figure out that nothing's actually going to change.  which is really really disappointing for an administration who won people over with a promise to change the tone and the culture and DC. 

They had a chance to do basically whatever they wanted, and couldn't get their own shit together enough to do it.  that's really disappointing.  find a message that you really believe in that you'll stand up for.  until, I'm done calling myself my democrat.  i'll stay registered so I can vote in the primaries because I do generally think the better INDIVIDUAL candidates come from the left of center.  but, ideologically, I feel pretty abandoned after this past year.

Then I analogized my relationship with the Democratic Party to two lovers that have fallen out of favor:

I really can't get over the hurt, now that I'm giving it some thought. I feel like I've been cheated on. This term was supposed to produce results for people. But the biggest populist, liberal reform - if it survives - will feed the PIG just as much as any cheney defense contract or bush oil bill.

So that, washington democracts, is why we need a break. I'm not ready to say its over. I probably won't see anyone else. But while I'm gone, you need to prove to me you're actually still committed to the ideals that brought us together so many years ago.

And those words pretty accurately reflect where I stand today, over a month later.  I would qualify that statement, though, with the fact that my frustration is not obviously directed just at Democrats.  It is equally spread over both parties in DC.  I suppose I allowed ideological agreement to quell my growing frustration with the Left.  But my frustrations grows from attributes that are not exclusive to one party - corporate favoritism, intra-party bickering and vacillation, and career-minded selfishness.  Granted, that does not describe every politician in Washington.  But it describes enough  of them to generate a public stereotype.  And those who exhibit such characteristics are the obstacles to improving life in the United States.  To those persons I would say: Move one way or the other, but whatever you do, get the hell out of the way.

 

The Democrats ran the 2008 campaigns on populist rhetoric, with promises to restore Main Street over Wall Street and to institute reform in the name of the people.  I have yet to see those promises materialize in any appreciable way.  And until I see otherwise, I will continue to believe to the few persons who are accurately described by the despicable characteristics I listed above are truly obstructing the well being of folks like and I. 

Consider this a plug . . .

As you may remember, I received a wonderful holiday gift of David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries.  I finally finished the book yesterday.  Such is the life of a young child's parent, I suppose.

The bulk of the book is a compilation of Byrne's diary-style musings, founded on his adventures in cities around the globe.  As an internationally recognized musician and artist, Byrne has traveled extensively across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.  When he travels, he packs a folding bicycle (such as this one) that he uses as a primary source of getting around his destination cities.  With this mode of transportation as a unifying theme, Byrne's writings delve into a diverse variety of subjects - art, music, politics, sociology, psychology, urban planning.  I described the book to one friend as both "geographically and substantively all over the place."  

While I very much enjoyed the diary aspects of the book and found Byrne's perspectives on his multifarious topics quite interesting, the epilogue continues to resonate in my mind.  In ten pages or so, Byrne managed to capture the essence of modern urban planning theory, a subject that I once spent an entire semester trying to grasp through the writings of the field's well-known theorists, activists, and policymakers.  But even more enlightening was how he found that essence.  Byrne admits that he sort of fell into his perspective and ideology about urban planning; he did not come to it through academic or philosophical study.  Rather, he developed it by living his daily life in urban America.  (New York City, to be exact.)  He's found that the aspects of urban planning that modern thought espouses - mixed use, reasonable densities, and choice in transportation - really do make life engaging and make it interesting to get out of bed everyday and see what's going on outside our doors.  Its a philosophy of incorporation rather than isolation.  It's about puttin' the "social" back in "society," y'all.  

So, in sum, I highly recommend Bicycle Diaries.  Pick it up, or at least go to the bookstore, sit down with a cup of coffee, and read the epilogue.  It will be time well spent.

"Slumburbia"

A very interesting read from Wednesday's Opinionator Blog.  

The final few paragraphs relate Californian cities' land use regulation to the current status of their respective real estate markets.  Cities that did not permit or encourage [relatively] unchecked urban growth are not feeling the pain of empty homes and foreclosed properties.  That makes sense.

I suppose one aspect of this piece really troubles me, though, and it is going to put the U.S. in quite a catch-22.  Maybe this comment was made tongue-in-cheek, and I just missed that.  The author, rightly so, suggests that the ever increasing U.S. population will, assuming the homes are affordable, eventually even out this empty home mess.  But that solution comes with some complications.  Can areas such as the San Joaquin Valley actually support the population required to fill those homes?  When the residential real estate market recovers, won't more new homes be constructed, only perpetuating the problem?  Is there something other than a more-home-for-less-money appeal that is going to attract buyers to exurban communities?

I don't have any answers to those questions.  But I think they are evidence of how long we as a country might be dealing with the fallout of this Great Recession. 

Top Obama Administration Officials to Promote Sustainable Communities, Environmental Justice at Smart Growth Conference

From the Obama administration:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2010


THURSDAY: Top Obama Administration Officials to Promote Sustainable Communities, Environmental Justice at Smart Growth Conference

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will visit Seattle on Thursday, February 4, to address the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. They will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus.

Speaking before an audience of more than 1,500 key planners, public health professionals, developers, government staff and elected officials Secretaries Donovan and LaHood and Assistant Administrator Stanislaus will discuss the ways their agencies are working together through the Obama Administration’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities to improve access to affordable housing, provide better transportation options, and protect public health and the environment.

“EPA, HUD and DOT are working together to rebuild our foundations for prosperity, a process that starts with rethinking the ways our communities grow,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “The interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities is working to give our communities what they need to grow and thrive with economic resilience and environmental sustainability.”

“I am proud to announce HUD’s brand new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities today,” said Donovan. “Working with our partners at DOT and EPA, this new office will help us streamline our efforts to create stronger, more sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation and building a clean energy economy.”

“Our Partnership really is a new way of doing business in Washington, to help our nation meet 21st century challenges,” said LaHood. “Working together, we’re creating jobs to revitalize our economy, while helping state and local transportation agencies to build the capacity they need to promote livable, walkable, sustainable communities.”

The President proposed $527 million in his budget for an ambitious new livability initiative at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its Office of Livable Communities will be a focal point for initiatives such as expanding transit in low-income neighborhoods. It will fund a grant program to help state and local transportation agencies provide more transportation choices that spur economic development.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, taking place Feb. 4-6, is the premier national smart growth conference, bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines to discuss transportation, housing and urban development, public health, equitable development, environmental protection, and other topics. The partnership agencies are working together more closely than ever before to meet the president’s challenge to coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas build more sustainable communities.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is managed by the Local Government Commission, in partnership with EPA, DOT, and other public and private sponsors.

More about the Partnership for Sustainable Communities:
http:/www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership

More on EPA’s Smart Growth Program:
http:www.epa.gov/smartgrowth

More information on HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities:
www.hud.gov/sustainability