| 1. The Campaign to Grow Connecticut Smart will be hosting an educational forum on the legislative history, present and future of smart growth in Connecticut on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 from 10:00am - 12:00pm at the 2A Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Sharing their insights will be Steve Kliger, CCSU; Tom Condon, Hartford Courant; Heidi Green, 1000 Friends of Connecticut; Dan Morley, OPM Office of Responsible Growth; Rep. Brendan Sharkey, Coordinator Smart Growth Working Group; Lyle Wray, Capitol Region Council of Governments; Rep. Chris Donovan, Speaker of the House; Sen. John McKinney, Senate Minority Leader; Patrick Pinnell, Yale School of Architecture.
2. PolicyLink and the Transportation Equity Network have published a new report called An Engine of Opportunity: A User's Guide to Advocate for Transportation Equity in the 2009 Recovery Act. The report shows advocates and journalists how billions in transportation funding is being pumped out to the state and local level - and spotlights the key deadlines, reporting requirements and policy targets that are still to come as well as provides a full breakdown of each major public transportation program and offers, for the first time, a comprehensive timeline of all the significant transportation spending and reporting deadlines.
3. How walkable is your neighborhood? Now you can find out with a new website called WalkScore. The website's algorithm takes a previously subjective idea - being able to step out your door and walk to places you need to go - and boils it down to a single number. Now online real estate sites, including Zillow and ZipRealty, are beginning to add walkability ratings to their home listings. Walkscore.com calculates walkability by awarding points for amenities - such as a restaurant, store, park, school, or library - within 1 mile of an address. The number of points depends on the closeness of the amenity, with the most points awarded for those within a quarter-mile.
4. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has announce their 2009 Publications catalog. One book that caught my eye was Smart Growth Policies: An Evaluation of Programs and Outcomes edited by Gregory K. Ingram, Armando Carbonell, Yu-Hung Hong, and Anthony Flint. The book evaluates four states with statewide smart growth programs, and four states without such policies to determine how they met their objectives and priorities. |
