| Recently, Chris Dodd (D-CT), along with fellow Committee members Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Dan Akaka (D-HI), today introduced legislation to help towns and regions across the country plan and implement development projects that integrate their community's needs for transportation, housing, land use, and economic development.
The Living Communities Act will:
1. Create competitive planning grants that towns and regions can use to create comprehensive long-term plans that integrate transportation, housing, land use, and economic development.
2. Create challenge grants that towns and regions can use to implement these long-term plans through investments in public transportation, affordable housing, complete streets, transit-oriented development, and brownfield redevelopment.
3. Establish a federal Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to administer and oversee the Livable Communities grant programs;
4. Establish a federal Interagency Council on Sustainable Communities that will include representatives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies to coordinate federal sustainable development policies.
The essential aspect of this proposed legislation is the recognition of the relationship between housing, transportation, land use, economic development, and the environment. Continued compartmentalization of these issues will only ensure the continued lack of direction and vision when it comes to the planning of our neighborhoods, towns, and regions. Proponents of Smart Growth here in CT have every right to be pleased with this legislation.
However, the present state of our economy may be the biggest enemy for getting this type of legislation off the ground. Transportation for America has issued a new report that documents the devastation of transit cuts and fare increases on America's communities.
The nationwide demand for public transportation is at historic levels and growing, but funding for the day-to-day operations of these transit services is built on an unstable foundation. This report shows that without federal support, many will likely will be unable to meet the demand now and in the future.
Many transit agencies across the country have cut service, raised fares or laid off workers to deal with shrinking budgets, severely affecting the people who depend on regular, reliable service in order to access jobs, social services and education everyday. Nearly 90 percent of transit systems have had to raise fares or cut service in the past year and among the 25 largest transit operators, 10 agencies are raising fares more than 13 percent.
Existing federal policy is out of date and out of touch with the reality of public transportation's growing importance to Americans and their communities. Only 18 cents of every transportation dollar supports transit and to make that situation worse, communities are required to supply a much larger matching amount compared to federally-supported highways.
A local community has to provide a dollar for each federal dollar received in transit funding, versus providing just $0.25 for each federal dollar received for highways.
The current crisis is not just a short-term problem. Unless it becomes a catalyst for change, given the scale of this recession, next year's transit agency budgets are unlikely to be much better. Even in a healthier economy, transit riders will remain caught up in a fluid, unpredictable, and ultimately unhealthy situation.
In other words, unless we change our economic and budgetary priorities, The Living Communities Act will simply be another great idea choked by short-sightedness and misplaced priorities. |
