Newsroom

Mar 23, 2011

Jennifer Bradley at Brookings had an interesting piece yesterday on the role that U.S. states should play in the 21 st century. Bradley argues that states which acted as stalwarts against federal encroachment in the 19 th century and as areas for policy experimentation in the 20 th should redefine their roles to become “enablers and supporters of metropolitan economies” in the 21 st century.

Mar 22, 2011

Yesterday we wrote that income inequality in metro Washington is too high . Today we’re glad to say that there’s some happier news to report. Gallup recently released findings on “wellbeing” showing that among regions with a population of more than one million Washington area residents have the highest wellbeing . The index takes into account residents’ life evaluation emotional and physical health and work environment among other factors.

Mar 21, 2011

A lot of the economic discussion regarding metro Washington over the past few years has focused on how well the region’s economy performed relative to other parts of the country. Largely due to the steady presence of the federal government we consistently had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. That’s great but a new report shows a much less impressive reality: as a region we have some of the largest gaps in income between our richest and poorest residents. And it’s getting

Mar 17, 2011

Florida’s Governor has said “no thanks” to federal funding for a high-speed rail line there. In response Maryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley has said he’d be glad for his state to get some of the funds being passed up by the Sunshine State . O’Malley understands the economic and environmental benefits that high-speed rail will bring to his state (about which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently blogged ). Now would be a great time to launch a regional effort aimed at connecting metr

Mar 16, 2011

Analysis required for items to be added to region’s long range transportation plan

Mar 16, 2011

The nuclear crisis following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has revived the debate on whether we should or shouldn’t build more nuclear power plants. To meet Region Forward’s Sustainability targets we definitely need to adopt carbon-free sources of energy however before expanding nuclear (which emits no greenhouse gases but has a toxic by-product and immense safety risks) it is necessary to ask ourselves what trade-offs we are willing to accept.

Mar 16, 2011

Free service will connect D.C., Maryland and Virginia residents with housing counselors.

Mar 15, 2011

There are many signs that people are generally ready to make a significant departure from the status quo when it comes to transportation. Similar to how the appeal of large-lot exurban McMansions dwindled when the housing bubble burst any appeal of driving to accomplish every task in life is diminished when gas prices increase substantially. As The Washington Post reported recently the rapid rise in gas prices is also taking a toll on the region’s economy.

Mar 10, 2011

We need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change. That’s fairly straight forward and is a tangible measurable target in Region Forward. The current constraints on our nation’s and our region’s energy production however means that we’ll still be relying on fossil fuels for a large (but hopefully declining) portion of our energy for quite some time. With that said how do we mitigate the effects of our consumption?

Mar 9, 2011

Federal-regional funding agreement part of COG’s 2011 Federal Legislative Priorities