Newsroom

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

Mar 9, 2011

We just went through a major recession and we’re still trying to determine whether this economic recovery is actually going to be sustainable or if we’re not really out of the woods yet. We’re in the midst of a major debate on spending and budget deficits. Politics aside it’s a valid discussion to be had just as Region Forward promotes environmental sustainability fiscal sustainability is also important as long knee-jerk decisions aren’t made that end up with negative consequences in the lo​

Mar 7, 2011

We’ve discussed the evolution and future of “smart growth” many times at The Morning Measure most recently in early February where we talked about the rise of the term “intelligent cities” as an alternative to smart growth. This nominal change seems to be more than a matter of semantics and as we indicated in February could have both positive and negative implications for the planning process. While we were concerned more with the loss of a period for reflection in decision-making that th