Newsroom

Dec 29, 2010

“Will smart growth or sprawl win in 2011?” That’s the question Stewart Schwartz Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth discusses in a recent post over at Greater Greater Washington. In a sweeping overview of land-use and transportation topics ranging from bike lanes to income inequality Schwartz provides a brief on many of the key issues that the region will need to focus on in 2011.

Dec 23, 2010

We’ll be taking some time off over the next week to recharge for 2011 and we at The Yardstick wish all of the RF community happy holidays! If you have some time to kill or if you need a break from the family we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite blog posts since our launch this year for your enjoyment:

Dec 22, 2010

The news coming out of the Census Bureau about D.C.’s first decade of population growth since the 1950s is promising. This is representative of a growing trend that shows cities across the country after being prematurely pronounced dead are experiencing a renaissance in population growth as well as cultural and economic importance. Daniel Nairn from the Sustainable Cities Collective puts some of the new census data to show that income growth in central cities and closer-in suburbs in the ​

Dec 21, 2010

This is Part 2 of a two-part piece. Read Part 1 here .

Dec 21, 2010

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made the advancement of high-speed rail in the U.S. a top priority of his and has shown his commitment to the effort by revoking funding after Governors-elect in Wisconsin and Minnesota (correction: Ohio) made it clear they would redirect the funding to other transportation projects (translation: more money for roads). The Secretary’s commitment is highly laudable but true high-speed rail still has a ways to go before it becomes a reality in the Uni​

Dec 20, 2010

ocal governments are the players most capable of helping meet the RF targets that every local government in the metro Washington region has agreed to work towards. Indeed state and federal government are important partners as well but the real details get hashed out at the local level. With that in mind The Morning Measure pays a lot of attention to news related to local government.

Dec 17, 2010

The New York Times had a piece recently on the threat that many within the United States feel as a result of China’s continued growth in the clean energy market. China recently decided to invest $1.5 trillion in seven key sectors many of which deal with alternative and sustainable energy. President Obama has repeatedly stated that he wants the U.S. to be the leader in clean energy not China. Yet it’s the Chinese who are making the jaw-dropping investment and grabbing market share at a​

Dec 16, 2010

Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney recently spoke at “One Region Moving Forward” COG’s 2010 Annual Membership Luncheon on his vision for the region. McCartney touched on a number of issues including traffic energy jobs the regional divide Metro and government corruption before challenging the region’s leaders to reject defeatist attitudes and work to build an exceptional inclusive metro Washington region to serve as a model to the country and the world. He notes that RF should be th​

Dec 16, 2010

How can we meet RF’s goals and targets to reduce VMT while maximizing accessibility and affordability ? There are a number of creative approaches to making communities more livable and accessible and according to a new US Census analysis done by The Washington Post more people are choosing to ditch their cars and live more accessible lifestyles that liberate them from automobile ownership and provide them more transportation choices.

Dec 15, 2010

Over at Switchboard the NRDC’s exceptional blog on the connections between transportation land-use and the environment Kaid Benfield recently pondered about the future of smart growth. After recognizing past achievements in the field Benfield argues that the current definition of smart growth is not sufficient to meet the challenges that we face in this century.