HUD, DOT and EPA have pulled together under the Obama administration's direction to create sustainable communities, and Sen. Chris Dodd is trying to make it official with a new office under HUD. But can smart growth policies survive the politics?
Dodd's bill would grant $4 billion for transit-oriented development, but has yet to get even one vote in committee. Can Obama's Partnership for Sustainable Communities (the HUD, DOT and EPA confab) have any effect, given the political climate?
From Grist: "John Petro, urban policy analyst at the nonprofit Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, offered a consciously pragmatic take on what the Partnership can achieve during an economic downturn.
'It's making the best of this moment,' he said. 'When Obama came into office, transit advocates were giving high-fives, [thinking] that from this moment forward, we're going to see new priorities from the federal government and even Congress. With the recession and the financial crisis, the situation has changed.'"
Read the full story: Obama's Partnership for Sustainable Communities will put the feds' weight behind smart growth
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