Defending The Livable Communities Bill

A Planetizen summary of the Metropolis piece appeared on October 22. Grist's Jonathan Hiskes sees the article as being too harsh on the bill.

Hiskes asserts that if the administation's current work to coordinate transportation and land use policies in order to transition from decades of sprawl to smart growth, "it needs secure funding from Congress, and that's the point of Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) Livable Communities Act.

The bill would provide $4 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to award to projects that fit the administration's livability priorities -- which would encourage cities, towns, and rural areas around the country to take a long hard look at smart growth design principles."

"I don't buy (Metropolis writer) Jacobs' worry that incentives (in the bill) alone can't do much good, because the Partnership for Sustainable Communities (created in January) has another ally -- the millions of Americans who prefer to live in walkable neighborhoods."

From Metropolis: "S.1619 is also politic to the point of cowardice. Even though it's entirely entrepreneurial and designed to allow local governments to do as they see fit, it's not likely to have any more bipartisan support than the scaled-back health care bill."

Thanks to Daily Grist