President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for many of the traditional data points used to represent the health and prosperity of the country. The budgetary process offers an opportunity to match words with action.
According to an article by Dwyer Gunn, the Trump Administration's recently proposed budget draft has inspired a new round of concern about the future of statistics and data collection.
Among the data collecting and analyzing activities of the federal government of direct and critical need to planners is the American Community Survey, the annual survey conducted by the Census Bureau.
An article by Clare Malone from December 2016 also laid out the concerns, before the inauguration, of President Trump's well documented aversion to the institutions that collect and analyze statistics and data at the federal level.
As an indication of the scientific, and bi-partisan, concern over the Trump Administration's potential threat to data and statistics, Gunn reports that the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute held an event earlier this month titled "The Vital Role of Government Statistics: Strengthening Research, Governance, and Innovation." According to Dwyer, "[the] event was, in short, a full-throated, deeply passionate, bipartisan defense of the value and importance of government statistics."
Read the full story: Cutting Spending on Statistics Won’t Save the Budget
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority