The Citistates Group

Is the Great American Asphalt machine (celebrated by our colleague Jane Holtz Kay in Asphalt Nation) about to get derailed — or given multi-billions for massive expansion?

Fresh reports from Pennsylvania and Virginia offer vividly contrasting visions. Latest from Harrisburg is that the state’s DOT has chopped $5 billion in bridge and highway projects from its planning list. Gov. Ed Rendell’s transportation director refers to the state’s tightening fiscal condition and then adds what’s been unsayable in most states up to now — some road projects may be bad ideas because of their impact on the landscape.
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CURT JOHNSON: VICTORIA, BC — Arriving early for a speech on downtown revitalization, I found myself wandering through the streets of Victoria’s city center and the Inner Harbor. My immediate impression: What’s the problem? Downtown holds most of the jobs for Vancouver Islanders. The stately BC Parliament building stands with great museums, gardens, and walks to die for. Tourists still fill the streets of Canada’s warmest city, where flowers bloom all year round. Spring’s daffodils and tulips are already up. A huge collection of heritage buildings — three to five stories — lines the streets of dozens of short downtown blocks. Sidewalks and crossings say pedestrians have priority.

As a Vancouver architect, developer, and former city planner would put it the next day, “This is very much like what happens when a slender lady joins weight-watchers. People look at her funny.”
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Can smart growth strategies — more compact development patterns — really save money for public treasuries? The debate’s been going on since the early ‘70s, with analysts from Robert Burchell to Robert Cervero, Tony Downs to Manuel Pastor (photo), weighing in.

Now Mark Muro and Robert Puentes, in a research paper published by the Brooking Institution’s Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, bring it all together. They depend a lot on Burchell for the bottom line conclusion — that rational use of modestly more compact development patterns over the 2000-to-2025 period can cut nationwide highway building costs by $110 billion, or 11.8 percent, and water and sewer infrastructure costs $4 billion, or 3.7 percent.
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