Citiwire.net: Neal Peirce on Rural America, Tom Downs on American Public Transit

By Neal Peirce

For Release Sunday, August 8, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group

BRIDGEWATER, N.H. — With a classic glacial lake, steep mountainsides and grand vistas, the area around my family’s summer home draws visitors and would-be new residents like a magnet. The visioning statements that surrounding towns have adopted place high value on land stewardship and retaining a rural lifestyle.

But what do the towns’ actual zoning statutes actually call for? Overwhelmingly, they focus on suburban-style one- and two-acre lots, highly popular in recent years. And 68 percent of the the watershed is technically buildable.

So what’s to be done? A new Watershed Master Plan by the Newfound Lake Region Association, backed up by scientific analysis and polling of residents by nearby Plymouth State University, is designed to open a clear public dialogue and help towns resolve the tough development choices they face.

The Newfound area’s growth dilemma isn’t mentioned in “Putting Smart Growth to Work in Local Communities” — a report released last week by the International City/County Management Association under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Public Transit: Bleeding to Death from a Thousand Cuts?

By Tom Downs

For Release Sunday, August 8, 2010
Citiwire.net

I will show my age when I say that I remember the last of the streetcars being ripped up to make way for the automobile. Fifty some odd years latter, it seems every city in America is betting its economic future on new light rail systems. Therein lies the story of the modern American experience with transit.

After throwing transit away, we now want it back. We just don’t want to pay for it.

Public transit — bus and rail — has experienced its first decade-long ridership expansion in over half a century. With people moving into older neighborhoods, with auto use growing ever more expensive, we seemed to be stumbling toward national support for transit.

But national political and economic trends are pointing toward a potentially grim future for the nation’s transit systems. At the operating level, 90 percent of all transit systems report flat or declining local financial support. Ninety percent of transit systems indicate state support for their systems was flat or declining. Costs, in the form of petroleum and electric power, are continuing to rise.

How Do We Keep Rural America Rural?

Public Transit: Bleeding to Death from a Thousand Cuts?