Tag Archives: cities

Amtrak is making a comeback, kinda

by grycjanekg Posted on March 4, 2013

Amtrak is making a comeback, kinda

By Susie Cagle

If you’ve been on an Amtrak train lately with crappy snacks, non-working power outlets, and faulty wifi, you might not agree with the claim that “American passenger rail is in the midst of a renaissance.” But that’s the word from the folks at the Brookings Institution, which has released a new report detailing how Amtrak is “well-positioned for the future” after seeing massive growth over the last 15 years. Growth in ridership, that is, not in service.

“Ridership grew by 55 percent since 1997 and is now at record levels, with over 31 million travelers annually,” according to Brookings. “That’s faster than other travel modes like aviation and far outpaces the growth in population and economic output during that time.” The study also found that 100 of the country’s biggest metro areas are responsible for almost 90 percent of Amtrak’s ridership, with 10 of those making up almost two-thirds of it.

Brookings has a sweet interactive map with data about Amtrak routes nationwide, with a focus on some of those most train-crazy big cities, and a look at which are the cheapest and most expensive rides in terms of operating costs. Here’s a static version:

Brookings Institution

Compare, though, Brookings’ map to this map showing how much the U.S. passenger rail network has shrunk since 1962, and that “renaissance” looks a little less golden.

Brookings’ takeaway is that passenger rail has grown in accordance with municipal and state partnerships:

States now share the operating costs for short-distance rail corridors that stretch 750 miles or less from end to end. Today, these routes are Amtrak’s high-performers, carrying around 85 percent of travelers.

Importantly, once they have “skin in the game,” states are motivated to target investments more precisely and develop plans more comprehensively, better tailoring maintenance needs and capital improvements to local demands. Some states have already adopted such strategies and offer innovative and replicable models. …

Building on this new federal-state alignment will require additional action. As the federal sequestration battle clearly illustrates, Washington isn’t putting any new money into Amtrak anytime soon. But partly because of the existing partnerships with 15 states, Amtrak has said it can weather the cuts easily enough.

So let’s extend that requirement for state support to routes longer than 750 miles. After all, our research shows that the long-distance routes carried only 15 percent of the travelers in 2012 but, combined, constitute 43 percent of Amtrak’s route-associated operating costs. This is not just a matter of offloading responsibility from the federal government to states. As seen in the short-distance routes that already enjoy state support, such a partnership results in a better sharing of risks and rewards.

Brookings says the goal is to “strengthen passenger rail in the United States by strengthening the federal-state partnership.” The U.S. would still have a long way to go before it became as train-crazy as many European countries, but this might be a start.

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Amtrak is making a comeback, kinda

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Michigan gov.: Detroit is no longer capable of taking care of itself

by JohnsieaJensen Posted on March 2, 2013

Michigan gov.: Detroit is no longer capable of taking care of itself

By Susie Cagle

From America’s capital of industry to its capital of decay, Detroit’s post-industrial run hit another pile of bricks today when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced he’ll be naming an emergency manager to oversee the troubled city, putting the city government under state control. Snyder’s pick will have the power to sell city assets and cancel contracts to try to address Detroit’s more than $14 billion in long-term debt and avoid bankruptcy.

From Bloomberg:

The move, which the City Council can appeal, punctuates decades of decline in the home town of General Motors Co. (GM) Snyder’s decision may inflame opponents, as the administration of a white Republican seizes control of a community that is predominantly Democratic and more than 80 percent black.

“It’s a sad day, a day I wish never happened, but it’s a day of promise,” said Snyder, who is in his first term. …

Opponents say state takeovers disenfranchise voters by stripping elected officials of their power over municipalities or school districts, and may protect bondholders at the expense of employees, services and taxpayers.

Just two weeks ago, Detroit’s Democratic mayor, Dave Bing, said in his State of the City address: “The picture is not all doom and gloom. Every day there is more hope and possibilities. Like many Detroiters, I, too, am a fighter. We can’t, and won’t, give up on our city.”

Today he struck an upbeat note in a statement responding to the governor’s announcement:

“If, in fact, the appointment of an emergency financial manager both stabilizes the city fiscally and supports our restructuring initiatives which improve the quality of life for our citizens, then I think there is a way for us to work together. We have always said that we need help from Lansing to implement our initiatives such as public safety, transportation, lighting and others.”

Detroit’s population has tanked in recent years. Just between 2009 and 2011, the city lost more than 200,000 people. Once a city of 1.8 million, it is now home to about 700,000. But those are 700,000 people who aren’t likely to agree with white Republican state politics, and Snyder hasn’t said yet who his emergency head will be, just that he has someone “in mind.”

The last two years have seen a number of municipal bankruptcies across the country, many of them cities that increased spending in fat years fell on extra-hard times during the recession. Detroit would be the sixth Michigan city to fall under state control, which is in and of itself kind of amazing — and a little scary, if you’re in municipal politics: The emergency manager arrangement concentrates more power with one appointed person than any other last-ditch effort, including bankruptcy.

From the Atlantic Cities:

Several cities in Michigan, including Flint and Pontiac, have undergone multiple distinct periods of emergency management. Supporters of the policy say this recidivism demonstrates the ineptitude of city governments; opponents believe that short-sighted EM policies, with their focus on quickly eliminating debt, cripple city infrastructure and services in the long-term, leaving communities poorly prepared to recover.

Among the grassroots efforts to revitalize Detroit through this time of managed decline are movements to create more green space and urban farms. How might Snyder’s mystery manager feel about all those dirty hippies growing food in yards?

What happens next in Detroit will certainly have massive, and potentially disastrous local results, but it could also have an impact for other struggling cities nationwide. As goes Detroit, so may go other troubled towns.

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Michigan gov.: Detroit is no longer capable of taking care of itself

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Cities compete to win Bloomberg funds for innovative projects

by pitery Posted on February 27, 2013

Cities compete to win Bloomberg funds for innovative projects

By Susie Cagle

Last summer, New York mayor and soda-hating bazillionaire Michael Bloomberg’s charity launched “The Mayors Challenge” to award $9 million to five cities “that come up with bold ideas for solving major problems and improving city life.” The field has now been whittled down to 20 top concepts.

“From sustainability and public health, to education and economic development, cities are pioneering new policies and programs that are moving the country forward,” said Bloomberg in announcing the contest. “Historically, cities have seen each other as competitors in a zero-sum game, with neighbors pitted against each other in a battle to attract residents and businesses. But more and more, a new generation of mayors is recognizing the value of working together and the necessity of borrowing ideas from one another.”

Bloomberg seems to miss his own point, though, in setting up a battle for funds between cities, some of which have far more resources and innovation street cred than others (I’m looking at you, San Francisco). That’s part of why I want to give a special shout-out to Milwaukee’s entry for the city’s HOME GR/OWN project.

From Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, writing at The Huffington Post:

Imagine vacant lots becoming orchards, gardens, and small farms. Envision foreclosed houses repurposed as small-scale food processing centers and neighborhood nutrition education sites where people connect to prepare and share healthy food. Imagine neighborhoods where foreclosed properties become assets in a campaign to improve healthy food access and demand.

This kind of a project could turn land use on its head for cities struggling with foreclosures and poverty. Municipal governments are often notorious landholders, keeping a grip on more empty properties than even the biggest, baddest developers and banks.

The other 19 Mayors Challenge finalists have some cool ideas too, from a one-bin recycling system in Houston to a “smart energy neighborhood model” in Phoenix.

But I gotta root for the underdog here. Milwaukee’s population has shrunk by about 5 percent over the last 20 years and the city has been plagued by foreclosure, but Mayor Barrett has long pushed for sustainability. Give ‘em the cash, Bloomberg — they can put it to good use.

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From red to black: How Philly remade its transit system

by donseoo Posted on February 26, 2013

From red to black: How Philly remade its transit system

By Susie Cagle

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has come a long way, baby. Back in the ’90s, it was mired in $75 million in debt and under investigation by the FBI. Now it’s being honored [PDF] as one of the top transit agencies in the nation.

dan_ol

The Philadelphia Daily News has the story of how SEPTA was turned around over the last two decades, in large part thanks to board chair Pat Deon. After years of operating in the red, Philly’s transit systems added revenue-generating advertisements, balanced its budget, and drove right into the black.

SEPTA’s chief financial officer, Richard Burnfield, said the Deon-era board’s commitment to running SEPTA like a business with balanced budgets has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding that riders enjoy through new Silverliner V regional-rail cars ($330 million), 440 new hybrid buses ($232 million) and beautifully rebuilt subway stations such as Spring Garden and Girard ($30 million).

There were also some notable cultural shifts at the agency.

A big accomplishment during Deon’s tenure has been the cessation of hostilities between the 15-member board’s 13 suburban members and two city members.

Rina Cutler, who was appointed to the board by Mayor Nutter five years ago, said, “It was very clear to me that the city and SEPTA spent a long time poking each other in the eye, and that this relationship was not useful.

“I came from Boston, where people have such a love affair with transit, they wear T-shirts with an MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority] route map on them,” Cutler said. “That model didn’t exist here.”

Cutler said she and Deon “have a healthy respect” for one another and “we don’t poke each other in the eyes anymore.”

Deon told the Daily News: “When I first came here, this was just a pitiful operation. For myself and the board, it was like turning around an ocean liner. But we did it.”

Now Deon is pushing for a new smart-card system that would allow poorer transit riders without bank accounts to deposit their checks directly into the system, saving hundreds of dollars in fees and streamlining their rides. The city also plans to phase out subway tokens (!) by 2014.

The problems SEPTA has faced are more or less the same ones facing other regional transit systems that reach across poor urban communities and more affluent suburban ones (give or take an FBI investigation and some bus-related gunfire). If Philly can turn things around, perhaps there’s hope for us all.

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Transit advocates stop cuts using civil rights legislation

by nension Posted on February 21, 2013

Transit advocates stop cuts using civil rights legislation

By Susie Cagle

No justice, no ride to work! The vast majority of transit systems in the U.S. have cut service, raised fares, or both over the last two years, affecting those who rely on public transportation especially hard.

An article in the current issue of the Boston Review outlines the struggle for more justice and more buses:

For millions of American families, the commute to work is more than stressful: it can also be cripplingly costly. While the average family spends around 19 percent of its budget getting around, very low-income families (defined as families who make less than half of an area’s median income) can see as much as 55 percent of their earnings eaten up by transportation costs, according to a report by the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. …

Nationwide about 80 cents out of every federal transportation dollar goes toward highways—used disproportionately by more affluent drivers — and only 20 cents goes toward mass transit systems, which are heavily used by people of color and by lower-income workers. When it’s time to distribute that 20 percent, regional authorities often favor light-rail systems for suburban commuters over bus lines for city riders.

Some hope, though: A few cities have managed to wrest money away from the ‘burbs and back to the urbs by filing lawsuits claiming civil rights violations.

That tactic may not work for New Yorkers, though, who are about to see yet another fare hike, their fourth in five years — and it’s not because transit workers are getting a raise. Here, New Yorkers campaigning against fare hikes explain how debt service has increased train costs.

If there’s one thing the status quo has no answer for, it’s digging out of debt. Sorry, New York.

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Laws banning harassment of cyclists spread like a wonderful virus

by Felixct7yh Posted on February 20, 2013

Laws banning harassment of cyclists spread like a wonderful virus

By Susie Cagle

Cyclists may be the happiest commuters, but not when they’re getting shit from passing drivers. Flashback to the summer of 2011, when Los Angeles passed an ordinance to make harassing cyclists a civil and suable infraction. Throw a thing at a cyclist and they can take you to court and seek damages — revolutionary!

digable soul

L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti at the time said, “If L.A. can do it, every city in the country can do it.”

Well, we’re not quite there yet, but in the year and a half since L.A. passed its law, Washington, D.C., and the California cities of Berkeley, Sunnyvale, and Sebastapol have all passed similar ordinances. Healdsburg, Calif., is now considering one, too.

To be fair, Columbia, Mo., was actually the first city to enact an ordinance banning harassment of cyclists in 2009, but it didn’t include the all-important civil infraction bit. L.A.’s law and those modeled after it make it possible for cyclists to take their harassers to civil court, where there is a lower burden of proof.

“The biggest problem with prosecuting bicyclist harassment in the past has been the high level of proof needed in a criminal case — you pretty much needed a police officer to witness the crime in order to get the city attorney to take it to court,” said Chris Kidd, a cycling advocate who worked on the L.A. ordinance.

So, how long until we see a bike harasser takedown on a courtroom reality TV show? I wanna see Judge Judy ream some SUV drivers.

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The success of London’s congestion charge, in three maps

by graptorm Posted on February 19, 2013

The success of London’s congestion charge, in three maps

By Philip Bump

Bike commuters in London.

Streetsblog, a network of sustainable-transportation-focused websites that you should read regularly, used the occasion of the 10th anniversary of London’s congestion pricing system to review its effectiveness. As you probably know, congestion pricing is a tool by which cities limit automobile and other traffic to certain areas by charging a fee for access. In London, that fee is £10, or about $15.

Has it worked? Streetsblog says yes — or, it did for a bit.

In its first few years, the London charging scheme was heralded as a solid traffic-buster, with 15-20 percent boosts in auto and bus speeds and 30 percent reductions in congestion delays. Most of those gains appear to have disappeared in recent years, however. Transport for London (TfL), which combines the functions of our NYCDOT and MTA and which created and operates the charging system, attributes the fallback in speeds to other changes in the streetscape and traffic management …

The congestion charge also raised millions in revenue, some $435 million in 2008 alone.

But the benefit over the past decade can be seen most clearly in the three maps Streetsblog provides.

Car traffic declines.

Bicycle usage rises.

Public transit use increases.

Less traffic, less congestion, more public transit use, more money for government investment. All the sorts of things that drive right-wing Americans insane. So I wouldn’t hold my breath for implementation in a U.S. city any time soon.

Source

Lessons From London After 10 Years of the Congestion Charge, Streetsblog

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New Jersey officials arrested for conspiring to hide water pollution

by h0rt67bx11 Posted on February 14, 2013

New Jersey officials arrested for conspiring to hide water pollution

By Philip Bump

In the great Goofus and Gallant cartoon of life, this is the Goofus version of protecting clean water. Oh, also if this Goofus and Gallant cartoon were actually an episode of The Sopranos.

From Environment News Service:

Two top officials of the East Orange Water Commission have been charged with conspiring to close contaminated wells before monthly water tests so as to falsely report low levels of a regulated contaminant in drinking water supplied to customers, then opening the wells, allowing the chemical back into the water supply. …

[Executive director Harry] Mansmann and [assistant executive director William] Mowell allegedly conspired to falsify mandatory testing of the EOWC’s water supply to hide elevated levels of the contaminant tetrachlorethene, or PERC, an industrial solvent used for dry cleaning, which is classified as a probable carcinogen.

joeshlabotnik

Now with more PERC.

In addition to charges of conspiracy, the two were cited for official misconduct, unlawful release of a pollutant, and violations of state water quality laws. The two were responsible for the water quality of East and South Orange, home to some 80,000 people. According to ENS, one well had levels of PERC 25 times higher than the legal limit.

Our biggest fear is that this incident will lead to New Jersey getting a reputation for corruption, law-breaking, and pollution. God forbid.

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Bloomberg proposes banning plastic foam containers, probably because they can hold soda

by d2wk58 Posted on February 14, 2013

Bloomberg proposes banning plastic foam containers, probably because they can hold soda

By Philip Bump

When I was a kid, you could come to New York City and buy a big soda in a large styrofoam cup. (You could also get murdered a lot more easily or score some drugs or afford a place in Soho, but that’s not my point here.) Big soda kept cool in a nice big cup — paradise, in its way.

Reuters / Eduardo Munoz

Last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided that the big soda had to go. And this year, according to reports, he’s got his eyes on that cup. From Bloomberg (the media company, not the mayor for whom the company is named) (New York is a complicated place) (the city, not the state from which the city is named):

In his final State of the City address today, the third-term mayor will attempt to cement his legacy as a leader who made the most-populous U.S. city healthier and more environmentally friendly. His office previewed portions of the speech that focused on three initiatives intended to boost air quality, recycling rates and sustainability.

A requirement that 20 percent of all newly constructed public parking spaces be outfitted to charge electric vehicles would create 10,000 such spots within seven years. The plan would need City Council approval. A pilot program to collect curbside food waste from Staten Island homes to use as compost for parks would expand citywide if successful, cutting down on the 1.2 million tons of scraps sent to landfills each year.

(Apparently the city could use more charging stations.)

These are significant initiatives but, as suggested above, it’s the mayor’s proposed ban on Styrofoam cups and containers that’s gotten much of the attention. It fits nicely with the image of Bloomberg as anti-fast-food, but he will note that it’s actually anti-trash. As the Bloomberg article notes, New Yorkers throw away 20,000 tons of plastic foam a year. While the city’s garbage production is in decline, that’s still a lot of waste.

Bloomberg gave his State of the City address on a stage at Brooklyn’s new, leaky Barclays Center under sports-arena-appropriate banners celebrating his accomplishments. “419: Record Low in Homicides in 2012.” “52 Million: Record Visitors in 2012.” And one he’s put specific focus on: “80.9: Record High Life Expectancy.”

Not listed: “7 million: Fewer pounds of garbage a day.” Perhaps because he’s waiting for that number to improve a little more.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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Read and take over: Occupying urban streets with guerrilla libraries

by Louise6qy Posted on February 13, 2013

Read and take over: Occupying urban streets with guerrilla libraries

By Susie Cagle

Whether because of budget cuts or natural disasters, many of our nation’s libraries are struggling. But DIY efforts are filling the cracks in a few especially hard-hit communities.

Urban Librarians Unite

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Urban Librarians Unite in New York has set up sidewalk mini libraries outside less-mini libraries that have closed due to storm damage.

These tiny, all weather libraries house about a hundred books at a time and there is no expectation whatsoever that the books will come back. … The Mini Libraries are a resource for our communities, a chance to experiment in library science, and a reminder to the public that even if the library itself is in ruins the librarians are still thinking of them.

ULU is quick to point out that its orange boxes, while super-awesome, aren’t a replacement for real library infrastructure.

Advocates of little libraries are often rabid supporters of big libraries as well and it is their respect for the institution that makes them want to emulate it. It is impossible to mistake a citizen’s reading exchange for a well run reference desk. Our Mini Libraries will suffer from the same limitations as any little library. They could never be mistaken as an alternative to the branch libraries they substitute and intended to support. They do offer some comfort and succor, especially to kids and families, and they remind people that libraries — and their librarians — are nimble, caring and quick to respond to the needs of their communities.

We hope that our Mini Libraries will evolve.

“I smell the spirit of Occupy,” writes a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger.

Jaime Omar YassinThe Biblioteca before the city booted it off library grounds.

For an even more grassroots effort on the opposite coast, there’s the six-month-old Biblioteca Popular in Oakland. On Aug. 13, 2012, activists occupied an abandoned library in East Oakland only to be booted by the city within the day. Undeterred, they set up on the grounds and sidewalk outside, providing garden space, kids’ activities, and books in both English and Spanish. At first the city left Biblioteca alone, but then three weeks ago it locked down the grounds and gardens, pushing the library onto the sidewalk outside, where it remains now.

All power to the book people.

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