Living Cities to fund transit-oriented development

$150 million for TOD

Jon Boyd, Oct 25, 10.

A private consortium proposes to inject $150 million into transit-oriented development, according to the AASHTO Journal. Living Cities, a collaborative of twenty-two organizations, is sponsoring a program to develop affordable housing with access to quality transportation systems connecting to jobs, schools, and services, according to the AASHTO Journal:

Investors for Sustainable Communities is sponsored by Living Cities, a consortium of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions working to revitalize America’s cities.

The group’s three-part approach, “equitable Transit-Oriented Development,” seeks to develop healthier, more affordable neighborhoods that offer convenient and safe access to jobs, stores, schools, and services; expand transportation options connecting these neighborhoods to job centers; and ensure that all people can participate in development decisions and share in the benefits.

From 2008 through 2010, Investors for Sustainable Communities have invested more than $100 million in equitable transit-oriented development. Participants plan to coordinate their future investments with federal grants such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Planning program, and invite others to invest alongside them—leveraging about $150 million during the next three years. National nonprofit organizations will participate, including Reconnecting America, a national organization working to integrate transportation systems and the communities they serve.

“Transit-oriented development is a powerful way to make metro areas, the engines of our economy, more competitive, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable,” Pablo Farias, chairman of Living Cities and vice president of economic opportunity and assets at the Ford Foundation, said in a statement. “Just as important, it offers a chance for low-income people to contribute to and share in the benefits of metropolitan growth.”

Development oriented around transit stations is also a quality of life issue, said Nick Turner, managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation.

“Families must have more options to live in places where they can bike or walk to school or the grocery store, or take the bus or train to work,” Turner said. “Providing more walkable and transit-oriented development would help hardworking Americans to save more of their time and money. This effort is one step in making sure people have those affordable options.”

The coalition hopes to expand housing options for working families and seniors near train stations and bus routes, use transit to revitalize distressed neighborhoods while taking measures to prevent low-income residents from being priced out, connect local residents and businesses to the employment and contracting opportunities created by these investments, and engage disadvantaged communities in decision-making to ensure that development meets their needs.

Investors for Sustainable Communities intends to reinforce the federal policy framework emerging from the recently established Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The partnership, launched in 2009, consists of HUD, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Leaders of these three agencies held a news conference Thursday to outline their priorities.

Comments

Julian Agyeman said:

This is a very exciting initiative and will hopefully lead to the development of more just and sustainable communities. I challenge the Living Cities collaborative however, to go further, and to look at developing more ‘spatially just streets’ along the lines of a street called Södra Vägen in Göteborg, Sweden.

In Göteborg, and many European cities, politicians and planners have allocated rights to the public space we call ‘the street’. These rights are in favor of the pedestrian, the cyclist, the public transit user. In other words, ‘spatial justice’ has been imposed on Södra Vägen and other Swedish streets by (re)allocating rights to space in favor of the least powerful users aka pedestrians, public transit users and cyclists. In most US cities, ‘rights’ to the street are based on the size of your vehicle….....

Posted on Nov 02, 10 at 9:18 am

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