America 2050

Rebuilding and Renewing America: Infrastructure Choices in the Great Lakes Megaregion
Monday, November 17, 2008
8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Chicago, 151 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago 

Freight congestion, aging bridges, insufficient mass transit, brownouts, soaring energy costs, flooding, and polluted waters - all news in recent years, and all partially the results of continued strain on our nation's infrastructure.  At the same time, the need for an economic stimulus is greater than ever. The presidential election in November 2008 gives us a fresh opportunity to set a new agenda for infrastructure investment in the Great Lakes megaregion to revive the flagging economy and to compete globally.

Blueprint America, a new year long initiative by PBS, will explore the topic of national infrastructure, with specific attention paid to transportation. The goal of this project is to elevate awareness and initiate debate about America's neglected infrastructure. The project will span multiple programing platforms on PBS that will include in depth reports on The News Hour With Jim Lehrer, NOW, and Worldfocus, as well as original prime time documentaries, and education and community outreach. Blueprint America has also created a web presence that will be a repository for original video and audio content, a source for related news links, and serve a place for public comment and debate.

Visit Blueprint America's Website

For almost a year now, Americans have felt the burden of surging gas prices and have shifted to intercity rail.  According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, ridership on Amtrak increased 14 percent last month from last July.  The Capitol Corridor, which serves the San Francisco and Sacramento market, has seen ridership increase by 33 percent.  Overall gains across the nation on Amtrak's routes seem to support its projected total ridership of 28 million for the current fiscal year.  It is clear that some of the nation's busiest highways, airways and rail corridors have reached or are near capacity.  Leaders in Washington have responded to these trends as evidenced by passing legislations in both the House and Senate to reauthorize Amtrak.  The increased funding could help Amtrak fix existing infrastructure deficiencies, such as dilapidated catenaries, and aging bridges and tunnels, as well as finance a long awaited capital program to expand services. 

Read the full WSJ article.
Watch a video on Amtrak's challenges.    

As much of the industrial world is embracing cross-border planning and investments, the U.S. has yet to make the commitment to invest in long-term large scale development, such as the one linking Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France.  A recent Georgia Trend article discussed the emergence of "megaregions", networks of metros and communities that share economic, social and infrastructure identities.  These large regions "allow us to engage in the world that happens around us.  They allow us to have conversations in global, national, regional and local communities.  They permeate all those levels" says Catherine Ross, head of the Center for Quality Growth & Regional Development (CQGRD) at Georgia Tech.

The Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion (PAM), one which Ross and many identify as a six-state zone, includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.  PAM recorded a total population of 47 million according to the last census, and expects to reach 82 million by 2050.  The concern for policy makers and planners across this vast geographic region is how to prepare for this growth, considering the already stressed infrastructure, recent disputes over water resources, and of course tackling issues of climate change in a car dependent economy.  Many leaders from PAM believe building on the megaregion strategy will put them in a competitive position in the global marketplace. 

Some of the questions Ross and many researchers and planners will be addressing are: What should PAM look like in 50 years? Which roads and bridges need to be repaired or replaced?  How do we cope with traffic congestion? and more.

To read full article, click here.

July 15: Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced a bill recently that addresses rising energy and transportation costs, and offers potential solutions to relieve the pressure off of the American public.  Titled, "H.R. 6495: Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act of 2008", the proposed bipartisan legislation was referred to the House Oversight and Government Reform, Ways and Means, Financial Services and Transporatation and Infrastructure Committees.  By offering housing and transportation choices, Blumenauer and co-sponsors Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) aim to relieve the added burden of energy costs and gas prices that have tripled over the last decade. 

Specifically, the bill provides the following alternatives: 1) Increasing commuter choices by making public transit more accessible, encouraging transit-oriented development, and incentivizing car and vanpooling, bicycling and using public transit; 2) Helping transit agencies by providing fare subsidies, and funds for service improvements; 3) Assisting communities by increasing funding for Safe Routes to School programs which encourage walking and biking to and from schools and expand program to high schools; 4) Providing housing assistance to homeowners who chose to live near public transit, and provide increased funding for states to build more affordable housing near transit; and 5) Increasing federal role in local transportation management that encourages more efficient use of transportation assets, and increasing transportation fringe benefits to all federal employees.  

Click here to read the text of H.R. 6495

 

The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program released a report this month titled "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper".  The report was introduced in conjunction with a luncheon in Denver on July 22nd that brought leaders from the Intermountain West to discuss economic, social, and environmental challenges in five emerging metropolitan areas: Wasatch Front, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Sun Corridor, Arizona; Northern New Mexico, New Mexico, and the Front Range, Colorado. 

As part of its Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative, the Brookings report calls for the federal government to provide leadership and support as these urbanized and rapdily changing areas emerge and expand. In addition, the report comes in anticipation of the upcoming Democratic Convention in Denver.  Local leaders and officials are hopeful the presidential candidates and elections will make these emerging trends and challenges a national priority.  As one of the fastest growing regions in the country, the study suggests that these swing states represent a "new new West" that is urban, and require new and reformed federal-state-local partnerships.  Moreover, the research recommends that these collaborations should be issue focused, namely: transportation, infrastructure, innovation, immigration, and climate change. 

The event was attended by Jon Huntsman, Gov. of Utah; Bill Ritter, Jr., Gov. of Colorado, and John Hickenlooper, Mayor, City of Denver.  For a copy of the executive summary of the report, please click here.     

Photo: "Mountain Megas: America's Newest Metropolitan Places and a Federal Partnership to Help Them Prosper", July, 2008.

 

The proceedings of the Rebuilding and Renewing America forum sponsored by America 2050 on May 9, 2008 in Washington, D.C. are now available for download. (3 MB)

The forum assembled business and labor leaders, Democratic and Republican members of Congress, transportation and engineering industry leaders and environmental advocates to address the pressing infrastructure challenges of our time.
The forum was co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, The Surdna Foundation, Regional Plan Association, and the Division of United States Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

The report summarizes keynote addresses and remarks by Gov. Ed Rendell, Judith Rodin, Tom Donohue and U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Chris Shays, Rosa DeLauro and Tom Petri, among other noteworthy speakers. It also reports on roundtable discussions on energy, water, and transportation infrastructure.

The May 9 forum marked the launch of a national series of "Rebuilding and Renewing America" forums around the country to draw attention to the nation's growing infrastructure needs and gather input on the key priorities in growing megaregions.

America 2050 is featured in this week's The Economist in an article about America's growing infrastructure problems.

"America 2050", led by the RPA and a committee of scholars and civic leaders, has a ... scheme for "megaregions", or networks of metros. The federal government should do what it can to ensure that these areas, first of all, have the infrastructure they need to thrive.

This means, among other things, an enhanced federal role in projects that cross state borders, including not only the interstates but intermodal freight and high-speed rail. A better system for evaluating a project's benefit--within a broader strategy for economic development, for example--would help the public get more for its money. Metros would be given more incentives to reduce congestion and sprawl.

...

If America does not act, says Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a body that plans for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, it will have the infrastructure of a third-world country within a few decades. Economic growth will be constricted, and the quality of life will be diminished.

Link to the article here.