BREAKING: Obama Says Building Sprawl Stops Now!
From Green Car Congress:
Responding to a question from a city councilwoman about transportation and infrastructure in the stimulus bill during a town hall forum in Ft. Myers, Florida, President Obama said that the days of just building sprawl are over.
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From a transcript provided by Transportation for America:
Not only do we need to rebuild our roads, our bridges, our ports, our levies, our dams, but we also have to plan for the future. This is the same example of turning crisis into opportunity…Now, look, this is America. We always had the best infrastructure. We were always willing to invest in the future. Governor Crist mentioned Abraham Lincoln. In the middle of the Civil War, in the midst of all this danger and peril, what did he do? He helped move the intercontinental railroad. He helped start land grant colleges. He understood that even when you’re in the middle of crisis, you’ve got to keep your eye on the future. So transportation is not just fixing our old transportation systems but its also imaging new transportation systems.
That’s why I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. That’s why I would like to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient and I think people are alot more open now to thinking regionally in terms of how we plan our transportation infrastructure. The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this kind of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation. That will make a big difference.
–D gallagher “Where would the President get the authority to do anything about urban sprawl?”
Guess what? They did. The feds are buying the loans to your property. If you think you own your home, you don’t unless you don’t owe on it. Even if you owe $1.00 they can take your property as foreclosure or for any other number of reasons. How about just raising taxes so high you can’t afford to live there? Killing jobs by shutting down companies that don’t play ball? Take your pick. America has been sold for 800 billion.
@mpgomatic
Whether you realize it or not, Amtrak fails you every single day.
Every day a portion of your tax dollars are used to subsidize Amtrak because they would fail otherwise.
It’s been going on forever it seems.
I’d would guess that most tax payers would consider that failure.
If Obama and dems are so concerned about sprawl why did they include billions to build a high speed rail line from LA to Las Vegas. What do they think is going to pop up along the station stops? Don’t believe anything he says. Obama’s only goal is to expand the power and size of government.
@ Jo,
So you want to build a vertical city in the middle of hurricane alley? Seriously you are asking for disaster and destruction on a biblical scale.
@ the people that said I was misinformed about the loan fallout. I was dead on I just did not go into all the details.
Jane
How about if instead of completely changing the way we live to suite Amtrak, we change the way Amtrak works to suit the way we live. By that I mean instead of having Amtrak stations in the crappy, crime infested inner cities which most Americans actively avoid, the train stations are moved to the local transportation nexus, i.e. the airport. That way when you get off the train you can rent a taxi, a car or a hotel room. Or you can change to a plane for part of your trip.
If you drive from your home to the transportation nexus/airport/train station you can have a pretty good expectation that you car will be there when you return in much the same condition that you left it. If there is enough traffic to justify bus or rail service from the downtown area to the airport/train station, then it makes sense to have it. If not, take a taxi.
Are you content to see a less polluting and more energy efficient transportation system become more economically viable or must we buy your entire package? You have heard the saying, “Don’t make perfect the enemy of better”, haven’t you?
Mark,
That’s exactly what I was advocating. Let’s improve the rail system and the cities so people want to use them. Christ, I thought the intention in my reply was obvious.
Yes……Banks WERE mandated to give out those worthless mortgages. And don’t forget, Obama was the number two person that received funds from all of those beautiful loans.
Our state has been going back and forth about a high speed rail system for years (Duluth to Minneapolis). Mr. President, could we please have a few billion to build it? Pretty please. lol
Bill
Jane
The main obstacle to moving railroad stations to the airport is always the inner city mayor and government who want to hold onto what little revenue comes from them and they are upset at the loss of prestige and control if they lose yet another resource to the suburbs.
Do you want to improve the cities so that people will choose to live there? Improve the schools and send more criminals to prison so that the streets are safer. Neither of those things are going to happen as long as Democrats are in political control of cities and Democrats will never fix those things because teachers unions and advocates for alternative sentencing are such important parts of the political coalitions that keep them in office.
As things stand now, nobody who loves their children sends them to an inner city school if they can afford any alternative. Until you change this basic fact, you will not have families with children and money living there and the cities will not improve.
Obama’s message is mixed. He’s spending $800 billion recklessly fast, with no planning or guidelines. Money spent like that will always be totally wasted. At the same time he’s saying we need national-level planning on infrastructure. Of course! Everyone except our stupid politicians knew that since kindergarten! So, why not hold off on the massive spending until there’s a plan in place to use it wisely????
Mass transit fails because there is too little of it. In Europe, Japan and Hong Kong they love their mass transit because it gets you around faster than driving. Period. They are happy to leave the the traffic and parking hassles behind.
It doesn’t work here because it’s rare that it meets anyone’s needs. It just needs to be built out to a point where it can efficiently get you to most places. In order to work, it has to be systems like trains that aren’t slowed down by traffic.
The arguments about freedom and crime in the cities are off topic. The cities, infrastructure, and everything else in our society are starving because our government is more interested in policing the world, than taking care of business at home. Many other countries have great transportation, free health care and free college — with similar tax rates to ours — all because we give them a free ride on defense.