New Chicago Bike Rental Plan
The Chicago Sun-Timesreports that Mayor Daley's bike-rental program has had a very positive start.
More than 1,500 bicycles were rented and 80 temporary memberships in the pilot program were sold during the first 17 days, prompting operators to lobby for a citywide expansion.
The project was inspired by the mayor's trip to Paris in 2007.
Thanks for your help beating Mama Grizzly
The Washington Post recently reported that Sarah Palin's PAC contributed $87,500 to candidates last quarter. Thanks to your help Committee for a Livable Future or LivPAC outdid this conservative potential presidential nominee by contributing $100,000 to members and candidates who will help Democrats keep the majority in November. And we did it without spending a dime on consultants!
Since its creation in 1996, LivPAC has made contributions to almost 200 Congressional candidates and helped elect and re-elect over 100 Members of the House and Senate from all parts of the country. We have raised more than $1.7 million to support the election of endorsed candidates. LivPAC currently ranks as the second largest environmental PAC and is in the top 15% of all Democratic leadership PACs.
All of these accomplishments could not have happened without your help!
This year Democrats are facing a tough election cycle. Washington pundits are claiming that Republicans have the momentum and there is a real possibility that House Democrats will lose seats and John Boehner could be Speaker - a very scary thought for us all!
Please consider contributing $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can afford so we can continue to elect Democratic candidates and keep our country moving towards a livable future. With your help we can continue to support more candidates than SarahPAC!
Earl Blumenauer Member of Congress, Founder of Committee for a Livable Future
Quarter Of American Bridges Declared Structurally Deficient or Functionally Obsolete
Scholars and Rogues blogs on the 51,394 bridges the federal Department of Transportation lists as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and the stalled The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009.
The repair and replacement rate of deficient or obsolete U.S. bridges is rising, however. According to DOT statistics, the number of lousy bridges has been reduced by 14,087 since 2000, an average of only 1,565 a year. So maybe (you remember, of course, all that talk about those shovel-ready stimulus projects?) that repair rate will increase, and we will have licked our bad bridge problem in only 100 years.Read More
Communities Putting Prevention to Work
The National Complete Streets Coalition is joining with the Department of Health and Human Services to to apply stimulus money in a new type of prevention effort. The Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program is designed to address factors like poor nutrition and inactivity that lead to premature death.
But instead of the approaches you’d expect – ad campaigns and educational efforts aimed at individuals – HHS has determined that success will only come if we can, in the words of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ursula Bauer, “redesign our communities to promote health instead of disease.” This is where Complete Streets comes in: as an effort that will help create inviting places to walk and bicycle over the long haul. We were invited to serve as faculty at a recent series of three Action Institutes held for the communities receiving the CPPW funds. Each community has assembled a diverse team that goes beyond public health agencies to include elected officials, planners, business interests, advocacy groups, and others, who are charged with making change in just two years.
Senate Livable Communities Bill Moves Forward
The Senate Banking Committee has held its first hearing on Chris Dodd's "Livable Communities" bill that would provide grants for metropolitan areas and create an office of sustainability within the executive branch.
Dodd described the bill as combining housing development, public transit, and infrastructure and land-use planning into one comprehensive approach to city development. Currently, many of those decisions are made separately from one another, and Dodd and others said the partitions have led to urban sprawl.
Transportation Secretary Shifts Gears
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood visits with the AARP to discuss transportation initiatives and liva communities for people of all ages.
"What we're promoting is that you don't have to be in your car all the time," LaHood said. "I know that a lot of older Americans want to live in rural communities but also want transportation to the city to go to the doctor, the hospital, the grocery store, the drug store, the department store--whatever. We put emphasis on making sure that people that live in the rural communities who can't drive or don't want to drive can have access to transportation, too."
Visit the AARP's Livable Communities Public Policy Team's resource page
The Committee for a Livable Future
(LivPAC)
The Committee for a Livable Future (LivPAC) is a political action committee (PAC) founded in 1996 by Congressman Earl Blumenauer to help elect Democratic Members of Congress who support the policies and principles that will make the U.S. government a partner in building and maintaining livable communities that embody smart growth principles.
Since 1996, LivPAC has made endorsements in more than 160 races for Congress. Earl has visited over two hundred communities since his election to Congress, carrying this message.
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