Come to the table at the First Suburbs Project of Southeastern Pennsylvania Summit on December 7, 2007 at the Great Hall at Bryn Mawr College. The suburban leaders and organizations that comprise the First Suburbs Project are working together to harness their communities’ power by directly engaging citizens to affect policies and practices that help stabilize and revitalize communities. The summit opens at 9:00 a.m. with an address by David Rusk, who is “the hottest urban expert in the nation today,” according to the Baltimore Sun. The summit will also feature reflections from john a. powell, who is an internationally recognized authority in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties and issues relating to race, ethnicity, poverty and law. Participants will also have a chance to meet with their peers and discuss strategies and opportunities for future policy actions. For more information, contact mwood@10000friends.org or register online at http://opensoc.org/community/SEPA120707/.
The Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project of Temple University is completing a study with the Southeastern PA Network to find out. The data is being gathered to demonstrate the economic impact of transit on families and their communities with accessibility to SEPTA regional rail lines in Southeastern PA. The information will be presented for the first time at the Housing Alliance Conference on December 7 at 10:00 a.m. Watch for a Southeastern Metropolitan Network forum to review and discuss these findings early in 2008.
Now is the time for Transportation Reform in Pennsylvania. In July, the state legislature passed Act 44, which will increase the funds allocated to transportation by one third. In order to assure that these funds provide maximum leverage for economic development and improved quality of life, project funding and implementation must be changed. To help make the case for transportation reform, 10,000 Friends has been traveling throughout the state to meet with stakeholders, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs), and PennDOT District Staff.
The three main questions framing the reform discussions are summarized from the recent summary of a listening session hosted by PennDOT in June 2007. PennDOT summarized this session in the document Smart Transportation Next Steps: 1) How can we think outside the box for project delivery and design? 2) How can we track good projects to move through the system faster? and 3) How can we move money to projects that we know are good, strong projects that will have maximum impact for communities?
10,000 Friends of PA is proposing the Pennsylvania Community Choice Initiative, based on Atlanta’s Livable Communities, to provide private sector incentives which will encourage increased residential development, mixed uses and connectivity in existing communities. The program would allow MPOs and RPOs to fund and support projects which adhere to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Principles for Growth, Investment and Resource Conservation.
Policy Link and the Greater Urban Affairs Coalition collaborated on a report which examined potential strategies for improving job satisfaction and retention for workers in Southeastern PA. The report notes that “three out of every 10 households (426,000) in the region are low-income working families. Of those, 46 percent live in Philadelphia and 54 percent live in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties… Twenty-seven percent of the wages of the region's low-income workers go toward housing costs and another 29 percent to transportation expenses. The report explains why it is in the best interest of employers to help their entry-level workers decrease the cost burden of housing combined with long, expensive commutes to work and details some potential strategies for how this can be done. To download the full report, go to www.policylink.org/documents/Philadelphiapolicybrief_web.pdf
Transit Oriented Development in Philadelphia: Using a proven strategy to create more vibrant, livable neighborhoods is a report released in October 2007 by Neighborhoods Now, working with Econsult. This report outlines the opportunities to create more Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in Philadelphia and demonstrates TOD’s role in supporting a strong city economy. To receive a copy of the report, contact Neighborhoods Now.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Options for Filling the Region’s Transportation Funding Gap http://www.dvrpc.org/asp/pubs/reports/07045.pdf makes the case that additional regional funding is necessary for a first class transportation system and breaks down the types of revenue that could be applied to filling the gap.
