We live regionally, but few places in the country have been able to mobilize themselves to think and plan that way. People, jobs, goods, animals, air, water, etc. all move across and through regions all the time. Many of the problems we need to solve (CO2, GHG, vibrant economies) require us to ... more
We live regionally, but few places in the country have been able to mobilize themselves to think and plan that way. People, jobs, goods, animals, air, water, etc. all move across and through regions all the time. Many of the problems we need to solve (CO2, GHG, vibrant economies) require us to get jurisdictions working together to think about how to manage these systems in sustainable, economically productive ways. Transportation money has been the best federal tool so far - are there more? Can we do more to ensure the federal powers of persuasion really work?
boiker
This is the single most important portion of the urban policy. The health of urban economic regions overwhelms all other aspects in importance. Regional planning is very poor right now and litlte is done to prevent patchwork development patterns and reckless annexations. We live regionally, we work regionally, we must plan regionally.
mjh
Opportunities abound for incentivizing/requiring a regional approach to planning - transpo funding has been sort of successful, how about cap and trade legislation that requires local governments to account for and reduce overall emissions related to transportation, development patterns, etc.?