For USDOT it's Transportation for Communities

Two recent announcements by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) may have long-term impact on community development practitioners. In August, the Federal Transit Administration issued final guidance for its Capital Investment Program which funds New Starts and Small Starts transit projects (think subways, streetcars, light rail and bus rapid transit). And last week Secretary Foxx announced the latest round of TIGER grant recipients in 37 states (think big money for big transportation projects). With both of these announcements, USDOT signaled its recognition that these kind of large infrastructure investments can profoundly influence the way communities develop and markets respond.  

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Navigating the Regional Transportation Funding Maze

I’ve spent a fair amount of my “summer vacation” examining how metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) use their planning and programming tools to support livable communities. This is a question that a growing number of regions are interested in learning to help them make better investments with scarce public resources. While still far too opaque, best practices are emerging. MZ Strategies, LLC is involved with several efforts to help spread the word.

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Equitable TOD: Actions Speak Louder Than Plans

Equitable TOD refers to livable, mixed-use neighborhoods near transit, providing housing for all income levels. Over the years, planners, developers and affordable housing advocates have worked to realize the potential for equitable TOD. As a recent story from the Washington Post uncovers though, mixed-income housing requires more than award-winning plans. It requires a long-term commitment to action and to the people living in these neighborhoods.

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What a Difference a Year Makes

Today marks the one year anniversary of MZ Strategies, LLC, which I founded as a way to work directly with communities and organizations in developing and implementing strategies to create thriving, inclusive communities. Thanks go out to many people for their support, readership, collaboration, and encouragement! 

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Reclaiming America’s Cities and Neighborhoods

Cities are evolving, dynamic organisms. This is what makes them so incredible to those of us in the planning and design professions. They are a constantly changing experiment, but what I love is what they also say about American ingenuity and tenacity.  No other country abandoned their cities as fervently as in the US, but no other country can show the types of successful transformation of urban neighborhoods particularly in the face of relatively minor federal support.

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Planning for Regional Competitiveness

MZ Strategies, LLC and the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) released a new report entitled “Planning for Regional Competitiveness.,” funded by the McKnight Foundation to help inform efforts underway in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The report highlights best practices that strengthen regional economic competitiveness.  Building upon lessons learned from the greater Denver, Seattle-Tacoma, and Kansas City metropolitan regions and a national survey of regional planning councils, the report provides recommendations to improve regional economic competitiveness and improve cooperation to grow economies and reduce economic disparities.

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HUD Rebrands Its Sustainability Initiative around Economic Resilience

Two new updates worth spotlighting: 1) The Obama Administration has finally released its FY2014 budget proposal which includes a re-branded $75 million Integrated Planning and Implementation grant program at HUD (formerly the Sustainable Communities Initiative) ; and 2) a new State Transportation Funding Proposal tracker by T4America to help follow the evolving set of proposals by Governors and State Legislatures to ​fill the funding gap created by insufficient federal support for highways, transit, bike and rail projects.

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Planning Globally, Acting Locally with Arlington’s Streetcar

Over the past decade I have worked with many communities to help realize their local transit and development aspirations. During this same time, Arlington County, the community I am proud to call home, has been taking a painstakingly thorough path to re-introduce streetcar service along Colombia Pike. Funding remains elusive as sequestration threatens the proposed federal share, and local critics smell blood in the water. The current threat to Arlington’s own streetcar desire, is a reminder to me of the importance for transportation professionals to engage in these same issues when they are happening in our own backyard.  

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Time for Congress to Clean Up its Self-made Transportation Funding Mess

It’s March in Washington, DC. The time of year when cherry trees start to blossom and the city is invaded by people of every political persuasion here to lobby Congress and the administration about any and everything having to do with the budget. Knowing what to say to Congress this year feels  a little harder. We find ourselves in a politically-made quagmire happening at the same time that states and cities have identified an incredible set of projects to create jobs, support economic growth, address environmental challenges, and make our communities great places to live.

We cannot depend too much on federal funds to solve our problems. But we also cannot continue to let Congress kick the can, or worse, kick us when we’re down. Individual voices make a difference. If you care about these issues, make your voice heard!

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MZ Strategies, LLC Awarded DBE Certification

MZ Strategies, LLC has been certified by the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Minority Business Enterprise as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE).  The DBE certification qualifies MZ Strategies to work on projects throughout the Commonwealth in the following categories:

  • Land use planning services
  • Administrative and General management consulting services;
  • Strategic planning consulting services
  • Transportation management consulting services
  • Political consulting services;  and,
  • Public relations consulting services

MZ Strategies, LLC is a woman-owned small business based in Arlington, Virginia offering policy and planning consulting services. ​

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In Successful TOD, it’s the Little Things That Count

Density without design may fail to generate anticipated return on investment  -- both in terms of creating new riders and in transforming neighborhoods. A common mistake for planners and transit officials is to pursue TOD projects with a belief that building near transit will automatically create significant new ridership and increased property values. Too little attention is paid to the smaller scale strategies that can help to make TOD a success. Included in this category are smaller scale strategies that focus on improving the safety, convenience, and feel of a place to signal that people are welcome and transit is a preferred way to travel. Apart from design, top of the list should be education and outreach to enlist those who would be your obvious allies if only they knew it. Included in this category are hotels and convention centers located near transit, as evidenced by my recent trip to Miami, Florida.

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Ready for a New Era of Transportation Finance?

In just the first two months of 2013, we’ve seen a surprising array of ideas being advanced by Governors seeking to overcome the most pressing transportation challenge of our time: how to pay for the system we have and the system we need? Federal rigor mortis is pushing the transportation fiscal canyon to states and localities. It also lends credibility to questioning the continued existence of a federal program or user pay model if it is insufficient to the task, and is more burden than benefit in terms of adding regulatory requirements that come without the funding to pay for them. The implications for states and localities are significant.

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Searching for the Silver Lining in Financing Equitable TOD

Transit-oriented development brings unique challenges in securing financing and turning a profit. For developers and communities hoping to see a mix of income levels in TOD housing, additional challenges must be overcome. I appreciated the chance to write a guest blog on this topic in response to a recent Living Cities-sponsored webinar by Enterprise Community Partners and the Low-Income Investment Fund (LIIF). Despite challenges, there are indeed silver linings to the emerging TOD financing environment.

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Transit’s Fresh Start to Comprehensive Place Making

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) opened 2013 by releasing a set of game-changing documents for transportation and community development. In its newly published New and Small Starts Final Rule and Proposed Policy Guidance, FTA proposes that smart land use and affordable housing be viewed as key components of good transit projects, and good economic development policy. 

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