MZ Strategies, LLC is excited to spread word about the upcoming webinar by Transportation for America (T4America) to celebrate the December 10th launch of their new report, "The Innovative MPO". T4America contracted with MZ Strategies to research and write the publication which features best practices and cutting edge planning by regions across the country.
Read More…Local transportation advocacy is a long-term commitment. Financially, that can be a challenge to sustain. Community organizing is a tough but vital job. Equally important is the ability to build technical capacity so they can be effective and informed. While it’s never easy for non-profits to raise sufficient funds, those organizations working on transportation or planning issues have an especially tough time. Let’s be honest, when asked to choose between an environmental cause like saving the polar bears, or a social cause like feeding the homeless, most people go with their heart. Streetcars, bike lanes, and mixed-use communities are also lovable, but to a much more limited subset of the population. (Photo credit: Twin Cities LISC)
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If you haven’t noticed, we are in a time of “renewed regionalism” and the common theme across these efforts is better integration across issues to better respond to the complexity of the challenges that no single jurisdiction alone can address. Climate adaptation and resiliency clearly fits right in this wheelhouse, whether working together to recover from a major weather event or to find strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Here are a few thoughts from involvement last week by Mariia Zimmerman of MZ Strategies at the Institute for Sustainable Communities: "Think Resiliently, Act Regionally" Leadership Academy.
Read More…I'm looking forward to the national Rail~Volution conference happening Sept 21- 24 in Minneapolis, where I’ll join 1,500 of my closest friends who share a passion for transit and great communities. One thing I especially value about this annual conference is its ability to bring together a diverse set of "practitioners." By which I don’t just mean planners, engineers or architects. Yes – they will all be there. But also the community practitioners who ultimately make this stuff happen: the elected officials, developers and financial lenders, community advocates and philanthropic partners. Creating vibrant and inclusive communities takes many hands – sometimes clasped and working together, and sometimes wrestling for dominance.
Read More…The challenge before us now is how we will shape the future of our cities. Will growing demand for urban living and walkable neighborhoods help reduce greenhouse gas emissions but lead to gentrification and greater suburbanization of poverty, or will we find a better balance to great place making, equitable access to opportunity, and greener cities? I had an opportunity last week to think about this in my presentation to Baltimore's Transit Choices Coalition.
Read More…Over the past 6 months, MZ Strategies, LLC has examined the recent history of transportation reform efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Washington DC regions. Both metro areas have witnessed a significant transportation transformation over the past 15 years – in the types of transportation investments happening, the linkage to land use and development, and the connection to broader social, economic and environmental goals. We are pleased to release today a new report that summarizes key lessons learned from these two regions where advocates, philanthropy, the public sector and private entrepreneurs have created powerful coalitions to make transportation investments work better for people, places and the environment.
Read More…I just returned from 2 weeks in Europe, which always provides lots of inspiration to me as an urban planner, yet this time I noticed that in many ways great US and European cities are having more in common. Bike sharing, cycle tracks, streetcars and mobiles apps are spreading in both continents, to name just a few of the visible ways that mobility is being expanded – creating a new sense of urban vibrancy and excitement. Berlin and Vienna offer great examples of how transportation is creating vibrant urban centers and new mobility.
Read More…Earlier this week, and without any fanfare, the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities turned five. This anniversary is a bittersweet one for me. I was incredibly honored to serve as the Deputy Director for the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (now the Office of Economic Resilience) at HUD to help stand up this historic effort. With new leadership at HUD, DOT and EPA, its time to weigh in and make the case for sustained government collaboration. We need efforts like the Partnership for Sustainable Communities -- not to grow government, but to make sure that we're recalibrating programs and policies so that they meet the new challenges and opportunities of a 21st Century America.
Read More…It seems lately in my work that everywhere I turn, people are talking about how to be more innovative and celebrating the growing diversity of models we are seeing in the transportation world. This is an exciting time to be working on urban issues. Whether driven by changing demographics, new technologies, growing market demand and/or shrinking public resources especially at the federal level, innovation is happening and at a rapid pace.
Earlier this spring, MZ Strategies, LLC conducted a national survey to help map the field of transportation-reform advocacy and innovation. Results will be shared later this fall at Rail~Volution in Minneapolis (Sept 21-24), but a sneak peek shows the diversity of places that are looked to as innovation models.
Findings of spring 2014 MZ Strategies, LLC survey on innovation regions and communities. The word size indicates the frequency of mentions for each place. For example, the Bay Area was noted 35 times, Denver 19 times and Tampa mentioned once. (Source: MZ Strategies, LLC May 2014)
When asked “In your opinion, what US regions or communities are emerging places for transportation innovation, and what types of innovation are they involved with?” Respondents offered over 400 different innovation cities and regions. Bike and care share programs, new transit investments especially in bus rapid transit, and innovative financing options such as pricing, public-private partnerships were most frequently noted innovations.
Mayors in cities as diverse as Buffalo, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and New York City are investing in bike infrastructure to improve quality of life especially for young workers who they hope to attract to their city. Ride-sharing and bike-sharing companies like Carma and Alta are investing in new technologies to make real-time information more available to customers. And community engagement itself is being transformed through social media, open planning tools, and better data that informs the needs and efficacy of outreach efforts.
Last week I joined a group of California funders and Bay Area advocates to discuss ways that regional innovation was being occurring to link transportation with climate change and social equity goals. The 6 Wins Coalition in the Bay Area is an amazing example of community-led advocacy and technical policy expertise coming together to push for bold new thinking in transportation planning and spending.
This week I joined private and non-profit sector new mobility providers and transportation policy wonks to discuss “Innovations in New Mobility.” Often referred to as “shared use mobility” we are seeing an explosion of new ways to get around our communities, be it Car2Go, Uber, SoBi, NiceRide and Capital Bikes, or good old fashioned carpooling. I enjoyed moderating a panel to discuss the equity impacts of these emerging mobility trends.
Among the big take-aways:
new mobility is being used as a compliment, not a substitute for how people get around
new mobility options are especially important for making non-work trips
biggest barriers for low-income users are either structural (there aren’t any bike share stations in their neighborhood) or cultural (marketing and education programs are not typically aimed at minority or low-income riders).
financial barriers also exist, but smart phones and debit and money cards have reduced past challenges faced by those without access to the internet or a bank account
New mobility options bring many questions that remain to be answered including a more complete picture of how rural communities, low-income households and seniors or people with disabilities are best served. Answering the biggest question: "How will cities and state departments of transportation adapt to new mobility?" may set the stage more broadly for how innovation, entrepreneurship and public policy come together in dynamic ways to rethink transportation. It’s great to see new partners coming onto the scene, including the Shared Use Mobility Center – the latest innovation by the Center for Neighborhood Technology – to support peer learning and collaboration.
Mariia Zimmerman, Principal of MZ Strategies, LLC joins regional leaders from across the greater Minneapolis-St.Paul region on May 22 at the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies annual research conference to discuss the impacts of recent transit investments. Zimmerman will facilitate a policy session focused on the role transit plays on regional job accessibility, economic development and real estate, and the funding and social equity implications of accelerating transit investment to serve more suburban and urban communities.
More information on the session, including details on registration are available through this link.
This session builds upon the findings from the Transitway Impact Research Program (TIRP), a multi-year, cross disciplinary effort to explore the impacts of transitways on regional land use, travel patterns and economy. TIRP was launched in 2006 by the Hennepin–University Partnership and has grown to include a mix of state, regional, and local jurisdictional partners Last fall, MZ Strategies authored a 24-page research summary that highlights key findings from the past 8 year's of TIRP research.
Arlington's Colombia Pike brings together active and inclusive public spaces with new investments in better transportation service. Photo: M Zimmerman, 2013
Recently, I was asked to guest blog for Living Cities and spotlight recent reports by MZ Strategies to help local communities use existing federal transportation funds to support equitable development. My favorite projects are those where I can engage with clients to find tangible ways to align existing funding programs and policies with local or regional goals. Through this work, I’ve encountered both exciting new strategies and the depressing realities that arise when trying to unlock the funding toolkit.
Too many metropolitan planning organizations still are not able to directly fund projects or support local innovation but instead rely upon the state which adds cost, complexity, time – and that is assuming it gets built. Too many equity issues are being put aside over concerns regarding short term costs – creating bigger costs in the long-term resulting from regional disparities or environmental justice legal concerns. And too many public agencies are afraid to innovate, especially with private sector partners. Politically, it is often easier to spread peanut butter than to make strategic regional investments. These are hard challenges to overcome, but not impossible ones!
The reality is that we live in challenging times, with complex problems requiring complex solutions. Funding these solutions is not simple. But, it is possible if the investment is worthy of support. How do we get there? In some of the regions, such as Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Kansas City, MO part of the answer lies in public leadership – both of elected officials and of professional planning staff – and part of it lies in the power of transparent and inclusive decision making. These regions have created, and are using, a robust set of metrics to prioritize investments and track performance.
With open data and a multitude of apps now allowing us to access the world in the palm of our hand, people have come to expect quick and easy access to information. We reward creativity. The public sector needs to be no different. For transportation projects, this means making available information and graphics that tell the story about winners, losers, costs and benefits. It also means we need to use all the tools at our disposal. This can take many shapes. In Seattle, a small portion of federal transportation funds are set aside to invest in local projects that help rural town centers and corridors. In Los Angeles, regional sales taxes are leveraging significant federal and private sector financing to accelerate the build out of their transit system. In Atlanta, the region has established Equity Target Areas using data on race, poverty and other indicators to prioritize transportation investments. In Dallas, tolling funds can help to supplement funding resources to both pay for transit and also to swap with federal funds to accelerate smaller-scale sustainable transportation projects.
As Congress considers the Obama Administration’s proposal for reauthorizing these transportation funding programs, and considers future funding levels and policy changes now is a good time to let your Senator or Congress person know what is working for you, and what needs to change to allow for more innovative projects and inclusive processes. At the same time, state legislatures around the country are wrapping up with many looking at how to fund transportation or what kinds of projects to prioritize. What if instead of business as usual, state legislators made their decisions based on return on investment, impact to economic competitiveness or alleviating regional disparities? Now is a good time for all of us to make our voices heard to get the tools we want, and make sure we’re using all the tools we have!
It’s a busy time for the MZ Strategies team. We invite you to participate in a national survey on transportation reform, read the latest article from Founder and Principal, Mariia Zimmerman on the legacy of HUD's Sustainable Communities Initiative, and join us at some of the upcoming events around the country we'll be participating in to share our views on building thriving and inclusive communities. To learn more, check out our latest blog post!
Read More…As we celebrate the growing number of female transportation and community building all-stars, let's also ensure we are equally committed to supporting the next generation of leaders -- male and female, and to ensuring greater ethnic and racial diversity among those who are leading our public agencies, private firms, and non-profit organizations that is more reflective of the growing diversity of American communities.
Read More…Transportation highlights from the FY2015 budget released today by the Obama Administration seek to put reauthorization of the federal surface transportation program on the political radar before we run out of money this summer. Will Congress kick the can until after the mid-term elections? The President's Budget Proposal provide fodder and ideas about ways to pay for it through tax reform that may motivate advocates and the Hill to act in the coming months, or at least elevate the national debate.
Read More…The increase in urban innovation, population growth, and quality of place happening in Washington, D.C., over the last two decades is in almost direct relation to the steadfast decline of public opinion, functionality, and bi-partisanship experienced by Congress. Arising from this political cauldron is the newly adopted “Sustainable DC” plan – developed by the District through significant public input and the visionary leadership of outgoing Planning Director, Harriet Tregoning. Sustainable DC provides a policy “greenprint” to achieve Mayor Gray’s goal: “to make the District the healthiest, greenest, most livable city in the nation over the next 20 years.” This goal may sound audacious, but the Plan demonstrates that it is actually achievable through a series of targeted and measurable actions.
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