The New Republic

Our big event Monday debuting the concept of metropolitan business plans--a new variety of action-oriented strategy-making in which regions assert “bottom-up” what they need from federal, state, or private-sector “investors”—contained a number of great moments. READ MORE >>

Whether or not the federal government shuts down this weekend, I have an announcement: U.S. metropolitan areas are open for business and striving innovatively to create jobs and transform the economy. READ MORE >>

The battle over new coal terminals in the Pacific Northwest hasn’t really focused on the amount of coal already moving down the Columbia River basin by train from Wyoming and then up the coast to British Columbia (via Seattle) for export to China. This post from the excellent Sightline Daily puts it into perspective. READ MORE >>

Ten years after Seattle’s Ash Wednesday earthquake damaged the highway, the 1950s-era double-decker Alaskan Way Viaduct still carries 110,000 cars per day along Elliot Bay. READ MORE >>

The High Line New York City Millennium Park Chicago Citygarden St. Louis READ MORE >>

As we’ve pointed out, local governments across the country are facing severe budget gaps as the fiscal effects of declining house prices and tightfisted consumers wreak havoc on property and sales tax revenues. READ MORE >>

One of the central challenges of health care reform is getting insurers to behave better. And it's really a round-peg-into-square-hole sort of problem. READ MORE >>

As part of our State of Metropolitan America project, we reported last week on the increase in public transit commuters from 2000–2008. While this increase is small (less than 1 percent), it’s the first time that’s happened in 40 years. As the map below shows, most transit commuters are concentrated on the coasts. READ MORE >>

For Barack Obama’s inauguration, Washington Dulles International Airport had to close a runway to accommodate private jet traffic. According to aviation authorities, the D.C. area had never before experienced so large an influx of corporate jets—around 500 in total, or almost double the number for George W. Bush’s second inauguration. And this was to celebrate the presidency of someone who had run on a platform that included tax hikes for the rich and a crackdown on Wall Street. READ MORE >>

With negotiations ongoing between the federal government and freight railroads over what the rules will be as states plan to implement high speed rail on their tracks, it worth looking comprehensively at the state of passenger service in the nation today and its operator, Amtrak. There is, after all, $8 billion in play. READ MORE >>