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Please Donate: Help build on 2008's momentum

As 2008 draws to a close, our country has truly reached a crossroads. In 2009, perhaps more than any other year in the last few decades, we will begin making some of the most crucial decisions to determine America's course for the next 50 years.

The federal bill that sets transportation spending will be reauthorized in 2009. Will we spend it on the grand national project of building out the second half of the transportation system — like intercity rail, robust metro transit systems, and streets safe for walking and biking? In the worst economic crisis of the last 50 years, will we work to provide Americans with affordable housing choices in convenient locations without forcing them out to the fringe where expensive gasoline can send them to the poorhouse overnight? Will we invest in a form of growth that has a bright future in a carbon-, water- and energy-constrained future?

Not every decision gets made here in Washington, DC. That's why coordinating and expanding our work with our many state and local coalition partners will be so important in 2009. Supporting SGA will help us equip and coordinate with those many partners of ours that are working alongside many of you to ensure that decisions about growth and development are made with wisdom and vision. Donate to Smart Growth America today and help us capitalize on 2008's momentum and ensure that the future for America is a bright one.

Transportation For America: Keeping America Moving

America's transportation system -- the network of highways, railroads, public transportation, walkways and bikeways -- serves as the backbone of our economy, connects our communities and provides access to the American Dream of opportunity for all. But today it is both incomplete and threatened.

Our national transportation policy has barely changed since the 1950s, when gas was 20 cents a gallon and President Eisenhower launched the interstate highway system. Today, we live in a very different world. The interstates have been built. Americans are paying record prices at the pump and feeling stuck with costly commutes and congestion. Bridges are crumbling. As our population becomes ever more urban, more are breathing dirty air. Our climate is threatened. Too many older, younger and rural Americans are stranded. Volatile areas of the world literally have us over a barrel -- millions of barrels a day, in fact.

That's why Smart Growth America has partnered with more than 80 national, state, and local organizations to press for drastic changes to our country's transportation system through a new campaign: Transportation For America.

Americans need options that are cheaper, faster, and cleaner. And the nation needs a healthy transportation system that is ready for the rapidly changing economy of the 21st Century. Learn more about the campaign and sign your name up with thousands of others who are demanding that our leaders work to provide us a transportation system that is once more the envy of the world.

Take action and learn more at Transportation For America

Meeting the demand for smart growth is the missing link in reducing vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

After a comprehensive review of dozens of research studies, the book's authors conclude that addressing global warming without seeing a change in development trends will be nearly impossible. The positive news, however, is that meeting the growing demand for conveniently located homes in walkable neighborhoods could significantly reduce the growth in the number of miles Americans drive, shrinking the nation's carbon footprint while giving people more, and better, living options.

Download the full executive summary and learn more about smart growth, climate change, and energy security on the study's home. You can also find a link to order the full book from the Urban Land Institute Bookstore.

Our Work

Restoring prosperity to our older industrial cities won't happen by chance. Empowering state and local leaders to embrace growth with a plan. Making roads accessible for everyone and safe for all. Advising governors and state leaders on crucial growth and development issues. Vacant property can comprise 15% of land in large cities. Creating opportunity from abandonment

Smart growth and climate examined by Congress: After months of focusing mostly on fuel-efficiency standards and renewable energy subsidies, Congress this week held its first substantive hearing on the role that smart growth, walkable neighborhoods and transit must play in curbing climate change and oil dependence. Smart Growth America's David Goldberg joined four other panelists in testifying to the House Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence in a hearing entitled "Planning Communities for a Changing Climate-Smart Growth, Public Demand and Private Opportunity." READ MORE


The National Vacant Properties Campaign: Preventing vacancy is solution #1. But for the thousands of properties already sitting vacant as dead space in cities nationwide, the costs are tremendous in decreased property values, rising crime, environmental dangers, and heavy costs to local governments.

But the payoff for redeveloping these properties is great — not only in relieving these pressures, but also in rebuilding social networks and reawakening neighborhood vitality. The work of the NVPC helps bring these vacant properties back. Learn more about the Campaign.


The Restoring Prosperity Initiative: Institutionalized inequality and policies of urban disinvestment helped speed up the decline of many older industrial American cities. Ensuring the continued economic success of our country depends on revitalizing these cities and restoring them to the economic, political, and cultural hubs they once were. Change is possible, but it won't happen by chance. Learn more about the Restoring Prosperity Initiative, and read the full report from the Brookings Institution there. Learn more.

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Smart Growth America

...better choices for our communities