White House Hails Kansas City’s Stimulus-Backed ‘Green Impact Zone’
Cities have been rather shortchanged by the stimulus law's road funding -- though transit money has been more amply directed to large urban areas -- but the Obama administration found a stimulus success story today in Kansas City.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) shows off a map of his home district's 'Green Impact Zone.' (Photo: Brookings)The city's "Green Impact Zone," a 150-block area where residents are receiving help with home weatherization and construction has begun on a new bus rapid transit line, today hosted three senior presidential advisers: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, White House urban affairs director Adolfo Carrion, and "green jobs" czar Van Jones.
The White House aides visited Kansas City to evaluate how its use of $200 million in stimulus aid to help revitalize the urban center could be replicated in other cities around the country.
In addition to energy-efficiency projects and the bus line, which would use biodiesel vehicles, the "Impact Zone" is aiming to provide job training in transit and park-building for the neighborhood's population of ex-parolees.
"We'll do this one neighborhood at a time," linking transportation, energy, and housing investments, Carrion told the local Fox TV station in an interview this morning.
The stop at Kansas City's "Impact Zone," spearheaded by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), will be followed by Obama administration visits to Chicago, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, and other cities as part of a broader urban tour.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
More from Streetsblog USA
Friday’s Headlines Got Served
Another day, another GOP lawsuit trying to overturn a Biden administration climate change rule.
Disabled People Are Dying in America’s Crosswalks — But We’re Not Counting Them
The data on traffic fatalities and injuries doesn’t account for their needs or even count them. Better data would enable better solutions.
LA: Automated Enforcement Coming Soon to a Bus Lane Near You
Metro is already installing on-bus cameras. Soon comes testing, outreach, then warning tickets. Wilshire/5th/6th and La Brea will be the first bus routes in the bus lane enforcement program.
Talking Headways Podcast: Charging Up Transportation
This week, we talk to the great Gabe Klein, executive director of President Biden's Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (and a former Streetsblog board member), about curbside electrification.
Why Does the Vision Zero Movement Stop At the Edge of the Road?
U.S. car crash deaths are nearly 10 percent higher if you count collisions that happen just outside the right of way. So why don't off-road deaths get more air time among advocates?
