Reconnecting America’s Board Members In The News

Board chair Janette Sadik-Khan, NYC’s DOT Commissioner, shows up in New York Magazine in a story about the implementation of Mayor Bloomberg’s Plan NYC: She’s opening a separated bike lane along a nine-block stretch of Ninth Avenue and on Williamsburg’s Kent Street as well as cordoned-off bus lanes and a new public plaza at Gansevoort, Ninth and Little West 12th Street; and, most importantly, she’s continuing talks about making some streets car-free this summer – which doesn’t require legislative approval. (Albany nixed the mayor’s congestion pricing plan last month.) She shows up in cycling gear (nice!) in Bicycling Magazine in a story about how the city is adding 200 miles of bike lanes by mid-2009 and a five-borough bike backbone by 2010, earning it a bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community award from the League of American Bicyclists. “City leaders realized crowded streets couldn’t handle expected population growth,” reads the article, “and hired the right DOT commissioner.” That would be Janette!

APTA President Bill Millar was in a New York Times story about how public transit ridership is surging 10-15 percent in the South and West. “It’s clear,” he was quoted as saying, “that people are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.” MSNBC put him on the air, too, in a story about how the average American now spends $4300 a year on gas. MSNBC said commuter rail ridership is up 20 percent in Seattle, light rail ridership is up 12 percent in Dallas, 13 percent in Denver, and 27 percent in St. Louis.

The Seattle Times also showed Sims inking a deal to put a 42-mile Eastside rail corridor into public ownership, paving the way for a combination in the corridor of both freight and commuter rail as well as biking and hiking trails. Sims noted the deal ensures "this irreplaceable 42-mile corridor stays in public ownership and is not sold piecemeal for private development."

Meridian Mayor John Smith was in the Meridian (Mississippi) Star kicking off a green initiative that included a 90-point order to all city departments to be responsible about energy use, including bringing city buildings up to LEED standards. Mayor Smith later showed up in the paper celebrating National Train Day, where he spoke about the importance of intercity mass transportation to “the city’s greening commitment.”

Art Lomenick, president of Trammell Crow’s High Street Residential Company, was in the Dallas Morning News after High Street was chosen as master developer for three mixed-use transit-oriented developments along a new DART line to open in 2010. High Street is already working on a project in downtown Garland and a new town center in DeSoto.

Triangle Transit Authority General Manager David King was in the Herald Sun in Durham in a story about a recent report by a blue-ribbon committee that calls on officials to invest $8.2 bilion in transit over the next 27 years. Officials contend the region’s key highway corridors are so hemmed in by buildings and environmental constraints that expanding them is impossible. King urged officials to put a proposed half-cent sales tax on the ballot in 2009.

Jeff Boothe (partner, Holland & Knight) showed up in the Kansas City Star having to explain the difference between streetcars and light rail. Local advocates are trying to figure out how to sell a proposed modern streetcar system to residents who would prefer to build light rail. Their proposed streetcar system would be a kind of a hybrid, with streetcars that are smaller and less expensive than light rail but which would run on dedicated lanes on city streets.