Posted May 3, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy letter by California Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, in response to Wendell Cox’s April 7th piece California Declares War on Suburbia. In it, Steinberg handily refutes Cox’s wild somersaults of...continued→
Posted April 18, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
This Thursday April 19th, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) is poised to adopt one of the most progressive and transformative smart growth plans in the nation. The board will vote to adopt their 2035 Sustainable Communities Strategy/Regional Transportation...continued→
Posted April 18, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
When one of Southern California’s most visionary planning thinkers calls a plan “a model of sustainability”, it seems only right that we should listen. Ventura City Manager Rick Cole’s recent LA Times Op-Ed says that SoCal’s new 25-year, $524-billion plan...continued→
Posted April 3, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil
[UPDATED 4/4/12 4:28pm PT] This afternoon the Southern California Association of Governments unanimously adopted a $524 billion transit plan designed to heavily invest in projects to provide greater mobility choices to Los Angeles and Southern California residents and visitors. The plan...continued→
Posted March 26, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Last Thursday, the implementation of SB 375 hit another milestone with the Air Resources Board’s (ARB) review of two more Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCS)—from Southern California and Sacramento. ARB members heard staff presentations on the two plans, asked questions of...continued→
Posted March 12, 2012 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Whenever I tell my New York City family that I’m working to create transit in LA, I get a quizzical look that falls somewhere between skepticism and outright disbelief: “You can’t take transit in LA!” “You can’t even walk there!”...continued→
Posted December 12, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
A new study issued today by the Urban Land Institute confirms what many of us living in California already know--sprawl has had its heyday, and more and more people are choosing to live closer to where they work and play. The...continued→
Posted December 1, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Clearly someone’s been paying attention. Southern California’s first Sustainable Communities Strategy under SB 375--officially released today by unanimous Regional Council vote--reflects today’s housing market realities. As a recent survey of Southern California voters confirmed, most people want to live closer...continued→
Posted November 4, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Yesterday a prominent committee of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) recommended a preferred alternative for its 2012 Regional Transportation Plan and SB 375 Sustainable Communities Strategy that increases the amount of money committed to biking and walking throughout...continued→
Posted November 2, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil
Southern Californians also prefer walkable, mixed-use communities over conventional residential neighborhoods where they have to drive When the board members of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) convene tomorrow morning at 10:30 to consider a plan for their region’s...continued→
Posted October 28, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Today the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) voted 14 – 1 to adopt the first Sustainable Communities Strategy to implement SB 375 in California. After hours of public testimony and debate, SANDAG Chairman Jerome Stocks summarized his thoughts on...continued→
Posted October 12, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Over the last week, I had the remarkable opportunity to participate in Climate Ride – a 5-day, 320-mile charitable bike ride from Eureka to San Francisco. Team NRDC sent 11 riders to the event, which will raise more than $300,000...continued→
Posted September 23, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Nearly one year to the date after the California Air Resources Board set the first-in-the-nation regional greenhouse gas targets for land use and transportation planning under SB 375, the same cast of characters reconvened yesterday to review the first plan...continued→
Posted September 16, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Solving Global Warming
On October 2nd, I will join nine of my colleagues, and over 100 other cyclists, on what promises to be an epic cycling adventure beginning in California's historic Redwood Empire near Eureka, climbing up and down the scenic coast, and...continued→
Posted July 8, 2011 by Amanda Eaken in Solving Global Warming
BREAKING NEWS: 60 years of government structures and polices that subsidize sprawl development have not been dismantled in nine short months by San Diego’s new regional plan! Like so many attention grabbing stories, Ethan Elkind’s blog post proclaiming California’s first Sustainable Communities...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
