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Congress looks at making cities more "livable" (Dodd proposal to fund comprehensive city planning)
Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 6/9/10 | Lisa Lambert

Posted on 06/09/2010 12:18:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate moved closer on Wednesday to making the concept of "livable communities" a part of national law that would provide federal grants to help local governments implement comprehensive city planning.

Almost a year after Sen. Chris Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman from Connecticut, introduced a bill, the committee held its first hearing. The bill proposes giving livability grants to metropolitan organizations and creating an interagency office on sustainable communities within the executive branch.

The grant amounts would depend on the size of the city and the use of the money. The bill would authorize $100 million in total each year through 2013 for planning grants and $3.75 billion through 2013 for implementation grants.

A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in February.

Dodd described the bill as combining housing development, public transit, and infrastructure and land-use planning into one comprehensive approach to city development. Currently, many of those decisions are made separately from one another, and Dodd and others said the partitions have led to urban sprawl.

Livability advocates promote public transportation and bike paths and building energy efficient homes. The payoff of combining city planning will be great, according to Dodd.

"Our nation is facing a number of significant problems, including a struggling economy, an explosion in home foreclosures, the looming threat of climate change, an increasingly worrisome dependence on foreign oil, deteriorating infrastructure, and, yes, worsening traffic congestion," he said.

Other senators said the bill will reduce the rates of asthma in children, draw younger people back to abandoned downtown areas, reduce obesity by promoting walking and bicycling, and get workers to their jobs on time.

Critics say the bill is vague, extends the reach of the federal government too far into the dealings of local governments and costs too much.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cities; congress; dodd; livable
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1 posted on 06/09/2010 12:18:51 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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a reach too far..

or been there, done that ..

Good-Bye, Christopher. Say Good Night already!


2 posted on 06/09/2010 12:19:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Chuck DeVore - CA Senator. Believe.)
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To: NormsRevenge

wanna make cities more livable? cut taxes!


3 posted on 06/09/2010 12:19:52 PM PDT by Ancient Drive (DRINK COFFEE! - Do Stupid Things Faster with More Energy!)
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To: NormsRevenge

You know central planning is probably not a great idea. Anyone remember the Great Society? Look how well that turned out.


4 posted on 06/09/2010 12:20:05 PM PDT by equalitybeforethelaw
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To: NormsRevenge

These clowns really need to just STOP THE MADNESS!


5 posted on 06/09/2010 12:20:54 PM PDT by roaddog727 (It's the Constitution, Stupid!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Your tax dollars swirling down the drain.


6 posted on 06/09/2010 12:21:04 PM PDT by bgill (how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the POTUS)
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I wonder if they might consider adding a ‘beef up yur bunker’ incentive or tax write-off at least.


7 posted on 06/09/2010 12:21:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Chuck DeVore - CA Senator. Believe.)
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To: NormsRevenge

‘”Our nation is facing a number of significant problems, including a struggling economy, an explosion in home foreclosures, the looming threat of climate change, an increasingly worrisome dependence on foreign oil, deteriorating infrastructure, and, yes, worsening traffic congestion,” he said.’

All brought to you by the same ideological bunch pushing this legislation! The fix is always far worse than the cause.


8 posted on 06/09/2010 12:21:34 PM PDT by 556x45
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To: NormsRevenge
Great. The same people that gave us our decaying inner cities are now going to implement centrally planned cities. This cannot end well.
9 posted on 06/09/2010 12:21:47 PM PDT by Major Matt Mason (ClimateScandal.org)
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To: NormsRevenge

A photo of the Democrat's ideal city environment...I'm about 20 minutes from here.

10 posted on 06/09/2010 12:21:55 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: NormsRevenge

Dust off the blue-prints for Cabrini Green.


11 posted on 06/09/2010 12:22:23 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: NormsRevenge
More federal bureaucracy (create a new entity!!). Yep that will really help cities.
Good grief.
12 posted on 06/09/2010 12:23:08 PM PDT by rod1
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To: NormsRevenge

Dodd playing God.

The dumb fat slob doesn’t know we are broke.


13 posted on 06/09/2010 12:24:38 PM PDT by PA-RIVER
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To: NormsRevenge
I am sure Old Waitress Sandwich has no intention of living in one of his "livable city" hellholes.

Here are some "livable cities" the government has created in the past:

Pruitt-Igoe

Cabrini-Green

Not to mention the many wonders of government-run Section 8 housing.

14 posted on 06/09/2010 12:24:53 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law." -- Aristotle)
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To: NativeNewYorker

That is precisely what they want to do.

Shove us all into high density cities, and eliminate rural America, no matter the cost.

That is the liberal nirvanna.


15 posted on 06/09/2010 12:25:03 PM PDT by TruthConquers (Delendae sunt publicae scholae)
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To: NormsRevenge

Heard all the sheeple into pens.


16 posted on 06/09/2010 12:25:41 PM PDT by RedMDer (Throw them all out in 2010... Forward with Confidence! Forward!)
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To: NativeNewYorker

Central plan your land, your house, your health, your business, your money but other than that you live in a free country.


17 posted on 06/09/2010 12:26:34 PM PDT by Leisler ("Over time they create a legal system that plunders and a moral code that glorifies it." F. Bastiat)
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To: NormsRevenge
Congress looks at making cities more "livable"

Then they should stay out of them.

18 posted on 06/09/2010 12:27:23 PM PDT by WayneS ("1984" was a WARNING, not an Instruction Manual.)
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To: NativeNewYorker

That is not, by any chance, Newark, New Jersey, is it?


19 posted on 06/09/2010 12:28:21 PM PDT by WayneS ("1984" was a WARNING, not an Instruction Manual.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Dodd described the bill as combining housing development, public transit, and infrastructure and land-use planning into one comprehensive approach to city development. Currently, many of those decisions are made separately from one another, and Dodd and others said the partitions have led to urban sprawl.

No, all of your planning has turned most city centers into @#$*holes which cause each generation to want to move further away. You say national urban planning and I start looking for some farmland to buy.

20 posted on 06/09/2010 12:29:37 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (I am so immune to satire that I ate three Irish children after reading Swift's "A Modest Proposal")
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