Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Director of Infrastructure Policy at the Center for American Progress. I was assigned by Division.

Washington, DCamericanprogress.org/about/staff/de…Joined December 2014

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Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 13, 2022

1/ Every urban plan is a response to a perceived set of problems as well as a wager on future technology and models of economic production. The 1945 Toledo Tomorrow plan by Norman Bel Geddes shows us why we should approach the task with more incrementalism and humility.

3/ That jog in the canal route is the street that forms the unsymmetrical northern border in the civic center rendering. It's exactly the same today, running along the edge of Toledo's civic center (shaded green area in google map). Infrastructure facilities have a long tail.

2/ The Miami and Erie Canal extended from Cincinnati to Toledo in 1845 (red line on map 1). It angles slightly to the north as it pass through the middle of town. The canal was eventually filled in to become a highway called the Anthony Wayne Trail and Michigan Street.

1/ In 1924, Toledo published a plan for a new civic center. The neoclassical style was in keeping with the era and it grew out of the Court of Honor at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Civic center plans were always symmetrical. But Toledo's plan was not. Why?

Finally TxDOT gets serious about highway expansion in the Houston area. This pavement-starved region is going to get moving.

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 28

If you squint, you can see the housing they managed to squeeze in around the huge parking decks.

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Urbanize LA

@UrbanizeLA

Apr 27

Long Beach City Council signs off on 900-unit City Place redevelopment la.urbanize.city/post/long-beac

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 26

2/2 Also, you gotta love ATA's commitment to highway expansion in the face of decades of research showing it doesn't alleviate congestion. Travel time savings (TTS) are short-lived (5 years on average and even less along the most congested corridors). Chapeau.

1/2 Right, because the hopelessly broken transportation industry considers safety as something separate from function.

Monorails are lousy, but it’s also telling that even when people put forward supposedly bold ideas for transit they always make sure not to disrupt cars.

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L.A. Dork

@la_dorkout

Apr 25

In the 1960s, Goodell and Alweg (builder of Disneyland's monorail) pitched monorails over LA freeways (here, the Hollywood and Harbor Fwys). MTA rejected them for many reasons, but LA peeps also frowned on elevated transit a la NY or Chicago, as it would blot out the sky & views.

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 24

3/3 The boulevard would be paved and accommodate "man, beast [horses], and bicyclists." And how should the city pay for a boulevard 100 feet wide? The Blade noted that Baltimore financed its parks and boulevards with a tax of 8% on the gross earnings of the streetcar operator.

2/2 Sometimes primary sources contain little gems. How much did the prevailing idea about the importance of a connecting boulevard system seep into local thinking? According to The Blade, "no park system is considered complete unless connected by a boulevard system."

1/2 In the late 19th century, park advocates pushed hard for the construction of stately boulevards to connect disparate park grounds into an accessible system. The solid black lines in this 1896 map published in The Blade shows the boulevard plan for Toledo.

Selling Miami's last 50 years

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 18

smartgrowthamerica.org

“Complete Streets” are being co-opted to build unsafe streets. Who is at fault? - Smart Growth...

Saying that the “Complete Streets mindset” is the problem when a transportation agency builds a dangerous high-speed road and calls it a “complete street” is like calling for the repeal of the Clean...

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 18

Democrats: We're investing $1.2 trillion in America's infrastructure. Republicans: Yeah, well we got USDOT to change a memo that wasn't binding.

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 17

2/2 The overhead view of Oak Park is a reminder that trenches are somewhat easier to deal with than viaducts and that adding cap parks is no panacea.

1/2 In reading the Reconnecting Communities grant awards, I was surprised to learn that Oak Park, MI (a small city in Oakland County/metro Detroit) has *three* cap parks over I-696 (red squares). RC funds will replace Victoria Park (farthest east).

California Wants to Cover Its Canals With Solar Panels

A pilot project in the Central Valley, the first of its kind in the country, could save water and generate energy for the state.

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 10

This is a map of Toledo's streetcar lines in 1895. The solid lines were horse-drawn and the dotted were the new electric lines. In a few years, every line would be electrified. The last streetcar run on the one remaining line was on December 31, 1949.

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 5

I don’t have a take on this particular cap park. But it’s just amazing that we’ve let state DOTs dump responsibility for remediating the harm caused by urban highway segments onto private philanthropy and local budgets.

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Urbanize Atlanta

@UrbanizeATL

Apr 4

Officials: Highway-capping HUB404 project has bagged $1.2M in private funds. Now, grassroots campaign seeks more on #Atlanta's #404day. atlanta.urbanize.city/post/buckhead-

Kevin DeGood

@kevin_degood

Apr 3

I can think of some ways to use surplus school money other than for coal.

Local news reports the money for coal will come out of a surplus within the Education Trust Fund. A little too on the nose, guys.

Well that is just not a headline I expected to see in 2023.

8/ The 2018 Athens-Clarke County "Athens In Motion" bike/ped master plan identified six critical corridors in need of bike/ped improvements. The USDOT grant not only advances equity and Justice40, but also rewards a community committed to improving bike/ped facilities.

7/ Importantly, the project includes numerous changes to intersections along the corridor to better control vehicle movements and support nonmotorized users, including removal of a slip lane and raised crosswalks.

6/ Project element: - 12-ft path on east side North Ave. - 10 upgraded bus stops - New Oconee River Bridge w/ 12-ft path on east side & 6-foot sidewalk on west side - Intersection improvements, including realignment, raised crosswalks, & slip lane removal, among others.

5/ Inadequate bike/ped & transit facilities are a problem because North Ave is the principal connection to a historically disadvantaged community located north of SR 10. A higher share of residents within the corridor live in poverty & lack access to a vehicle.

4/ North Avenue has inadequate pedestrian & cycling facilities where it crosses over the North Oconee River (purple box) and connects to central Athens.

3/ In addition, a number of transit stops along North Avenue lack benches and cover, making them less supportive and accessible to users of all ages and ability levels -- especially older residents.

2/ North Avenue is a heavily traveled minor arterial with an AADT of 12,200. The roadway has some significant design deficiencies, including a lack of bike & pedestrian facilities where North Ave crosses SR 10 (purple box).

1/ Let's talk about the $24.9M RAISE grant for the North Avenue complete street project in Athens, GA. This project will substantially improve nonmotorized safety and accessibility as well as advance the Biden administration's Justice40 equity initiative.

9/ The PARC bridge project is an excellent first step to redressing the discrimination and harm caused by urban renewal and highway construction in Huntsville. And it demonstrates the Biden administration's commitment to equity through the Justice40 Initiative.

8/ In 2020, Huntsville received a $1.3M Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) planning grant from HUD. Residents of Mill Creek were clear. They wanted "redevelopment without displacement." The PARC project is part of the City's commitment to this vision.

7/ The Pedestrian Access and Redevelopment Corridor (PARC) bridge project will span three major barriers between Mill Creek and downtown: Memorial Parkway (U.S. 231), Governors Drive (U.S. 431), and Pinhook Creek.

6/ CDC's Social Vulnerability Index shows Mill Creek as Highly vulnerable on the Housing/Transportation scale, meaning many homes lack access to a vehicle, among other characteristics. The pedestrian bridge will substantially improve access to opportunity and services.

5/ The City also notes that "Unfortunately, the historic inequities posed by the construction of Memorial Parkway persist to this day." As this map shows, the area targeted for investment (shown in red) suffers a persistently high rate of poverty.

4/ The city notes that highway construction and Urban Renewal projects meant "razing Black homes downtown and in Black business districts." Regional progress came at a huge price for Huntsville's Black community.

3/ In the 1950s, Huntsville's population boomed due, in part, to a decision by the United States Military to use the area for its rocket and missile development center known as the Redstone Arsenal.

2/ The pedestrian bridge will dramatically improve the connectivity of the Mill Creek Choice Neighborhood (shown in red) to downtown Huntsville, AL. This improvement will begin to redress some of the harm caused by urban renewal and highway construction in the 1950s and 1960s.

1/ Let's talk about the $20M RAISE grants for Huntsville's PARC connectivity project. The pedestrian bridge will advances the Biden administration's Justice40 equity initiative by investing in a historically disadvantaged community with persistent poverty.

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