News

In This Issue

• Monthly Coalition call on Thursday, January 27 @ 4pm featuring polling/messaging briefing
• Join us for a Smart Growth America Webinar: Overcoming Obstacles in Regional Planning – Tuesday, February 1st @ 2pm
• Please join us for a reception at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference – Friday, February 4 @ 7pm!
• Federal update: Appropriations
• Stimulus report release update
• More info on the SGA Coalition Meeting and Lobby Day coming soon!

Monthly Coalition call on Thursday, January 27 @ 4pm featuring polling/messaging briefing
January’s monthly coalition call will be this Thursday, January 27 @ 4pm on this conference line: 712-432-0111, 668783#. We will be going over recently completed polling on sustainable communities and transportation as well as the usual federal policy updates and other updates. We hope you can join us!

Join us for a Smart Growth America Webinar: Overcoming Obstacles in Regional Planning – Tuesday, February 1st @ 2pm
Did you apply for or receive a HUD Sustainable Community Regional Planning Grant? Are you trying to start or advance a regional plan? Join Smart Growth America to hear from Mariia Zimmerman, Deputy Director U.S. HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, and several HUD grant recipients from diverse parts of the country in various stages of regional plan development. The speakers will highlight the importance of regional planning, discuss coalition building, challenges they have faced in the planning and implementation process, and keys to success.

Details: Tuesday, February 1st from 2-3pm – RSVP to attend

Note: This webinar is FREE of charge. Please RSVP to join this webinar. The webinar login details will be sent to the RSVP list in a separate email on the day of the event

Please join us for a reception at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference – Friday, February 4 at 7pm!
SGA will be co-sponsoring a reception at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 7pm. The reception will be held at Grand Lobby of the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture, at 551 S. Tryon Street (two blocks from the hotel). Please join us if you’ll be in Charlotte for the conference!

Federal Update: Appropriations
The economy is a top priority for this Congress, but many members of Congress are suggesting cuts that could drastically affect jobs and the economic vitality of our communities. The Republican Study Committee released a blueprint for spending cuts last week that proposes eliminating funding for CDBG (including HUD Regional Planning and Community Challenge Grants), Amtrak subsidies, intercity and high speed passenger rail funding, Hope VI (including Choice Neighborhoods), and New Starts transit funding, among other things (see the full list here).

While it is highly unlikely that this particular proposal will advance in Congress, the proposal does foreshadow where Republicans are likely to focus cuts during the FY12 appropriations bills. As the appropriations cycle continues, we will be alerting you to federal updates and critical asks that are necessary to protect funding around the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, transit, and other community development programs. If you have any upcoming meetings with your Members of Congress or their staff and want additional details, please contact Devon Barnhart

Stimulus report release update
We are still working on getting an exclusive with a national paper for our report titled “Recent Lessons from the Stimulus: Transportation Funding and Job Creation.” If the exclusive does not come through, we plan to release the report no later than the week of February 7. We will be sending around draft release materials soon. If you have further questions, please contact Ilana Preuss

More info on the SGA Coalition Meeting and Lobby Day coming soon!
The 2011 SGA Coalition Meeting and Lobby Day is coming up on March 17 and 18. We’re working with T4A to hopefully combine a partner fly-in with this meeting so that we can maximize your time in DC. We are still hammering out the details, but we will get back to you soon with more information and an agenda.