Stimulus to Nowhere?

Former Milwaukee mayor and current President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism John Norquist has a bone to pick with Barack Obama:

Can we avoid the upcoming Economic Recovery Program from being a Stimulus to Nowhere?

When President-Elect Barack Obama announced he was planning the largest new investment in national infrastructure since “the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s,” he probably didn’t mean that the U.S. should literally start building highways as if it’s the 1950s all over again.

But that’s the message too many governors and state DOT secretaries seem to have heard. Ever since the President-Elect’s team put out the call for “ready to go” infrastructure projects, they have been busy dusting off familiar plans for wider highways and larger roads. The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials has joined them, touting 5000 shovel-ready projects, most designed to put more cars on highways, boosting our carbon emissions and increasing our dependence on fossil fuels.

(Read the rest at Congress for the New Urbanism)

See also: I Voted for Obama for Change We Can Believe In, Not to Give State DOTs $980 Million Dollars to Build New Highways

Comments

[Dave Reid]

Yea I'm definitely not for new freeways and expansions and such. That said I'm sure those are the projects that states are asking for so if we want to change the outcome we need to make sure at the local level the proper projects are pushed.