Without Transit Funding, State’s Smart Growth Efforts Not EnoughCasey Millsbyline‚ Sep. 04‚ 2008‘Smart growth’ received a flurry of coverage over the past couple weeks, due largely to an important bill just passed by the state legislature to encourage denser development throughout California. Yet a crucial element of this year’s budget debate remained conspicuously absent from much of this coverage—the proposal to slash public transit funding in 2008-09. Treating transit like an afterthought is nothing new for the state (just last year, for example, the Governor robbed $1.25 billion from public transit coffers). But as a bipartisan consensus begins to gel around addressing climate change through land use decisions, it seems remarkable that perhaps the most essential component of making smart growth work—dependable, affordable and convenient public transit—is getting the short shrift. |