On the rails

Congress has stripped future funding from President Obama's $10 billion high-speed rail initiative, after governors in Wisconin and Florida returned money for projects in those states. The current political climate has made it difficult to talk about investing in infrastructure. High-speed rail can spur economic growth in major cities, protect the environment and save energy – but a fresh approach is necessary to make it work in the U.S., according to a new report published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
     High-Speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers, the Lincoln Institute’s latest Policy Focus Report, applies 50 years of the international experience in high-speed rail to the U.S. context, and recommends prioritizing corridors that will succeed, such as the Northeast and California, and exploring alternative financing arrangements including public-private partnerships. The report, released today at an event one block from Boston’s South Station, also recommends that high-speed intercity stations should be in city centers with mixed-use development all around them, and have abundant connections to subway and commuter rail, allowing passengers to reach final destinations and broadening access to labor markets.
     Around the world, nations in Asia and Europe have been building high-speed rail lines with trains capable of reaching 185 miles per hour and more. China alone has built 4,000 miles of track and has 300 million riders. In the U.S., spending on highways and aviation has dominated; the Obama administration proposed $10 billion in rail investments, but the initiative ran into political opposition. Nevertheless, California is moving ahead with a high-speed line, and the Boston-Washington corridor, including the Acela service, is one of the most-used.
     High-Speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers, by Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, a joint venture project of the Lincoln Institute and the Regional Plan Association, and co-authors Dan Schned and Robert Lane, both from RPA, makes the following policy recommendations to make planning, constructing, and operating high-speed rail a success:
  -- Strengthen the federal policy and management framework by expanding the federal role in planning and prioritizing high-speed rail corridors and working with the states to secure rights-of-way.
  -- Focus initially on the Northeast Corridor and California, which offer the best opportunities for success, by addressing the management and financing challenges each region faces.
  -- Establish new mechanisms for corridor management by developing legislation that enables the creation of public infrastructure corporations that can operate across state and national borders and attract private investment.
  -- Plan for maximum land development benefits by coupling high-speed rail station investments with policies that encourage land development around station areas. Well-connected stations in center-city locations offer the greatest potential for urban revitalization.
  -- Secure adequate and reliable funding by drawing on a full complement of potential federal, state, and private sources. Such sources could include increasing existing transportation related fees – such as a portion of the gas tax, or ticket surcharges --creating an infrastructure bank, forging public-private partnerships, and expanding existing credit assistance programs.
     The report suggests a blend of top-down federal management and oversight, particularly in the planning phase, coupled with more engagement by states in the “megaregions,” like the Northeast, that high-speed corridors run through, and by the private sector.
     The international experience with high-speed rail suggests that similar transportation, economic, environmental, and safety benefits would apply in American cities and regions. While it requires high upfront investment, high-speed rail promotes economic growth by improving market access, boosting productivity of knowledge workers, expanding labor markets, and attracting visitor spending. When planned thoughtfully with complementary investments in the public realm, high-speed rail can promote urban regeneration and attract commercial development, as shown in several European examples. High-speed rail has greater operating energy efficiency than competing modes and takes up less land than highways.

On Facebook

  New fans are flocking to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s enhanced Facebook page, which has been improved to provided easy access to exclusive content and regular updates on a wide range of issues related to land policy, from the property tax to smart growth. This week, the number of fans of the page crossed the 1,000 mark.
    Fans can view original short videos, share posts with friends, and learn about research and other information that is continually updated on the Lincoln Institute Web site.
    A new special feature highlights publications and programs associated with the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean. This section includes access to Spanish translations of Land Lines, starting with the July 2011 issue, and selected books, including Perspectivas urbanas: Temas críticos en políticas de suelo en América Latina (Urban Perspectives: Critical Land Policy Themes in Latin America) and a recently published Policy Focus Report, Regularization of Informal Settlement in Latin America, which will be available in both Spanish and Portuguese.
    Several hundred fans of the Lincoln Institute page are from Latin America, where the Lincoln Institute has an extensive network, ongoing research projects, and workshops and other programs.
    The custom portal to the Latin America program materials appears on the page for those who have not yet become fans, and is on the left-side navigation labeled "special feature" for fans.
    The improvements were designed and implemented by Pandemic Labs.

Land Lines in Spanish

    The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is now making its quarterly magazine Land Lines available in Spanish, beginning with the July 2011 issue.  The Spanish translation of the magazine, which includes articles on research being conducted by fellows and others associated with the Lincoln Institute, profiles of fellows and faculty, a message from Lincoln Institute President Gregory K. Ingram, and publications announcements and other news, can be downloaded free here.
    Spanish-speaking readers will be interested in the topics concerning the environment, urban growth, and land and tax policy internationally, said Martim O. Smolka, director of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean at the Lincoln Institute.
    The translation of Land Lines will soon be followed by the posting of both Spanish and Portuguese versions of the recent Policy Focus Report, Regularization of Informal Settlements in Latin America. The Latin America program section of the Lincoln Institute Web site includes a Spanish language section and Resources and Tools subcenters, on such topics as the property tax, in Spanish and Portuguese. And the Lincoln Institute’s Facebook page, which includes several hundred fans from Latin America, also has a special section devoted to the work of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean.
    “This initiative will help extend the dialogue on many important topics not only in Latin America, where the Lincoln Institute’s network is extensive and growing, but in the U.S. and all around the world,” Smolka said.
     En Espanol aqui.

Online toolkit for the West

      Western Lands and Communities, a joint venture of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Sonoran Institute, has created a new web-based resource to help guide growth for cities and towns in the West. The online planning toolkit and database, known as the Successful Communities Online Toolkit information exchange, or SCOTie, is a clearinghouse of the latest model smart growth and resource protection plans and policies from rural, amenity, and urban communities across the West.
       SCOTie was developed to empower communities to craft policies that fit their local circumstances by providing inspiring examples of best practices from other western communities that preserve local identity, stimulate a healthy economy, and safeguard natural and cultural resources. The site, which can be found at www.scotie.org or at www.successfulcommunities.org, also includes case studies and resources aimed to equip communities with information and tools to become more successful in preserving community character and quality of life.
       SCOTie had its debut at the Western Planner/Four Corners Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico September 11-14, 2011, a gathering sponsored by the New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah chapters of the American Planning Association. Conference participants had the opportunity to view a live demonstration and tutorial on how to use SCOTie. 
        Western Lands and Communities is a partnership of the Lincoln Institute and the Sonoran Institute, and is focused on shaping growth, sustaining cities, protecting resources, and empowering communities in the intermountain West. We address these challenges through research, tool development, demonstration projects, engaging policy makers, and education. Western Lands and Communities works to inform policy in the western U.S. through regional land use planning that effectively improves the management of public and state lands, and integrates land-use planning with conservation values, open space, transportation, water and energy infrastructure.

Assessing turbulent times

   Joyce Man, director of the Lincoln Institute’s China program and the Center for Urban Development and Land Policy at Peking University in Beijing, will deliver a keynote address on the evolving adoption of a residential property tax system in China, at the International Association of Assessing Officers’ 77th Annual International Conference on Assessment Administration  in Phoenix September 18-21. Man will be there with a delegation of Chinese property tax officials and scholars.
    The Lincoln Institute will also host a seminar on September 19 from 1 to 4 p.m., including presentations by visiting fellow Daphne Kenyon and research analyst Adam Langley, co-authors of the Policy Focus Report Payments in Lieu of Taxes: Balancing Municipal and Non-Profit Interests; Richard W. England, a Lincoln Institute visiting fellow and professor of economics and natural resources at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, on whether use-value assessment of rural land has protected family farmers and prevented sprawl; and Daniel P. McMillen, Ph.D., also a Lincoln Institute visiting fellow and professor at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Department of Economics, University of Illinois, on non-parametric approaches in assessment. 
    Kenyon and Langley will also present at Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) by Nonprofit Organizations: The Next Property Tax Revenue Measure for New York?, a breakfast forum hosted by New York Law School's Center for Real Estate Studies, The Rooftops Project, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, on October 4, 2011 from 8:15 to 9:30 a.m. at the New York Law School , 185 West Broadway, New York. And Kenyon talked about PILOTs at “Local Leadership and Innovation during the Financial Crisis ,” a roundtable co-sponsored by the German Marshall Fund and the Urban Land Institute, on September 9, 2011 in Washington. She was joined at the forum by Tom Murphy, former mayor of Pittsburgh, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, New York City Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs, Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio, and many others in a wide-ranging discussion of how cities are responding to the ongoing fiscal crisis.