*EPF415 03/09/00
Byliner: White House Environmental Advisor on Urban Sustainability
(Urges Balance in Growth and Environmental Preservation) (2240)

(This byliner was published in the March issue of the State Department's electronic journal Global Issues, entitled "Green Cities: Urban Environmental Solutions," which can be found at http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/journals.htm. No republication restrictions.)

Building Healthy Cities
by George T. Frampton, Jr.

(The author is the acting chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality)

For far too long, many believed that a strong economy and a healthy environment were incompatible goals. All around the world, people accepted dirty water, smoggy skies, and degraded lands as the price of progress.

Under the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, America has demonstrated that this notion is not only outmoded but plain wrong -- that, in fact, economic growth and environmental protection can and must go hand in hand. Today, even as we enjoy the longest economic expansion in our nation's history, we have the cleanest environment in a generation, and we are making significant new investments to ensure an even healthier environment for our children.

The essential interconnectedness of our environment and our economy is nowhere more important than in our cities. Historically, cities grew and prospered where geography, climate, and other natural assets were most favorable. Cities can continue to thrive only by safeguarding the natural resources that are the underpinnings of both their economies and their quality of life.

Across America, cities struggle each day with issues ranging from air pollution and congestion to sprawl and the loss of open space. In each of these areas, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working hard to help communities and their leaders craft local solutions that both enhance the economy and protect the environment. We are helping to build strong, healthy, livable cities -- where future generations do not feel they must choose between a healthy environment and a strong economy, but understand that without one, we cannot have the other.

Increasing Livability and Quality of Life

Since the end of World War II, a dramatic change in the American landscape has occurred as city dwellers have moved out of compact urban neighborhoods to newly built suburbs on the city's edge.

This outward migration began a fundamental shift in the pattern of development. As the population moved, urban areas began to decline, and, far too often, the roads, houses, malls, and office parks in the new developments were built without anticipating how they all fit together; without making sure they provided the foundation for true neighborhoods and communities.

Today, haphazard development, urban disinvestment, and a deteriorating quality of life have come to be known simply as "sprawl." A poll released in February of this year by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism found that sprawl now ranks equally with crime as the number one local issue concerning American people. This genuine, and quite understandable, worry reflects the reality that in many areas of our country sprawl paves over the countryside, drains the vitality from our cities, and hurts our quality of life.

A recent inventory from the Department of Agriculture found that the amount of open land converted to development has more than doubled on an annual basis in the last five years. Today, more than 1.2 million hectares of our farms, forests, and open spaces are converted to development each year.

The rate of developing open space far exceeds the rate of population increase. For example, since 1950 the population of the St. Louis region increased by 35 percent, but just between 1950 and 1990, as the population moved outward, the amount of developed land increased by 355 percent.

The same development that is eating up open spaces is also sucking investment out of the cities. Between 1994 and 1997, a study that looked at seven metro areas in Ohio found there were 10 jobs created in the suburbs for every one in the cities. As jobs leave the cities, it becomes harder and harder for residents to find good jobs and for government to provide services.

As we spread farther out, Americans must travel greater distances between home, work, shopping, and recreation. As a result, families depend on cars for more and more of their daily travel. While the U.S. population has been increasing about 1 percent a year, vehicle miles traveled have risen 3.2 percent a year --more than three times the rate of population growth.

Americans living in suburbs also pay for sprawl - in time, money, and frustration. In 1999, a major traffic survey found that nationally, the amount of time Americans waste in gridlock nearly doubled in the last decade. The report estimates that each year Americans waste more than 25,000 million liters of gasoline sitting in traffic, and that the cost of congestion now exceeds $72,000 million a year.

In addition, sprawl in suburban areas often increases taxes as the infrastructure that is required -- roads, sewers, water, schools, and police and fire protection -- must be paid for. A recent study from Washington state concludes that every time a family moves into a new home in the Puget Sound region, the cost of providing these types of services ranges from $20,000 to $30,000, and at least some of the costs are passed on to taxpayers.

The Administration's Livable Communities Initiative, developed under the leadership of Vice President Gore and launched last year, recognizes that many communities across the country are trying to find a better way. The initiative helps communities -- both large and small -- grow in ways that enhance their quality of life and ensure strong, sustainable economic growth.

To coordinate the effort, the Administration created the White House Task Force on Livable Communities. The task force is working with 18 federal agencies to expand the choices available to communities to revitalize American cities, towns, and older suburbs; encourage new investments; bring historic neighborhoods back to life; develop alternative transportation methods; increase regional cooperation; protect the environment; create parks; preserve open spaces; and foster smarter growth.

An example of what has already occurred to improve livability lies in the area of transportation. In 1998, President Clinton signed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). At the Administration's urging, this historic legislation provides communities with the flexibility to transfer funds from highway construction to public transit to help overcome traffic congestion. Last year, more than $960 million was used to support projects such as high-occupancy vehicle lanes, ridesharing, bicycle and pedestrian paths, improved transit facilities, and scenic beautification.

This year, President Clinton is proposing $9,300 million, a 14 percent increase, for the Livable Communities Initiative. The budget includes adding $468 million for an expanded passenger rail fund, which will be used to improve passenger rail service and make improvements necessary for high-speed rail.

The budget also proposes the creation of a Better America Bonds program that would allow communities to purchase land or acquire permanent easements to preserve open space, create or restore urban parks, protect water quality, restore wetlands, protect farmland, and clean up abandoned industrial sites. If approved, this $700 million tax credit proposal will enable state, local, and tribal governments to issue -- at what would be interest free to them -- some $10,750 million in bond authority over five years.

In addition, the Administration proposal contains components that would provide grants to increase regional cooperation on planning, as well as programs to fight crime and increase community safety. By investing in existing communities, urban areas, towns, and older suburbs benefit because the infrastructure to support growth already exists in these locations -- and it's already paid for.

Cleaning up Brownfields

Abandoned industrial sites -- called brownfields -- are all too common throughout the United States. Sitting vacant and unproductive, brownfields blight their neighborhoods, foster crime, and burden taxpayers.

The Clinton-Gore Administration, acting on the concerns of mayors, citizens, and others, first created the Brownfield Initiative in 1994. This effort was augmented in 1997 when Vice President Gore announced the Brownfields National Partnership that offered communities both financial and technical assistance from more than 25 federal agencies and partners.

As part of the action, 16 Brownfields Showcase Communities were selected to serve as models of what can happen when all levels of government -- working in partnership with business and community leaders -- focus their efforts.

The need for this action was clear: at the same time that brownfields lay idle, millions of hectares of open space were being developed. This loss of land has environmental consequences. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that a parking lot generates 16 times more runoff than a meadow -- runoff that washes toxic chemical and other pollutants into our waters, lakes and coastal areas, often making them unfit for wildlife and unsafe for families.

While this land was being paved over, hundreds of thousands of hectares of brownfields sat idle. A February report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimated that redeveloping brownfields could bring in up to $2,400 million in tax revenue annually, create more than 550,000 new jobs, and take some of the development pressure off our farms and forests.

Under the Administration's brownfields effort, by the end of 1999, local communities had been provided with more than $385 million for brownfields redevelopment and another $141 million in loan guarantees. In Dallas, one of the original showcase communities, some $1.9 million in financial and technical support helped attract $109 million in private investment and resulted in a new sports arena rising from a former brownfield.

Overall, the results of the brownfields effort have been astounding: for every dollar the federal, state and local governments put into revitalizing brownfields, almost $2.50 in private investment was attracted.

And where is this happening? In some of the areas that need it most -- lower income and minority neighborhoods.

Building upon this success, 10 new Brownfields Showcase Communities will be designated through a competitive process that will start this year; 50 new demonstration pilots will be added to the 307 existing sites; and the Brownfields Cleanup Revolving Loan fund will add 60 more projects. In addition, job-training pilots have been awarded to 21 locations and some $30 million provided to states and tribes to enhance voluntary cleanup programs.

Creating and Restoring Urban Parks and Greenways

When most Americans think of great park environments, they think of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon -- the nation's national treasures. But most urban residents, some 80 percent of the population, will never travel to one of these national treasures. Their backyards, riverfronts and neighborhood parks are their treasures.

Unfortunately, many residents feel disconnected from the environment -- highways reduce access to rivers and lakes, and parks are sometimes inaccessible. At the same time, numerous studies show that urban parks and open spaces play a significant role in increasing the health of communities, reducing juvenile crime, increasing educational scores, and boosting property values.

One solution is to reconnect urban residents to their environment by increasing our investment in the environments closest to them -- urban parks and open spaces. Urban parks improve air quality, create habitat for wildlife, reduce storm water runoff, and cool the temperatures of heat islands in the cities.

But, more importantly, urban parks provide places for children and their parents to play and areas where people can get to know each other as neighbors in safe settings. Simply put, urban parks are often the cornerstones of vital, healthy urban communities. Although numerous programs help in building and restoring parks, the President has proposed in his budget that an additional $20 million be devoted exclusively for urban parks -- a 900 percent increase over previous funding levels.

Increasing Cooperation and Partnerships

For seven years, the Clinton-Gore Administration has proven that a booming economy and a healthy environment can go hand-in-hand. One does not have to come at the expense of the other.

But sustaining economic prosperity and protecting the environment require partnerships and cooperation, not only between federal, state and local governments, but also with the private sector.

For the federal sector, being a good partner means we must continually reexamine how we do business and resist efforts to rely on one-size-fits-all solutions. We must promote cooperation among neighboring communities, add flexibility and incentives to our programs, and seek out innovative ways to do business. We must reach out to communities, businesses, organizations, and to local and state governments.

The Administration is now working with cities and counties across the country to develop a series of regional partnerships that will provide models for how communities can effectively work to increase the livability of their communities and improve their environment.

Clearly, this country has made, and continues to make, significant investments in protecting and improving its environment. It really does matter where we live, how we live, and how we live with one another. And it matters that our environment be healthy and our economy strong. Our communities, homes, and neighborhoods are a part of our environment and they are concrete manifestations of us as a people.

We recognize that much more remains to be done, but today, because of the fiscal discipline and successful policies of the Clinton-Gore Administration, we are now poised on the edge of an era when reaching our remaining environmental and economic goals lies within our grasp.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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