Jef Nickerson
In a question and answer session today in Ft. Myers, Florida, President Obama stated the following in response to a question about transportation and infrastructure in the stimulus package:
It’s imagining new transportation systems. I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. I would like for us to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient. And I think people are a lot more open now to thinking regionally”
The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody” recognizes that’s not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this sort of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation.
It is very exciting to hear a President say that. I’m going to keep this quote in my back pocket just in case we don’t see a change in the way we design our communities.
Previous favorite Obama quote: “What do you think ‘stimulus’ is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.”
I haven’t exactly seen much action OR talk about this though. I was under the impression that the stimulus was supposed to be about exactly this sort of thing, and maybe I’m missing all the right headlines, but so far it just screams “giveaway” to me.