Front Seat, the organization that brough us Walk Score continues deploying tools to bring citizen participation to the web 2.0 era. This week they launched Obama Urban Policy, a forum where everyone can participate in recommending priorities for the first Office of Urban Policy for the United States. Getting involved early seems like the best way to influence the opinion of future policy makers.
In my recent post “vote” I pointed out three policy ideas that focus on cities:
- Find ways to replicate the hyper productivity of cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and Boston across some of the poor-performing cities.
- Create a new industry around the “City of the Future”: sustainable, energy-efficient, less dependent of non-renewable resources, able to produce only the necessary goods and doing good through a well educated workforce.
- Study your most cosmopolitan cities and figure out how to leverage diversity as a strength, integrating migrants to the workforce more effectively.
I’ve done my part by posting these suggestions on the forum. Now is your turn to stop by and make your vote count (again).
The top three priorities at this time are:
- Invest in a world-class rail network
- Change zoning laws to promote walkable development
- End subsidies for car-dependent development
Build a world-class rail system between cities and within them to transport people and goods more efficiently.
Change zoning and land-use regulations to promote mixed-use walkable development.
Walkable developments currently subsidize car-dependent developments. End the subsidies for car-dependent development by requiring developers to pay the true cost of utilities and transportation in sprawling developments.
Hope you can vote and help create better urban policies.
Via WorldChanging
