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Transportation Investments and Economic Development: What Works, When and Why?

The University of Maryland Urban Studies and Planning Program and
the National Center for Smart Growth’s 2015 Brown Bag Webinar Series continues with

Transportation Investments and

Economic Development:

What Works, When and Why?

Presentation by:
Glen Weisbrod Economic Development Research Group

Monday, October 12
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Glen Weisbrod Webinar
Preinkert Field House – Conference Room 1112V
University of Maryland College Park
From the Red Line to the ICC, Maryland has been roiled over the last decade by heated debates over major transportation projects. Oftentimes, the justification for these projects is economic development. Direct and indirect impacts are quantified and qualified, and cost-effectiveness measures and cost-benefit ratios are invoked. Proponents and opponents line up on both sides of the project, citing studies, models and data to bolster their case. Glen Weisbrod, one of the country’s leading guides through such minefields, will provide wayfinding advice for those who seek the best pathways through such debates. Participants will take away a clear idea of the key questions to ask, the key factors involved and the right (and wrong) approaches.

GLEN WEISBROD is the President of the Boston-based Economic Development Research Group. For the last 32 years, he has worked around the world on the relationship of economic development to transportation, energy and technology development. In the US this includes extensive work for the FHWA and APTA and many regional and city agencies on program and project impact studies for highways, airports, seaports, high speed intercity rail, freight and urban public transport. This has been accompanied by the development of several analytical tools including TREDIS (transportation impacts and benefit-cost), LEAP (economic development) and REEM (economic impact and benefit-cost for renewable energy). Mr. Weisbrod served as Chair of the TRB Committee on Transportation and Economic Development and on the Board of Directors of the Council for Urban Economic Development. He has authored over 30 published articles and numerous national guidebooks and reports.
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Nick FinioOct 12No Comments

Defining opportunity in Baltimore

In the wake of Freddie Gray and the unrest in Baltimore, the recent release of the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development may mark an important step toward creating a more sustainable and equitable region. The plan makes clear that marked disparities in access to quality education, jobs, safety and environmental conditions persist across the region and offers recommendations for improving residents’ access to opportunity.

A central challenge in both the design and implementation of the plan is to understand what opportunity means to Baltimore residents. To answer this question, the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education teamed up with the Baltimore-based non-profit Citizens’ Planning and Housing Association to conduct a series of focus groups as the regional plan was being developed. At six locations across the metropolitan region, they convened 112 residents from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods to ask what it means to live in neighborhoods that provide opportunity.

To some extent, residents confirmed what many already suspected: Across diverse demographic and geographic lines, people want similar things from their neighborhoods. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, men, women, low-income and high-income residents of both the city and county, above all else, want to live in neighborhoods that are safe and secure and provide access to quality education for their children.
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Nick FinioAug 05No Comments