So what are our Congressman up to? Barney Frank is obviously at the center of the financial, housing and credit storms as Financial Services Chair. Ed Markey will be a leading light in climate change debates. Capuano, a close ally of Speaker Pelosi, and McGovern is on Rules so sees everything that comes out of committee before it hits the floor. Neal is on Ways and Means so could have a big role on health care.
Massachusetts has some juice in the Pelosi House and one of those with some serious influence is Western Mass Congressman John Olver who chairs the subcommittee in charge of housing and transportation appropriations. He recently held a hearing on Livable Communities, Transit Oriented Development, and Incorporating Green Building Practices into Federal Housing and Transportation Policy and one of the outcomes he has long sought and is now seeing progress on is getting our federal transportation and housing agencies cooperating to create sustainable communities.
There is some interesting testimony at the committee site here and one of the outcomes is that HUD and DOT have announced a joint Sustainable Communities Initiative, something Olver had been pushing for sometime and finally has an ally in the Obama Administration. Here is the HUD press release on the Initiative.
Back here in the Bay State, our political leadership has been trying to coordinate across such issues. Governor Romney’s Office of Commonwealth Development under Doug Foy was a serious effort to inculcate smart growth principles into state decionmaking. Problem is like so much in State Government it was not measured properly and transparently so hard to know how much was achieved. Governor Patrick’s Development Cabinet follows on from that Office although I can’t say I know what it has been up to exactly – maybe someone here knows more, maybe not. What I do know is that as the state faces a structural fiscal problem it needs to use its resources smartly and maximize investment. Governor Patrick certainly wants to see new non-car related transport – see the New Bedford rail line. The gas tax would also help generate significant long-term funds for transport and influence (nudge) behavior toward more carbon-friendly transport choices.
In any event, what Olver is up to matters to our economy and environment. I hope he keeps at it with this agenda and keeps on the Administration to see that transportation policy really becomes more than a car traffic moving exercise. It won’t be easy as he’ll have to convince the vested highway interests and many a suburban and rural area lawmaker that laying new cement is not the best answer as its costly, erodes local economies and deepens our climate change mess. Be interesting to see where it heads.
I’ve met Olver once or twice. He strikes me as a good, committed public servant, the type of person we need in Congress.
and not looking to make a media splash. He has been criticized for not being a stronger pork barreler given his position on Appropriations. But he’s just not that type of politician.
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p>He has done a lot of good things for our State – particularly around land conservation. He was green before it was fashionable.
Any conversation I have had with Cong. Olver has been a little bit bizarre, not in context but in the relational component of communication. He has an odd way of looking at (or away, over, or past) people when speaking to them 1:1.
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p>When a little banter is used as an ice-breaker he is seemingly off in a tangential universe. Personally, I like bizarre people but it has been an odd experience that has been repeated on several occasions with himself.
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p>I would like to see more pork barrel from transportation in his district and western MA where the infrastructure is approaching third world standards.
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p>And some real leadership on the environmental impacts of “destination” resort casinos which will lead to a worse situation that the “F” in air quality in Massachusetts that was recently awarded by the American Lung Association.
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p>Congressman, please check Hampshire and Hampden county weighted air quality…scared? I am.
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p>Take a long hard look at 10,008 Pediatric Asthma cases and tell me 9,000-13,000 motorists per day is a good idea. Governor, you too, please. Take a long hard look at the list.
but quixotic and bizarre are fun words, and should be used more often. You could also say “zany,” with reference to his colorful collection of “Save The Children” neckties.
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p>You think
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p>All I can say is that you have not seen bad infrastructure until you have been on a highway on- or off-ramp in Michigan. Massachusetts transportation is doing quite well, and Congressman Olver has brought in a ton of useful earmarks for transportation and other needs in his district. One of his earmarks that awaits full implementation is the bike path funding that would create a route from the top to the bottom of Berkshire County. Some day. . . .
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p>I’m sure that Congressman Olver cares about air quality. He was on the job when the Clean Water Act was improved and the environment is a big interest for him. After he hosted a time in North Adams years ago, I remember him joining a bunch of legislative aides in a restaurant booth. He was interested to hear about endocrine disruptors, as described in the book Our Stolen Future, by Theo Colborn, et al..
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p>My guess is that he would consider casinos to be a state issue, however.
China and germany are allegedly about to stop buying any US paper. That means the ball game is over. Common sense dictates that you can’t run the printing presses 24/7 and spend money that does not exist. Our creditors will want their money back. What are we going to give them—the east coast? We made our beds and now we are about to lie in it—-perhaps at the point of a bayonet. Wonder what the depression is going to look like?