A while back I worked on a project where we met with the metro planning organizations of the nation's 25 biggest cities and asked them how to improve regional land planning. About half of them were like "Look, are you going to publish our remarks publicly? No? Okay, THE STATE DOT IS EVIL" - ThreadSky

whstancil.bsky.social • 89 days ago

A while back I worked on a project where we met with the metro planning organizations of the nation's 25 biggest cities and asked them how to improve regional land planning. About half of them were like "Look, are you going to publish our remarks publicly? No? Okay, THE STATE DOT IS EVIL"

Reposted from Our Streets

If MnDOT moves forward with highway expansion, approximately 210 homes and businesses may be destroyed in the largest highway-driven land acquisition in a generation.

252/94 Public Meeting
December 11 @ 5:30– 7:30pm
Brooklyn Center Community Center

www.ourstreetsmn.org/event/brookl...

Comments

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•89 days ago

sounds good, but did they ever answer you about how to improve land planning—the thing they are tasked with and have complete control over?

whstancil.bsky.social•89 days ago

lol mpos have complete control over land use planning? they do not, I assure you

whstancil.bsky.social•89 days ago

but yes the conversations were more than two sentences long

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•89 days ago

are these the land use planners?

nilo.bsky.social•89 days ago

Are you unfamiliar with MPOs? They’re mostly charged with regional transportation planning by Congress.

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•89 days ago

im unfamiliar. i was mostly talking about planning staff who work for the city on land use decisions

alexblock.bsky.social•89 days ago

No, the MPO.

And no, the municipal land use planners are not god-emperors of their individual zoning codes.

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•89 days ago

gotcha. re land use planners: they mostly are. they like to act powerless because it lets them off the hook for doing something. they got in to planning to stop growth and change

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•89 days ago

because the ones here have control and wouldnt do anything until the state stepped in. theyd blame everyone else before but now with the out they spent months and capital on how to undermine those bills with policy

whstancil.bsky.social•89 days ago

On one level, state DOTs have a wide array of functions and are way more than the highway-building agency. But on another, deeper level, state DOTs are just highway building agencies that want to build a lot of highways

robjackel.bsky.social•89 days ago

The amazing thing is that this is true in red states and blue states and seems impervious to political pressure.

nilo.bsky.social•89 days ago

We’re getting a good test case in Colorado.

robjackel.bsky.social•89 days ago

What's going on there?

I'd like to see the pointless I-95 expansion in South Philly get iced.

nilo.bsky.social•89 days ago

The state passed a bunch of laws requiring VMT and CO2 reduction that mean it will be very hard for CDOT to do road expansion projects and in fact they may have to do road reduction ones to meet those standards. Pollis also apparently has tried to reorient the department around rail.

schizachyrium.bsky.social•89 days ago

this is a good point that while DOTs suck they are often following mandates to prioritize throughput and level of service over safety or alternate modes of transportation. in texas the lege passed a law that caps non-car spending at 5% of DOT budget, even if they wanted to fund other things.

westnorth.com•89 days ago

I'm amazed this attitude even continues to pervade departments within the DOT in DC, which is 100% urban.

jaoswald.bsky.social•89 days ago

More highway capacity, fewer places you actually want to go.

prhomberg.bsky.social•89 days ago

This is Milwaukee's relationship with the WisDOT. DOT has control over some major arterials that run through the city (state highways)... and wouldn't you know it, those are the roads with the highest rate of dangerous driving and deadly crashes because they're all built like speedways.

teakei.bsky.social•89 days ago

Just one more highway will solve all suburban commuters' problems.

conatonc.bsky.social•89 days ago

TXDOT: Okay, Austin, you can make your downtown highway a surface park, but only if you expand the number of lanes below grade.

Okay, Houston, you can eliminate the highway that is always backed up on the west side of downtown, but only if you drastically expand the highway on the east side.

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