💯- communities with less capacity/resources not only struggle to submit the initial application, but if successful have less ability to actually administer and staff the project, let alone meet the typical 80-20 match.

How has sprawl spread out across US metropolitan areas?

In new work Urban Institute, we delve into patterns of urban development from 1940–today in the Fresno region, showing that urbanized land has expanded far more quickly than population growth.
urban.org/research/publi…

ICYMI: View the recording of our 'Putting public assets to work through innovative finance' event here: brookings.edu/events/putting…

What's striking is that we find similar patterns of sprawl, every decade: A new (undeveloped) area is identified for construction, investors build it up over 3–4 decades, the area reaches a stasis level of density, and then construction ceases.

Infill development is very rare.

I agree with these recommendations- that the federal government should streamline the application and auditing process to help smaller communities.

In the meantime, National League of Cities can serve as a valuable resource for cities pursuing federal grants.

Persistent problem of competition: getting fed $ requires resources. Plus, projects that became apps locally may not be most important 4 equity. See our concerns & research washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/… (curious also about role of public spending on for profit consultants 4 apps)

Federal infrastructure grants are disproportionately allocated to cities & counties with more payroll & staff per capita, Urban Institute analysis shows.

Communities with less capacity are, on average, missing out when it comes to federal infra funding urban.org/urban-wire/loc…

Cities and municipalities with larger budgets and staff are more likely to win competitive federal infrastructure grants, @UrbanInstitute found in a new report: usa.streetsblog.org/2024/05/06/whe…

if I was designing a consolidated transit system in Chicagoland I would model it after the verkehrsverbünde

I explain how they work, what benefits they offer, and describe using transit in Bonn, Germany stevencanplan.com/2024/05/why-i-…