Newsroom

Dec 1, 2010

Planners economic development officials policy makers and general enthusiasts have an obsession with lists and rankings of metro areas. That’s the charge from Vincent Valk of Next American City . In “List-o-mania” Valk argues that this obsession is largely insignificant at the megacity level. Whether Los Angeles or Washington is ranked as the country’s most congested area is not likely to be enough of a factor in changing someone’s mind to move to a particular region.

Nov 30, 2010

A couple of interesting articles have popped up recently both centered on the idea that the size of a city is important to its success and the nature of its economy. The first titled “The Rise of the Efficient City” is written by suburban-enthusiast Joel Kotkin who argues that mid-sized cities like Austin and Raleigh are better positioned to thrive in the 21 st century than are megacities like New York or Chicago. Kotkin argues that the U.S. and the world are embracing mid-sized cities eve​

Nov 29, 2010

Building a more inclusive region is one of the primary goals of RF. We’ve blogged on multiple occasions about the need to reduce disparities in the region particularly in education to meet RF targets and to help more of the region’s residents share in metro Washington’s relative prosperity. ​

Nov 24, 2010

Scrambling to put together some last minute Thanksgiving travel plans? Planning ahead for the winter holidays? Consider taking the train. Matt Yglesias from Think Progress blogged recently about the environmental benefits of traveling by train which this graphic from the U.S. DOT demonstrates:

Nov 23, 2010

An interesting piece today over at Next American City discusses how the proliferation of “hyperlocal” blogs and web sites is impacting urban planning. Highlighting a number of sites focused on the metro Washington region the piece argues that urban planning a field sometimes perceived as unapproachable by the general public (either by design or by the wonkish nature of the discipline) is becoming more connected to the people it affects – a positive development.

Nov 22, 2010

Leaders in the metropolitan Washington region have embarked on an unprecedented regional effort to develop the most competitive workforce in the country.

Nov 22, 2010

As the transformative nature of the technological revolution of the past few decades became obvious to folks around the world much of the conventional wisdom argued that location would become an obsolete factor in our daily lives. If we can tweet and meet online from practically anywhere in the world why does it matter if you’re in San Francisco or South Dakota?

Nov 18, 2010

The facts on the table are as such: most scientists believe that the earth’s climate is changing and that humanity’s actions are the cause of this change. Even accepting that at least for this post there are still difficult hurdles to cross before effective policies can be put in place to prevent (or at least reduce) the consequences of climate change.

Nov 17, 2010

Urges stronger role for MD and VA Governors, DC Mayor to ensure accountability, restore confidence

Nov 16, 2010

When reading Lydia DePillis’ post from a few days ago on whether NoMa will turn out to be simply L’Enfant Plaza with snazzier design we here at The Yardstick began to wonder what really makes neighborhoods or business districts work? And since RF is all about measurable targets we’re not interested merely in what conventional wisdom says but rather what leads to tangible results.