BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Awesome site -- thanks for letting us know about it.

But, at best, this is a partial list of the candidate projects, as it represents those projects proposed by the Mayor, through the Association of Mayors (I forget the actual name of the organization.) Other projects in and around Allegheny County and all other areas of the State are also under consideration. As soon as a more definitive list is developed for the City and for Allegheny County, I'll be sure to post a link to it here.

hmmm. doesn't seem like the southside works parking garage is a very popular idea. can't imagine why

To bad the city didn't receive any funding for these projects... Oh well, there's always the next stimulus.

here's an interesting article about cities and the stimulus money. it contains a letter that the milwaukee mayor sent to WisDOT

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/17/will-cities-get-some-of-the-stimulus-money/

here's another article about the stimulus package

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/18/the-stimulus-bill-time-to-start-following-the-money/

it talks about www.recovery.gov a website that is supposed to help monitor the transparency of the stimulus.

what'ya'll think? will it work. i haven't gotten a chance to look into it yet

Conceivably, it shouldn't be difficult to follow the money, because it will be flowing through existing federal and state programs. For example, in our state for road and bridges, the money will flow to PennDoT and will most likely stop there.

I say this because most local projects (city/county) do not follow cumbersome federal guidelines to develop, fund and construct roads and bridges. Since the money is coming from the feds and doled out through existing programs, then the awarded project must have gone through federal planning and permitting processes, which in this state, is administered by PennDoT. Additionally, for most local projects which are awarded federal funds, the federal government requires matching funds of some percentage of the total estimated cost of the project to come from local sources.

If a city is bankrupt and cannot afford to pay the local matching funds, then that city usually will not expend their money on developing conceptual and then final plans and specifications on badly needed reconstruction projects. Plans and Specs for reconstruction projects have a very limited shelf life, so if the money for construction cannot be encumbered during conceptual design, then the project is stopped. It's quite unfortunate for that city and other municipalities and counties in that predicament.

are these rules still in place for the stimulus, or have they made it easier for munis to get the cash?

Granted this scenario is for road and bridge infrastructure projects, but this is what I'm hearing from others in government and industry. And the City's post agenda meeting on monday (or the meeting broadcasted monday night) alluded to this situation.

Don't forget there are DEP Clean Water Act/ Growing Greener, etc. programs awash with funds now, but those historically follow the same rules in regard to local matching funds.

The funding which can be spent with the greatest liberty at the local level is CDBG funds. However, the amount for these funds in the final stimulus bill wasn't very great.

Local and state reps really need to hit Harrisburg hard if they want any money to fall to the local level.

they did approve money to go to transportation enhancements, some of which has traditionally been spent of bicycle infrastructure. i'm not exactly sure of all of the rules for this though

I don't know, off hand, from which state governmental agencies or departments funding is born for bike projects. If you know, then i would suggest contacting the departments and fish for information.

However Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission has a bike/pedestrian committee. And they may be one of the few agencies from which to lobby funds from the state to local bike/ped projects. Additionally, if there was a bike/pedestrian project listed in the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), that would lend a little more credence to stimulus funding - if the project was ready to go.

there are several possibilities for bike/ped projects. the mayor also put some onto his stimulus wishlist. i guess that's a job for our trusty bike/ped coordinator to figure out.

there are bike/ped projects on the TIP, although sarah could probably offer a bit more insight into them.

here's another article that sheds some light on how money can be spent: http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/02/18/stimulus-bill-is-a-step-forward-for-pedestrians-cyclists-cities/

here's some points, citations and links available in the article

Within the $27.5 billion allocated for "highways" in the stimulus bill signed by President Obama yesterday, there is some good news for pedestrians, cyclists and cities.

I spoke with Michelle Ernst, staff analyst at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, to get a sense of how the new legislation compares to the 2005 federal transportation bill, known as SAFETEA-LU. Ernst points out that federal highway money flows through the Surface Transportation Program, which is more flexible than the "highway" label lets on. Compared to SAFETEA-LU, the stimulus bill will nearly double the portion of "highway" funds going to bike and pedestrian projects while sending more money to cities.

Here are the changes Ernst spotted after crunching the numbers:

* Double the money to bike and pedestrian projects: Under SAFETEA-LU, roughly 1.7 percent of total highway funding was authorized for the Transportation Enhancements program, most of which goes toward bicycle and pedestrian projects. In the stimulus package, that figure has nearly doubled to 3 percent. The new bill also requires states to spend the money on actual Transportation Enhancements, whereas previous transportation bills gave them wiggle room to shift it around to other programs.

* More money going to cities: Under SAFETEA-LU, 6.5 percent of highway funding was "sub-allocated" directly to large urban areas, defined as metro regions with a population greater than 200,000. In the stimulus bill, large urban areas get 16 percent. This funding will go to agencies that, compared to state DOTs, are more likely to invest in progressive transportation projects.

But you're leaving out the part that these projects must have been in the hopper prior to the bill becoming law. Many of the projects eligible will not be forward-thinking, progressive, smart, green or sustainable. What they will be is "shovel ready". Good, bad, indifferent; it's work to be had.

If the projects are simply ideas or concepts, then they will remain as so until other money is developed or the project is written in to the new TEA bill which, as we've discussed before. The crafting of the bill is to begin quite soon to carry us beyond SAFETEA-LU that expires in September.

like finishing the GAP?

Non-transit transportation funds made available under the ARRA (Stimulus Act) will flow through PennDOT. Pennsylvania will receive $1.026 billion. Of that amount, approx. 3 percent, or $30 million will be allocated for use for Transportation Enhancement projects. That money is likely to be divvied up at the State level, for the most part.

In the case of Southwestern Pennsylvania, some trail projects may be funded as a result of a request by local representatives to use stimulus money to fund important trail/TE projects. It is uncertain at this time whether those locally identified projects will be taken from the $30 million, or from the general regional allocation (the highway/bridge pot of funds).

A list of the transportation projects to be funded under the ARRA/Stimulus will be available on the SPC website (www.spcregion.org) sometime this week (by February 27th).

Late this week, a 30 day public comment period on the ARRA/Stimulus program will begin. It will close on March 27th. More information will be available in the PG/New Pittsburgh Courier/SPC website on Wednesday, February 25th.

As noted earlier, the ARRA Act requires that projects funded over this program be truly "ready to go" with "disincentives" for projects not ready to go in 120 days, and "discouragement" of projects not ready to go in one year. Ready to go means everything in place -- right of way, environmental clearance, final design, reimbursable agreements with PennDOT, etc.

Look for more information to be available early this coming week at the local level, and in coming weeks at the State (TE) level.

On a somewhat related note, PennDOT has told me that there should be movement on the PCTI/Smart Transportation grant applications sometime in the next week or so as well. These were applications for "green, sustainable, visionary" projects that were solicited by PennDOT for $60 million in State funding last December. Approximately half of the 385 projects submitted Statewide were for TE type projects. If that is true, there are about 40 candidate ped/bike/trail/streetscape type applications from southwestern pennsylvania.

In relative terms, Stimulus money and PCTI money has to go through the same hoops as TE money (sorry folks). But, at present at least, Stimulus money is 100 percent federal funds -- no local match required.

The next meeting of the SPC Ped/Bike Committee had to be rescheduled, but I'll have a new date for you in the next couple of dates. I'll post it here. It's an open meeting. If you have ideas you want to share, feel free to attend.

thanks for the update sarah. keep on keepin' us informed!

Invoking his own name-and-shame policy, President Barack Obama warned the nation's mayors on Friday that he will "call them out" if they waste the money from his massive economic stimulus plan.

"The American people are watching," Obama told a gathering of mayors at the White House. "They need this plan to work. They expect to see the money that they've earned -- they've worked so hard to earn -- spent in its intended purposes without waste, without inefficiency, without fraud."

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/20/obama_mayors/

you can watch a live broadcast of a discussion about the stimulus package tonite at 5:30

http://bike-pgh.org/2009/02/25/tonite-watch-a-live-webcast-about-the-stimulus-package-and-what-it-means-to-pittsburgh/

there is a panel of local leader types that will also be able to answer questions that you submit via the internets.

panelists include bill peduto, steve bland, and reps from the offices of rendell, orie, doyle, specter, among others.

First Obomba needs to find someone to borrow a trillion dollars from...

All you need to do is print more money. lol

Anyone who thinks it is a good idea to saddle every single american citizen with $80,000 apiece in debt to pay off a bunch of crooks who deserve to go out of business for their crooked practices is a fucking idiot.

That is all I am going to say about this.

Sho 'nuff. Can I have an AMEN brother?

last i checked the stimulus is different than the bailouts

I think the best stimulus we could give ourselves would to stop paying the federal income tax all at once.

Wishful thinking though because the sheep actually have to fill out a piece of paper to get their company to stop federal withholding out of their paychecks.

Getting millions of people to fill out a form these days is about as likely as me being able to ride my bike across town without getting the middle finger or honked at by the same ignorant masses.