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Date:         Wed, 7 Apr 1999 16:23:27 -0800
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From: Kathryn Hohmann <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Sierra Club Action Daily #61, April 7, 1999
To: [log in to unmask]

 Sierra Club
 SC Action Daily Vol. II #61
 April 7, 1999

 "Urban sprawl is gobbling up 55 acres of tree cover around Atlanta per day,"
 according to NASA researchers, and the "heat island effect" caused by the
 sunlight-absorbing asphalt and roofs
 that replace the trees has pushed city temperatures up by eight to 10
 degrees"
        (Greenwire, 4/1).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -----------------------------------------
 THE SPRAWL BUSTER'S GUIDE TO BETTER COMMUNITIES

 I: The Sierra Club's Challenge to Sprawl
 II. Oppo research: Road warriors take to the air
 III. Tool kit: Get the word out about Better America Bonds
        Fact sheet/Letter to the Editor
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------
        *Spiderwebs of roads and outer beltways go nowhere....slowly
        *Hillsides where trees would ordinarily be budding are  massed with
                chintzy, trapezoidal townhouses
        *Your thirty minute commute has ballooned to an hour
        *Ponds where spring peepers sang have turned into McMansions
        *Big box megastores hide sunsets
        *Downtown Elm Street, formerly a vibrant urban neighborhood, left
                dark, abandoned, impoverished


 When you look at America, if this is what you see, then you'll be glad to
 hear that the Sierra Club's Challenge to Sprawl campaign has gotten even
 bigger!
        We're fighting for clean water, clean air, open space and nice
 neighborhoods in communities WHERE YOU LIVE! We're fighting dumb, ugly,
 wasteful development and we're creating better communities, and revitalizing
 our city centers.
        Join us!
        Our goal is to establish smart growth and transportation policies that
 improve the quality of life for all American families. We're touring the
 country with our Sprawlbuster workshops in order to train activists about how
 they can fight sprawl and work for smarter growth. We're releasing our Sprawl
 Costs us All reports to show how taxpayers subsidize Dumb Development. And
 we're taking media leaders on our Tours de Sprawl, trips that show them
 what's at stake in our fight for better communities.
        We're telling activists about how they can make a difference --and
 this Daily Writer offers only two of our many examples.
        First, activists who are at the center of the sprawl fight know that
 Dumb Development is literally driven by roads. As the American Farmland
 Trust's newest study shows, the number one cause of sprawl is highway
 building. And unless we can shut off the spigot of big dollars to big roads,
 we'll never conquer sprawl. Yet this year, we have an opportunity to do just
 that. We have a chance to funnel highway dollars --just appropriated by
 Congress and known as the T-21 funding --into transportation choices such as
 flexible transit, bikeways, and light rail. This is real money, more than 200
 billion, and half of it could go to Smart Growth projects, not huge highways.
 You can get in touch with our transportation leaders to help make this
 happen.
       Second, activists can also help by getting the word out about the
 Administration's Liveability Agenda. One part of that Agenda is the new
 Better America Bonds Program


 OPPO RESEARCH:

 Funny how things happen! While this Seirra Club Action Daily writer sat stuck
 in traffic last week, the following  radio ad came on:



 "Vice President Gore just proposed something he calls a "Livability Agenda".
  I listened when he said his plan will give us more time with our families by
 easing traffic congestion.

 But when you read the fine print, the Vice President says we should live in
 apartments near transit stations.  That might work for some, but not for me
 and my family.

 We moved to the suburbs for the same reasons most people do: a house we could
 afford, a back yard, good schools, and safe streets.  For me and most working
 mothers, driving's not an option- it's a necessity.  It's the only way I can
 work full time, run errands and still have time left for Michael's basketball
 games.

 Sure the roads get crowded, but maybe instead of telling us where and how to
 live, government should focus on improving roads and making driving easier.
 For example, I waste ten minutes every day getting on the highway because
 there's no merge lane.  Fixing that: that's what I'd call a real "livability
 agenda."

 A MESSAGE FROM THE AMERICAN HIGHWAY USERS ALLIANCE, THE CONSUMERS GROUP FOR
 AN AMERICAN MOTORIST.


 **********************************************************************
 TAKE ACTION        TAKE ACTION     TAKE ACTION     TAKE ACTION
 ********************************************************************

                SUPPORT BETTER AMERICA BONDS

 Protect Open Space
 Restore Water Resources
 Restore Brownfields



 Development is Out-pacing Our Ability to Protect Open Spaces

 New development pressure around many American towns is leading to the loss of
 open spaces, forests, farmlands, wetlands, and other places essential to
 keeping communities livable.  One million acres of farmland is lost every
 year to development.

 The Better America Bonds program will provide a new tool for communities
 across the country to set their own priorities, make their own decisions,
 improve their own quality of life and the way they are growing.

 Bond Programs Have Helped Spur Sprawl - Now They Can Help Solve It

 Bond programs are commonly used to pay infrastructure costs such as bridges
 and sewers - building which often spurs sprawl.  The Better America Bonds
 starts communities down a road of smarter growth.

 The Better America Bonds program will provide $700 million in new tax credits
 to leverage, over five years, almost $10 billion worth of state and local
 bonds.  That's billions of new dollars for preserving open space, protecting
 drinking water quality, and redeveloping city centers.

 Better America Bonds Gives Communities the Tools They Need To Fight Sprawl

 Better America Bonds builds on the success of EPA's Brownfields Redevelopment
 Program - which has helped communities around the country revitalize old
 industrial sites.  This bond program encourages regional cooperation and
 planning, so that one region's gains aren't another's losses.

 Sprawl costs us all - in more traffic congestion, crowded schools and
 worsening air and water pollution.  The Better America Bonds program provides
 smart tools for livable communities.


 Dear Editor

        I've heard about a innovative program that I think might help us solve
 some of our everyday problems here in xxx. I have long been concerned about
 the effects of sprawl . I've seen farmland turned into shopping centers,
 forests cut down for highways. And sprawl means a longer trip in the car for
 me commuting to work.  This means less time with my family and more time
 sitting in traffic.  I don't want to move out of xx. I want to live in a
 healthy, clean neighborhood, near good schools, where my children can play
 outdoors and see Nature first-hand, not just on television or in a zoo. I
 believe we can live in communities without paving over our wetlands, cutting
 down forests, and buying out our farmers, and the Better America Bonds will
 help us do that.
        I support the program called Better America Bonds, and I was  pleased
 to see the government finally acknowledge the out-of-control growth around
 our cities and step in to help fight urban sprawl. These bonds will give our
 communities a hand in preserving our open spaces, protecting our streams and
 wetlands and even helping clean up abandoned industrial sites. And the
 government won't own those places -- we will, allowing us to grow on our own
 terms. These bonds will make it possible for a community like mine to protect
 special places now -- and get a tax incentive to do so. It's financially and
 environmentally smart.
        Let's pass the Better America Bonds program now, before sprawl sends
 us all packing.




 ------------------------------------------------ Sierra Club Legislative
 Hotline - 202-675-2394-----------Sierra Club National Headquarters -
 415-977-5500 Sierra Club World Wide Web -http://www.sierraclub.org

 White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111 White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461
 Clinton's e-mail - [log in to unmask]
 Gore's e-mail - [log in to unmask]
 White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500

 US Capitol Switchboard - 202-224-3121
 To contact your senators - http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
 To contact your representative - http://www.house.gov/writerep/
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------


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