19 September 2008
HOK Planning Group Q+A: Petra Todorovich
Petra Todorovich is Director of America 2050 for the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an independent planning organization for the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region. America 2050's goals include nothing less than developing a national infrastructure investment plan. |
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HOK: What is the RPA? PT: RPA has been around since the 1920s, shaping major development and infrastructure projects related to our bridges, tunnels and subway system. We get involved with urban design decisions for the region, with a focus on protecting the environment and improving the quality of life and economy in the New York--New Jersey-Connecticut area.
What is your background? I am a planner with the RPA since 2001. For my first four years here I was involved with plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site and lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks. We put together a large civic coalition that provided input into that design process. We promoted transparency, public outreach and high principles of urban design and environmental sustainability.
In 2005 I shifted to a new project called America 2050, which is developing a national infrastructure investment plan for the United States.
What are the goals of America 2050? Our infrastructure in this country is becoming degraded and falling apart. In the meantime, there is a need for us to compete in the 21st century global economy and to respond to climate change.
America 2050 project looks at a new urban scale called the megaregion. Megaregions are clusters of metropolitan areas connected by transportation and economic networks. We have identified 10 megaregions around the country in which 80 percent of U.S. population and economic growth will be focused by the year 2050.
What are the 11 megaregions you identified? The Northeast runs from Boston to Washington.
The Southeast, which we call the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion, runs from Birmingham up to Charlotte.
The Florida Megaregion includes southeast Florida and the Orlando-Tampa area.
The Gulf Coast Megaregion extends along the Gulf Coast. That overlaps with the Texas Triangle, which is Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
The Great Lakes Megaregion encompasses most of the Midwest. Here we have fewer spatial connections because it is such a large megaregion, but they are linked by common economic challenges and land use issues. Many Midwestern cities are experiencing similar challenges in the restructuring of their economies from manufacturing to services.
Then we have the Northern California Megaregion, the Southern California Megaregion, the Arizona Sun Corridor, the emerging Front Range in Wyoming-Colorado-New Mexico and, in the Pacific Northwest, Cascadia.
The way you rattled those off is impressive. I'm looking at a map on my office wall!
Why is your New York-based group extending its vision to the entire U.S? We found that there were key issues affecting the New York region that we couldn't tackle at the regional scale alone.
One issue is there are larger economic trends and transportation challenges impacting the entire Northeast. For example, there is congestion on Interstate 95, the highway corridor connecting Boston to Washington, DC, and beyond. And there is an inter-city rail corridor that runs that same length. Planning investments in those pieces of transportation infrastructure requires cross-state participation and work with various transportation agencies.
The second insight driving the creation of America 2050 was that we need stronger federal leadership to address our country's aging and congested transit systems, including our ports and airports. We need reforms to federal policies such as our transportation bills so we can get more resources to maintain these big systems, which are the lifeblood of a region's economy.
What does America 2050 hope to accomplish? We believe the federal government should address megaregion-scale issues. At this moment there are no tools or financing mechanisms for cities to deal with these large infrastructure issues that cross state boundaries.
In Southern California, for example, major goods come in through the Port of Los Angeles or in trucks across the border from Mexico before being routed through the entire country. Los Angeles is dealing with the effects of that on their community, but these are larger megaregion and global scale issues and they don't have the tools to partner with adjacent regions.
What's the solution? The federal government created the Interstate Highway System to provide a multi-state network for automobile transportation. Now there is a need to look at all the multi-state freight rail systems, inter-city rail systems, big gateway ports and airports that have intermodal connections, and to make investments in those systems so we can move away from the auto-oriented framework.
We are advocating for the federal government to develop a national infrastructure plan that can play the same role for our country that the Interstate Highway System did 50 years ago. The megaregions can act as building blocks for the national plan. We hope that this national infrastructure plan would provide guidance to the next transportation bill. Instead of having thousands of separate earmarks in that bill, we could have a cohesive infrastructure framework for federal investment that responds to the challenges of the global economy and the need to cut carbon emissions through our transportation sector.
Is the current energy crisis helping your cause? It's raising the level of attention. Unfortunately, the media debate hasn't reached the core issues. We have been distracted by proposals to have a gas tax holiday or to drill offshore and in Alaska.
The real debate we need to have in this country is how we can move away from a fossil fuel-dependent economy, particularly in the transportation sector. How do we make a shift so we are not subject to the volatility of gas prices? As long as our economy is so dependent on foreign oil, the stock market will fluctuate and consumer prices will rise. We have to begin to develop alternative energy solutions and to reduce our dependence on driving.
Today we have a national transportation policy that rewards states for building more roads. When states have higher VMT levels (vehicle miles traveled) they get more funding out of the next transportation bill. That doesn't make sense and it's not aligned with the key challenges we face as a nation such as weaning ourselves off of foreign oil and addressing climate change while still competing in a global economy.
What do you think of the ideas about using different fuels and increasing fuel efficiency? That's fine, but if VMT continues to rise on the trajectory it has been on throughout the last 60 years, that will cancel out any improvements and efficiencies gained from raising the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards or converting to all biofuels. We have to drive less to reduce carbon emissions and fuel use. That message is not yet in the general discussion these days and we need to get it out.
What would your message be to policymakers, planners and developers about creating the city of the future? Climate change changes everything. We must explore solutions to solve our fossil fuel dependence, both for the sake of the economy and the sake of the planet. There are things we can do at every level of government, from the neighborhood and local levels to the regional, megaregion and federal level.
At the regional level and beyond, we need to get people out of their cars. People won't do that unless we give them choices and make it easy to use public transit to reach the places they want to go. The problem is that our current federal transportation policies have biases that promote building more roads to accommodate more driving. Instead, we should be looking for ways to make it easier for cities and regions to build more public transit and to do that in way that's linked to land use decisions.
What should a firm like HOK be doing? Making the connection between transportation, land use and climate change is going to be the key responsibility of urban planners in this century.
HOK can help clients understand how to create communities that are walkable and that are oriented to public transportation. We can't plan transportation and land use in isolation of one another, which is what usually happens in this country. We have to think about making our new buildings align with available transportation choices. Planning firms have an exciting opportunity to make that connection clear.
Is there a demand for this type of development? The demographic shifts favor people moving back to cities and urban places where there is greater density and they are not isolated and car-dependent. This includes an aging population of Baby Boomers who may want to retire in places where they can walk down the street and get a cup of coffee or go to the movies without driving. It includes immigrants, many of whom come from cities and are accustomed to living in urban environments. And then it includes people in their 20s and 30s -- the so-called echo-boomers -- who are moving to cities because they find them more exciting.
Are you optimistic about anything you see happening locally? We are seeing a lot of leadership in cities. In New York City, where I live and work, Mayor Bloomberg developed a sustainability plan looking out to 2030. The plan looks at how to accommodate one million additional people in the city by 2030. New Yorkers actually generate one-third less carbon emissions than the average American, partly because we walk and use public transit so much and live in multifamily units that share walls and are energy efficient.
New York City's sustainability plan looks at all the things that can be done at a city level, such as providing tax incentives for rehabbing old buildings to make them more energy efficient. It transitions city-owned vehicles and transit vehicles to electric or biofuels. It recommends investment in our mass transit system so it has the capacity for the expected growth. And it makes the city a greener, livable place so it can welcome the people who want to live here with amenities, such as parks and waterfront access. It's an example of what we can achieve at the local level with simple measures that start at home.
What are your favorite cities? New York City, Paris, San Francisco and Barcelona are favorites. I was in Austin recently and really enjoyed it. St. Louis holds a spot near my heart because it's my hometown and provided all my first experiences of an urban place.
Where do you live? In Brooklyn Heights. This summer I started biking to work. It takes about 20 minutes compared to half an hour on the subway. I can get there faster on my bike.
For more information, visit america2050.org or email petra@rpa.org.
