Bits: Trails, transportation, go-go-suburbia

A few quick links of interest:

The Carolina Thread Trail project recently got its 100th Resolution of Support -- from the Town of Wingate in Union County. That represents at least one entity from every county within the 15-county footprint. The Thread Trail is a proposed regional network of trails, including greenways, riverside trails and conservation corridors. Local communities plan and build their own portions.

Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe writes about The Transformation of Transportation -- big increases in transit ridership all over the country, and opines that it makes more sense to put federal dollars into transit systems than to prop up auto companies that are eliminating jobs.

NationalJournal.com talks with new Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. LaHood says high-speed rail between cities is, if not No. 1 on President Obama's priority list, then near the top. He predicted a substantial effort (read, "money") in coming years in five or six regions of the country, beyond the $8 billion in the stimulus package that just passed Congress.

David Brooks' recent N.Y. Times piece, "I Dream of Denver," (it ran last Thursday in The Observer) provoked tons of discussion. Interestingly, in Brooks' speech in Raleigh on Feb. 10 he challenged the viability of the suburbs. "The era of go-go suburbia -- it's obviously over now," he said. People wanted the big house, the big yard, but found out there weren't enough social bonds, he said. Suburbia, he says, "ignored key parts of human nature."

But his column took a differnt tack. Here are a couple of responses, one from "Joe Urban," A.K.A. Sam Newberg in Minneapolis, one from Ben Fried on streetsblog.
Here's a link to the Pew Center report Brooks cites.