Smart Growth America is seeking a Transportation Program Manager to help communities across the country better coordinate land use and transportation policies. This person will deliver technical assistance to state agency staff, work with town and city leaders across the country, and advocate on transportation policy and program issues with members of Congress.

Position description
An ideal Transportation Program Manager will be a technical expert, personal connector, and outstanding project manager. This person will be a transportation engineer by training with an in-depth knowledge of the integration of transportation and land use policy and practice; performance measures; project selection, development, design and delivery standards and procedures within a DOT; and the funding, rules, and policies governing DOT planning, project development, and project delivery. They will also have specific knowledge of Complete Streets, and experience designing and delivering multimodal transportation projects.

Responsibilities
The Transportation Program Manager will be responsible for working with DOTs, MPOs and City or County DOTs and public works on a wide range of land use and transportation issues. That includes helping those agencies to adopt and implement Complete Streets policies and practices; adopt performance measures; and improve return on investment from transportation projects across a number of criteria including economic, health, equity, and environmental measures. This position’s work may also include leading studies, reports, and trainings on these and other topics and policy issues. This person will act as lead on many of these projects, so experience managing staff, budget, and grant timelines is preferred. Additional responsibilities will include:

• Lead technical assistance for state DOTs, MPOs, and City and County DOTs;
• Conduct research, develop policy positions, write policy papers, and inform transportation advocacy efforts;
• Act as lead or team member for technical assistance efforts to local governments, state governments and other SGA technical assistance efforts;
• Assist on other projects where specific transportation expertise is needed;
• Manage program staff, budget, and grant deliverables;
• Help market the transportation program;
• Conduct limited fundraising; and
• Speak publicly before elected officials, transportation professionals, and the general public.

Requirements
This position requires a self-starting, detail-oriented engineering professional with excellent writing, oral communication, research, technical, and organizational skills. A successful applicant will also have the following:

• A degree in civil engineering;
• A professional engineering license in at least one state;
• Experience working at a state or local DOT;
• Basic computer literacy in word processing and Microsoft Excel;
• The ability to work in teams;
• The ability to manage their time to accommodate multiple assignments from different project leads; and
• A dedication to delivering high quality work.

Compensation, location and time frame
Salary commensurate with experience. This is a full-time position based in Washington, DC. Benefits include health insurance, 401(k), and paid vacation and sick time. This position will report to the Transportation Program Director.

How to apply
Please send a resume, cover letter, three references, and two short writing samples (no more than two pages each) to jobs@smartgrowthamerica.org, with “Transportation Program Manager” in the subject line. Applications will be accepted immediately on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employment
Equal opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at Smart Growth America. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

Smart Growth America seeks a Communications and Policy Fellow to support LOCUS, a national network of smart growth real estate developers and investors. The Fellow will be a core member of the LOCUS team and provide direct support to the LOCUS network of real estate developers and investors advocating for smart growth policies at the federal and regional levels.

Responsibilities
The Communications and Policy Fellow’s primary responsibilities include:

• Aggregating news about smart growth and real estate issues;
• Assist in planning, writing and managing monthly Newsletter;
• Update the LOCUS website, as needed;
• Contributing to LOCUS’ social media presence;
• Tracking social media and web analytics;
• Writing original content for our blog;
• Drafting legislative summaries for network members, drafting advocacy materials on core network issues;
• Design flyers, graphics, e-vites and other marketing material for major events hosted by LOCUS;
• Assisting with outreach to reporters and bloggers; and
• Providing communications support for our LOCUS members

The LOCUS Fellowship requires a self-motivated, detail-oriented person with exceptional writing, oral communication, and organizational skills and the ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

Candidates should have a strong interest in real estate, smart growth, economic development, transportation, community growth or related areas. Candidates should have at least a bachelor’s degree and either educational background or work experience in real estate, housing policy, transportation policy, urban planning, finance, public policy, business, or a related field.

In addition, the Communications Fellow should have a basic understanding of HTML; proficiency using content management systems; solid understanding of social media for organizations; and interest in contributing to communications strategy. Knowledge of Photoshop and leading new media strategies are a definite plus.

Candidates should be highly computer literate with experience in web content, and the Microsoft Office suite of programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

This is a paid position.

Timeframe:

Fellowship is full-time, 40 hours a week. Minimum commitment of six months required. Potential to extend fellowship to 12 months is possible pending performance. Applications will be accepted immediately on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employment:

Equal opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at Smart Growth America. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.

How to Apply:

Please send a resume, cover letter, and a short writing sample to mpierce [at] locusdevelopers [dot] org with “LOCUS Comms Fellow” in the subject line. Applications will be accepted immediately, on a rolling basis, until the position is filled.

(Source: Streetsblog, WATodau.au.com, Smart Growth America)

Image Courtesy: Smart Growth America

Within the $787 billion stimulus bill that became law in February, Congress provided states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) with $26.6 billion in flexible funds for transportation projects. Today marks 120 days from the apportionment of the funds to the states.

Smart Growth America released a report today examining how well states have been spending these billions. As they say on the Smart Growth America blog today, not only did the money arrive in a time of economic recession, but “at a time of embarrassingly large backlogs of road and bridge repairs, inadequate and underfunded public transportation systems, and too-few convenient, affordable transportation options.”

So after 120 days, how have states done in addressing these pressing needs and investing in progress for their communities?

After analyzing project descriptions provided by states and MPOs, Smart Growth America found forward looking states and communities that used the stimulus money as flexibly as possible, repairing roads and bridges and making the kinds of smart, 21st century transportation investments that their communities need to support strong economic growth.

While some states proved excellent at investing wisely and making progress, most states failed to fulfill pressing transportation needs. Nearly one-third of the money, $6.6 billion, went towards building new road capacity. Only 2.8% was spent on public transportation, and 0.9% percent on non-motorized projects.

The Secretary of Transportation, Ray Lahood, in his daily blog noted that ARRA is working successfully across America. Some folks in the transportation community are not totally happy about how the money had been spent. Streetsblog points out that $6.6B in Stimulus Cash is spent on New Roads, Not Repair. It says:

Distressingly — but unsurprisingly — quite a lot is going to new roads rather than repair of existing ones. Of the $26.6 billion sent to states under a flexible transportation mandate, SGA found that $6.6 billion has gone towards building new highway capacity.

Only $185 million of the flexible stimulus aid has been used on transit and non-motorized transportation, which was given about $8 billionin separate funding as well.

One culprit behind this questionable use of taxpayer money, as SGA reports, is a theme at risk of repeating itself during the upcoming debate over broad transportation reform: the lack of accountability.

Most states and localities reported the projects they selected for stimulus aid only after the fact, allowing a privately run website to monitor the process much faster than the Obama administration.

But inconsistent reporting is just the beginning of the problem, as SGA points out in its report:

Most states failed to educate, engage, and seek input from the public before making decisions. … There is not a clear articulation of what project portfolios should accomplish, no methods identified for evaluating projects against these goals or against one another, and few repercussions for achieving or failing to achieve these goals.

SGA mined the stimulus itself, as well as comments by administration officials, to produce a list of nine goals that can be used to evaluate its transportation spending. But the lack of tangible consequences for not meeting those goals has left states free to spend at will, often focusing more on the report’s No. 1 objective (“create and save jobs”) than Nos. 5 (“improve public transportation”), 7 (“cut greenhouse gas emissions”), and 8 (“not contribute to additional sprawl”).

Interestingly enough, Senior White House adviser David Axelrod says the economic stimulus package has not yet “broken the back of the recession” but set aside calls for a second massive spending bill. Republicans, meanwhile, have called the spending under way a failure.

Some economists and business leaders have called for a second spending bill designed to help guide the economy through a downturn that has left millions without jobs. Axelrod said it’s too early to know if more spending would be needed or if the administration would seek more money from Congress.

“Most of the stimulus money – the economic recovery money – is yet to be spent. Let’s see what impact that has,” Axelrod said. “I’m not going to make any judgment as to whether we need more. We have confidence that the things we’re doing are going to help, but we’ve said repeatedly, it’s going to take time, and it will take time. It took years to get into the mess we’re in. It’s not going to take months to get out of it.”

Click here to download Smart Growth for America’s report:  The States and the Stimulus – Are they using it to create jobs and 21st century transportation?

(Source: Smart Growth America)

A detailed report titled, “Spending the Stimulus: How Your State Can Put Thousands Back to Work by Jumpstarting a 21st Century Transportation System” published by Smart Growth America (you can find the full report here) illustrates the breadth of investments that a state can make with the STP funds it receives through ARRA, by outlining 20 project types in 5 main categories, and providing an example for each.

The website says “Smart Growth America is launching an immediate, six-month campaign to support our state partners in shaping stimulus spending and state DOT budget decisions. The need and opportunity are clear. States and DOTs, asked to develop lists of “ready to go” projects, have developed lists that consist almost entirely of road and other conventional projects. Without this campaign, the stimulus money will likely fund destructive road expansion projects rather than providing a down payment on a clean, green transportation infrastructure for the 21st Century.

This campaign aims to:

1. Influence how state DOTs and governors spend the substantial amounts of money they receive from the federal government,
2. Hold the state DOTs and governors accountable on the stimulus spending; and
3. Increase the capacity of state advocacy groups for subsequent state, local, and federal campaign work.”

Click here to read the entire article.  Also click here to read a related write-up by our Sarah Goodyear, at Streetsblog.

 Transportgooru encourages readers to Donate to Smart Growth America today and help in furthering its mission and to ensure that the future for America is a bright one. Click the Donate button to proceed.

Attached is the detailed report called Spending the Stimulus published by Smart Growth America:

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