When we talk about federal transportation dollars in this space, we most often focus on the Transportation Alternatives Program, since it has a strong focus on funding Safe Routes to School programs and bicycling and walking infrastructure.
In 1935, as part of the New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration moved 203 Midwestern families from their economically depressed farms to form the Matanuska Colony in what is now Palmer, Alaska. These agricultural families migrated from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, approximately 45 miles north of Anchorage, 24 years before Alaska became a state. With 40 acres allocated per family, these farming colonists cultivated the land into what is now the heart of Alaska’s agricultural production.
This blog post is authored by Safe Routes Partnership research advisor, Stephanie Tepperberg.
Welcome to my new blog on federal policy!
Like a number of my colleagues, I have the privilege of writing my first post as I prepare to travel on work-related business. I am pretty excited about my trip this week. I’m on my way to sunny Southern California for a staff retreat primarily for our new regional policy managers who work full-time on our Regional Network Project—more about them in a paragraph or two.
Two very diverse states and a federal district. The Greater Washington region of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia is certainly an interesting place to live for many reasons. But it is an even more interesting place to work, especially when working in the policy realm.