Infrastructure

As the process to begin pulling together the City of LA’s yearly budget moves forward this fall, LA’s City Council is also beginning efforts to seriously explore a Capital Infrastructure Plan (CIP), a document that provides a long-term, unified direction for investment in a city’s infrastructure. VerdeXchange News spoke with Investing in Place’ Executive Director, Jessica Meaney, on how the city’s budgeting could better address the needs of the city, improve equity and be more transparent. Meaney opines that the current way of doing things is failing to serve residents and why her organization’s work to push for a Capital Infrastructure Plan for the City of Los Angeles has been so important.

With California’s energy transition well underway with broad public--and now, federal-- support, how is the state transitioning from ambitious goal setting to the “Age of Implementation?” V

With an award of $25.6 million from the US Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets For All program, the City of Seattle recently doubled its available funding for safe streets infrastructure improvements. TPR followed up with Greg Spotts—former CSO and executive officer at Streets LA—to update readers on his recent move north to serve as Director of Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).

In his 2023 State of the Port address, POLB Executive Director Mario Cordero announces ZEERO—the Zero Emissions, Energy Resilient Operations Program—to invest in projects aimed at reducing the impacts of operations and improving air quality.

VX News excerpts Mayor Richardson and President Weissman's remarks highlighting the nexus between zero-emissions infrastructure investments at the port and the success of the City of Long Beach's 'Opportunity Beach' agenda. 

In the days after Governor Newsom signed California’s $308 billion budget—which includes record spending across sectors bolstered by a nearly $100 billion surplus—TPR/VXNews interviewed California Senate Majority Leader Emeritus Robert Hertzberg on the highlights of the 2022-23 state budget package. The Senator elaborates on the one-time infrastructure investments embedded throughout the budget for climate resilience—including grid reliability, EV charging, wildfire, water recycling, and more.

VX News excerpts the February 16 LAEDC 2022 Economic Forecast Breakout Session on Infrastructure and opportunities for coupling one-time investments with workforce development and cross-sector collaboration.

With climate change fueling increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters—whether from flooding, wildfire, or extreme heat events—2021 was another record-breaking and deadly year for climate disasters in the US.