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High Speed Rails: The First Building Block of Mega Regions
Urban Growth Seminar
When: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 : 12:15pm
Location: University Park Campus, Ralph and Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL), Room 101
Sponsored By:
USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development
Featured speakers:
Mark Pisano, Professor of Urban Planning, SPPD and Petra Todorovich, Director, America 2050
America 2050 has put forward a strategy for investing in America\'s third century founded on large economic and ecological regions called "megaregions". These regions are forming globally and becoming host to the majority of the world’s population and production growth. Megaregions are also creating challenges in the areas of population growth, environmental, infrastructure and administrative, which require new strategies and solutions.
The America 2050 investment strategy calls for new systems to link the various parts of the United States, including a high speed passenger rail, which it advances as the key building block for megaregions in the U.S. This proposed high speed system has been embraced Congress and the Obama Administration and is the foundation of the Federal government\'s most significant new transportation initiative. This initiative promises to have a great effect regionally as California has received the largest grant awarded under this program to date.
Petra Todorovich is director of America 2050 (http://www.america2050.org) a national urban planning initiative to develop an infrastructure plan and growth strategy for America in the 21st Century. Todorovich oversees America 2050’s research, advocacy, and planning, in partnership with organizations such as Regional Plan Association, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is currently overseeing a research program on high-speed rail in America and is a frequent speaker on the topics of transportation policy, megaregions, and national planning. Todorovich has worked at Regional Plan Association, where America 2050 is based, since 2001.
Todorovich is also an Assistant Visiting Professor at the Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Eno Transportation Foundation. Todorovich received a B.A. from Vassar College and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University.
Mark Pisano is a Senior Fellow in the School of Policy Planning and Development. He is a faculty member in the Bedrosian Center for Governance and the Public Enterprise, teaching a course on Megaregions and conducting research on infrastructure financing. He is also Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure. He is Co-chairman of America 2050.
Mr. Pisano directed the activities of the Southern California Association of Governments from 1976 to 2008, the nation\'s largest regional planning agency, comprised of the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura, and cities within these counties. The purpose of this voluntary association of local governments is to provide an open forum where region-wide problems can be explored and comprehensive plans dealing with air and water quality, transportation, regional growth and development, housing, and other areas critical to the region can be developed.
Prior to joining SCAG in November 1976, Mr. Pisano was director of the Environmental Protection Agency\'s Water Quality Planning Division. For several years, he was responsible for developing policy on implementation of the nation\'s water quality management process, including basin and facility planning and wastewater management programs. He previously served as an economist with the Environmental Protection Agency.
A Ph.D. candidate at Georgetown University, Mr. Pisano was a lecturer there during the summers of 1970 and 1971. He is also the author of several papers on economics and water resources. Mr. Pisano is also a member of various organizations: Corporate Fund for Housing, Regional Institute of Southern California, California Transportation Directions, Growth Management and Environmental Committees, Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, BCI Geonetics, National Association of Regional Councils, ICMA, Urban Land Institute, Commission on the Future of Loyola Marymount University, Archdiocese Los Angeles Communications Board, Provost Council for California School of Professional Psychology, Advisory Committee of National Civic League, Department of Transportation Privatization Council and Center for California Studies.
Professor Tridib Banerjee will be the discussant.
Please contact mbuchmei@usc.edu for more information.
This is a part of the Urban Growth Seminar series sponsored by the School for Policy, Planning and Development. Join us on Facebook.