Today, our DOT headquarters hosted the Housing and Urban Development Grantee Conference, a gathering of the planners and civic leaders on the front lines of developing America's sustainable communities. Convening the nation's brightest minds in housing at the nation's transportation agency makes perfect sense because at DOT we know that housing and transportation decisions are inextricably intertwined.
It also made it a lot easier for me to thank them for the tremendous work they've done trying to make their communities back home models of livability. After all, although we call these folks our partners, they're the ones doing the heavy lifting.
And that's why we value their ideas and why we want to continue supporting their efforts to build the communities America needs in the 21st century.
Shelley Poticha, Director of HUD's Office of Sustainable Housing Communities, at today's conference.
This year, DOT, HUD, and EPA celebrated the third anniversary of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the Obama Administration's historic program of cooperating between agencies, sharing ideas, and coordinating investments to help communities thrive.
Our TIGER program took that idea one step further by rewarding innovative solutions that make a real difference to the economic future of a community and in people's daily lives.
I've seen that difference firsthand in places like Dubuque, Iowa, in Denver, and in Kansas City. In each of these cities, we've taken steps to synchronize housing development, environmental cleanup, and transportation improvements from road repairs and new sidewalks to bus service and revived transit stations. And it's working.
So we will need these experts to press forward--to continue thinking about how transportation can help generate economic development, revitalize housing, and create the kind of sustainable communities we need.
I've said many times about public transit that if you build it they will come. And they will ride, and they will work, and they will put down roots and raise families, and they will do all of this in a way that leaves a lighter, more sustainable footprint.
That's the President's vision. That's the vision behind the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. And there's no reason to leave that vision behind.
Yes, we've had a great partnership for the past nearly four years, but we have even greater things ahead as we continue to work together for the next four years on behalf of our nation's communities.
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