With fall in the air and back-to-school commercials in full swing, here at Blueprint America we were reminded by our colleagues at Rocky Mountain PBS in Colorado about the potential of a kids program picking up pace across the country: “Safe Routes to School.”

For too many years cities have been paying for transportation projects with their hands out to Congress, lobbying for dollars even as funding bills grow moss stuck in the sluggish legislative process. It’s time to stop all the bellyaching!

For millions of city dwelling Americans a backyard is an unknown luxury, a balcony is a rare commodity and lounging in the great outdoors is almost exclusively a public activity. It’s no wonder that parks, particularly in urban centers, are seeing a renaissance in interest and investment.

Much has been made of the current recession experience as a time that rivals only the Great Depression. Already, we live in "The Great Recession." And after a stimulus in 2009 as an answer to the struggling economy, another stimulus is in the works.

In this week's news of, 'That sounds crazy... are you sure that's a good idea, Canada? What the hell, do it anyways,' CTV reports, "A 3-D image of a young girl chasing a ball into the street is the newest effort to prevent pedestrian accidents in West Vancouver."

You can “Take the ‘A’ train” in New York City, but in Denver, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Des Moines and a handful of other communities, you can hop on the ‘B’… for bicycle.

From the desk of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, or at least what Sam Schwartz & Co. think the father of the Interstate Highway System would say about transportation today.

Remember your old friend, The Bill? That lovable Schoolhouse Rocks' character? Well... He's gone missing. And the ransom: $6.5 billion... Or he gets it. Maybe that's a little extreme. But, the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit government watchdog, reported this week that there was "$6.5 billion worth of unspent earmarks from the most recent transportation funding bill" passed in 2005. The group is calling the unspent money, "Disappearmarks."

Many commercial real estate loans across the country will mature soon, and community banks will feel the strain if property owners can’t pay. Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, author of Retrofitting Suburbia, explains the benefits of turning properties in the red, green.