KCET public television in Southern California -- as a part of Blueprint America -- in a two part report following the one-year mark of President Obama's stimulus plan on the question of high-speed rail and the potential of green jobs as the California state budget verges on bankruptcy.

Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City examines how Detroit, a symbol of America’s diminishing status in the world, may come to represent the future of transportation and progress in America.

A national high-speed rail plan was put forward by President Barack Obama in April 2009, just months after he set aside $8 billion in stimulus funds to begin such an undertaking. At the end of January this year, the White House selected 13 passenger rail corridors in 31 states to receive stimulus funding. High-speed rail projects in California, Florida and Illinois were the big winners.

Through two documentary projects (BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY and ROAD TO THE FUTURE), Blueprint America interviews today's thinkers and tells the stories of everyday Americans as an older country looks for its next move. As simplistic an idea as it may seem, a new transportation system could be the answer.

President Barack Obama has called for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank. The intention: To create a structure so public works projects could be, according to the President while campaigning last year, “determined not by politics, but by what will maximize our safety and homeland security; what will keep our environment clean and our economy strong.” Still, it is unclear how a National Infrastructure Bank would function -- or even be established.

Blueprint America looks at the possibility of the Bank -- both the design and implementation of -- in interviews with Felix Rohatyn, author of Bold Endeavors: How our government built America, and why it must rebuild now, and Stan Hazelroth, Executive Director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank. Additionally, a breakdown of the progress of the National Infrastructure Bank so far.

A roundup of links to local stories of national importance to the state of America's infrastructure.

President Obama has called for a National Infrastructure Bank. And, the structure already exists on the state level.

Stan Hazelroth, Executive Director of the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, recently spoke with Blueprint America on the effectiveness of the program so far and how the structure might be applied federally.

A roundup of links to local stories of national importance to the state of America's infrastructure.

Two of the Big Three on transportation and infrastructure reform in America, Gov. Ed Rendell, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican of California (they make up the group, Building America's Future, along with Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Independent of New York City), in a conversation on that very same subject -- calling for a reprioritization of infrastructure development and planning throughout the country. Not only will it modernize infrastructure, they say, bringing it into the 21st century, but it will also quicken economic recovery. By that standard, America is already a decade behind.

As President Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill in Denver on Tuesday, it released the biggest influx of federal dollars since the Great Society program of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Unlike LBJ, President Obama – working with less of a Democratic majority – ultimately had to make significant concessions to Congressional moderates and Republicans to pass the bill.

U.S. mayors on December 9, 2008, called on President-elect Obama to channel infrastructure spending directly to cities rather than state governments. Consequently, there could be a problem with how infrastructure projects receive funding once the next stimulus bill is passed. However, there may be some lessons to be learned from how the New Deal was managed.