For nearly four decades Mr. Yaro has promoted local, regional and national strategies to balance economic vitality and environmental quality. He has worked in local and state government, the civic community and academia to promote these outcomes, from rural areas to America's largest urban region. He has also taught city and regional planning at the graduate level for more than 25 years and written extensively on urban and regional planning concerns.
Reprinted from RPA's Spotlight on the Region
By Robert Yaro, Co-Chair, America 2050
Across the water in Great Britain, the new conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has won great attention for his cost-cutting ways as he slashes funding for health care, police, prisons, housing, and even defense.
But one area has remained immune to Cameron's sharp blade: the country's emerging high-speed rail system, including the line under development running from London to Birmingham. In fact, Cameron is expanding funding for the system.
Cameron understands what apparently few of his conservative
colleagues here do, which is that investing in high-speed rail is part
of a sound investment in the country's future. And while Great Britain
is a different country than the United States, its conditions and
challenges are not as different as one might think. High-speed rail can
work in the United States, as it will in Great Britain.
