The average family in America today spends 52 percent of its income on housing and transportation. In this Blueprint America interview, John Larson talks with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan about how transportation adds to the true cost of housing.

Seventeen percent of American kids are obese. Not a little chubby, but actually obese. Many American cities are also unhealthy by design: The infrastructure we've built keeps us in our cars longer and discourages us from walking or biking. A report from Somerville, MA, on the reshaping of suburbia.

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!

A new report has found that, in spite of the recession, cities are investing in urban parks. A tour of one such park -- an old elevated rail line in New York City.

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.