David Goldberg
From the late 1990s on, David Goldberg played a key role in developing the national movements for smart growth and transportation reform. He helped launch both Smart Growth America – as communications lead and then vice president for external affairs and strategy – and Transportation for America, where he led communications strategy to popularize support for walking, bicycling, transit and other options beyond the private automobile.
In 2003, working with national bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups, Goldberg coined the term “complete streets” to refer to urban streets that provide for the needs and safety of all users. As of 2018, more than 1200 local, regional, and state governments had adopted Complete Streets policies, and the term had spread beyond the US to other countries. A Pulitzer-nominated journalist before joining SGA, he is the author of Choosing Our Community’s Future: A citizen’s guide to getting the most from development, and Rethinking the American Dream, a handbook for journalists covering planning issues, as well as numerous articles for magazines, newspapers and journals. He helped to write the groundbreaking book Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, and he testified on the topic before Congress. He has written guides to planning, development and communications for Realtors, housing, health and transportation officials and for philanthropists and advocates. As a reporter and editor at the Atlanta Journal Constitution in the 1990s, he helped to create an award-winning weekly report on the region’s growth and development issues called Horizon. He served on that newspaper’s editorial board from 1999-2002.
In 2015 Goldberg helped launch Healthy Food America, a national food policy organization, and served as vice president for communications and external relations. In 2017 he joined the Washington Department of Transportation as Ombudsman and Community Liaison for mega-projects. Also in 2017 he was appointed to the Seattle Planning Commission, after serving on the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board. He is a member of the board Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and a contributor to Sightline.org, a think tank on sustainable urban development and progressive policy in the Pacific Northwest.