Published on line since November 11, 2003.
Note: Due to summer travel, this issues attempts to cover three weeks. Use the Google news link in 15. to find more news story links. Ed.
1. New Pittsburgh, meet your Manifesto
Pittsburgh Post Gazette, PA
There's a notion, held by displaced Pittsburghers, that the connection between the Pittsburgh Diaspora and the Old Country is more visceral in our case than elsewhere. (Is it true? Who knows. Maybe Pitt could do a study.) And there's a vague sense, nurtured by bloggers in various corners of the Internet, that the Pittsburgh Diaspora could be a potent force, if only we could find a way to tap it, connect it, organize it. The decades of out-migration could lead to a delayed influx of capital, both the human and green kinds, from across the country.
Bully for that. But how?
Bloggers Mike Madison, Jim Russell and Jim Morris have been working on a "Manifesto for a New Pittsburgh" (See pittsblog.blogspot.com). The word "manifesto" gives off an odor of communism, which is just fine in this case, since what we're talking about here is a giant community that benefits its members. From each (Pittsburgher) according to his means and ability, to each (Pittsburgher) according to his needs, or something:
The Manifesto
1: Connect and reconnect with the virtual Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh must replicate its famous bridges by building metaphoric bridges to other countries, states, companies and groups, and above all to the diaspora of people and institutions with historic ties to Western Pennsylvania. We must build a global Pittsburgh.
2: Bring new resources. Pittsburgh needs to use its metaphoric bridges to broaden the sources of that [social] capital and convey it back to Western Pennsylvania in the form of intellectual and economic capital. The diaspora can contribute time, money and ideas to the rebirth of the region.
3:Energize Pittsburgh's culture and community. Pittsburgh's position as a world leader in science, art and culture should extend across populations both young and old and across virtual and material media. Building the global Pittsburgh means ...
RC: Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
2. Regional assemblies to be scrapped - Guardian Unlimited, UK
Unelected regional assemblies are to be scrapped, the government announced today - with their powers split between local councils and regional development agencies.
In a bid to boost local economies, there will also be a consultation on forcing councils to have a statutory duty to boost growth.
And there will be a fresh look at options for supplementary business rates, which could help fund local authority projects.
Announcing the outcome of the year-long review of regional economic regeneration, the new local government minister, John Healey, said that the proposals would "give local authorities and communities greater responsibility and opportunity to boost economic growth in their area".
But the Tories dismissed the proposals as a "re-branding exercise masquerading as localism".
And the Liberal Democrats said they failed to live up to Gordon Brown's promises about devolving power.
...
Mr Healey said RDAs will be responsible for preparing a single regional strategy, and for the first time would be held to account in parliament by new regional select committees.
Mr Healey also pointed out that, as announced at the time of Gordon Brown's first government, there will now be ministers for the different regions of the UK.
The plans - first commissioned at the time of the last budget - tie in with the forthcoming comprehensive spending review, and are part of an overarching overhaul of local authority powers and funding drawing on the Lyons report into financing and the Barker report into planning.
Neither regional assemblies nor regional development agencies are elected, however. The dream of the former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to have a series of elected regional assemblies, died when voters in the north-east rejected the first one in a referendum in 2004.
...
3. Experts Tackle Traffic Congestion at RAND Forum - The Lookout News, CA
When civic leaders ponder answers to LA’s legendary gridlock, they’d best heed the warnings of the past -- every solution implemented over the past 125 years has failed to make a dent, a traffic specialist warned at a forum in Santa Monica last week.
The good news is that reducing traffic by only 5 to 10 percent would make driving across the nation’s second-largest city a smooth ride, according to the panelists at “Gridlock in Los Angeles: Getting Past the Standstill, ” a forum sponsored by RAND on Thursday.
The bad news is that the only real solutions -- changing the behavior of motorists voluntarily or through coercion or punitive measures -- will be difficult, if not politically suicidal, the experts warned.
...
Potential answers include:
* Taking full advantage of technology, including computerized signals, radio and cell phones,
* Building new capacity,
* Adding transit improvements, but also “not falling into the trap” of thinking that building the subway to the sea will alleviate congestion,
* Encouraging staggered work and school hours,
* Moving goods at night, and
* Using coercion to get drivers to travel at different hours.
“We need to reduce traffic, but not by a lot to make the system run smoothly, ” Wachs said.
Traffic could be significantly reduced if 10 to 20 percent if those driving alone carpool, if motorists are charged when they enter congested areas or if pay lanes are layered above freeways, with the revenue generated used to finance public transit, Wachs said.
...
Yaroslavsky -- who blamed much of the region’s traffic woes on “unbridled” development - warned it will be difficult to legislate the changes in behavior required to alleviate congestion.
...
RC: Southern California Association of Governments - SCAG
4. Study urges western suburbs to plan now for smart growth - Boston Globe - United States
Traffic jams. Water shortages. McMansions on former fields and country roads.
That's the recipe for the future in Boston's western suburbs unless officials adopt so-called "smart growth" planning that steers development into town centers and around mass transit hubs, a study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council has found.
The regional planning agency's "MetroFuture" plan forecasts a wave of growth in Greater Boston between now and 2030. Almost half a million more residents will arrive in the area if current trends continue, the plan says. Those people would produce 240, 000 jobs and need more than 300, 000 new housing units. Their arrival would also trigger growth that might pave over more than 150, 000 acres of farms, forests, and other open space, the plan posits.
To blunt the force of that wave, planners suggest building more apartments, town houses, and condominiums in town centers, above shops, and on lots about a quarter-acre in size. The plan also recommends converting industrial properties into studios and small businesses, and new conservation efforts to save water.
"We're trying to preserve open space and natural resources by concentrating growth in areas where services and infrastructure already exist, " said Marc Draisen, executive director of the council, which covers 101 Greater Boston communities.
Draisen emphasized the plan is long -term and requires towns to adopt a regional approach to their planning. Without a far-reaching vision, he said, the quality of life in the region would deteriorate and harm its residents' prospects of competing in a globalized world.
"We're thinking big, and I make no apologies for thinking big, " he said. "Is it easy? No, it isn't easy, but we have real competitive disadvantages to overcome to compete with Austin [Texas] and Bangalore [India]" in attracting new business, such as the high cost of housing.
The plan describes two destinies ...
5. Leaders call for united growth - Greensboro News Record - Greensboro, NC, USA
Two prominent leaders from Greensboro and High Point are swapping seats to make a point: The Triad’s cities can’t regain a booming economy by ignoring each other.
The semiannual High Point Market is the strongest remnant of the region’s traditional economy that also includes textiles and tobacco.
Since 2000, tens of thousands of jobs in the region have been cut or moved overseas, leaving it looking more like the depressed areas of eastern or western North Carolina than Charlotte or the Triangle.
Now, a similar furniture market in Las Vegas threatens, and business leaders have joined with the Piedmont Triad Partnership — the region’s economic development group — to find ways to keep the High Point furniture market strong and enhance it.
To make a point, Jim Melvin, chief executive officer of Greensboro’s Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, volunteered to lead the furniture study committee to show that Greensboro can’t afford to ignore the fate of the market.
"People in Greensboro ought to be as interested in that market as people in High Point, " Melvin said Wednesday at Elon University after the "Triad CEO Forum 2007" broadcast by UNC-TV and sponsored by the Bryan Foundation.
...
Melvin, who watched from the audience, and King said that the brightest prospect for the region’s economy right now is building a booming industrial city, or "aerotropolis, " around Piedmont Triad International Airport and the new FedEx regional hub.
Jim Morgan, a High Point business leader, has volunteered to lead the study committee for the aerotropolis, Melvin said, in another effort to make it clear that High Point, not just Greensboro, has a big stake in airport development.
...
RC: Piedmont Triad Council of Governments
6. Wider Route 50 among region's top road priorities - Annapolis Capital - Annapolis, MD, USA
Widening Route 50 to the Bay Bridge in the next 15 years tops the list of the region's most pressing transportation needs in a new 30-year vision by regional planners.
Along with expanding the Baltimore Beltway and Interstate 95 and extending Baltimore's rapid-transit system, adding more lanes to Route 50 is the most regionally significant transportation projects in the Transportation Outlook 2035.
The plan by the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board, a planning arm of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, brings together representatives from Baltimore and the five surrounding counties to begin planning for transportation needs beyond one jurisdiction's scope, such as the looming impact of the Base Realignment and Closure Process.
"They are the highest priority projects that cross jurisdictional lines, " said Harvey Bloom, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council's director of transportation planning.
The metropolitan region is expected to grow 19 percent in the next 28 years to just less than 3 million by 2035. Anne Arundel's population is projected to top 578, 000 by then, an 18 percent increase from 2000 Census Bureau figures.
The plan is an update to a 2004 document that meets state and federal regulations for regional planning and the 2007 draft is the first version to address BRAC, which could bring more than 20, 000 jobs to Fort George. G. Meade by 2014.
Both Annapolis and Anne Arundel participated in the plan's creation.
... Transportation Outlook 2035 identifies 11 critical road improvements in Anne Arundel, particularly around Fort Meade. Routes 175 and 198 are identified for widening projects by 2015 while Routes 100 and 170 are targeted for upgrades by 2020.
Maryland Department of Transportation spokesman Erin Henson called the list "a good first step to moving those projects forward."
"It shows all of the key players in the Baltimore region have developed a strong consensus tool, " she said.
7. Mergers could save suburbs money, boost services, experts say
Detroit Free Press
When the autumn leaves fall, Larae Koerber is envious of those who live on the Ferndale side of West End Street.
On Koerber's side of West End, residents must bag their leaves and take them to the curb. On the Ferndale side, the city allows residents to rake their leaves into the street where a city truck vacuums them up -- a service Hazel Park cut a few years ago to save money and keep its streets cleaner.
The lack of uniformity in services is puzzling, said Koerber, 42.
"I think it's kind of strange, " she said. "We're all paying taxes."
The barrier between the cities, West End Street, is barely a dozen paces wide, but it marks a change in address and a change in service. It's one example of how fragmented boundaries in suburban Detroit create obstacles, widely different services and increased costs for residents and businesses.
Increasingly, officials are asking whether the quilt of 130 cities, townships and villages that surround Detroit is an outmoded structure, too costly in a time of government budget crises and when there is a need to think regionally.
Some experts say that the state could do with fewer municipalities.
"When you look at it rationally, there is every reason to consolidate, except that it flies in the face of emotion, " said Susan Hannah, a political science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne who has studied local government mergers for years.
Hannah has studied 132 consolidation votes nationwide since 1947 and found that 23 of them were approved by voters -- a 17% success rate. She said while immediate savings are hard to identify, merged governments can be more efficient and save money in the long run.
Benefits of mergers
Michigan's economic crisis has reduced tax revenues and ...
Reader’s comments
...
I can't see anybody expecting to merge with a city/twp. that is completely unlike your own--or one which is completely buried in debt.
But places like Roseville, Easpointe, Fraser, St. Clair Shores, and Harrison Twp. could pull this off on the east side.
...
RC: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments
8. THE EDITOR'S COLUMN: Think regionally, obstruct locally, stupid planning
The Morning Journal - Ohio
Regionalism, shared strategies for growth and government, has been the professed goal in Northern Ohio for some time now. Sharing services and cooperating on economic development can save money and avoid unproductive competition over jobs.
In theory, it makes sense and I suppose there exist some fine examples of success. But when you look closely at regionalism you see the same bureaucracy, bullies and baloney that are too often more an impediment than a help.
When it comes to regional planning, Lorain County is a puppy without a teat, with a front row view but an empty stomach. Lip service, politics, self-preservation, and short-sightedness are the same viruses that have infected orderly progress for as long as there have been county lines.
The deliberate sand-bagging of legitimate Lorain County projects in the name of urban sprawl or noise pollution or whatever fabricated nonsense by the assorted mayors and commissioners of Cuyahoga County is reprehensible.
It is an ongoing poke in the eye that breeds such frustration and annoyance that you want government to just get the heck out of the way and let private market forces dictate growth.
I know that's a significant overreaction and doesn't constitute good policy, but the unreasonable and self-serving actions of the Northern Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) have eroded my patience and left me grasping for common sense. They've worn a hole in my saddle blanket and it's beginning to hurt.
... NOACA, heavily weighted with Cuyahoga County cave dwellers, is dedicated to stopping or slowing westward migration under the transparently false rhetoric of regional planning. Please.
They can see what families and business owners see. Less crime, lower taxes, good schools, room to expand, responsive city services are on the table in Lorain County. It's understandable why there would be interest in moving. ...
Sprawl
Mr. Cole,
I agree with you wholeheartedly on the Lorain Commuter Rail issue - a poor and near sighted case of NIMBY by some of the west side suburbs has hindered a potentially great project.
However, your case for the proposed exit off of I-90 is wrong. The free market has not called for sprawl, but rather the completely subsidized evolution of the interstate highway system has led to outward and unsustainable growth. If your exit is built (and the infrastructure paid for by all residents) it will be followed by some retail, office, and citizens. Then in twenty years (as has been the case with every suburb that was been a victim to sprawl) a new exit will open farther west and Lorain will lose the people it gained and more. Then it will be left with a hollowed out core that others face today.
9. Strategic planning around cities - eGov monitor - London, UK
Proposals for four new Strategic Development Planning Authorities in Scotland's largest city regions were announced on July 27.
The new authorities, part of the overall modernisation of the planning system, would be established for Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, working across boundaries to shape long-term strategies for growth and environmental protection. It is anticipated that planners from relevant local authorities will provide the necessary resource.
The authorities will produce four new strategic development plans that will replace existing structure plans for the city regions.
The proposed groups of authorities are as follows:
Glasgow city region - East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils
Aberdeen city region - Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Councils
Dundee city region - Angus, Dundee City, Fife Council and Perth & Kinross Councils
Edinburgh city region - City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian Councils
While the groups for the Aberdeen and Glasgow city regions mirror the existing groups of authorities that prepare structure plans, the groups for the Edinburgh and Dundee city regions include new authorities and in particular reflects Fife's interests in both Dundee and Edinburgh. This mirrors changes on the ground, for example, in relation to expanding housing market areas and travel to work areas.
Planning Minister Stewart Stevenson said:
"The creation of up-to-date and relevant development plans is critical to an effective and efficient planning system that helps to deliver the sustainable economic growth that Scotland needs.
"The new Strategic Development Planning Authorities will be at the centre of this work, leading the way in developing realistic yet ambitious strategies for the largest city regions.
...
Consultation on the proposed groups of authorities will run until the end of October.
10. U.S. regional communities - sub-State, State or multi-State - in news articles. Highlighted words are Google search terms. In this and the following section, links to websites of organizations are added to the news excerpt when this is the first time an organization has been found. A goal of this newsletter is to find every regional council in the
.10 Ed McKeon: Regionalization means cooperation
Lansing State Journal
We now have a clear example of what Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero means by regionalization with his posture on Lansing Township's project near Eastwood Towne Center. They provide the land and the economic environment, planning, local administration conducive to encourage such development and he will extract a premium for his utility services.
.11 HP and Ft. Collins: A symbiotic relationship
Denver Post
…"I took a map of the U.S. and circled cities that had airports within one hour's drive. Then in a different color I circled cities that were within a 30-minute drive to universities that had engineering schools, " wrote HP employee Stan Selby in an archived company document. "When you begin to look at these, there were just a few cities to consider." HP made a decision to put a manufacturing plant in Loveland in 1960. … Note: In 1960, location criteria were transportation and talent. Ed
.12 Thinking regionally
The Journal News - Lohud.com
After a spring in which rains caused repeated heartache to residents of parts of the Lower Hudson Valley, last month's flood "summit" at the Westchester County Center seemed to herald a new day, one with a new spirit of inter-municipal cooperation. ... But that was a whole month ago. The let's-all-work-together attitude seems to have fizzled, ...
.13 Friday's editorial: Building a place: Citizen involvement is key to community's future
Tallahassee Democrat
Last weekend at a retreat for community leaders, Randy Hanna said it's clear that business people in the community must play an active role in the discussion about regionalism. ...
.14 'Geotourism' Fights Tourist-Trap Travel
Forbes - NY, USA
Rhode Island in May became the latest region to sign the Geotourism Charter by the National Geographic Society, joining Arizona, Guatemala, Honduras, Norway and Romania in a commitment to the ideals of geotourism. The state will form a "Geotourism Collaborative" ...
.15 Local transportation district would pull in federal funds
Boston Globe - United States
The Ashland Democrat has sponsored a bill calling for the creation of a new 495 Metrowest Regional Planning and Economic Development district, ...
.16 Officials scramble to get workforce trained for Ft. Knox changes
Grayson County News Gazette - Leitchfield, KY, USA
Workforce development organizers from all over the Lincoln Trail district will be working hard over the next few years to help local job-seekers get trained for any new jobs that will come out of the Fort Knox military base realignment. ...
.17 PhillyCarShare Launches "Free Rail to CarShare" SEPTA Promotion
Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco, CA, USA
PhillyCarShare has announced the launch of a groundbreaking, first-in-its-industry program called “Free Rail to CarShare” that will reimburse its members for SEPTA use when they connect from the public transit service to a PhillyCarShare vehicle. Members who use subway, trolley and regional rail service ...
.18 Succeed as a world connection point
Detroit Free Press - United States
The growth of an aerotropolis surrounding the 11 runways at Detroit Metro and Willow Run Airports would also open up an economy far different from the heavy manufacturing ...
.19 Editorial: Solutions, not studies, needed for networks
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA
The Bay Area Council, a business-supported public policy group, last week launched an initiative to push for a telecommunications network befitting a a world-class tech region.... the council needs to go beyond identifying the problems. It also needs to push for achievable solutions. Otherwise, its efforts could end up as just another "competitiveness" report. ...
.20 Townsend elected to NARC office
Webster County Journal Enterprise
One of NARC’s fundamental concepts is that of “regionalism, ” something Townsend said he has believed in for many years.
.21 Arts grant funds available
Cleveland Daily Banner - Cleveland, TN, USA
“Last year 18 organizations in southeast Tennessee were awarded $20, 000 in grant funding through the ABC program.” said Susan Goldblatt, Assistant Planning Director of the Southeast Tennessee Development District. “We appreciate the Tennessee General Assembly’s funding of this program to bring the arts to all counties in Tennessee.” ....
.22 Area fire departments voice their needs during 'mini-workshop'
Siftings Herald - Arkadelphia, AR, USA
... West Central Arkansas Planning and Development District, Resource Conservation Development Council, the Arkansas Historic Preservation, Department of ...
.23 Disasters do not honor boundaries
Georgetown News Graphic - Georgetown, KY, USA
State law provides for joint agencies because disasters seldom honor man-made boundaries. State and federal funding for joint agencies is provided through ...
.24 Geologists might help oversee regional development
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Government geologists should review regionally significant construction projects for susceptibility to landslides, according to a legislative committee investigating a massive slide last year at a Wal-Mart development in Kilbuck. ...
.25 LETTER: Hutch can do much to fight global warming
Hutchinson Leader - Hutchinson, MN, USA
... development opportunities, promote healthier communities, develop stronger cross-jurisdictional relationships, and increase pride within a community. ...
.26 HRDC honors former director
Bemidji Pioneer - MN
John Ostrem came here Thursday to the Headwaters Regional Development Commission annual meeting at Executive Director Cliff Tweedale's invite, but he didn't know why. ...
.27 New map pays tribute to Thoreau's journeys in Maine's North Woods
Boston Globe - United States
A nonprofit group has now created what it calls the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail to pay tribute to Thoreau -- whom some consider the first ecotourist -- Drawing attention to Thoreau's North Woods' journeys can help draw people to the region for its natural beauty ...
.28 Climate Change Redraws the Map for Gardeners
Washington Post - United States
"So we took it upon ourselves to do our own map." For an updated take on which plants are hardy in your region, look at the foundation's map online at ...
.29 Q and A with Teri Takai - CIO for the state of Michigan
InterGovWorld.com - Toronto, ON, Canada
Q. What do you think is the main difference between e-government in the U.S. and Canada? A. One of the things I find very fascinating is that many of our struggles are so similar. ... The silos and the chimneys in the U.S. are very strong, and we're just now starting to see some of that cross-jurisdictional (work) because times are tight ...
11. Other in the news: Highlighted words are Google search terms.
.10 Reform before regionalism
Canada.com
At a meeting on June 19, the federal and provincial ministers responsible for securities regulation discussed the prospects for a common regulator for Canada's capital markets, but failed to reach any consensus. ... This outcome came as a surprise to the many who thought we had reached the tipping point for a common regulator. The failure to obtain enough support from large and small jurisdictions to move forward with such an initiative is quite remarkable. Virtually everyone now recognizes that the existing multiple-regulatory system is badly flawed and in need of repair. One is left in awe at the remarkable inability of our provincial and territorial governments to rise above regional interests in the face of a rapidly integrating and competitive global world. ...
.11 Treasury backs key NLGN recommendations on 'Redesigning Regionalism'
NLGN – UK
A number recommendations from NLGN's Redesigning Regionalism report have been incorporated into the Review, including merging together Regional Economic Strategies and Regional Spatial Strategies and giving local government a stronger ...
.12 Plan for growth — or get swamped
Seattle Times, United States
Get a handle on growth of the world's cities. ... Using Landsat satellite images ... new residents don't cause a city to expand physically at quite the rate of population growth. But they still cause, on a worldwide average, seven times more outspill than infill. ... how fast the population growth will force cities to infill or expand onto new territory. Just take the average of a region's population growth and income growth, ...
.13 Nebo to push ahead with own amalgamation vote
Daily Mercury - Mackay, Queensland, Australia
"A key plank of our democracy is that boundaries are determined by an independent commission not by elected representatives that contest those boundaries, " ...
.14 "We are changing the world's geography"
Hindu - Chennai, India
In other words, cooperation among ourselves for projects directed towards our own progress. Second is our cooperation vis-À-vis poorer countries. ...
.15 China awarded 2007 literacy prize by UNESCO
China Daily - China
The Region has a large ethnic population and a high illiteracy rate among its women. "The center notably put in place a wide system of rural education, ...
.16 Meeting looks for consensus on council names, divisions
ABC Regional Online
A special meeting yesterday of Mirani councillors showed unanimous support for an undivided Mackay Regional Council. However, Mackay and Sarina councils are pushing for the divided option.
.17 Judicial co-operation: a must for integration
Southeast European Times - MD, USA
Because criminals operate across boundaries, countries in Southeast Europe have to work together in order to bring them to justice. ...
.18 Government admits failed regional initiative
Barents Observer - Archangel, Russia
The Russian Ministry of Regional Development admits that the prestigious federal programme on the levelling of differences between regions have failed to ...
.19 You could look it up Privacy Software Tool packed with information
InterGovWorld.com - Toronto, ON, Canada
... the Privacy Landscape Tool contains a database that will allow users to co-ordinate common approaches and cross-jurisdictional initiatives, ...
.20 Copper Coast is sole European Geopark in the Republic
Waterford News - Waterford, Ireland
In this way geotourism on a European scale is developed. UNESCO launched the "Global Geoparks Network" in 2004 in recognition of the European Geoparks as ...
.21 11 Countries forge Golden Spear against disaster
East African - Nairobi, Kenya
... that the current preparedness and response capacities of member countries cannot effectively manage disaster, hence the need for regional co-operation. ...
.22 Governments the world over using issue of Internet "governance" to curtail freedom of speech
TelecomTV - London, UK
In summation the OSCE says, "It is important to support the view of the World Press Freedom Committee that 'governance' must not be allowed to become a code word for government regulation of Internet content"....
.23 Rural groups invited to revitalise their local areas
Northwest Regional Development Agency (press release) - Warrington, England's Northwest, UK
The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is inviting expressions of interest from stakeholder groups in the region to design and implement a package ...
.24 Chavez plans changes to Venezuela's regional government
Mathaba.Net - London, UK
"I am working letter by letter on all the proposals that I have received, of which the most important issue is Venezuela's territorial organization, ...
.25 East Africa: Regional Conservation Laws in Offing
AllAfrica.com
EAST African Community countries will soon have general regional laws on conserving forest and water resource.
.26 Value Adding Networks Will Render Supply Chains Obsolete
World Trade Magazine
... the advent of global crime, terrorism and conflicts, and potentially massive climate changes, impose the need to look for process network structures that are above all very robust, i.e., they can withstand and respond effectively to significant, instant changes in the business environment. Even during emergencies, these structures must also be capable of continuing to perform near optimally, i.e., in a manner that meets customers’ requirements while maximizing total benefits for the Orchestrator and its partners; this points to an incipient trend towards networks’ regionalization. ...
.27 Michael Jones | Geospatial Democracy
GCN.com - Washington, DC, USA
GCN: Google recently handed over its geographic markup language, KML, to the Open Geospatial Consortium to ratify as a standard. People have been calling ...
.28 The Learning Organization
American Chronicle - Beverly Hills, CA, USA
This necessitates processes that encourage interaction across boundaries. These are infrastructure, development and management processes, as opposed to ...
12. Blogs: Highlighted words are Google search terms.
.10 Keeping up with the Brahmins
By Anneliese Dickman(Ryan Horton)
Sounds like Milwaukee, but this was spoken at a recent citizen seminar at Boston College to release the latest Boston Indicators report. According to syndicated columnist and regionalism booster.
.11 Guest Editorial: Let's unite as a caring people and get on with the job
By Sentry Editor
The regionalization of school administrations was one big step in the right direction. I hope our legislature will evolve a new taxation program that will be fair to all of our citizens and the Brookings Institute report proposed: ...
.12 Community mapping
By socialcapital
It's not clear that the software will lead to greater social capital, but it might lead to increased civic engagement and a stronger sense of shared collective norms. The challenge with many such community mapping approaches, ...
.13 Trees, Meet Forest
By Ryan Avent
These are just two small and discrete examples of one of the most serious planning problems facing Greater Washington: the failure to plan regionally. Other competitive actions operate continuously throughout the metropolitan area, ...
.14 Moving Mountains @ ALA
By Evelyn Butrico
Valerie proposed a nationwide system with 4-6 regions that would piggyback on existing courier services but would be managed regionally. Bruce spoke about how to handle volume, from his experience managing a very large delivery service ... For more information check out the following websites: http://rethinkingresourcesharing.org/ ...
.15 MIC: Regional Transit Hub
By Gabriel J. Lopez-Bernal
... Miami Intermodal Center. With their new website up and running (finally!) we can get some better insight to some of my more pressing concerns, particularly the Florida regional transportation service. ...
.16 Regions in the spotlight
By webmaster
It's often argued that despite substantial funding allocated to the English regions and a multitude of regionally-targeted initiatives, the English regional policy lacks individual approaches to the regions. There is an impression that ...
.17 Why you should care when the TPC sends the RTP to the FTA
By Gulf Coast Institute – Houston TX
The 2008-11 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is the vehicle through which all regionally significant transportation projects are coordinated and approved by the TPC. The TIP must meet various state and federal guidelines as well ...
.18 Affordable housing - a rehab plan
By Michael Huang
They can coordinate regionally. And a big help would be to change restrictive zoning laws that greatly limit subsidized housing locations. That doesn't cost a penny - just political will.
.19 Regionalism: Illegal?!
By Fitz
We believe in regionalism. The Creative Coast Initiative was created through a partnership with our very progressive local governments, and regionalism is a function of its ultimate mission. Economic lines are not the same as county ...
.20 You Won’t Have James Dewberry To Kick Around Anymore…
By Dizzy Girl
"We believe in regionalism. The Creative Coast Initiative was created through a partnership with our very progressive local governments, and regionalism is a function of its ultimate mission. Economic lines are not the same as county ...
.21 and again city-county consolidation
By C. Briem
Anyway, this is nothing new. but for new readers who are interested I will again put up this link for my Primer on Regionalism and Fragmentation in Pittsburgh. One snippit of history long since forgotten: there once was a plan to merge ...
.22 Swedbank Stadion
By Göran Hansson
First of all, in the name of regionalism, how can a bank rename itself from Sparbanken to Föreningssparbanken and finally to its new name Swedbank? With a name like that there will be some bank customers, regionalists all over Sweden, ...
.23 Collaborating over Workforce
By cthompson
Regionalism. And what else do we know about Federal Requests for Proposals? If you blink, you'll miss the deadline. To succeed, an applicant has to have 1) a great, regional team and 2) a strong vision with programs in mind that can ...
.24 Comment on "Yet even these cities still have a chance, if they wise up.”
Brewed Fresh Daily
This is why I'm in favor of regionalism, ie merging the city and county. We sink or swim as a region. Klotkin oversimplified Huston's success. He failed to mention the effect of oil wealth and location to Mexico post NAFTA in Huston's ...
.25 Duncan Hines: More than a Mix
By David Hoekstra
America's small towns continue to turn to hometown heroes in efforts to cook up tourism. I've seen it with Dean Martin Days in Steubenville, Ohio and the Donna Reed Festival in Denison, Iowa. Now Bowling Green, Ky.. (pop 55, 000) is paying tribute to native son Duncan Hines with a festival ... Duncan was down with this quaint regionalism. Since transportation and refrigeration systems were erratic in the 1930s and 40s, Hines figured locally grown foods would be the freshest. ...
.26 And What Kinds Of Stories Are We Being Told?
By Smart City Consulting
Another issue of importance is regionalism, because regional answers are needed for the toughest problems facing urban areas. However, he cautions that regionalism is not the magic cure for all that ails cities. ...
.27 Big-picture regionalism
By Bill Callahan
At REALNEO, Bill McDermott reprints a really interesting Toronto Star article. "Sticking a straw in the Great Lakes is not a solution to Phoenix's water problems, " says Robert Shibley, director of the Urban Design Project at the State ...
.28 Center for Regionalism
By Craig Bowman
The Center for Regionalism was founded in October 1998 by a group of intellectuals from Novi Sad with an aim to reaffirm and promote the idea of regionalism in accordance with the contemporary European trends and experiences. ...
.29 Structural Aspects of German Export Dependence: Part I
By Edward Hugh
iv) regionalized production patterns through off-shoring of production to lower cost countries, partly a result of European economic integration (Sinn 2006). The authors then go on to assess the relative importance of each of these four ...
.30 So much geospatial data, so little time (to save the Earth Mashups to the rescue?)
ZDNet.com blogs - USA
According to Hamlin, the amount of geospatial data that's publicly available -- data that when creatively mashed could motivate non-green thinkers to start thinking green ...
13. Announcements and Regional Links
.10 Restoring Prosperity - The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities – Brookings Metro Report
Two months ago, the Metropolitan Policy Program released Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities to significant media and political notice. The report is part of a broad campaign with partners including Smart Growth America, the National Housing Institute, PolicyLink, the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, and the Northeast-Midwest Institute, as well as with organizations in six states (NJ, MI, OH, PA, NY, and CT), to shape a state and federal revitalization agenda that transforms America's older industrial cities.
» Read the report – 84 page PDF
» To learn more about the campaign or to get involved, visit the campaign's website
.11 Diplomas Count 2007: Ready for What? Preparing Students for College, Careers, and Life After High School – as reported in “The Agurban” from Boomtown Institute
The second annual report explores what it means to ensure that high school students graduate prepared for both higher education and the workplace. An original analysis drawing on two national databases shines a spotlight on “jobs with a future” nationally and for each state. Diplomas Count also examines state policies for college and work readiness and provides an updated analysis of graduation rates for the nation, states, and 50 largest school districts. In addition to the printed report, online-only features include state-specific policy reports and a new geographical web interface. Users can create interactive maps and download a special report for any school district in the country that includes comparisons to state and national statistics.
.12 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy – Request for Proposals – Current Listing
The Institute’s Program on the People's Republic of China cordially invites proposals for academic papers addressing land issues in China. There are four primary focus areas: Land market development; land markets, planning, and urban development; financing urban development and expansion; and urban development and the poor. Approved research funding will range from $20, 000 to $30, 000 over the duration of the project. High quality papers will become Lincoln Institute working papers upon approval by the president.
For more information and details about fellowship application guidelines for this and other RFPs, please visit the Web site above. For the China program, email applications must be received at jwhitehead@lincolninst.edu by September 15, 2007.
.13 Learning China In China – October, 2007
Two Short Advanced Courses will be held in China at the College of Economics and Business Administration at Chongqing University. Chongqing is the fastest growing city in China, an extraordinary opportunity for business and an exciting experiment in economic and social development.
Business Strategy in China (October 8-14, 2007) aims at providing the participants with deeper knowledge of the main strategic approaches and managerial implications in the complex Chinese market.
Marketing in China (October 13–19, 2007) aims at providing the participants with an understanding of the main marketing approaches and techniques in the Chinese market taking into account its regional differences.
Deadline for applications is September 17, 2007. For further information contact the Learning China Secretariat: learningchina@siafvolterra.eu
.14 To find out if a locality has SBA HUBZone status or a business is located in a SBA HUBZone, visit: http://map.sba.gov/hubzone/init.asp#address
.15 RRT Home Pages
There are 13 Regional Response Teams (RRTs), one for each of ten federal regions, plus one for Alaska, one for the Caribbean, and one for the Pacific Basin. Each RRT maintains a Regional Contingency Plan (RCP) and has state, as well as federal government, representation. EPA and the Coast Guard co-chair the RRTs. Like the NRT, the standing RRTs are planning, policy and coordinating bodies and do not respond directly to the scene. The RRT provides assistance as requested by the On-Scene Coordinator during an incident.
14. Subscription
.10 Economic plan in the works - commercialappeal-com (subscription) - Memphis, TN, USA
If things go well at Memphis Tomorrow and the Memphis Regional Chamber, we'll eventually learn that the community's economic development program is no longer the "most under-funded in the nation."
The label emerged from a recent study that helped persuade business leaders to launch an ambitious fund-raising program that will go beyond contributions from government and put the bite on local CEOs.
And after that, what? A big advertising campaign touting Memphis as the place to be for smart and ambitious young knowledge workers?
Sure, but not until all the pieces are in place to back up the claim. If Memphis is a product, it will have to be "new and improved" to fly off the shelf.
Memphis has a lot of nice attributes -- beautiful bluff-top views of the mighty Mississippi River, plenty of talent in the arts, big-league sports and some decent local attractions, to name a few. But there are some good ideas floating around that would help make the product more desirable, and they should be high among the priorities of the economic development campaign.
...
Another important focal point in the selling of Memphis is the development of the city's potential as an "aerotropolis, " which of necessity would include improving the look and feel of the city's gateway in the Brooks Road-Elvis Presley Boulevard area.
Of course, the creation of a national entrepreneurship "center of excellence" would signal to budding entrepreneurs that one of the most important facets of Memphis history is also a big part of its present.
The same message would be sent by building a planned resource for local musicians and others in the music industry to be called the Sam Phillips Center for Independent Music.
...
.11 Capital region rides Alberta's wave - Edmonton Journal (subscription) - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
From Legal in Sturgeon County, to neighbouring St. Albert, to Acheson, Sherwood Park and Leduc, Alberta's economic boom is having a profound effect on the communities surrounding Edmonton.
With $40 billion in oil upgraders slated for development over the next decade in nearby rural municipalities, to census figures showing the biggest growth occurring in the suburbs, the evidence is everywhere that Alberta's boom is creating jobs, spurring new and expanded business and has created Canada's most vibrant -- some simply say expensive -- real estate market.
Thanks to surging global energy prices, many Albertans benefit from growing good fortunes and spinoffs with a demand for new services and products. Businesses are thriving.
"Everybody wants to catch this wave, " says St. Albert entrepreneur and business owner Ivan Mayer. "If businesses aren't busy right now, there's something wrong."
St. Albert's first family of business, Bill and Jim Hole, believe the road to success and prosperity lies in greater regional co-operation, as new Albertans all but ignore regional boundaries.
But there are also downsides: skills shortages, supply bottlenecks, infrastructure deficits and other headaches related to a hot economy.
Starting today and continuing for the next four Fridays, The Journal examines the economic impact the boom is having on ....
15. Google News for “Regional Community”
Search term sections at this link include: regionally, regionalization, regionalized, regional, regionalism, regional intelligence, regional community, regional development, .... Sections can be sorted by date or relevance. These are among the 50 search terms I use to produce this newsletter.
My name is Tom Christoffel. I've worked in the field of intergovernmental cooperation since 1973. As a consequence, "I see regions work." Regional Community Development News is published weekly based on news reports as of Wednesday.
Making visible analysis and actions at multi-jurisdictional regional scales is its purpose. "Think globally, act locally" was innovative in its time. Today the local scale is often too small to address today's needs and opportunities. "Think local planet, act regionally, " is my candidate paradigm. (No one said we're only allowed one paradigm.)
We can see that “regional communities” are organized locally and now act both to avoid tragedy in the commons and gain benefits. An effective multi-jurisdictional regional community has DNA: it is geographically Defined; has a common Name and its Alignment is inclusive of smaller communities and participatory in larger communities. So, by scanning this compilation, reading articles and checking organizations - you too will be able to see the regional communities that already exist.
News references are found using the Google News search service. Media article links are “fair use” to transform globally scattered reports to make regional approaches visible. Links go to the publisher and do not compete with it. Such publishers are likely to have related stories and thus be seen by new customers. “Regional” is an emerging news category. There is no charge for this service and no profit is made from its use, though any user can become more aware of the topic itself.
To read and search previous issues go to: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/regions_work/
The term “Development” was added to the name in January, 2006.
For a free subscription use this email link – no additional information required:
regions_work-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
For the Google Groups version go to:
http://groups.google.com/group/regional-community-development-news
Editions since April 11, 2007 can also be found at: http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/
Questions, comments or items to feature in Regional Community Development News?
Please e-mail the editor: Tom.Christoffel@gmail.com
Thomas J. (Tom) Christoffel, AICP - Making regions visible for Leaders and Problem-solvers. www.regionalintelligence.com
