Multi-jurisdictional
intentional regional communities are, in all cases, “Greater Communities” where
“community motive” is at work at a more than a local scale. This newsletter
provides a scan of regional community, cooperation and collaboration activity
as reported in news media and blogs.
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Top 10 Stories
So here in town the topic of ‘Regionalism’ always breaks
down quickly into to two irreconcilable camps. Those who think our hyper
fragmented local government in Allegheny (one of the most fragmented in the
nation by the way, if not the most fragmented in the world) is costly and
inefficient and those who perceive the opposite as a movement toward one big ‘metropolitan’
government.
Both sides are wrong IMHO. Those who say fragmented government is
expensive never really look at what the expenses are of our smallest
municipalities. If you have few or no cops, no professional fire department and
rely on the state police or the county for much of what larger communities pay
for then guess what… low cost. They may
not be effective and really are foisting costs onto other taxpayers, but they
are not costly to the local taxpaer. On
the other side, there are so many ways to deal with the situation and few rise
to the level of creating some ‘mega’ government that technicially has not legal
basis at the moment and really is not on anyone’s agenda. But the paranoia
exists. …
Ten cities & seven counties govern most of the 1.7
million people in Hampton Roads. Each has its own police, fire & public
works departments.
And in the decade that ended in 2010, the region's
population grew slowly, by about 6 percent.
Contrast that with the Charlotte, N.C., area, where half
of the area's 1.8 million people reside in Mecklenburg County, a sprawling
jurisdiction of 524 square miles that is larger than the cities of Virginia
Beach & Norfolk combined.
Charlotte & Mecklenburg essentially act as one
government, jointly providing everything from water service & police
protection to the construction of a downtown sports arena. … Charlotte
metropolitan area's population grew by 32 percent - among the fastest in the
nation - from 2000 until 2010.
The message in those statistics is clear to Virginia
Beach City Councilman…Davis - in order to thrive, Hampton Roads' largest cities
should, where possible, begin sharing services.
"Either we truly become one region, or we will fall
while the Charlottes & other cohesive regions rise," …
Regionalism seems to be the topic du jour for everything
from economic development to disaster recovery to tourism. I can speak to one
of those areas, economic development, and assure you taking a regional approach
to industry recruiting is crucial.
I don't mean the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce just
talks about working with our partners in Baldwin County and beyond, but the
organization's mission and its staff walk the walk. We are 100 percent
committed to regionalism rather than just pay it lip service.
It is undeniable that should a major project creating
thousands of jobs locate in Baldwin County, Mobile County will reap benefits as
well. In fact, I would submit that many other surrounding counties would
benefit as well, including Washington, Clarke, Escambia and Choctaw. And that
is not to mention the counties in neighboring states.…
To that end, the economic development efforts of Baldwin
and Mobile counties should not be seen as competitive, but as cooperative. …
To the Editor:
It’s no great secret to those who have known me for a
while that I am a strong supporter of regional cooperation. With ever
increasing demands on resources, unreasonable state mandates, and a sluggish
economy, our small towns need to do whatever they can to deliver good quality
services at the lowest cost to taxpayers. …
There is potential to do more, especially in education,
and especially at the high school level, where the recently adopted common core
standards has the potential to dramatically increase local taxes. I applaud the
regional cooperation now in place, …
However, there are barriers which restrict even greater
sharing of staff and services. One of these is the current structure of the
state’s ECS (Educational Cost Sharing) program, which is calculated on a
town-by-town basis and discourages regional cooperation.
As a state legislator, I will support removing barriers
to regional cooperation. However, I will strongly oppose forced
regionalization…
SLICE: Strengthening Local
Independent Co-ops Everywhere, is an annual conference and organizing project
in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. The SLICE vision of an expanding
cooperative economy, one that feeds its own growth while promoting ecological
sustainability and social justice, has resonated inside and outside our
region’s co-op sector.
Since 2009, SLICE has engaged cooperators in the Pacific
Northwest with several key related ideas:
- Recognize the power of cooperation and the strength of the existing cooperative economy.
- Envision and work to grow a co-op economy that meets human needs across the board.
- Advocate a cooperative movement in which co-ops commit resources to grow the co-op economy.
- Inspire a cooperative model in which co-ops account for their -ecological and social impacts.
…
Collaborating to grow a cooperative economy
SLICE is designed as a break-even project and, with the
support of its collaborators, has approached that goal in its three years of
operation.
…
The town will join forces with Southern New Hampshire
Planning Commission (SNHPC) as part of an ambitious, three-year project being
led by the state’s nine regional planning commissions. Officials hope the
regional effort will ultimately spur economic growth …
During…Londonderry Planning Board meeting, SNHPC
President David Preece shared details of the regional planning project, made
possible with the 2011 approval of a federal Sustainable Communities grant.
Londonderry planning officials will help represent SNHPC
during the project, working with other planning officials from the North
Country Council, Lakes Region, Upper Valley Lake Sunapee, Southwest Region,
Central N.H., Nashua Regional, Rockingham and Strafford Regional planning
commissions.
… SNHPC will participate in program for next three years
with the goal of expanding and updating the existing regional comprehensive
plan, spanning nine regions and extending long-range planning for the Granite
State well into 2030.
…
In an effort to have New Jersey reinstated to the
nation's only cap-and-trade system, two environmental groups, the Natural
Resources Defense Council and Environment New Jersey have filed a law suit
against the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
Filed in Trenton, the lawsuit claims New Jersey's
Governor, Chris Christie (R), decision to withdraw the state from participating
in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) was illegal because it was
accomplished without adhering to the states' administrative laws. If it was
done legally, the group argue, the public would have had an opportunity to
comment on the decision.
Formed in 2007, RGGI represents the first United States'
market-based system to regulate emissions. The regional cap-and-trade network,
which now includes nine states along the east coast, requires heavy emitters to
cap their emissions. ...
Families' median net worth fell almost 40% between 2007
and 2010, down to levels last seen in 1992, the Federal Reserve said in a
report Monday.
As the U.S. economy roiled for three tumultuous years,
families saw corresponding drops in their income and net wealth, according to
the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances, a detailed snapshot of household
finances conducted every three years.
Median net worth of families fell to $77,300 in 2010
from $126,400 in 2007, a drop of 38.8%--the largest drop since the current
survey began in 1989, Fed economists said Monday. Net worth represents the
difference between a family's gross assets and its liabilities. Average net
worth fell 14.7% during the same three-year period.
Much of that drop was driven by the housing market's
collapse. Families whose assets were tied up more in housing saw their net
worth decline by more. Among families that owned homes, their median home
equity declined to $75,000 in 2010, down from $110,000 three years earlier.
…
Representatives of the Organization of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member countries pointed to the region's strategic
significance.
They also noted opportunities for further strengthening
of cooperation, during a BSEC meeting… in Belgrade.
The participants of the 26th meeting of the Council of
Foreign Ministers of the BSEC praised Serbia's chairmanship of the organization
and announced that the next BSEC summit…will be co-chaired by Serbia and
Turkey, which takes over the six-month rotating presidency on July 1.
Opening the meeting, Assistant Foreign Minister of
Serbia Slaฤana Prica said that the goal of the organization was to make the
Black Sea region a “region with no problems whatsoever between neighboring
countries and part of the world that is prosperous and peaceful.”
…
Strengthening BSEC's internal structures was Serbia's chairmanship
priority…stressing that it led to the strengthening of cooperation in two
priority areas - environmental safety and energy. ...
Government says its ongoing reform of mining policies
will need the collaborative efforts of stakeholders in the sector to achieve
the targeted, strategic national vision.
“It is through a deepened partnership of stakeholders
that the industry can achieve the six priority areas of poverty reduction,
revenue management, local content, regional development planning, social
investment, and dispute resolution,”… Minister for Lands and Natural Resources…
The government in its 2012 budget statement increased
the corporate tax rate for mining companies from 25 to 35 percent, introduced
an additional windfall tax of 10 percent, and established a uniform regime for
capital allowance of 20 percent that is deducted over five years.
…review of mineral agreements and to redesign draft
agreements to ensure that they yield maximum social and economic returns to the
country.
… Approximately 100 mining & power companies from
Ghana, Mali, India, China, Senegal, Canada and Australia…attending…conference
--
+ I joined the
American Association of Geographers in 2009 on the recommendation of Sally,
Regional Studies Association. Having been a planner since 1973 and involved
with the American Planning Association and its predecessors all those years, I
did not realize that I was also a geographer. Wikipedia has an overview of the
science. The link to regional geography is included. I went to geography
looking for the “perfect region.”
… Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into
two main subsidiary fields: the human geography and the physical geography. The
former largely focuses on the built environment and how humans create, view,
manage, and influence space. The latter examines the natural environment, and
how organisms, climate, soil, water, and landforms produce and interact.[9]
The difference between these approaches led to a third field, the environmental
geography, which combines the physical and the human geography, and looks at
the interactions between the environment and humans.[7]
R/GCDNews hiatus:
I will be in Beijing, China June 17
to 28 in order to attend the Regional Studies Association Global Conference
2012. The paper I am developing for presentation is entitled: “Community
Motive: The Untapped Identity Factor for Regional Development” Publication
should resume July 2. Tweets and
Delicious links will continue daily to the extend there is Internet access and
time.
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Basic Geocodes -
0000 - Earth
0900 - Arctic Ocean
1000 - Europe
2000 - Africa
3000 - Atlantic Ocean
4000 - Antarctica
5000 - Americas
6000 - Pacific Ocean
7000 - Oceana
8000 - Asia
9000 - Indian Ocean
"Global Region-builder Geo-Code
Prototype" ©
