Regional Community Development News - Top Stories - June 28-29, 2011

1. A New Threat to Regional Government & Environmental Quality at Lake Tahoe « Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy
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It seems extremely unlikely that California will accede to Nevada’s political demands. (As noted above, it was California’s insistence that the Tahoe Compact be made more environmentally protective that produced the revised, 1980 bi-state Compact.  Environmental preservation of Lake Tahoe continues to draw widespread, bipartisan support among Californians.) So unless Nevada blinks and repeals this unfortunate act of political extortion, nearly a half century of bi-state cooperation and environmental leadership will end in 2015, when Nevada withdraws from the Tahoe Compact. What happens thereafter–and whether the Tahoe Basin’s fragile environment can be preserved–is anyone’s guess.


2. Addressing Regional Skill Gaps « EMSI | Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.


So the topic du jour is the skills mismatch in the US, which is all about how employers are having a hard time finding appropriately skilled employees during a time of abundant unemployment. It’s an odd phenomenon, and one that has folks at all levels flummoxed. 


So why is this happening? There are a bunch of explanations – economic change has revealed that the American workforce: 1) has a lot of out-of-date skills and training; 2) vocational institutions and higher education aren’t equipping students with what employers want; 3) rapid advances in technology and business have created skills needs that very few possess; 4) as businesses become more lean, they want more out of their employees. 
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Below are a series of steps that EMSI recommends. From a best practices standpoint, our clients have taken the critical information identified through this process to execute new strategies, invest in innovative practices, and adjust to rapidly changing economic environments.
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3. A Restructuring of Census Bureau Regional Offices - The Director's Blog
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The regional offices are a key part of our work, and we have been deliberating since April 2010 on how best to organize them for the future. Our goal is to prepare the Census Bureau for the changing landscape of statistical data collection we see coming.


We have decided to transition from a Regional Office design of 12 offices to one of 6 offices. The transition has begun and will be fully completed by January 2013. The new design strengthens and unifies the supervision of field representatives and increases the number of supervisory staff working out of their homes. Simultaneously, we are reviewing the technical and administrative organization within the headquarters offices in order to assure that we have both a strong technical skill mix and a cost efficient administrative organization, matching that of the new regional structure.
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4. Create a network of regional European news agency | Social European Journalism Blog


This proposal was submitted to us by Jean Lemaître ( Director of IHECS International and Further education) and Thomas Lemaigre ( Director of Alter Agency ).


Around 800 European journalists are accredited to European Institutions. They do a hard and necessary work. But they generally favour political and institutional information and often find themselves isolated from their national and regional editors, who compartmentalise European information without leaving sufficient breathing space for the local dimension.


Furthermore, fewer and fewer media can afford the taxes and expenses to maintain a journalist in Brussels. With a few exceptions, they are essentially national media.


At the same time, dozens of thousands journalists work in the 27 Member states, on regional and local areas, close to citizens: local radio and televisions, town and associative newspapers, Internet…...


Our proposal:


We offer to set up a network of regional European press agencies which:
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5. Plan unveiled to build region's 'Culturescape' - The Cornwall Standard Freeholder - Ontario, CA


The regional culture plan ... recommending that a special committee be formed to consolidate resources, including the creation of a central arts facility, in the hopes of boosting economic spinoff opportunities.


The plan, called Building the Culturescape in Cornwall and the Communities of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, was presented to about a dozen municipal politicians and close to 100 members of the public ...


High amongst the recommendations is a cultural council, which would be the glue toward embellishing cultural pursuits in the region, ...


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One of the recommendations cited the role for municipalities to establish a "funding envelope" which moves the plan forward consistently. Oftentimes, some money is needed to "leverage" provincial and federal grant programs.


Another recommendation, to create a cultural map listing as many activities and venues as possible, is needed.




6. Thinking regionally: Great Lakes Bay collaboration growing - Midland Daily News:
Collaboration is growing in the Great Lakes Bay Region, according to attendees at a first-ever community update on regional efforts.

The Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance organized the event Tuesday at the Midland Center for the Arts, bringing together leaders from Midland, Bay, Saginaw and Isabella counties.

Terry Moore, CEO of the GLBR Alliance, said councils have been formed to improve advocacy efforts, economic development, education and arts and entertainment in the region. The organization also runs the GLBR Leadership Institute, now 171 graduates strong, to spread the message that the communities in the region are stronger together than alone."

Together, we are enough," Moore said. "We're able to do what needs to be done and we are in the process of doing it."

Moore welcomed Isabella County into the alliance at the event.
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"Regional cooperation and collaboration are key elements in a thriving regional economy,"  ...



7. 'Vision' folly | Press-Enterprise Editorials | PE.com | News for Inland Southern California

Spurring greater regional cooperation in San Bernardino County requires more than feel-good public relations symbolism. Yes, collaboration by local governments can be effective at addressing common needs. But innocuous generalities will not build a countywide partnership; city and county officials need to develop practical approaches to reach that goal.

Local government officials plan to adopt a new shared "vision" for the county at a June 30 meeting of the San Bernardino Associated Governments. ...

... developing a coordinated strategy requires something more substantial than the banal results of a "visioning process."

San Bernardino County should focus on functional ways to meet countywide needs, not on rhetorical gestures. Riverside County, for example, has a uniform transportation fee for development and a multi-species habitat conservation plan, which attempt comprehensive solutions to regional issues. Words are no substitute for steps that offer real, practical progress.


8. LOWELL MURRAY: You do not govern, you hold to account those who do | iPolitics

Below is a speech Sen. Lowell Murray, the longest serving senator still sitting, delivered at a conference honouring prominent Acadian scholar Donald Savoie held earleir this month at Le Pays de la Sagouine in Bouctouche, N.B.

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Canadians, especially those who live in or come from the slower growth regions, tend to take for granted and to seldom acknowledge how federal government transfers to persons such as pensions and Employment Insurance contribute indirectly to the maintenance of decent incomes and living standards in those regions, and make possible the existence at any viable level of seasonal industries such as fisheries and tourism. Likewise intergovernmental transfers — not just Equalization but transfers for health, post secondary education and social programs — help maintain national standards and prevent the massive rate of disinvestment, outmigration and depopulation that would occur in the absence of such standards.

Then of course there are the direct federal investments in ports, airports, military bases and various infrastructure that contribute very significantly to the economy of those regions. All this is today part of the Canadian fabric,  ...

9. Anglican-Lutheran dialogue examines service and witness - ENInews

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The commission, which was established in its current form in 2004, will recommend that the next phase of Anglican-Lutheran international work be a coordinating committee, rather than a theological group, to encourage cooperation in regional work. Theology, however, would still be part of its mandate, ....

The meeting heard of the difficulties faced by Christians in the Holy Land, where much of the Palestinian population faces daily restrictions and lack of jobs and opportunities. The meeting also heard from Christians from Tanzania, South Africa, Argentina, Botswana and Japan, whose general message was "an emphasis on getting on with mission," Barnett-Cowan said.

Regional cooperation could take the forms of challenging the stigma of HIV/AIDS or working together to combat climate change, she noted. In Jerusalem, "there had been a full communion commission and the bishops pledged to re-activate that," she said.
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Webinar June 29,Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities Program 4:30 pm EDT

From: Sustainable Communities 

Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 4:58 PM
To: Sustainable Communities
Subject: Announcing the Second Webinar on the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities Program

As announced earlier this month, HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities and EPA’s Offices of Sustainable Communities, Water, and Brownfields and Land Revitalization have issued a joint Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities Program.

HUD and EPA will be hosting a second webcast to discuss this funding opportunity and answer questions related to the NOFA on Wednesday, June 29, at 4:30 pm Eastern Time.

In order to participate in the webinar on the Capacity-Building NOFA  you will need both to call in by phone and to log in online.  Instructions are as follows.

Telephone Access

In order to hear webinar audio, please call (800) 762-7308.  There is no passcode—an operator will ask for your name and other optional information, and then connect you to the call.

Internet Access

In order to view the webinar, please visit https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/hud/join?id=7GRGCR&role=attend.  You can log on up to 30 minutes before the meeting start time.  If that link doesn’t work for some reason, you can go to https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/hud/join and enter the meeting ID, 7GRGCR.

We urge you to check beforehand to ensure that LiveMeeting works on your computer.

We look forward to your participation.

We will send out an email with the access information shortly.

Applications for the NOFA are due July 8, 2011. Nonprofit organizations, local or state public agencies, for-profit organizations, nationally recognized and accredited Universities or Colleges, or any combination of eligible entities as a Capacity Building Team are eligible to apply for funding. For more information on how to apply, including recently posted FAQs, please review the NOFA by clicking here.

For more information on this funding opportunity, please visit hud.gov/sustainability, or contact Rachel Kirby in HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at rachel.t.kirby@hud.gov.

Regional Community Development News - Top Stories - June 27, 2011

1. New Report: Most Aging Baby Boomers Face Poor Mobility Options : Center for Neighborhood Technology


CNT provided the analysis for the new Transportation4America report, Aging in Place, Stuck Without Options, out today on the cities that have worst mobility options for seniors. Large cities with the poorest transit access for seniors included Atlanta, Riverside-San Bernardino (CA), Houston, Detroit, and Dallas-90% of seniors in Atlanta will lack transit access in 2015. Medium-sized cities (1million-3million) with the poorest transit access for seniors are Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth-Arlington, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill. By 2015, 88% of seniors in Kansas City will have poor access to public transit.


CNT Research Director Peter Haas ... “As you see in the cities that top the worst mobility options for seniors, urban form is more spread out. Baby boomers by and large were raised in more dispersed communities where auto-dependency was the favored mode of transport. As the boomers age in these areas, they will be most affected by lack of public transportation.”
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2. Nevada law shifts balance of power on Tahoe planning agency - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee


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The law is a manifestation of Nevada's mounting frustration with Tahoe development restrictions. Though critics say TRPA has rarely balked at any major development project at the lake, cumbersome regulations often produce years of delay and extra compliance costs.


"It's an issue about the pace of work that gets done," said Maureen McCarthy, executive director of the Tahoe Science Consortium. "Nevada's position is driven heavily by the economic climate. The state is broke, and by comparison to California, Nevada is really broke."


McCarthy's group helps government officials understand the science that affects Tahoe. She said TRPA has been invaluable in that regard because it welcomes that science and incorporates it into decisions.


... "We don't want to see the baby thrown out with the bath water, and the baby is science."...


California state Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, supports the new Nevada law. His district includes the California portion of Lake Tahoe, ...


3. Senecas seek bigger role as area developers - Business - The Buffalo News


The Seneca Nation of Indians wants to be a bigger player in economic development across Western New York and into Pennsylvania.


The nation hosted a meeting of economic development officials from both states Thursday in its Seneca Allegany Casino to learn what each other has to offer and how they can work together in the future.


“For the longest time, I’ve wanted to get all the IDAs and development agencies in this region together in one room to discover and discuss what we have in common,” said Robert Odawi Porter, the Seneca Nation president.


“Let’s see how we can all work together to foster and build economic development options to benefit all our people, whether they live within Seneca, New York or Pennsylvania boundaries,” Porter said. “Good business knows no boundaries.”


... meeting was one of the first times that economic development officials from the Seneca Nation and five New York and two Pennsylvania counties had gotten together to talk about economic development.


4. EDITORIAL: Charting the course for economic growth - Northwest Indiana


The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's major study of the greater Chicago area -- from southeast Wisconsin to Northwest Indiana -- is one more effort to chart a course for the area's future.


The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is leading the Paris-based OEDC's tri-state study to analyze the region's economic impact. In the process, the chamber will gauge the area's economic competitiveness, attractiveness, sustainability and political climate compared to other major cities around the world.As a major study, the effort includes amassing an army of data. But it's also a call to arms for people and organizations to improve the situation here.


The Gary and Region Investment Project ...is a similar undertaking for Northwest Indiana.... 


"I think people are recognizing that we could be in trouble unless we take steps to act,"  Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Foundation President .... "There's a recognition on a global scale that regional approaches ... make sense."
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5. Next American City » Magazine » The Enabling City


We face massive challenges … and we are inspired.” This is the opening line of what until a few years ago would have been considered an improbable urban manifesto. Crafted in 2006 by the Social Silicon Valley collective, Towards City 2.0 is a compelling call to arms that was submitted to an international ideas competition launched by officials in Helsinki, Finland. Confronted with the need to address issues of rapid population growth and environmental change, 14 towns and municipalities in the Helsinki Metropolitan Region turned to the public, looking for solutions that would address their residential, land use and transportation needs of the future. In six incredibly insightful pages, City 2.0 details the collective’s vision for a city that doubles as an innovation hub. Here, hyperlocal ideas are connected to the larger city fabric through a “social innovation mayor,” a political figure responsible for driving long-term structural changes by unlocking the capacity of others to ...


6. Human Transit: that influential texas "urban mobility report" 


.. Congress for the New Urbanism conference in Madison ... a small but sharp audience gathered to hear Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) debate Joe Cortwright of CEOs for Cities.  Tim was there to defend TTI's influential Urban Mobility Report (UMR), an annual compendium of statistics that are widely used to define how US cities think about mobility problems and to benchmark these cities against each other.  Joe was there to attack TTI's methodology as biased against compact, sustainable cities. 


The technical core of the argument is simple.  TTI's Travel Time Index, one of their more quoted products, is a ratio of peak congested travel times by car against uncongested travel times by car.  In other words, travel times are said to be "worse" only if they get much longer in peak commute hours than they are midday. 


This ratio inevitably gives "better" scores to cities where normal uncongested travel times are pretty long -- in other words, spread-out cities. ...


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7. Regional committee to go the distance - Australia


A new Ministerial Advisory Council is to be established to advise the Minister for Regional Australia on issues affecting country communities.


   The Minister, Simon Crean said the new Council would give regional communities even stronger backing at the highest level of government.


   Mr Crean said $4.3 billion was budgeted for key investments in regional communities including health and hospitals, skills, higher education and infrastructure.


   He said the Government had strengthened the role of the nation’s 55 Regional Development Australia Committees and was driving a new place-based approach to help deliver local solutions to local issues.


“We are determined to make sure regional communities can meet the challenge of an economy in transition and reach their full potential,” Mr Crean said.
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8. Development Blueprint For County Clare Is Launched - Ireland


The Mayor of Clare launched the Clare County Development Plan 2011-2017 today describing it as a “window of opportunity for the County to foster innovation, creativity and new sustainable, inclusive development.”


Councillor Christy Curtin joined Council officials as well as Clare’s 31 other Elected Members at the official launch in Aras Contae an Chláir.


The Clare County Development Plan 2011-2017 sets out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of the functional area of Clare County Council. The six-year blueprint replaces the existing County Development Plan 2005 and is the sixth such Plan since 1964.


... Mayor Curtin stated: “The primary goal of this Plan is to position County Clare as a driver for local and regional growth through harnessing the potential of its unique location, quality of life, natural resources and other competitive advantages.  Ultimately, the Plan seeks to make County Clare a better place to live in, work and visit.”


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9. Cisco CEO Keynotes at 2011 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Conference


John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems


Enhancing capabilities through regional collaboration.  The tech community has provided the opportunity to enhance our communications and coordination.


What is changing?  Market transitions don't wait for anyone.  Security and safety is another piece of this.  Think about what social media brings to the table, but in a secure fashion.  The public sector is going to get leaner and meaner. Today it is a network economy feeding on information.  Now you have so much data that you need to access the relevant data.  Dynamic is the way to think about it.  Interagency coordination is needed.


Constant change is going to be tough.  Collaboration is the answer, not command and control.  Need to outthink and outmaneuver the events that are going to impact us.  We used to function in the PC world.  Today it is all about mobile.  By 2013 there will be 1 trillion devices connecting people across the world.Getting these all to work with a seamless interface is the key...for future collaboration.


10. Carl Zimmer: A Planet of Viruses - The Long Now Foundation - FORA.tv


The Earth's atmosphere is determined in large part by ocean bacteria; every day viruses kill half of them. Every year in the oceans, viruses transfer a trillion trillion genes between host organisms. They evolve faster than anything else, and they are a major engine of the evolution of the rest of life. Our own bodies are made up of 10 trillion human cells, 100 trillion bacteria, and 4 trillion very busy viruses. Some of them kill us. Many of them help us. Some of them are us. Viral time is ancient and blindingly fast.


Science journalist Carl Zimmer's wrote "A Planet of Viruses" and explains in this presentation what is known about the viruses. SARS, HIV and H1N1 are covered, as well as the need for an annual vaccination, since viruses mutate so rapidly. The other Long Now Foundation videos at this site are worth a look. Steward Brand, publisher of "The Whole Earth Catalog" is the founder and moderator for questions after the presentation.  


More links: http://www.delicious.com/I.see.regions.work