1. Analog region in a digital economic age - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Milwaukee, WI, USA

 

A Tokyo executive who is curious about Cincinnati, a magnet of Japanese industrial investment, lands with a casual Google search at Cincinnati-USA.org, a no-nonsense site that touts the city's strengths in Japanese and five other languages.

 

The site is part of a broader strategy that's helped boost the number of foreign-owned companies in the metro region to 285 from 168 in the past five years, creating more than 38,000 jobs, according to the Cincinnati USA Partnership 2004 investor report. The site also hawks Shakespeare Festival tickets.
...

Milwaukee's online anonymity makes it an analog city in a digital global economy - a place where civic and political leaders are just beginning to scratch out the kind of economic strategy that has been underpinning growth in other cities for a decade. Before a Web page can sell a city's economic vision, a city needs a vision in the first place.

 

For example, while ClevelandGrowth.com lets visitors download the greater Cleveland area's "strategic plan" right off the home page, Milwaukee doesn't yet have a strategic plan, according to the Department of City Development.

...

RCs:

Milwaukee: Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission

Cincinnati: Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments

Cleveland: Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency - MPO

 

 2. Survey Shows Support for $3 Toll at Border - ABC News – USA

 

Nearly 60 percent of people who enter the United States in the San Diego area would pay $3 for a speedier trip from Mexico, according to a new survey that comes as heightened security measures stir fears that the economy will suffer if waits become intolerable.

 

The poll by the San Diego Association of Governments and California Transportation Department found that 59.4 percent of border crossers would pay $3 at a proposed port of entry in San Diego's Otay Mesa district. Another 14.2 percent would pay occasionally, while 26.5 percent would avoid the toll.

...

 

 3. Region 2020 reveals stats - Shelby County fares well among 11 Others - Shelby County Reporter - Columbiana, AL, USA

 

There is now a resource where Shelby County residents can learn everything from how prosperous they are to how much ozone is in the air.

 

The 2005 edition of "Community Counts: Measuring Progress in Our Region" was released to the public last week at eight separate locations, including Pelham. The report focuses on 12 central Alabama counties.

 

Region 2020, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the Regional Planning Commission, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama and the United Way of Central Alabama sponsored the report.
...

 

 4. Commission launches 5-year work programme to reinforce Euro-Mediterranean Partnership - Eurofunding.com - Paris, France

 

The European Commission today unveiled a wide-ranging work programme to reinforce the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Barcelona Process) over the next five years. In a Communication to the Council and Parliament, the Commission outlined proposals for concrete progress in three areas critical for the future of the region: Education, Sustainable Economic Growth; and Human Rights and Democracy. ...

 

 5. April 20 Meeting Will Discuss Establishing Regional Council of Government - Westport Now - Westport, CT, USA

 

Connecticut's county government structure disappeared 45 years ago amid unhappiness with what many perceived as a corrupt and unnecessary level of government. Since then, the closest thing lower Fairfield County has had to a regional structure is the South Western Regional Planning Agency, known as SWRPA.

 

SWRPA is one of 15 regional planning councils authorized by state statute. But now the group, which includes representatives from Westport and seven other area communities, is considering changing from a regional planning agency to a regional Council of Government, known as a COG.

...

In January, the chief elected officials and several SWRPA board members attended a presentation on the role of COGs by James Butler, executive director of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, which is based in Norwich.

 

The group was formed in 1992, changing from what until then had been the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Planning Agency.

...

 6. Regionalism still has support - Huntington Herald Dispatch - Huntington, WV, USA

 

The failure of the state Legislature to pass a bill in this year’s regular session outlining how counties and cities can merge has not dampened the support local and state leaders in business and politics have for the proposal.

 

Merging some of the state’s 55 counties and more than 230 municipalities, however, just might take longer than some had hoped.

 

The bill (SB159) would have set a process for the mergers of multiple cities and counties as well as the merger of city and county governments into one metro government.

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Charleston and Huntington-Ashland are two of 362 MSAs in the U.S. Should the two areas combine, the ensuing MSA would rank in the top 100 in the country, a designation proponents say would make the area attractive to business.

...

 

 7. Capital city's reach grows - The State - Columbia, SC, USA

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The government two years ago enlarged its definition of the Columbia metro area from Richland and Lexington counties to include Calhoun, Kershaw, Saluda and Fairfield counties.

 

The boundaries were changed in large part because of the traffic that the Gaddy brothers tap.

 

Metropolitan areas are bureaucratic abstractions designed to describe economic communities — clusters of people who live or work together, regardless of political boundaries.
...

RCs:

Central Midlands Council of Governments - Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland

Upper Savannah Council of Government - Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Saluda

Santee-Lynches Council of Government - Clarendon, Kershaw, Lee, Sumter

Lower Savannah Council of Government - Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Orangeburg

 

 8. Extreme makeover - Buffalo News - Buffalo, NY, USA

 

Every year, it's the same old story. A crisis develops in Buffalo and the tin cup brigades head from Buffalo to Albany, asking for help.

 

Weary state legislators respond with money for a stadium or a cultural group or a new building or schools.

 

Yet Buffalo's decline continues.

 

Maybe it's time to try something new. Time to stop the quick-fix, finger-in-the-dike government bailouts that ignore the region's structural problems.

 

"One of the mistakes our region has made historically is to look for the silver bullet," says former state legislator John Sheffer, now a regionalism advocate in Buffalo.

 

Major changes are necessary, he and other experts say.

 

Today, we lay out six of the most important solutions. None is a salvation in itself, but together, these reforms would make a huge difference in Buffalo's future, according to those interviewed for this story.
...

 

 9. Regional teamwork holds key to Tri-County economic growth - The Saginaw News - Saginaw, MI, USA

 

Philanthropist Margaret Ann "Ranny" Riecker applauds past regionalism efforts, but has three words of further encouragement: Don't stop now.

...

From an economical standpoint, she said, it is imperative the three counties work in harmony.

 

Her theme is one officials have hammered repeatedly, particularly since commerce experts warn that mid-Michigan's economy will erode in the 21st century without teamwork.

 

Last October, Theodore Hershberg, professor of public policy and history and director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, said regions -- not individual cities or suburbs -- are the future units of competition in the global economy.

 

Collaboration is "the bottom line of our economic and social survival," Riecker said.

RC: East Central Michigan Planning & Development Regional Commission

 

10. WCU seeks ‘big ideas' at Futures Forum - Asheville Citizen-Times - Asheville, NC, USA

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The forum will bring hundreds of creative thinkers, futurists, professors, students and the curious to WCU on Wednesday to talk about what the next 20 years will bring. But the laptop competition capitalizes on the here and now, an entrepreneurial niche wherein one person can run a business, from product development to sales.

 

“It’s not only a fun thing to do, but it’s a way of showing how as a unit of one you can begin to compete in the new economy,” said Paul Evans, director of WCU’s Center for Regional Development, which is hosting the forum. “There have been cases where a couple of students working out of their dorms have put together their own music videos, and the songs are on the MTV hit list.”

 

The competition is part of the “student ingenuity” sessions at the i7 Futures Forum, which derives its name from the forum’s seven guiding themes: imagination, ideas, insight, ingenuity, innovation, invention and inspiration.

...

 

RC: Land-of-Sky Regional Commission

 

11. As China grows more powerful, regional rivalries take new turn - Seattle Times – USA

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For the government, the anti-Japanese sentiment is worth supporting because it feeds a growing sense of nationalism in China, which the Communist Party considers crucial for maintaining its legitimacy. The party stakes its claim to power on their World War II guerrilla war against Japanese invaders. Critics say the party manipulates anti-Japanese sentiment to divert attention from anger at corruption, economic problems and a lack of democracy.

 

The underlying cause of the protests is widely regarded to be a growing fear in China that rival Japan may become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, should U.N. reform proposals be adopted in September. Japan is the second-largest contributor to the United Nations after the U.S., and has allied itself with Germany, India and Brazil, the other rising regional powers, in pushing for permanent status on the world body's inner council. The U.S. recently began openly backing Japan's longstanding bid for a seat.

...

 

12. Minister Hints at New Bid for Super-Casinos - Scotsman – UK

 

Slashing the number of new super-casinos to just one will strip deprived communities of �600 million of investment and more than 40,000 jobs, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell warned today.

 

The Government has been forced to accept the reduction to rescue the rest of its gambling laws shake-up from being blocked by peers.

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The Government had originally foreseen up to 40 of the massive gambling venues being built around the country but later accepted that the number be reduced to eight.

 

Now the effects of Las Vegas-style establishments on problem gambling and redevelopment will be trialled in just one location –– probably Blackpool.

...

 

13. Announcements

      a) "Relevance in the 21st Century" 39th Annual Conference & Exhibition - National Association of Regional Councils - June 24-28, 2005 - Monterey, CA - Hosted by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments   

      b) Alliance for Regional Stewardship’s (ARS) National Forum on Regional Stewardship. May 4-6, 2005 in Washington, D.C.  - “The Next Generation in Collaboration—Linking Economic and Social Issues”  -

14. Straight from Google.

 

      a)  Seider's defeat leaves empty seats - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Milwaukee, WI, SA

... The statewide Alliance of Cities and Milwaukee County's Intergovernmental Cooperation Council will also have to find new top leaders: Seider is president of ...

 

      b)  Cooperation in regional security - Jamaica Observer – Jamaica

... these threats. The pooling of security resources, like in other areas of regional cooperation, has grown in attractiveness. Indeed ...

 

      c) Text of the 4th ACD meeting declaration - Hi Pakistan - Lahore, Pakistan

... to realize the vision of an Asian community. ... SAARC), the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the ... Council (GCC), Greater Mekong Sub-region Cooperation (GMS ...

 

      d)  New planner key to how LA grows - Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles, CA, USA

... He also has convened public hearings before area planning commissions to gather community input about the future planner, and Hahn has said he will have ...

 

      e) Cooking up a plan - Sun-Sentinel.com - Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

... liberals. Despite these divisions, a banner above the plaza party was emblazoned with the slogan: "In the Spirit of Regionalism.". ...

 

15. Other U.S. regional communities in news articles.

 

      a) Indian Nations Council of Governments Receives EPA Clean Air Excellence Award  - U.S. EPA.gov (press release) - Washington, DC, USA

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Tulsa's Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG) as a Clean Air Excellence Award winner.  INCOG designed an educational program to improve air quality in the region by introducing Tulsa high school students to carpooling, alternative transportation sources, and "green vehicles."

...

      b) Public forum will touch on all subjects - Ledger Independent - Maysville, KY, USA

The Buffalo Trace Area Development District is sponsoring a public forum Monday at 6 pm at Maysville Community and Technical College Fields Auditorium to hear ideas and comments from residents in the area. Doug Padgett, said the forum is to help BTADD with its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. ...

 

      c) ARC plans new 'vision' for the metro - Atlanta Business Chronicle - Atlanta, GA, USA

 

The Atlanta Regional Commission will soon launch Envision 6+, a multi-year planning effort to prepare the area for its anticipated 2030 population of more than six million people.

 

Metro Atlanta is expected to add more than two million residents by that date, and it's the ARC's job to figure out how to provide them all with enough water, roads and other infrastructure to meet their needs.

...

16. Other in the news:

      a) Prof proposes new peace and governance program - Gateway.ualberta.ca - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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A proposal for a peace and governance certificate, which would complement an undergraduate degree, is currently working its way through the administrative approval rounds.
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“Basically, what we are trying to show is that if you want to build sustainable peace, you have to have good governance structures in place. ... From reconstruction of societies that have been torn apart by war or rebuilding institutions of governance that are in countries considered failed states, how do you go about doing that?” Knight asked, noting that the road to peace is a complex trek that must study the underlying causes of the initial conflict.

...

 

      b) Philadelphia Goes Wireless With Ambitious Public Wi-Fi Plan - Sci-Tech Today – USA

The City of Philadelphia has launched an ambitious plan to deliver wireless broadband to the masses, offering its own brand of Wi-Fi access throughout a 135-square-mile area.

 

The "Wireless Philadelphia" initiative was unveiled Thursday by Mayor John F. Street as an effort to boost economic development, bridge the digital divide among citizens and buff the city's image by providing valuable service both for residents and for businesses.

...

 

17. Subscription link stories 

 

Chinese intelligence role in region is eyed - Miami Herald – (subscription) - FL, USA

... military presence in Latin America, but for the first time warned about Chinese intentions to establish an intelligence and cyberwarfare beachhead in the region ...