Note: This issue covers two weeks. Last week I attended the Alliance for Regional Stewardship National Forum in Washington, D.C. The theme was "The Next Generation in Collaboration - Linking Economic and Social Issues." Proceedings from this Forum will be available online soon according to the Alliance website. No news articles relating to this event have yet to appear. Coverage or regional news remains sparse, though the volume of articles is increasing. Ed.

 

 1. 55 housing boom towns – MSN Money

 

The number of areas across the United States with real estate booms grew nearly two-thirds last year to 55, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said, warning that these booms may be followed by busts.

The boom areas represent 15% of the 362 metropolitan areas the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight analyzes, the highest proportion of boom markets in 30 years of price data and more than twice the peak of the late-1980s booms. California had 21 of the 55 boom markets in 2004; Florida had 11 and the Northeast had 18.

Boom areas were defined as having inflation-adjusted prices at the end of 2004 that were up 30% or more in three years.

...

 2. St. Kitts PM Pushes Regionalism Over Nationalism -  Hardbeatnews.com - Jackson Heights, NY, USA

...

“Our goals, strategies and institutions must be synchronized.  We as persons entrusted with leadership in our region, all have economic success as our ultimate goal.  However, the tendency is to pursue this goal at a national,  rather than a regional level, as evidenced time and again by the structures, institutions and events that mark our regional landscape,” said Prime Minister Douglas asking: “How many stock markets do we have?  But how many vibrant and  active stock markets do we have?  How many  airlines do we have?  But how many profitable and viable airlines do we have?”

...

 

 3. Development officials push regional cooperation efforts - Mason City Globe Gazette - Mason City, IA, USA

 

DES MOINES — Economic development leaders from across Iowa said Wednesday that it's time for cities, counties and regions to think outside their borders and stop turf wars.

 

Local government and corporate leaders gathered at a Des Moines convention center for the annual "Smart" conference, sponsored by the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

 

"We have got to modernize and we have to energize government so it becomes a government suited for the 21st century. That is difficult, but we made some steps this year," said Gov. Tom Vilsack.

 

He was referring to his efforts to get local governments and schools to move toward regional sharing of some services. Proposed legislation on the subject has either been stripped of its controversial elements or has died for lack of support in the Legislature.

RCs: Iowa Office of Systems Planning

 

 4. a) The European Agenda: One year later, the EU has its hands full - Embassy - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

In the midst of celebrations marking a brace of important anniversaries, including the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the modern European Union by the Declaration of May 9, 1950, Ambassador Eric Hayes, head of the European Commission delegation to Canada, spoke to Embassy on May 6 about the EU’s present and future course.

The new EU Constitution, although drafted and approved by diplomats representing all 25 member states, is going through what Mr. Hayes calls a ‘slightly nerve-wracking’ ratification process, as several key countries head to the polls to receive public assent.

...

 

     b)  Structural funds in danger? - Café Babel - Strasbourg, France

 

The structural funds distributed to European regions have been severely disrupted by the addition of ten new member states to the EU. So who is going to profit the most?

 

Michel Barnier (EC) In the run up to the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, nine of the ten accession countries were poorer than the poorest of the original fifteen member states. There was panic amongst the principal contributors to the European budget that structural funds, which finance social and economic restructuring across the EU, would be sent East. After controversy over Atlanticism, the reference to Christian heritage in the constitution and centralisation, Eastern European countries have again concentrated the fears and resentments of ‘old Europe’.

...
  

 5. Municipalities look at options for Broome - Press & Sun-Bulletin - Binghamton, NY, USA

... By consolidating efforts -- rather than municipalities -- governments are looking to lower costs and increase their effectiveness when it comes to maintaining highways, operating parks and investigating crime, among other services. ...

 

"There's a fear of a larger entity," said Michael Marinaccio, Town of Dickinson supervisor and vice president of the Greater Binghamton Council of Governments. ...

 

 6. Sharing Sovereignty – Kangla Online – India

 

Today’s nations are no longer “nation states” in the strict sense of the word. The latter is increasingly a fading concept quite unlike what it was understood to be in the 19th and much of the 20th Century. The evidence is everywhere and anywhere in the world. Take for instance a good look at Indian roads these days and try working out the percentage of cars that are indigenously made. The percentage would be negligible with motor vehicles either of foreign origin or else made in collaboration with Indian companies having come to overwhelmingly outnumber the former class. Go to any average Indian drawing room and here too the scenario would be very much the same. ...

 

 7. Redistricting -- let's do it right -  San Francisco Chronicle - San Francisco,  CA, USA

 

CALIFORNIA NEEDS to change the way it draws up its legislative and congressional districts. The current once-a-decade process -- in which legislators set the boundaries -- is a joke.

...

 

 

 8. Clamour for New States At Confab - AllAfrica.com – Africa

THE agitation for the establishment of regional governments at the National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC), appears to have given way to agitation for creation of new states.

 

At the beginning of the conference in February 2005, supporters of regionalism were many but recent checks show that the earlier impressive number has dwindled. More delegates from across the six geopolitical zones appear to be interested in the creation of new states than the establishment of regional governments.

...

 

 9. UPS plans regional hubs in Rockford, 4 other cities - Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago, IL, USA

...
Shipping heavy freight has been a small percentage of UPS' overall business, but now the company is seeking to give it greater emphasis. Other shippers, like Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp., carry freight. UPS believes there is growth opportunity in delivering heavy freight on a time-definite basis.

 

"We believe offering air freight options is going to be a key part of global commerce," Black said.

 

The new regional freight facilities will be built in Ontario, Calif.; Rockford, Ill.; Dallas; Philadelphia; and Columbia, S.C. Those airports already serve as regional hubs for UPS' separate small package network.

...

 

10. MY NOTEBOOK: Asia's rise viewed as threat in the West - New Straits Times - Persekutuan, Malaysia

...

The Asian region is on the move and will underpin global economic growth for the next 30 years. The Asia Roundtable 2005 in Singapore last week was told that "this is an economic revolution on a breathtaking scale. The world has seen nothing like it since the opening up of the US and the industrialisation of Germany in the closing decades of the 19th century".

 

Even as the world focuses on the rise of Asia, Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew points out that "the present growth of Asia signals the restoration of the bulk of Asia to its previous position". Asia is integrating economically and its rise is viewed as a threat in a number of capitals in Europe and, indeed, in Washington. While the changes have created some uneasiness, Peter Mandelson, the European Union's trade commissioner, says Europe should view "Asia as an opportunity, not a threat. Europe must take advantage of Asia's rise, or risk being marginalised".

...

 

11. GUUAM SUMMIT IN CHISINAU FOCUSES ON SEPARATISM, REGIONAL COOPERATION - Eurasianet – USA

 

The presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova gathered April 22 in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau for a summit of the regional grouping GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova). It’s the group’s first gathering since "velvet revolutions" brought pro-Western leaders to office in Georgia and Ukraine, and Moldova shifted its foreign policy priorities toward the West. EU and NATO expansion have also altered the European political landscape. This evolving perspective laid the groundwork for the gathering, which focused on separatism, regional cooperation, and promoting GUUAM’s geopolitical profile.

...

12. Agreement on Brown Act sets a fine example - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin - Ontario, CA, USA

 

There isn’t an end to a lawsuit that we’d rather see than the one negotiated between Richard McKee, president of the public watchdog group Californians Aware, and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

 

The open-government advocacy group threatened to take the Council of Governments to court for alleged violations of the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open-meeting law.

 

McKee said the council didn’t conduct business in the open and cited its musical chairs act over who would be its representative on the Gold Line’s construction board. He said the council should not have made the decision to oust Al Leiga of Claremont in the darkness of a closed session. We agree.

 

McKee and the council’s chief, Nick Conway, talked it through and McKee said he was impressed with the council’s willingness to conduct business in the open from now on. So instead of lawyers and courtrooms, the council agreed to host a public information workshop on what would sound obvious but is not: making sure public agencies allow for public input and don’t hide decisions or debate.

...

13. 905 nightmare comes to haunt party leaders - Toronto Star - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

...

It is, however, only a short-term fix for a much bigger problem: the dysfunctional governance of the Greater Toronto Area.

 

The long-term solution is to scrap the regional governments — York, Durham and Halton as well as Peel — and replace them with a greater Toronto council, enveloping both 416 and 905 municipalities. This was recommended in the Golden report almost a decade ago, but neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals have had the guts to implement it.
...

 

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

 

      a) Mid-America Regional Council says little changes can provide big help to environment - Johnson County Sun - Overland Park, KS, USA

Mid-America Regional Council's new AirQ program reminds people in the workplace that making small changes in their everyday lives can have a large ...

 

      b) State offers plan to guard Jordan  - News & Observer - Raleigh, NC, USA

 

The state last week fueled a long-running argument over how to protect the two large man-made lakes that provide much of the Triangle's drinking water. Depending on the outcome, some people will pay more to take a shower, buy a new house or flush the toilet.

...
It's not clear the state will try to get everyone to agree on a plan for Falls Lake, the way it did with Jordan Lake, said Sydney Miller, a planner with the Triangle J Council of Governments. ...

 

      c) MidAmerica works to be player in regional economy - Centralia Morning Sentinel - Centralia, IL,USA

...

The St. Louis region has the heaviest concentration of raw opportunity in the air than anywhere else in the nation. “Everyone else is using theirs, we’re not using ours right.”

 

The Metropolitan Area Planning Study of February 2004 is an effort to correct this situation.
...

     d) Possible sites narrowed for regional incubator - Rocky Mount Telegram - Rocky Mount, NC, USA

The Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments has selected two possible sites in Rocky Mount and Wilson for a regional incubator, said Greg Godard, executive director. ...

 

     e) Officials want to create waste management program for area - Lynchburg News and Advance - Lynchburg, VA,

At Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, Bob White, deputy director of the Region 2000 Regional Commission, and Teresa Nuckols, the county's director of solid waste management, presented results of a preliminary study that began last fall. ...

 

15. Regional II:

 

       a) Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Affects More Than Twice as Many Women as Men - Yahoo News (press release) – USA

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSD), is a complex and poorly understood neurological syndrome characterized by severe pain.  ...

 

       b) JAE-P, Urban Regional Movement’s Poet, ......  - Press Release: Univision Music Group

...

As the Urban Regional movement continues gaining momentum on a national level, Jae-P, the fresh and cutting edge Angelino coined by Latin media as the “Urban Regional Movement Poet,” is beginning to send shock waves across California and the west coast.  This name was given to him as a result of the impressive social conscious lyrical content that depicts his style and defines him as a truly unique artist in this up-and-coming music genre.

...

      c) Amundson climbs to the top with WalMart art - Scene Magazine - Fort Collins, CO, USA

...

Bill Amundson does more than share your appreciation for such Americana. He created the "Suburban Regionalism" school of art --of which he is the sole member -- to define his fixation.

 

This fast-talking man with a knife-edged sense of humor has a uniquely macabre vision. His works, "explore the line between bad taste and America's acceptable middle-class aesthetic."

...

 

16. Other in the news:

 

      a) How to Save the Internet - CIO Magazine – Australia

 

Computing on the Net is heading for a fall because security is a joke. So we summoned the best minds to see if we could put Humpty back together again.

 

Professor Hannu H Kari of the Helsinki University of Technology is a smart guy, but most people thought he was just being provocative when he predicted, back in 2001, that the Internet would shut down by 2006. "The reason for this will be that proper users' dissatisfaction will have reached such heights by then that some other system will be needed," Kari said, "unless the Internet is improved and made reliable."

 

Late last year, Kari bolstered his prophecy with statistics. Extrapolating from the growth rates of viruses, worms, spam, phishing and spyware, he concluded that these, combined with "bad people who want to create chaos", would cause the Internet to "collapse!" - and he stuck to 2006 as the likely time.

...

      b) ACLU Announces International Project to Stop "Policy Laundering" -  ACLU (press release) - New York, NY, USA

 

SEATTLE -- The American Civil Liberties Union, in concert with the European civil liberties groups Privacy International and Statewatch, today announced the formation of a new international “Policy Laundering Project” to monitor and influence the increasingly common formation of civil liberties-sensitive security policies through international organizations. 

 

“In more and more areas, we are seeing security agencies pushing anti-privacy measures before international groups and foreign governments instead of through the domestic political process,” said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. “This is the strategy we call policy laundering. The security agencies and law enforcement are ‘going global’ – and so must the protection of civil liberties.” 

...

 

      c) Korean cloner is the envy of science - Newsweek – USA

...

It doesn’t take much more to clone a human embryo — a technological first accomplished here last year to international clamor.

 

The Vatican and President Bush condemned the work. The South Korean government reacted with pride. It issued a postage stamp and handed out public funds. Gaggles of envious foreign stem cell scientists now trek continuously to Hwang’s lab for lessons.

... to replace and repair diseased and damaged parts of the body. ... t make the mistake of hurting the bigger human dignity for ... In South Korea, selling eggs is illegal ...

 

      d)  Industrial Market Trends – ThomasNet.com –

 

             1) Fading Into Acronymity –  Most acronyms started out with good intent, value, and meaning--simple ways to express big, sometimes complex things with fewer syllables. Has all of that changed? ...

 

             2) 7 Biz Acronyms You Should Learn ASAP - From MTM to SCES, here's the lowdown on the latest letter clusters that are headed for VIP status: The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines "acronym" as a "word (as NATO, radar or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term." Additionally, it's an "abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters." ...

 

             3) Recommended Reading - A renowned MIT scientist says personal fabrication--the ability to design and produce your own products in your own home--is the next big thing. FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication details the thrilling promise of PFs (personal fabricators):

 

17. Straight from Google.

 

      a) CSU survey finds support for regionalism - Cleveland Plain Dealer - Cleveland, OH, USA

Graduate students at Cleveland State University found that people in this geographically and politically splintered area favor regional government. ...  

 

      b) Triad group hears merits of regionalism while in Indianapolis - Triad Business Journal - Greensboro, NC, USA

Nido Qubein, known for his relentless support for all things High Point, exhorted a group of Triad business and government leaders who had traveled together to Indianapolis about the need to overcome obstacles that have long divided the communities of the region ...

 

      c) Concerns over vehicle numbers - Belfast Telegraph - Belfast, UK

...Commenting on the recent figures from the Road and Rail Transport Statistics NI, the Sinn Fein spokesman for Regional Development said: "For more than a decade now Sinn Fein has been constantly calling for the introduction of an All Ireland Transport Strategy. ...  

 

      d) Caltrans head says state needs toll roads - Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles, CA, USA

... California's transportation system," Kempton said during a talk at the 40th anniversary conference of the Southern California Association of Governments. ...

 

      e) Don't forget regional Aust, Govt urged - ABC Online – Australia

The Isolated Children's Parents Association (ICPA) says the Government needs to make sure people in regional areas have access to Budget initiatives. ...

 

      f) City-county merger proposal remains alive - Buffalo News - Buffalo, NY, USA

... sanitation.". But Greiner sees an "opportunity to have the wide open, thoughtful debate to discuss what we should do with regionalism. ...

 

      g) Regional Partnerships Program expected to get Budget boost - ABC Online – Australia

MARK COLVIN: The Federal Government will beef up the controversial Regional Partnerships Program in tomorrow's budget. But the Federal ...

 

 

      h) We're now ready for anything…says York Region Chair - itWorldCanada.com – Canada

... of unforeseen "disasters." These include computing services interruption, loss of utility services, building evacuation, or a catastrophic event such as a ...

 

      i) Shawnee, County Development Plan Goes Up, Comes Back Down - Tecumseh Countywide News - Tecumseh, OK, USA

... "I really think the regional governance idea ... noted that the county commissioners would have to approve the actual funding just as the City Commission will have ...

 

      j) The game of Seweropoly between Taney County and Branson is a real stinker!  - Branson Courier - Branson, MO, USA

... 28, 2000, Sewer Services and Exclusive Territorial Agreement signed by the Taney County Commission, Taney County Regional Sewer District and the City of Branson ...

 

18. Announcements

 

      a) BROOKINGS METROPOLITAN POLICY PROGRAM

 

In the second release, Bruce Katz argues in a speech before the Regional Plan Association of metropolitan New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that, despite the barrels of ink spilled on the current red-blue divide, at the state and local level things are decidedly muddier. Moreover, Katz outlines broad coalition strategies for regions across the nation that have far more in common on issues—such as immigration, social policy, and infrastructure—than is the conventional wisdom. Such alliances would bolster the competitiveness of metropolitan America amid today's startling demographic and economic change.

 

      b) AMPO Email Newsletter  - FHWA has completed a new report entitled "Assessing the Effects of Freight Movement on Air Quality at the National and Regional Level." The study will be available on the FHWA web site next month at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/index.htm.