1. Counties could be regional strategy - Connecticut Post 

 

Should Connecticut bring back county government, or establish a regional council of governments?

 

The region's municipalities should devise a strategy to work together to leverage state government for what they need, because they're not getting it now, several area chief elected officials said Tuesday at a Greater Bridgeport Regional Business Council breakfast.

 

"Hartford's got to realize that Fairfield County is part of the State of Connecticut and needs to help us out," Trumbull First Selectman Raymond Baldwin Jr. said of state officials.

...

 

RCs: Regional Planning Organizations (RPOs) in Connecticut           RPO Map

 

 2. Conserve faster, report urges - News & Observer - Raleigh, NC, USA

 

The blueprint for creating a regional network of green space in the Triangle isn't so much a design of what to build, as what fields and forests to protect in a race against development.

The Triangle must double its pace of green space protection over the next 25 years to ensure the next generation of residents has a linked backbone of parks, greenways, farms and natural areas, according to a Triangle GreenPrint Progress Report released Monday.

 

GreenPrint is a joint effort of the Triangle J Council of Governments, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Triangle Land Conservancy, a private land preservation group. It was launched five years ago to coordinate preservation efforts among local governments, state and federal agencies, universities and nonprofit groups.
...

 

 3. Racial divide haunts Metro Detroit:  - DetNews.com - Detroit, MI, USA

...

"This year has been an unbelievable year in terms of acts of overt racism," said Shirley Stancato, the president of New Detroit, a group that works to improve race relations in the area. "I don't think we can grow as a region culturally, economically, socially or educationally until we deal with this big elephant in the room, and that's race."

 

In a metropolitan region more segregated than any in the United States, those divisions never go away, said Stancato and others who study race relations in Metro Detroit.
...

 

RC: Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (Region 1)

 

 4.  INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON 'ASIS AND THE WORLD: Region emerging as a dynamic force for globalization  - Asahi Shimbun - Tokyo, Japan

 

Yoichi Funabashi (who also served as moderator): ... These are the issues we want to consider in today's symposium. ...  

 

William Pfaff: To begin, I would take up the political question, or, if you will, the geopolitical question in Asia and particularly in North Asia. ...

 

Thomas L. Friedman: What I thought I would do is try to give you my sense of what are two of, if not the two, most important forces that will be shaping Asia and Asian policy in the next few years....

 

 5. Putting people back into ecology - The Japan Times – Japan

 

Peter Berg is singularly passionate about his vision for a better world. He is convinced that towns and cities can move beyond the limitations of environmentalism and create vibrant communities that are economically and ecologically sustainable, and he believes bioregions are the key.

 

A bioregion is a human cultural concept, but it is not human-centered, Berg explained during a recent interview. Rather, it provides a paradigm for rediscovering, revitalizing and conserving both human life and the natural systems upon which human communities depend.

 

"The bioregional idea is different from environmentalism in several regards," Berg began, "but the main one is that it is based on the idea of preserving wild nature in the places that people live.

...

Berg, 67, is director of the Planet Drum Foundation, an organization based in San Francisco that promotes bioregional education, sustainability and culture.

..

 6. Mayor's Column: Thinking regionally, acting locally  - Cochrane Times - Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

 

I am proud to represent our community on a very unique organization called the Calgary Regional Partnership.

 

Unlike other metropolitan areas, like Toronto and Ottawa, the Calgary Region is not going to become one giant municipal government; and unlike Vancouver and other BC municipalities we are not going to form yet another level of government or bureaucracy at the regional level.

 

Rather than amalgamation or bureaucratization, my 18 colleagues on the Partnership regularly get together to think regionally to help us better act locally.

 

Our Calgary Regional Partnership is made up of 19 communities in the Calgary area. Our goals are to improve delivery of municipal services, enhance our prosperity and protect our natural environment. We do this by thinking outside the box and outside our municipal boundaries.

...

 

 7. a)  Danuta Hübner in Washington DC for high-level dialogue on the EU approach to cohesion policy - EUROPA (press release) - Brussels, Belgium

 

...  Ms Hübner visited the Washington-based headquarters of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), a unique federal-state partnership set up to promote economic development in an area stretching from southern New York to northern Mississippi along the Appalachian mountains. The partnership approach and the ARC's focus on jobs and competitiveness provide striking parallels with the EU approach to cohesion policy.

 

Speech: EU Experience and the Strategic Approach to Regional Development

      b) INTERACT conference “Steps towards Territorial Co-Operation Programmes 2007-2013” Brussels, 28 September 2005

 

 8. Local Government ‘Critical To Country's Future'- But No answer yet to the funding problem  - CIOB International News - Ascot, Berkshire, UK

 

The future of local government is critical to the future of the country, said David Miliband, Minister of Communities and Local Government, when he announced that reforms in the financing of local government have again been deferred, probably until after the next general election. At the same time the Minister indicated that no-one should doubt the Government’s intention to create a strong and sustainable role for the local authorities.

 

The decision is plainly related to the financial weakness of the elected councils when it comes to the prodigious investment required not only to create sustainable communities but to sustain them once they are created. One would have thought that by now the Government with all its consultancy resources would have found a viable replacement for the inefficient and in many places hated council tax which it inherited from its predecessors in the 1990s.
...

 

 9. Regional ties strengthen in evolving Asia - Australian – Australia

ONE of the paradoxes of globalisation is that even as it intensifies, regionalism is simultaneously getting stronger. Europe is integrating and engaging in an unprecedented experiment in pooling sovereignties. The Americas are coalescing through the North American Free Trade Agreement, Central America Free Trade Agreement and, eventually, the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

In East Asia, regionalism is less defined and institutionalised than in Europe or the Americas. It comprises multiple, overlapping and often interlinked forums. East Asian regionalism has many constellations, including ASEAN, ASEAN+3 (the plus 3 countries being China, Japan and South Korea), the ASEAN Regional Forum, APEC and, most recently, the East Asia Summit. As you can see, East Asian regionalism is evolving, its final form the subject of ongoing debate.

One reason for this debate is the strategic complexity of East Asian regionalism. ...

10.  Clear and Present Danger - Ports of Cough - What it will take to clean up the mess caused by ships and trucks  - LA Weekly - Los Angeles, CA, USA

...

Since 1998, shipments through the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — the biggest in the nation — have doubled and are projected to quadruple in the next 20 years. Diesel emissions will increase dramatically unless major steps are taken to control them. Yet nobody has figured out how to reduce this health menace. The best proposal on the table is the Port of Los Angeles’ “no net increase” plan, which simply aims to keep the problem from worsening as shipments through its terminals grow.

Simply maintaining the status quo, and hoping the skies clear, is a planning and health disaster. “No net increase is not good enough,” says Ed Avol, a researcher at USC's Keck School of Medicine, who points out that the ill health created by emissions associated with international shipping is already unacceptably high.

“If we don’t address the pollution from goods movement, it’s game over for cleaning up the air in Southern California,” says Barry Wallerstein, executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). “We need a revolution, not an evolution.”

Logistics has become a bigger source of air pollution in Southern California than any other industry, Wallerstein says, and while emissions from other sources are declining or static, pollution from trucks, ships, trains and other equipment used by the industry is growing by leaps and bounds.

 

... the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), a regional planning agency, has outlined a proposal to build $26 billion worth of new transportation facilities for trucks and trains to move freight in the region. ...

 

11. Unified Front Range planning effort considered - Longmont Daily Times-Call - Longmont, CO, USA

 

DENVER — Representatives of five Front Range agencies have taken what may turn out to be the first step toward collaborating on transportation and land-use planning for the entire urban corridor between Fort Collins and Greeley on the north and Pueblo on the south.

 

Under current procedures, the five regional and metropolitan planning organizations separately contribute their own “pieces of a patchwork quilt” that is the Colorado Department of Transportation’s statewide plan, according to former state highways director Ray Chamberlain.

 

But if those quilt pieces don’t match up, the state’s overall plan won’t work well, said Chamberlain, who moderated Monday’s Front Range Transportation Forum at the Colorado Convention Center.

...

Co-sponsors of Wednesday’s forum were: DRCOG, which includes 52 local governments in a nine-county metro Denver area; the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, whose members include Loveland, Berthoud, Fort Collins, Windsor and Greeley; the Upper Front Range Transportation Planning Region that includes largely rural areas and smaller communities in Larimer, Weld and Morgan counties; the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments that covers El Paso and Teller counties; and the Pueblo Area Council of Governments.
...

 

12. Regional Mobility articles straight from Google

 

      a) Budget love-in - San Antonio Current - San Antonio, TX, USA

... It also authorized a one-time $500,000 loan to the Bexar Regional Mobility District through the recently adopted Advanced Transportation District. ...

 

RC: Alamo Area Council of Governments

 

      b)  Wheel Deal - Tucson Weekly - Tucson, AZ, USA

... Instead, the RTA plan's buzzwords are "regional mobility." The draft proposal, which combines an estimated $1.9 billion from a new sales tax with impact fees ...

 

RC: Pima Association of Governments

 

      c) NET mobility authority gets tips from Central Texas group - Kilgore News Herald - Kilgore, TX, USA

Members of the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NET RMA) went to school Wednesday. In ...

 

RC: East Texas Council of Governments

  

     d)   Transportation interests hear TxDOT updates - Del Rio News Herald - Del Rio, TX, USA

... Frank Larson voiced a motion for the group to urge Val Verde County Commissioners Court to apply to TxDOT for "Regional Mobility Authority" status. ...

 

RC: Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments

 

13. Straight from Google.

 

      a) Saud Warns of Regional Conflict If Iraq Situation Persists - Arab News - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

... Saud Al-Faisal said he has been warning top US government officials that Iraq is rapidly heading toward disintegration and there is the risk of a regional war. ...

 

      b)  RDA holds inaugural meetings - Munster Times - Munster, IN, USA

Monday's inaugural meeting of the hard-won Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority belongs to the public, said organizer Tim Sanders, regional ...

 

      c) Is Asian Common Currency Feasible? - Korea Times - South Korea

... Regional cooperation in the monetary and financial spheres represents an obvious way of providing a mechanism for internalizing such macroeconomic externalities ...

 

      d) China learns Japan's Plaza Accord lesson - Reuters – USA

... Reuters) - Twenty years ago to the day Japan volunteered to raise the value of the yen, touching off a sharp appreciation that fueled a boom and bust in asset ...

 

      e) NC Architect To Present 'America's New Regionalism' - Carolina Newswire (press release) - NC,USA

Harmon's seminar, entitled "Architects Discuss America's New Regionalism," will identify principles of innovative regional architecture....

 

      f) A Fast Long Island Evacuation? Impossible - New York Times - United States

... Reciprocal disaster-response plans that include several city and county governments are vital to any coordinated regional response, experts say. ...

 

      g) Towns and State May Differ On What's Best for the Future - Ellsworth American - Ellsworth, ME, USA

... some inconsistencies cited by the state could easily be corrected by adding information. But they also agreed that one area of the plan inconsistent with the ...

 

      h) Hills, Livonia may share dispatch - Farmington Observer - Farmington, MI, USA

... "This is a great moment, in terms of intergovernmental cooperation.". ... And, we've always been open to intergovernmental cooperation.". ...

 

      i) International: 4th general meeting of Autonomous Action - NEFAC – Canada

... since lack of solidarity in such moments will completely demoralise whole movement. ... centralization, but lack of good ideas what inter-regional projects could be ...

 

      j) Rural Resort Region shifts focus to pine beetles - Summit Daily News - Frisco, CO, USA

... raging across the Colorado High Country will be the top priority next year for the five-county Rural Resort Region, a loose coalition of governments formed to ...

 

      k) Pope plans to revive council - Pioneer Press Online - Glenview, IL, USA

Oak Park Village President David Pope wants to revive the Council of Governments, an entity consisting of the presidents of local government boards and their ...

 

      l) Harsh housing realities require strong leadership - Seattle Times, United States

 
... Today, however, national leadership on housing is again desperately needed, given a ... policy appear incapable of responding to the harsh housing realities of a ...

 

 

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

 

      a) Affordable housing laws backed by head of council - Daily News Tribune - Waltham, MA, USA

... Marc Draisen, director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, expressed support for two embattled pieces of legislation -- one of the oldest housing laws ...

 

      b) Evacuating After the Unthinkable: It's Possible, But Takes Planning - Newhouse News Service (NNS) – USA

 
... are beyond anyone's ability to cope," said Ron Kirby, director of transportation planning at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, a regional ...

 

     c) 'Green-print tree' program adopted by Woodland - Daily Democrat - Woodland, CA, USA

... trees. The purpose is to guide cities and counties of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments region to develop an urban forest. ...

 

      d) COG capers trigger probe - San Gabriel Valley Tribune - West Covina, CA, USA

The District Attorney's Office is looking into allegations that contracting procedures at the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments violate California's ...

 

      e) Council of governments director faces drug charge - El Defensor Chieftain - Socorro, NM, USA

The director of the South Central Council of Governments and another state employee have been charged with cocaine possession and tampering with evidence after allegations they were seen snorting cocaine in a state-owned vehicle. ... According to the report, the amount of cocaine involved was small, about .01 gram. The drug charge is a fourth-degree felony.

 

      f) Cultural Tourism Marketing Strategy Approved in Nevada City - YubaNet - Nevada City, CA, USA

A draft of the plan was presented to city council by Betty Riley of the Sierra Economic Development District (SEDD) and Tom Feeney, a principal with Pacific ...

 

16. Announcements

 

Census Bureau maps of the areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina http://ftp2.census.gov/geo/maps/special/HurKat/

 

 

 

17. Data & IT  

 

      a) DIRECTORY SERVICES AT THE CORE OF SHARING INTELLIGENCE INFO - GCN State & Local Update

 

Agencies want system to work at the federal, state and local levels

 

Creating the Information Sharing Environment called for in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004 starts with the plumbing.

 

An underlying structure to improve how federal agencies share terrorism information among themselves and with state and local governments be- gins with directory services—a simple technology that nearly every agency is using. The big difference for ISE, according to federal officials and private-sector experts, is the scale and complexity involved.
...

 

      b) Why the catastrophic cyberattack may never come - SearchSecurity.com - Needham, MA, USA

...

 When people like Richard Clarke said there'd be a Digital Pearl Harbor, Treece said people shrugged. "It's such a hard sell," he said. "The problem is we haven't had a cyber Pearl Harbor or 9-11." And, he predicts, we never will.

 

"The Internet is the most overtly redundant operation around," he said. "On 9-11, computer systems were working in New York and the Internet functioned. Continental gateways are always being added to the Internet. It will keep getting bigger and more redundant. As it does it will be more and more impervious to total failure."

...

 

      c) Views of Earth from high above the ground is but a Google away - Earthtimes.org – USA

 

The newest thing on the net to fire up imagination is the Google Earth application that provides a no holds barred view and other geographic information of the Earth for the average Internet user unlike anything else before.

...

 

      d) Network Commander - Military Information Technology - Rockville, MD, USA

... As a community, we've done this well in the past ... Together they form a single integrated network that allows ... Because of this, the risk of disruption and denial ...

 

 

18. Subscription link stories 

 

      a) Ahead of the curve - Atlanta Journal Constitution (subscription) - GA, USA

 

The Atlanta Regional Commission is working to figure out how more than 6 million people will fit into metro Atlanta during the next 25 years.

 

The latest tool for the "Envision 6" planning process brought together about 160 people — city and county planners, neighborhood advocates, consultants and representatives from agencies such as the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and the Federal Highway Administration.

 

They spent half a day this month placing stickers on large maps of the region, plotting where development should go and what types of development should be built.. ...

 

      b) Consolidation Expert Tells Story of Success Social Services Subcommittee Reviews Merger - Winchester Star, VA

 

In its second meeting, the Winchester-Frederick County Unification Subcommittee on Social Services heard from an expert Monday.

 

With the subcommittee still trying to get a steady foundation, Don Driver Jr., director of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County Social Services District, briefed the panel on how the two localities he works for consolidated its social services departments.

 

In 1995, the city of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County decided to merge its social services departments.

 

Driver was instrumental in the consolidation process.

 

The run-up to consolidation — unlike Winchester and Frederick County, our neighbors to the south had no intention of a total consolidation — in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County has been similar here. 

...