1. Fast Cities – Fast Company

 

Not so long ago, some techies proclaimed that communications technology and the Web would make geography irrelevant. In fact, the opposite is true: Talented people keep congregating in cities because they understand intuitively that working with other talented people spurs them to be even more creative.

 

For the first time, people aspire--even expect--to do work they love and to live in a community where they can be themselves. At the same time, the world of work has become increasingly temporary and insecure. As a result, talent is shifting to regions that offer dense concentrations of other talented people, tolerance of differences, and a great quality of life. These are the places that lure what Richard Florida, the Hirst Professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, calls the "creative class." They're scientists, engineers, artists, cultural creatives, managers, and professionals, who together comprise more than 30% of the total U.S. workforce and nearly half of the economy's wage and salary income.

...

The Fast Cities and their Regional Communities

Sacramento, California - Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG)

Phoenix, Arizona - Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG)

Salt Lake City, Utah - Wasatch Front Regional Council

San Antonio, Texas - Alamo Area Council of Governments

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina – Triangle J Council of Governments

San Diego, California - San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)

Portland, Oregon – Metro

Madison, Wisconsin – Dane County

Tucson, Arizona - Pima Association of Governments

Colorado Springs, Colorado - Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments

Dublin, Ireland – Dublin Regional Authority

 

Helsinki, Finland - Uusimaa Regional Council

 

Montreal, Quebec - The Greater Montreal Area

 

Sydney, Australia – Regions of Sydney

 

Vancouver, BC - Greater Vancouver Regional District

 

  2. 'Bridge Climb' Attraction First of its Kind in Region, Nation - ChallengerNKY.com - Covington, KY, USA

 

If you've ever wanted to climb on the Purple People Bridge connecting Newport and Cincinnati, you'll soon have an opportunity.

 

The Purple People Bridge Climb, unveiled Wednesday morning in an announcement at Newport on the Levee, will provide climbers a 360-degree view of the region's riverfront history.

 

"There's nothing like this in the nation or even in the northern hemisphere," said Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli.  "In fact, there are only three similar attractions in the world and those are in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand. To have a venue of this caliber right here on the Tri-state's Main Street-the Ohio River-is a great asset to us all and it continues to foster regionalism between Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati."

 

"Between our new sports venues, world-class museums, and outstanding dining and entertainment venues, Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are enjoying a growing reputation as a regional destination," stated Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken.  "The Purple People Bridge Climb is certainly another feature sure to draw the interest of those both near and far."

...

 

 3. Partners in growth - Tallahassee Democrat - Tallahassee, FL, USA

 

Local governments in Florida took too long to realize it, but they stand a much better chance at managing growth effectively and getting state help to do it when they buy into the concept of regionalism.

 

Regionalism suggests that local governments pool their resources and cooperate rather than compete against each other to make growth work for them, economically and environmentally.

 

Obviously, Wednesday's announcement by Gov. Jeb Bush that the state would award $3.1 billion for transportation improvements throughout Florida was good news. Earlier this year, lawmakers realized that they had to do something significant to reduce the state's $35 billion infrastructure deficit and they passed Florida's most sweeping growth management legislation in 20 years.

...

 

RCs: Florida Regional Planning Councils

 

 4.  a) Final mayoral debate mannerly and sedate - Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati, OH,USA

... city. Pepper picked Portland, Ore., for its urban planning, Baltimore for its focus on services and Louisville for its regionalism.

 

      b) Missing in action - Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville, KY, USA
... will face the usual legislative gauntlet of anti-Louisville bias, short-term thinking, economic illiteracy, moralistic grandstanding and zero-sum regionalism. ...

 

      c) Louisville and New Orleans - The Courier-Journal

... Three years ago, we prepared a report entitled "Beyond Merger" that laid out a series of challenges for the new regional city. Today, the work of the Greater Louisville Project continues to guide the city's long-term strategies to create more inclusive neighborhoods.

 

RCs: Louisville - Jefferson County Metro Government -  Kentuckiana Regional Planning & Development Agency

 

 5. Amtrak derailed - Boston Globe

...

The dismissal of Gunn, who has been in the leadership of transit systems from Washington to Boston to Toronto, follows closely upon another wrongheaded move by the board in September, approving a resolution authorizing the splitting off of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The Bush administration has long envisioned turning the corridor over to a federal-state consortium. The corridor accounts for the greatest number of Amtrak passengers and most of its revenues. Gunn supporters believe that the administration thinks moving ahead with the dismantling of Amtrak will be easier without Gunn as Amtrak's president.

 

The strongest critics of this proposal are officials in the Northeastern states, which have trouble enough subsidizing and managing their commuter rail systems and have no desire to take on Amtrak's need for improved track, bridges, and electrical equipment. In Congress, the fear is that splitting off the Northeast Corridor would be followed by attempts to sell off or drop Amtrak's long-distance lines. While these might be perennial money-losers, they bring service to much of the country and have considerable support in Congress.

...

 

 6.  Developing the rail market in Europe - EUROPA (press release) - Brussels, Belgium

 

Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for Transport

Opening session of the Congress «Eurailspeed» Milano, 7 November 2005

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

It is a great pleasure for me to address this distinguished audience and to talk to you about the European Commission’s vision of the policy initiatives needed to develop the rail market in Europe.

 

The transport market in the EU has been developing dynamically in the last decade. This made the transport sector one of the booming sectors of the European economy contributing to maintaining and creating employment.

 

Unfortunately, the growth was very unbalanced across modes. This has resulted in a skewing modal split of the European transport system. In the EU25, land goods transport is carried out at 72 % on the road and only at 16,4 % on rail. The situation of railways is a bit better for the EU of 25 than it was for the EU of 15. High-speed services represent less than 1 % of passenger.km.

 

Increasing imbalances between modes of transport result in a high cost for the economy and the society: (1) the cost of congestion is now estimated at 1% of the European GDP – i.e. the budget of the EU!, (2) the number of road accidents in Europe is no more acceptable. Every year, there are 50,000 fatalities on the roads, (3) the impact on climate change is negative. Transport is responsible for 28% of the CO2 emissions and road transport alone is accounting for 84% of this share. This brings us also to the question of the security of energy supply of the Union (extreme dependence as regards oil (98%)).

 

Revitalising railways is one of the key components of the strategy followed by the European Union to shift the balance between modes. In order to reach this objective, the Transport White Paper of 2001 suggested the following measures to improve the performance of the rail sector, for instance:

 

• creating an open European market for rail services,
• setting up a common framework for rail safety and interoperability,
• taking measures in order to improve international services, including their quality,
• developing the trans-European rail network, in particular cross-border sections on major European routes.

...

 

 7. NERC Approves ReliabilityFirst - Yahoo! News (press release) – USA

 

The nation's newest regional reliability council, ReliabilityFirst, has been approved by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Members and Board of Trustees and plans to begin full operations on Jan. 1, 2006.

 

Today's NERC action found that ReliabilityFirst, which was incorporated June 15, 2005, meets all the requirements of a regional reliability entity necessary to ensure reliability among its members, according to the NERC resolution.

...

Upon approval by the North American Electric Reliability Council, ReliabilityFirst will replace three existing regional councils, the East Central Area Reliability Council, Mid-America Interconnected Network and Mid- Atlantic Area Council. A fourth council, the Midwest Reliability Organization has also participated in the formation of ReliabilityFirst. The target date for ReliabilityFirst operation is Jan. 1, 2006. For more information about ReliabilityFirst or to apply for membership, see http://www.reliabilityfirst.org.

 

 8. City council approves FutureGen resolution, intergovernmental pact - Benton Evening News - Benton, IL,USA

...

Members also approved a motion to make Benton Public Library the subcontractor of a HUD grant, applied for two years ago.

 

“The library applied for the grant, and when it was awarded the check was written to the City of Benton, instead of to the library,” Kraft said.

 

City Clerk Mike Malkovich said that federal grant funds awarded by Congressman Jerry Costello were issued to the city instead of the library because many cities own their libraries.

 

“Benton does not own the library, and the city could not just turn the grant money over to the library, so it has to be done in the form of an intergovernmental agreement between the two entities,” Malkovich said.

 

Library executive director Molly Scanlan said the $162,000 grant was written into the last federal appropriation bill passed by Congress.

...

 

 9. Pismo's bill for project is priceless - San Luis Obispo Tribune - San Luis Obispo, CA,USA

 

The city won't have to pay back millions for planning, but it takes a verbal hit from SLOCOG; project would have made Price a frontage road

 

Pismo Beach won't have to pay back county transportation planners for millions spent on developing the Price Street extension that city leaders rejected.

 

But the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, the regional transportation agency, did give Pismo Beach officials a verbal thrashing.

 

The council also adopted policies that call for local governments to have more financial responsibility while projects are being developed.

...

The council of governments had funneled nearly $3 million of taxpayers' money to plan and develop the project during the past decade. Pismo Beach had committed -- but not spent -- $735,000 toward the project.

 

When the Pismo Beach City Council rejected the project on Sept. 6, the council of governments requested the city pay a portion of that $3 million back.

 

Pismo Beach officials implored the agency to take into consideration the $400,000 the city had contributed so Caltrans could complete freeway on and off ramps at Five Cities Drive in 2001 and to not charge Pismo Beach at all.

 

The 12-member council consists of the five county supervisors and a representative from each of the county's city councils.

 

"Don't penalize Pismo Beach for having to endure this 12-year-long process," City Manager Kevin Rice said. "If you think we were stupid and didn't do things right, admonish us."

 

Board members agreed to not ask Pismo Beach to reimburse the council of governments any money -- but took Rice up on his offer.

 

"I think your city failed miserably in informing this board," Paso Robles Mayor Frank Mecham said.

 

"Nowhere was there any indication given to this board that there was a problem. We were blindsided by this."

 

"They had 12 years they were allowing Caltrans to expend their effort," San Luis Obispo Mayor Dave Romero added, "and tying up funds that could have been used in other areas of the county."...

...

 

10. Straight from Google.

 

      a) Brazil's Amazon region suffering worst drought in 40 years
San Jose Mercury News - United States
... Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians across seven states have been hit this year by the Amazon region's worst drought in four decades, the result ...

 

      b) UK churches and communities mark One World Week
Ekklesia - UK
... One World Week aims to enable groups at local level to work across boundaries such as culture, ethnicity, gender and creed, and to recognise commonality in ...

 

      c) Future lies in thinking regionally
Roanoke Times - Roanoke, VA,USA
... point" for tourists. And to do that, he said, would require continuing " regional cooperation like never before.". Altizer addressed ...

 

      d) Free Trade Battle Looms at Americas Summit
Washington Post - United States
... States for more than four decades, is the only country in the hemisphere that was not invited to the summit hosted by the regional Organization of American ...

 

      e) Grid operator PJM announces $297 mln expansion
Reuters - USA
... "Only a regional organization, such as PJM, has both the big picture perspective to determine the most effective improvements as well as the authority, working ...

 

      f) ) Welsh councils to boost co-operation
ePolitix - UK
Ten Welsh councils have reached a groundbreaking agreement to improve the delivery of services across local boundaries. The authorities ...

 

      g) Capital Region WTC gets certification from parent organization
Albany Business Review - Albany, NY,USA
... Veres, an international trade specialist for the organization. ... The Capital Region World Trade Center is owned ... operated by Schenectady County Community College. ...

 

      h) US, Australia in pilot passport program
United Press International - USA
The pilot system, known as the Regional Movement Alert List, is being run under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum counter-terrorism initiative ...

 

      i) Rationalize Regional Bodies - Apraku
AllAfrica.com - Africa
Speaking at the consultative meeting on the rationalization of the regional economic communities ... "They are all concerned with issues of free movement of goods ...

 

      j) Mists of tribalism cloud split in Zimbabwe's MDC
Business Day - Johannesburg, South Africa
... region". The twin evils of tribalism and regionalism are Zanu (PF)'s stock-in-trade. Even the pecking order of the party reflects it. ...

 

      k) Think regionally, mayors say
Modesto Bee - Modesto, CA,USA
Mayors of the nine cities in Stanislaus County, upset at what they're calling historically "improperly planned and unmanaged growth," are exploring growth ...

 

      l) Sainsbury's Expands Regional Sourcing
IGD Retail Analysis - UK
... is to increase the amount of Scotch beef, lamb and pork that it sources for its 18 stores in Scotland in response to customer requests for more regional foods. ...

 

      m) Local Chapter of Leading International Entrepreneurial Organization Expands Regional Reach

Business Journal of Tri Cities - Blountville, TN, USA

... The name change comes on the heels of a name change for the international organization to EO and a regional expansion of the local chapter's reach. ...

 

      n) Should We Go Regional?
Motley Fool - USA
By Carrie Crockett. In the nine years we've run Foolanthropy, our annual charity drive here at The Motley Fool, we've always tended ...

 

      o) ‘Black Earth and Ivory Tower'
Inside Higher Ed - Washington, DC,USA
... Do you see your authors transcending region? A: I believe wholeheartedly in regionalism, both as an aesthetic and as a philosophy. ...

 

      p) Sleepy Elephant, Hungry Dragon
Indian Express - New Delhi, India
... This is a relatively weak response to the unprecedented Chinese challenge. ... develop mutually beneficial links between SAARC and other regional and international ...

 

      q) Single currency will climax Asia's economic integration
Shanghai Daily - Shanghai, China
... Asian regionalism has been a bottom-up process with many sub-regional initiatives emerging to take advantage of new opportunities. ...

 

      r) Marijuana moves north
Mail Tribune - Medford, OR,USA
... Winters hopes to create a regional response team that can bring massive resources to a garden on a moment's notice. His goal is ...

 

      s) "The EU Regional Policy is fit for the 21 st century"
EUROPA (press release) - Brussels, Belgium
... Community Strategic Guidelines for Cohesion, which the Commission adopted in ... for competitiveness and cohesion into national and regional development strategies ...

 

      t) Internet access seen as vital to lifting regional exports
ABC Online - Australia
The Western Australian Nationals have welcomed a new study showing regional areas could contribute more towards the nation's exports if they had better access ...

 

      u) Hyphy vs. Thizzin'
East Bay Express - Berkeley, CA,USA
... Sick wid It." See? Told you it was confusing.). The impact of hyphy may well transcend regional boundaries. "Hyphy will be like 'pop ...

 

      v) City, nearby towns agree to work together on projects
Sioux Falls Argus Leader - Sioux Falls, SD,USA
... citizens. Mayors from Brookings, Arlington, Estelline and Volga signed the Brookings Regional Development Partnership Oct. 24. The ...

 

11. U.S. regional communities in news articles.

 

      a) New multi-purpose building?
Eastern Washington Statesmen Examiner - Eastern Washington, WA,USA
... Mayor Nichols elaborated that includes an RV/rest stop, a senior center, Chamber of Commerce and Tri-County Economic Development District (TEDD) offices and a ...

 

      b) Gotta go with Goldblatt
Amity Observer - Shelton, CT,USA
... Last year Goldblatt became the first Orange leader to serve as chairman of the South Central Regional Council of Governments. He ...

 

      c) Transit sales tax supported
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
... Results of the survey, conducted in August, were presented this week to the Mid-America Regional Council's transit committee. ...

 

      d) Stockton gives up on veto power
Stockton Record - Stockton, CA,USA
City officials instead embraced a compromise giving them an additional vote on the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the county's transportation planning ...

 

      e) What the feds give, the state takes away
Buffalo News - NY, United States
... One of these agencies is the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council. Created by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Great Society days, the regional council has three layers of advisory boards. Out ...

 

      f) Utah development expert to address local group
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, FL,USA
... Robert J. Grow, founding chairman emeritus of Envision Utah, will talk about growth issues and creating a regional vision. ...

 

      g) Developer: 'Seasons' will have little to no effect on Gainesville ...
Access North Georgia - Gainesville, GA,USA
... Levitt and Sons officials say a report submitted by the city of Gainesville to the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Center (RDC) found no negative impact ...

 

      h) Victory in hand, Nordfelt makes plans for the future
Salt Lake Tribune - United States
... As chairman of the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Nordfelt believes in big-picture vision and regional cooperation, especially for transportation. ...

 

12. Other in the news:

 

     a) Dysfunctional Companies Found in All Industries; Larger Organizations Are More Unhealthy - Business Wire (press release) - San Francisco, CA,USA

 

Most organizations exhibit "unhealthy" traits and behaviors that prevent them from turning decisions into action, according to new research by management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Globally, the U.S. has a higher rate of ineffective organizational profiles than every country in Europe. By contrast, China ranked near the top of the study in organizational health.

 

Booz Allen based its results on more than 50,000 responses to both an online evaluation tool and individual company surveys. The Org DNA Profiler(SM) diagnoses distinct organizational personalities by examining a company's structure, decision rights, motivators and information. Companies are then sorted into one of seven distinct organizational DNA profiles, defined below. The Profiler captured data from 24 industries, 100 countries, and more than 10 internal departments and functions. Key findings of the study include:

 

Most organizations are unhealthy. By a margin of nearly 2 to 1, respondents declare their own organizations are ineffectual. Only 31% of those who filled out the survey at www.orgdna.com reported traits and behaviors found in a healthy organizational profile. The survey found "passive-aggressive" to be the most common corporate type, at 27%. Such an organization seems congenial, even conflict-free, yet still resists meaningful change.

 

... The U.S. had 33% healthy profiles, compared to 67% unhealthy profiles. ...

 

A complete copy of the report and more information on Organizational DNA can be found at www.orgdna.com.

 

      b) Community sleeps One Night Without a Home - Grand Rapids Herald Review - Grand Rapids, MN,USA

...

To raise awareness of homelessness in Itasca County and funds for homeless prevention services in the community, local agencies and concerned citizens are joining KOOTASCA this fall for the second annual “One Night Without a Home” Nov. 12-13. Camping out on the lawn of Central School for the entire night, participants sleep in big boxes or other make-shift shelters to feel what it is like for the hundreds of local families living in poverty who do not have warm homes or adequate food.

 

“I think it is an experience that everyone in the community should have at sometime,” said Boelter. “Our hope is that people will start to have more understanding and get together for problem solving. We need to raise funds to provide emergency housing that is more than just a one night stay. These people really need about a week to get back on their feet.”

 

According the 2000 census, more than 10 percent of all Itasca County residents and more than 13 percent of children under 18 live in poverty. ...

 

      c) CEDAW: the women formula - Open Democracy - London, UK

 

Adopted in 1979 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) – the most far-reaching international commitment of governments working for gender equality – was the first international human-rights instrument to explicitly define all forms of discrimination against women as fundamental human-rights violations. As of April 2005, 180 states have ratified CEDAW, interpreting their treaty obligations in diverse ways ranging from reluctance to active incorporation.

 

In part one, ‘The birth of gender vision’, Susanne Zwingel told the story of CEDAW’s development and its interpretation by different countries.

...

 

13. Announcements

 

     a) Inclusionary Housing  Email Discussion Group – PolicyLink

PolicyLink has launched a listserv as a way to share information and strategies that can help win and expand inclusionary housing. Get the latest news on advances in inclusionary housing, learn about inspiring strategies that have worked in other communities, and discuss policies and campaigns with experts from around the country. To sign up for this email discussion group, please visit: http://www.policylink.org/discussions/InclusionaryHousing.html

For more information, contact: Kalima Rose, Associate Director, PolicyLink, krose@..., 510 663-2333

      b) Equitable, Community-oriented Gulf Coast Reconstruction - PolicyLink

• A new Policy Matters column calling on leaders and residents alike to channel their outpouring of post-Katrina sympathy and generosity into public will for policy change and sustainable rebuilding.
• Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region, based on the principles of equitable development.
• A Gulf Coast discussion thread in our Advancing Regional Equity online forum.

      c) Priority issues in the Mediterranean environment (EEA Report No 5/2005) -

 

Abstract: This report is a product of EEA and UNEP/MAP. It aims to identify priority pollution zones and emerging issues in the Mediterranean Sea. The report does not attempt to give an overall state of the Mediterranean marine environment. Instead it addresses specific issues which are of main concern to the sustainable development of the region and which have been recognised as such in previous EEA reports.

 

14. Data & IT  

 

      a) Will WSIS Help Achieve a World of "We" Media? - Digital Divide Network - Newton, MA,USA

Andrew Nachison of the Media Center recently published a provocative post in which he raises some questions about the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society, which is just a couple of weeks away in Tunis. Here's a taste of what he wrote:

 

Maybe you're into technology and love thinking about the future of gear and systems and circuits. Or maybe, like me, you want to try to put all the pieces together and think about the future of humanity. ...

 

 

      b) China developing its digital gazetteer - People's Daily Online - Beijing, China

 

Clicks on the electronic touch screen in the information kiosk in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province, and you will easily locate the Yuelu Academy, the city's famous historical site, one of the four imperial academies of higher learning in ancient China.

 

Such as this, locating a place and the best route to get there, will be accessed by logging on a place name website or calling phone centers and sending text messages in any Chinese cities in five years.

 

"Our goal is to build websites for Chinese cities and a way-asking system in five years, which can provide inquirers with a detailed location of any place," said Dai Junliang, director of the Department of Administrative Divisions and Geoname under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

 

"Digitizing a place name is one of the most efficient public services a government can provide," said Dai.

...

Statistics from the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) show that more than 100 countries have established databases for geographical names and developed countries like the United States, Japan and France have also set up databases of other important countries.

... 

      c) The Four (Not Three, Not Five) Principles of Managing Expectations – Darwin Observer

 

For many CIOs, their toughest challenge is managing the expectations of senior executives, end users, IT staff and employees across the company, and the failure to address constituents' expectations undermines CIOs' credibility. In fact, expectations management can define whether or not your IT department is successful. ("Managing expectations" is one of five must-do items identified by CIO's editors as part of the Leadership Agenda 2005 series.)

 

15. Subscription link

 

Rivers ignore boundaries - Ventura County Star (subscription) - Ventura County, CA,USA

 

Many of the public-policy challenges that matter most, such as safeguarding air and water quality, disregard boundaries drawn for political purposes. Resolving conflict over such issues requires broadly regional cooperation, yet, this is often stymied by the jealous defense of bureaucratic turf and political ego that such arbitrary boundaries encourage.

 

Southern California is witnessing such a conflict, which boiled over last week in Simi Valley during a meeting of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. As is so often the case in the semi-arid West, the locus of this confrontation is a river, the pre-eminent mechanism by which nature reveals the artificiality of political distinctions.

 

There's a lot more water in the river than there used to be; many stretches, historically dry much of the year, now have perennial flows. The reason is not climate change but urbanization in Los Angeles County. The sewage from more than 52,000 houses and other dwellings in the Santa Clarita Valley is sent to the Saugus and Valencia treatment plants, which discharge 17 million gallons of wastewater a day into the Santa Clara River.

 

That would seem good news for downstream irrigators: 52 acre-feet of free water a day, 19,000 acre-feet a year, much of it originally delivered to the Santa Clarita Valley by the State Water Project. Users typically pay around $400 an acre-foot for state water, meaning the highly treated wastewater released into the river each year has a value of nearly $8 million.

 

But along with the water, the Saugus and Valencia plants send more than 20,000 pounds of salt down the river each day. Most is produced by residential water softeners, which dump brine into the sewer system each time they recharge.

...