_____________________________________________________________________________
Regional Community Development News – May 13, 2009 [regions_work]
A
compilation of news links about and for regional communities pursuing local and
regional development.
Published
on line since November 11, 2003.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Contents
Top
Regional Community stories … 1. – 9.
U.S. Regional Communities - sub-State, State
or multi-State – news articles …10.01 - .40
Other Regional Community News for Our
Local Planet … 11.01 - .19
Blogging about Regional Communities … 12.01 - .14
Announcements and Regional Links … 13.01 - .04
Financial Crisis …14.01
Custom search: region, regions, regional
communities … 15.
_________________________________________________________________________
Top
Regional Community stories
1. Our View:
Transportation fix will take full cooperation - Atlanta
Journal Constitution -
We’re big on boundaries.
By drawing lines on a map, we seem to think we
can separate our problems from their problems, our resources from their
resources. And the smaller the governmental entity, the more control we feel we
have over what takes place within its borders.
That’s the theory, and in many cases
it’s valid. Local control does have benefits.
However, lines and borders can also produce
the opposite effect. Sometimes, they reduce our ability to tackle problems and
make the most of opportunities. That’s because problems and opportunities
sprawl across boundaries, and we often lack tools properly sized size to
address them.
That’s certainly part of metro
Outside the Legislature, however, something
important may be stirring. The Metropolitan
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2009/05/03/metroed_0503.html
2. In local-option
transportation issues, a pull between region and state - Southern Political Report -
One of the South’s emerging political tension points is the
competition between the traditional prerogatives state governments and the
growing aspirations of “regions,”
which in most cases can be defined as an assortment of local
governments, united by a traffic jam.
This tension can be traced in the legislative battles in
For the second year in a row, the Georgia General Assembly failed to
agree on a comprehensive plan to fund the state’s growing transportation
needs. The traditional rivalry between the House and Senate and the jostling
over next year’s governor’s race were the big sticking points, but
this was also a state-region problem. The House wanted to have a statewide sales tax to fund a comprehensive statewide roads program, while the Senate wanted to allow
counties and cities to join together to put local option sales taxes on the
ballot in their jurisdictions.
Over the past three decades, local option taxes for transportation have
become common across the
…
Emerging regions can also be threatening to the cities and counties being
swallowed up in them. One criticism of the
The
This year, the bill has passed …
http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/storylink_428_849.aspx
3. Guest columnist:
‘Reality Check' opened eyes - Anderson Independent Mail -
A joint initiative of Upstate Together and the Urban Land Institute (ULI)
As a member of the Upstate Together steering committee that hosted the
event, I had high hopes for a well-attended and engaging event. It far exceeded
my expectations.
The representation from the 10-county region was tremendous. Almost every
municipality was present, and it opened the door for many of those who in the
past were on the sidelines. At each table, leaders from all levels of the
political field, people from businesses and private citizens explored hundreds
of ideas in handling projected growth over the next 20 years.
...
The top three guiding principles that the collective group identified at
the event were to improve education opportunities and job creation, to improve
regional transportation and leverage existing infrastructure and to promote regional linkage. And the priorities moving
forward include working to foster effective regionalism and regional leadership
and addressing infrastructure funding shortfalls.
The next steps plan will be driven by these results, and it has already
begun with the formation of a new regional organization called Ten at the Top. The
40-plus members of our original Upstate Together task force will be expanded to
include even more people from throughout the Upstate to form a new Ten at the
Top board. In addition, an executive director will be hired to ensure that
there is someone dedicated to continuing the efforts of regionalism. ...
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/may/03/guest-columnist-reality-check-opened-eyes/
Regional Councils -
S.C. Appalachian Council of Government - Anderson, Cherokee,
Greenville, Oconee, Pickens,
Upper Savannah Council of Government - Abbeville,
Catawba Regional Council of
Governments –
4. Editorial:
Regional authority needed to operate Bay Area carpool, toll lanes - Inside Bay Area -
THE WORSENING traffic congestion in the Bay Area is having an
increasingly negative impact on the quality of life in the region. The millions
of people who commute to work daily lose valuable time, waste gasoline and add
to air pollution. Businesses suffer and new enterprises are discouraged from
locating in the area, harming the Bay Area economy.
Fortunately, there is a plan that promises to ease traffic congestion and
raise revenues needed for transportation improvements. It's a regional $3.7
billion proposal for an 800-mile network of carpool and toll lanes.
The emphasis here is "regional." Too often in the past local
transportation agencies have been at odds with each other and the regional
Metropolitan Transportation Authority over which projects to build, how to pay
for them and how to distribute funding.
Finally, there is a truly regional approach to Bay Area transportation
needs. It calls for more high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes that would be open
for carpools, buses and, in some places, for individual motorists willing to
pay tolls.
These High Occupancy Toll, or HOT, lanes would have varying rates
depending on the level of congestion. They would be collected using FasTrack transponders like the ones now used to collect
bridge tolls.
The problem with much of the HOV lanes in the Bay Area is that they are
not continuous. Carpool drivers too often have to merge into regular highly
congested lanes in certain areas, particularly intersections of major highways.
Not only do these bottlenecks delay carpool drivers, they are a major
hindrance to express buses. If the Bay Area had a continuous network of
highways with HOV and HOT lanes, express buses offering monthly passes could
operate far more efficiently.
…
http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_12201394
RC: Association
of Bay Area Governments – ABAG - http://www.abag.ca.gov
5. Survey:
Transportation, education top list of priorities for D.C.-area residents
- Washington Business Journal -
Residents view transportation, education and the economy as the top
long-term issues facing the region, according to a survey released Friday by
the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. [http://www.mwcog.org]
But schools, safe streets, good jobs and access to health care are the
top agenda items that area residents want their tax dollars to flow into.
“The individual jurisdictions across our region have unique
personalities and needs. This survey examines some of those differences,”
said Sharon Bulova, Greater Washington 2050 Chairman
and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman. “But what sets this
effort apart is the identification of ideas that are held in common by citizens
all across the region, areas where they are urging greater regional effort to
make this a better place to live for years to come.”
Greater
Producing high quality schools is the most urgent of the sixteen
priorities for the future tested. The second top priority for the long term is
locking down safe streets and neighborhoods.
Traffic is the leading long-term issue, but it is not where the public would
put the most resources into.
By a large margin, traffic and transportation are listed as the top
long-term challenges facing the area, and the worry is particularly acute in
parts of
A large number of the region’s residents would like to see more
problems addressed regionally across state and county lines, said 43 percent,
and that figure goes up among people who want specific …
2050 Report: http://www.greaterwashington2050.org/eupdates.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/04/27/daily91.html
6. Property
tax forum promotes regionalism and 'smart growth' - Bridgeport News -
Rising property taxes
in the suburbs could be what finally convinces suburban public officials that
more regionalization efforts make sense, according to state Rep. Brendan
Sharkey of
That — and money
— could help bring about change, Sharkey told an audience at a forum on
property taxes and so-called smart growth at the Burroughs Community Center in
Black Rock last week.
“Bribe them with
money,” Sharkey joked, referring to a proposal to legally share taxes
from certain new development among towns that agree to a regional pact.
Sharkey, a Democrat,
heads up a statewide smart growth task force that
include state legislators, business leaders and community representatives.
…
Grogins said having
municipalities cooperate on regional issues makes sense. “It’s
about cities and towns working together to cut costs,” she said, adding
this would allow nearby communities to better strategize on where and how to
encourage development.
Something must be done
to lower taxes in Bridgeport, Grogins said, which has
a limited tax base and has seen much of the commercial development in recent
decades take place in surrounding towns.
“In Black Rock
and Brooklawn, we pay the highest property taxes in
the city and the state, and some of the highest in the nation,” she said.
…
“We develop big houses on big lots,
often with no sidewalks,” said Green, noting the amount of land covered
by structures and asphalt is increasing seven times faster than the population
in
“
Begin with small steps
The legislators said regional cooperation could begin with less controversial
actions such as buying items in bulk to get economies of scale; purchasing
employee health-care coverage together; and sharing certain equipment, legal
services and payroll software services.
…
Regional
Planning Organizations (RPOs): http://www.ct.gov/opm/cwp/view.asp?a=2986&q=383046
7. A merger or a hostile takeover?
- The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com -
A
merger or a hostile takeover? I've been kicking that around ever since Cleveland Heights City
Councilman Mark Tumeo fired the shot heard 'round the
Heights March 24.
Tumeo stood up at a meeting of the University
Heights Charter Review Commission and said the two cities should "start a
dialogue" about merging. (Heights people never "talk." They
"dialogue.")
How curious, I thought.
As
UH Mayor Beryl Rothschild
was downright suspicious. She didn't even get a courtesy call from Tumeo before he opened his mouth, and she thinks he's
sniffing for a bail-out. Her city has money in the bank, while
Some alliances do merit a
bit of "dialogue," like consortiums for purchasing salt and health
insurance, and Cleveland Heights Mayor Ed Kelley's call for a single regional
fire department. But if you think bigger is better, then
move to
..
At a recent dinner, I was
seated with a couple who moved here from
"You have community
here because each suburb has an identity," they said. "People love
and embrace their own communities."
It's not like that in
…
Collaboration? Absolutely. Merger? No.
http://www.cleveland.com/sunnews/reflections/index.ssf?/base/columnist-0/1241100453136830.xml&coll=4
8. Baby steps' toward regionalism
- Sun News - cleveland.com -
Councilman Kevin Patrick
Murphy believes suburbs interested in collaboration need to start with small
steps.
To discuss a merger of
cities or a regional fire district -- two recent ideas -- is premature, he
said.
"For years, we've
heard a lot of talk about regionalism, but nothing really ever happens,"
Murphy said.
"We're just not
capable of undertaking a broad regional effort until we start working together,
on a micro level, by taking these small steps that lay the groundwork."
Murphy has organized a
meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at
…
Murphy's goal is to apply
for a share of grant money being offered by the Fund for Our Economic Future's EfficientGovNow program. [ http://www.futurefundneo.org/ ]
The program will offer as
much as $300,000 to fund up to three projects that promote collaboration and
efficiency among northeast
"This is a great
starting point," Murphy said. "We can all agree there are little
things we can do together, with an eye toward saving larger dollars in the
future." Apples to apples'
Murphy believes the
cities should pursue shared methods of accounting, a unified system of
monitoring contracts with unions, suppliers and service providers; and a policy
to manage the cities' collective capital expenditures.
Those three topics will
be the focus of tonight's meeting.
"Given the budget
constraints most inner-ring suburbs are facing, we will, in the very near term,
need to change the way our cities operate," he said.
"Right now, some
cities collaborate on group purchasing programs and joint dispatch programs,
but it's simply not enough."
With a shared accounting
methodology, cities will be comparing "apples to apples," Murphy
said.
…
http://www.cleveland.com/sunnews/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1241104026139620.xml&coll=4
9. SLU's RegionWise Joins Forces with Two Local Universities to Create
New Research Opportunities -
The Applied Research Collaborative will serve
as a regional data and public policy clearinghouse.
The Applied Research Collaborative (ARC),
joins SLU's RegionWise
group, the Institute for Urban Development at Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville, and the Public Policy Research Center at the University of
Missouri-St. Louis to serve as a data clearinghouse, provide regional
indicators and perform commissioned research projects, including trend analysis
reports.
The program is being undertaken by the
universities as a way to provide support for community improvement through
greater collaboration and more active engagement in key issues facing the
Robert Mai, Ed.D., director of RegionWise, said the collaboration will provide new avenues
of research for leaders seeking to respond to the needs of the metro
"What community leaders from across the
region have told us is that there's a great need to
help organizations -- public, private and nonprofit -- not just acquire access
to data, but to think with data." Mai said. "Thinking with data is
what ARC aims to do, and to help planners and decision makers in our region as
well."
…
"The
10. U.S. Regional Communities -
sub-State, State or multi-State - in news articles.
Bold
font words are Google search terms. Bold italic
words considered worth noting. In this and section 11, links to websites of
organizations are added to the news excerpt when this is the first time an
organization has been found. A goal of this newsletter is to find every
regional council in the
.01 Slay
continues call for regional cooperation in State of the City
KWMU -
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay used his State of the
City address Friday to repeat his call for stronger regional
cooperation. "Until we start speaking in unison,
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kwmu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1503674§ionID=1
.02 Groups
urge regional approach for planning growth, sharing tax revenue
The Star Beacon -
... the need for
collaboration among northeast
http://www.starbeacon.com/local/local_story_119193721.html
.03 Getting
Communities to Collaborate is a Challenging Task – [audio 4 min.]
90.3 WCPN ideastream® -
An update now on a story we brought you several
months back. The Fund For Our Economic Future put out
a challenge to northeast
http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/news/26010/
.04 EDITORIAL:
Regionalism takes step back
... We know it’s politically unpopular to
come to the financial rescue of Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse,
Victory Field and the
http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframes/FrontEndArticlesDetailPage.aspx?ArticleID=35736&NoFrame=1
.05 User
fee hikes urged to aid towns and cities
The communities would get to keep most of the
money, although about $15 million would be placed into an account used to
promote regionalization. "We're trying to
encourage regionalization of municipal services, everything from public safety
to public health, from education to libraries and road maintenance," said
Senator Stanley Rosenberg, a Northampton Democrat and cochairman
of the Special Commission on Municipal Relief. "We have 351 cities and
towns, and most of them are well under 30,000 people."...
.06 Closer
Look at Sharing Town Services
New York Times -
Mark Muro, a fellow and
policy director at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution
in Washington, said that Westchester towns would benefit most from
collaborating on a county or regional level.
“More and more of the challenges that communities face are on a regional
scale,” Mr. Muro said. “Local
municipalities are simply too small to provide responses to the kind of issues
that are bedeviling communities. Your village cannot
shape traffic patterns.” ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/nyregion/westchester/03townswe.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
.07 DC now the hub of a region awash in
... happiness?
Happy days are here again, according to a new study
by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, commonly known as COG. Really? Swine flu is bearing down on our
.08 Better
Pandemic Planning
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news8787.html
.09 Pleasant
Prairie balks at planning document
The Village Board will consider approving a
planning document Monday, even though local officials have called it “lame”
and “a train wreck.” Specifically, the board will consider the
“Intergovernmental Cooperation
Element” of the Multi-Jurisdictional Comprehensive Plan for
http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/pleasant_prairie_balks_at_planning_document_4872876.html
.10
In spite of their misgivings about consolidation, the suburban mayors suggest there are
opportunities to expand cooperation between local governments on a smaller
scale, such as a joint commission that could alleviate the need for businesses
to work with separate governments when they are considering locating in
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/may/03/memphis-conversation-lisa-huffstetler-trust-at/
.11 In
Hard Times,
The Wall Street Journal
-
A bright orange P decorates the business card of
Mayor David Cicilline. He is the man who decided that
.12 Piedmont
Triad Partnership To Lead Regional Aerotropolis Initiative
dBusinessNews
Triad - NC,
The Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP) has announced
that it will lead a new regional initiative to position the Piedmont Triad as
the global logistics center of the United States East Coast. This new initiative will combine two existing
initiatives—the Global Logistics Task Force of the Piedmont Triad
Leadership Group and the Logistics and Distribution Roundtable of the Piedmont
Triad Partnership. ... David Congdon, President and
CEO of Old Dominion Freight Line, will chair a new Aerotropolis
Leadership Board of approximately twenty-five Piedmont Triad leaders, ...
http://triad.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=182406&type_news=latest
.13 New
Study Shows Airport's Impact
The study's findings bolster business and civic
leaders' concept of
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=42249
.14 Local
suburbs and
News Sun -
Cleveland.com OH,
Cleveland Hopkins' neighboring communities are
hoping to use the airport to land lucrative developments. Much like a
metropolis and its surrounding suburbs, an aerotropolis
features a core airport with outlying aviation-linked businesses.
http://blog.cleveland.com/newssun/2009/04/local_suburbs_and_cleveland_ar.html
.15 Anti-poverty
‘road map' unveiled
... Rather than laying out a policy agenda, the
77-page plan largely focuses on expanding or improving many of the 129 programs
the city runs to help low-income residents, with “collaboration”
and “partnerships” the buzzwords to improve coordination between
groups. Henry Louis Taylor Jr. of the University at Buffalo's urban and regional planning department, who was introduced as the
coordinator of the new task force, said models of collaboration would be a
significant step forward if accomplished. “What’s radical is
getting people to work together — to come out of their silos and form
real collaborations,” ...
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/656428.html
.16 Agenda
'09: Area cooperation, development key
GoErie.com -
Early on,
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090507/NEWS02/305079916
.17
Convincing Hamilton County's water utility
districts to agree to consolidation will prove difficult for ... Mr. Littlefield set the goal of creating a regional water and sewer authority that would eliminate
“unnecessary complexity and sometimes confusion about who provides
service.” ...
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/may/03/chattanooga-mayor-faces-upstream-swim-win-over-wat/?local
.18 MSBA
official: Now is the time to regionalize
The MSBA approved beginning negotiations for a
http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1931071119/MSBA-official-Now-is-the-time-to-regionalize
.19 Town
selectmen resist regional dispatch center
The
By Mike Stucka DANVERS
— Selectmen argued for three hours last night against joining a regional 911 dispatch center planned for Middleton. ... "We do support something. Just at this
time, this project, we can't support," Selectman Dan Bennett said.
Distrust was also evident, as selectmen criticized the selection of Sheriff
Frank Cousins as the administrative overseer of the dispatch center. Selectman
William Clark Jr. described Cousins as a "massive ego" building a "mini-empire,"
a theme echoed by others. ...
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_118234642.html
.20 State
officials get earful from locals in
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