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Regional Community Development News – February 8, 2010 [regions_work]

 

A compilation of news links about and for regional communities pursuing local and regional development.

Published on line since November 11, 2003.

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Contents

Top Regional Community stories … 1. – 9.

U.S. Regional Communities - sub-State, State or multi-State – news articles …10.01 - .18

Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet … 11.01 - .19

Blogging about Regional Communities … 12.01 - .05

Announcements and Regional Links … 13.01 - .03

Financial Crisis …14.01 - .02

Custom search: region, regions, regional communities … 15.

Bold Italic highlights search terms and/or phrases of interest.

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Top Regional Community stories

Note: “Regional Community” Development is a long term process, particularly when a regional scale of community consciousness is just emerging. News sources report “moves,” but such stories are rarely  fast-breaking. Still, timeliness is important. Each edition of the RCD News is built over a two week period of daily scanning of information sources. The majority are saved to delicious and now are tweeted as well. To get individual news items sooner, check these options: http://delicious.com/I.see.regions.work and http://twitter.com/tomchristoffel  Thanks. Ed.

  1.  Editorial: Decentralization dulls metro's edge - Despite investments, Met Council fails the central cities.  - Minneapolis Star Tribune - Minneapolis, MN, USA

If Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell's final State of the Region speech last week contained a subliminal message, it was probably this: Seven years of conservative leadership has not destroyed the Twin Cities' four-decade experiment in metro governance.  … Under his guidance, Republican catcalls of "train to nowhere" have given way to an acceptance of transit …

But nowhere in Bell's thoughtful recounting of accomplishments and challenges was there a mention of the Met Council's fundamental flaw, one that predates the Pawlenty years: The council has been powerless to stop the steady and destructive decentralization of the metro region. Despite its national reputation for planning and its mission of "orderly and economical development," the council continues to encourage growth at the suburban edge at the expense of redirecting development and vitality back toward the center.

That kind of planning is neither orderly nor economical. And it moves the Twin Cities metro "in the wrong direction," according to Bruce Katz, the metropolitan policy director at the Brookings Institution. Brookings follows closely the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the nation's largest metro areas. It classifies the Twin Cities as "rapidly decentralizing" at a time when conditions demand just the opposite.

…

Yet the Met Council [http://www.metrocouncil.org/ ] continues to encourage 70 percent of new growth on fresh ground at the suburban edge and only 30 percent in developed areas with infrastructure already in place. Those numbers should be reversed. Our growth pattern is more akin to the failed cities of the Rust Belt than the attractive places that the Twin Cities likes to consider its peers. The central districts of Denver, Seattle and Portland, for example, have been attracting a metrowide share of redevelopment well above the share of Minneapolis and St. Paul. …

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/83682617.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc8LDyiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

   2. HUD Secretary Donovan Announces New Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities - HUD.GOV - Press Release - Washington, D.C., USA

During a sustainability forum at Portland State University and a speech to the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Seattle, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the launch of HUD’s new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC).  …

"Through our new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, we will begin to tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities such as access to good jobs, quality schools, and safe streets," said Donovan. "By working with DOT, EPA and other federal agencies, and with Deputy Secretary Sims’ guidance, we will finally begin to meet the needs of today without compromising the futures of our children and grandchildren .”

Under the management of Director Shelley Poticha, OSHC will be the center-point for all of HUD’s sustainability efforts. The average household spends more than half of its budget on housing and transportation, which have become American families’ two single biggest expenses. With OSHC as lead, HUD will work to improve access to affordable housing and transportation options, saving money for American families while allowing them more time to spend at home and less time traveling.

…

Congress provided $150 million to HUD for a Sustainable Communities Initiative. Of that amount, $100 million is available for regional integrated planning initiatives through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program. To demonstrate HUD’s commitment to listening and learning, Secretary Donovan also announced that a description of the future grant program is available for comment, including through an interactive wiki, on HUD’s web site. [ http://portal.hud.gov/jamwiki/en/StartingPoints ]

With OSHC’s grant programs, HUD will provide funding to a wide variety of multi-jurisdictional and multi-sector partnerships and consortia, from Metropolitan Planning Organizations and State governments, to non-profit and philanthropic organizations. These grants will be designed to encourage regions to build their capacity to integrate economic development, land use, transportation, and water infrastructure investments, and to integrate workforce development with transit-oriented development. Accordingly, OSHC’s grants will be coordinated closely with the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Last June, the DOT, EPA and HUD created the unprecedented interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Rooted in six Livability Principles, the three agencies are working together more closely than ever before to meet President Obama’s challenge to coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas build more sustainable communities. Traditionally there has been no coordination among federal housing, transportation and land use investments. For the first time the federal government will speak with one voice when it comes to housing, transportation and environmental policy, and in doing so will be partner to regions and local governments instead of a barrier.

,,,

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2010/HUDNo.10-028

  3. Quality of place bill sets growth terms - Mainebiz Daily - Portland, Maine

A bill working its way through the Legislature aims to make quality of place — that catchphrase made popular by the 2006 Brookings Institution report that plugged the state’s mountains, beaches and historic downtowns as key to its economic growth — a priority in regional development.

Members of the Maine Quality of Place Council, a group Gov. John Baldacci created in the wake of the Brookings report, say it would mean a big step forward for economic development. Not everyone, though, is convinced the legislation will achieve its intended purpose.

LD 1389, “An Act To Create Regional Quality of Place Investment Strategies for High-value Jobs, Products and Services in Maine,” lays out a new way of thinking about economic development by focusing on a region’s assets rather than its needs, says Dick Barringer, chair of the Quality of Place Council and a professor at the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Policy.

Traditional economic development “looks at an area’s weaknesses and tries to correct them, rather than looking at its strengths and trying to build on them,” he says. The asset-based model, as opposed to the need-based model, has been catching on in states like Tennessee, Minnesota and Washington, as well as communities in other countries, including St. John, New Brunswick. The idea behind it is that, by identifying and prioritizing projects that boost Maine’s quality of place, the state can attract and retain more people, which will in turn bring new investments and new jobs.

Proposed last year, but carried over into this legislative session, the bill directs the council to work with economic development districts to develop quality of place investment strategies, identifying assets like historic downtowns, working waterfronts, arts and culture centers and agricultural land. …

...

 

http://www.mainebiz.biz/news45833.html

  4. Cisco's Big Bet on New Songdo: Creating Cities From Scratch - Fast Company - USA

... The brief: Gale would borrow $35 billion from Korea's banks and its biggest steel company, and use the money to build from scratch a city the size of downtown Boston, only taller and denser, on a muddy man-made island in the Yellow Sea. …

New Songdo City won't be finished until 2015 at least, but in August, Gale cut the ribbon on the 100-acre "Central Park" modeled, like so much of the city, on Manhattan's …

As far as playing God (or SimCity) goes, New Songdo is the most ambitious instant city since Brasília 50 years ago. Brasília, of course, was an instant disaster: …

Being seriously ahead of the curve explains why Gale had such a hard time finding a tech partner … Gale decided a plumber would be a better fit and threw Microsoft over for Cisco.

… Cisco is expected to wire every square inch of the city with synapses. … it promises this city will "run on information." Cisco's control room will be New Songdo's brain stem.

And that's just the beginning.  ...

… As of now, we're officially an urban species. More than half of us -- 3.3 billion people -- live in a city. Our numbers are projected to nearly double by 2050, adding roughly a New Songdo a day; the United Nations predicts the vast majority will flood smaller cities in Africa and Asia.

…

It was this crushing demographic trend that drew Cisco into the instant-city business. …

In announcing Cisco's strategy, Chambers declared, "The network has become the next utility."

...

"Cities are highly complex systems, and one of the elements of highly complex systems is that when you monkey around with them, their predictability goes to zero," says Pip Coburn, a technology analyst …

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/the-new-new-urbanism.html?page=0%2C1&partner=homepage_newsletter

 

  5. Regional partnership's spending questioned - CharlotteObserver.com - Charlotte, NC, USA

Faced with a $250,000 deficit, Charlotte Regional Partnership chief Ronnie Bryant stood before his bosses last July and put his job on the line.

The economic development group, which gets half of its $3 million budget from state and local taxpayers, was seeing cuts in state and private dollars. It needed to cut more costs or raise more money. …

Also in July, a group of senior economic developers wrote the partnership's chairman, questioning the group's spending and heavy administration costs.

…

Local governments, which contribute more than $793,000 to the partnership, face shrinking budgets. At least one member county, York, is considering withdrawing from the group, questioning whether it's worth the $53,000 in the difficult economy.

…

The partnership was spun out of the Charlotte Chamber in 1991, with the mission of selling the 16-county region to the world and enticing companies to move here. If a company becomes interested in the area, the partnership passes on the lead to local recruiters.

The intent was to end turf wars among local economic developers and to market the area more effectively with a collective voice.

…

Bryant says he stands by his methods and assigns the criticism to a "philosophical difference."

He said he's cut back on advertising because the partnership can't afford to run an effective national campaign. Instead, he said, his recruiters visit site-selection consultants and attend trade shows and industry meetings to interact with decision-makers.

The bulk of the group's advertising is limited to ads at the Charlotte airport.

Bryant said the ads are worthwhile because of the thousands of passengers that travel through the hub daily. The group gets a discounted rate. "It's a no-brainer," he says.

He also thinks the group's Web site and targeted e-mail blasts are more effective than traditional ads.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/1228354.html

 

  6. Mega-regionalism: A Southeastern economic engine? - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Atlanta, GA, USA

First there was regionalism, an economic-development trend that linked Atlanta and Georgia with neighboring cities and states for their collective economic good.

Now comes mega-regionalism, an attempt to create a seamless economic corridor between Raleigh and Birmingham with Atlanta playing a pivotal role. The goal is to lure businesses, federal transportation dollars and environmentally sustainable growth across the Southeast for the benefit of the entire region.

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is a key player in the newly formed Piedmont Alliance for Quality Growth. Organized last November, the Alliance will meet in Macon in mid-March to take the next step toward uber-regionalism.

Of pre-eminent importance for the 40-odd government, business and academic officials who  comprise the Alliance: resolve water-sharing disputes between all members (Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and the Carolinas); ensure enough electricity for a rapidly growing region; and pursue inter-city rail networks.

“This whole concept of mega-regions is a phenomenon that’s occurring primarily from economic forces. We didn’t plan it; it’s already here,” Harry West, a former executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said Friday. “We’re trying to make sure the growth we attract is of a quality and sustainable nature.”

The Boston-New York-Washington corridor is considered a mega-region. So too is coastal China. Better to join forces, West and others say, than to watch other parts of the world reap globalization’s benefits.

Example: foreign car-makers dot the Interstate 85 corridor from BMW in Spartanburg, S.C., past Kia in West Point, Ga. to Hyundai in Montgomery, Ala. Atlanta, as the hub and preferred airport connection, benefits with headquarters, distributors and other business.

Cities and states, though, fight fiercely for every business or corporate relocation. Why would they cooperate in a mega-region?

...

http://www.ajc.com/business/mega-regionalism-a-southeastern-286839.html

 

  7. Speak out on regionalism at forums - Natchez Democrat - Natchez, MS, USA

Over the last seven months, it has been so refreshing to experience the outcome of the three area Chambers of Commerce working together in an effort to build a united coalition for advancing community and economic development in this region. We have continued to meet on a regular basis and it has been exciting to see that everyone on the committee is taking part in our effort to pull together in order to make this community everything that it can be.

Various experts have helped identify our strengths, as well as our weaknesses, but just having this knowledge is not enough. Now is the time for us to formalize a plan for moving forward and taking action.

It should come as no surprise that our greatest identified strength is our citizens — a diverse, talented and caring group — lacking only a viable plan for uniting and moving our community forward. In order to formulate this plan, our chambers of commerce have set dates for three forums at which the public will be able to address the Miss-Lou Regional Steering Committee, ask questions, as well as make suggestions on how the group should move forward.

…

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2010/feb/03/speak-out-regionalism-forums/

 

  8. Super Bowl host city gets game, but not necessarily the attention - Dallas Morning News – Dallas, TX, USA

When Super Bowl Sunday arrives, the obscure city of Miami Gardens will be the center of the football universe. But that spotlight lasts just a few hours.

Much of the glitz and glamour of the Super Bowl is happening far from the stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

City Manager Danny Crew said he can point to little impact that the Super Bowl has on Miami Gardens, the home of Sun Life Stadium and the Miami Dolphins.

"There's no quantifying it at all," Crew said. "We don't get anything, virtually nothing."

The area near Sun Life Stadium can't compete with the beaches and urban developments in South Florida. Though there's been some development near the stadium, much of it is businesses that cater to locals - not football fans.

Although he welcomes the Super Bowl, Crew said it's a celebration that belongs more to the glitzy beachfronts to the east than his 20-square-mile, working-class city of about 108,000.

For all their differences, Miami Gardens has much in common with Arlington when it comes to sports. Both are home to NFL stadiums, and after next year, both will have been Super Bowl host cities. Each city even has a Wal-Mart on the doorsteps of its stadium.

And both are also overshadowed by their bigger neighbors.

Miami Gardens and Arlington get the Super Bowl games, but Dallas and Miami, Fort Worth and Fort Lauderdale will have most of the parties, events, VIPs and probably media attention.

The Super Bowl host committees preach regionalism, but it's not always clear how much the host cities receive.

In Arlington, city officials have said they hope the stadium and the Super Bowl will greatly raise their profile nationally – even if the Cowboys' new home has been referred to on national television as the "Palace in Dallas."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-miamigardens_03met.ART.State.Edition1.4bea39f.html

 

  9. Stevenson and Cleghorn attend Regional Academy - Historic City News - St. Augustine, FL, USA

St. Johns County District 1 Commissioner, Cyndi Stevenson, and Jason Cleghorn from the county’s Growth Management department, have been selected to attend the 2010 Regional Leadership Academy through the Northeast Florida Regional Council.[ http://www.nefrpc.org/ ]

The Academy educates Regional Leaders and invests in the future of regional communities through a mission to make Northeast Florida a better place to live and work through a series of programs covering topics like Equity, Diversity, Land use, Quality of Life, Emergency Preparedness, Housing, Healthcare, Transportation, Environment, Water resources, Economic Development and Regional Visioning.

Commissioner Stevenson and Jason Cleghorn were selected from a group of very well qualified candidates to attend the Academy this year.

The Regional Leadership Series is for those with a sincere commitment and motivation to serve the Regional community.

It is for participants who have the willingness to invest the time and energy required and have the ability to make arrangements to attend the required programs.

The RLS is for leaders representing business (large and small), education, nonprofits, agriculture, government, healthcare, elected officials, and media.

In short, the Regional Leadership Series is for anyone who understands the importance of Regionalism and is committed to Regional visioning and growth for the betterment of our communities.

http://www.historiccity.com/2010/staugustine/news/florida/stevenson-and-cleghorn-attend-regional-academy-2548

 

10. U.S. Regional Communities - sub-State, State or multi-State - in news articles.

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 U.S. in a news story as well as recognizing other regional organizations. In most cases, where a full name is present, a Google search will quickly get one to that organization. News reports do not always get the organization name correct.   Contents

    .01  Guest Commentary: 5 Keys to Falls Church City's Future Sustainability

Falls Church News Press - Falls Church, VA, USA

... five keys to the City's future sustainability. ... Second, Falls Church is not an island, and we have a long tradition of mutually beneficial cooperation with our neighboring jurisdictions. I believe firmly in regionalism and have sought to further it as former chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee and as a charter member of the DC Region's Emergency Preparedness Council. This regional cooperation has benefitted us all handsomely over the years in improved service, quality of life, and efficiency. Nowhere have these benefits been greater than in the transportation. As previous chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and now of the Region's Transportation Planning Board, I have been able to support the Region on major infrastructure improvements, including Rail to Dulles, with more to come, even as I have helped assure that Falls Church is treated fairly. Yet, this tradition of regionalism, too, has recently been ignored, most notably in the City's preemptive strike against Fairfax over water in the form of a lawsuit subsequently thrown out by the courts. Now, we are embroiled in a retaliation lawsuit that has potentially dire consequences for the City. ...

 

http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/local/5714-guest-commentary-5-keys-to-falls-church-citys-future-sustainability-.html

 

    .02  Hammond mayor talks regionalism at luncheon

Gary Post Tribune - Gary, IN, USA

Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. came out swinging on the side of regionalism for Northwest Indiana and against the town of Munster for its apparent reluctance to embrace it. Still smarting from that Town Council's rejection of an interlocal agreement that would have Hammond and Munster working together in case of another major flood, McDermott, speaking at the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting at Horseshoe Casino on Wednesday, said the issue of closing the Northcote Avenue bridge is "heading to court." Had the two passed it, though, it would've been a great example of regionalism working. ...

 

http://www.post-trib.com/business/2015734,lakeshore0128.article

 

    .03  Chamber endorses KC E-tax

Kansas City Star - Kansas City, MO, USA

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has issued a statement endorsing the 1 percent Kansas City earnings tax.  A petition drive is under way that could lead to a citywide vote on repealing the levy.  The drive is sponsored by a group funded by St. Louis businessman Rex Sinquefield. The Chamber's statement:  The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce believes that the City of Kansas City, Missouri's 1% earnings tax is essential for the livelihood of not just the City of Kansas City, but also the entire Kansas City metropolitan region.  The City of Kansas City, Missouri is the home of most of the critical community assets which make Kansas City a major metropolitan area.  The earnings tax helps support not only basic services, but also regional assets, such as the Kansas City Zoo, the Truman Sports Complex and the Bartle Hall Convention Center.

...

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/21299

 

    .04  Paterson Proposes Raising NYC Payroll Tax to Aid MTA

BusinessWeek - USA

New York Governor David Paterson proposed changes to a payroll tax aimed at assisting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, saying it would restore about $230 million in revenue this year to the cash-strapped transit agency. Paterson, a Democrat, recommended raising a so-called mobility tax on New York City businesses to 0.54 percent from 0.34 percent, while cutting in half the tax on businesses in seven counties outside New York City to 0.17 percent. The proposal would increase the percentage of tax receipts coming from New York City businesses to 88 percent from 70 percent and raise projected revenue to $1.54 billion from $1.31 billion. “The new proposal I am putting forward will provide relief to straphangers, as the MTA makes the difficult decisions necessary to balance its budget during an historic fiscal crisis,” Paterson said in a news release today. “It also makes key improvements to the current tax structure, promoting regional equity and delivering relief to small businesses. ...

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-08/new-york-s-paterson-proposes-raising-nyc-payroll-tax-to-aid-mta.html

 

    .05  Denver's Transportation Future Arrived Today - Judy Montero - Denver Councilwoman

Huffington Post (blog) - USA

Today I was thrilled to attend a press conference held by Senator Michael Bennett, FTA chief Peter Rogoff and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper announcing that the federal government has agreed to loan $300 million dollars for the Denver Union Station redevelopment. Since 1881, the Denver Union Station has been a major force in Denver's regional evolution. It has acted as a major intercontinental rail link, the station helped shape transportation in the city, region and the nation. Today, we are on the threshold of a new frontier. The redevelopment of this site will restore Denver Union Station to it's prominence as a force shaping our City and State's future character and economy. DUS is situated right in the heart of Council District 9, and I am so proud that it is on track to be considered the nation's most important central multi-modal hub. How we realize this dream for DUS involves numerous complex and important decisions. ... Specifically, some of the benefits of the DUS project include: …

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judy-montero/denvers-transportation-fu_b_451728.html

 

    .06  Mayor: Metro riders come first

Houston Chronicle - Houston, TX, USA

As Mayor Annise Parker awaits reports from transition committees studying the Metropolitan Transit Authority, fundamental questions loom about how the agency should deliver and pay for services and its role in shaping regional growth and development. Parker has signaled that she is not wedded to conventional wisdom about Metro, even suggesting eliminating fares to increase lagging ridership. While acknowledging that Metro would have to cope with the loss of fare revenues — $66 million in 2009, about 20 percent of its expenses — she said it is a discussion the agency needs to have. The mayor, who appoints five of the nine members of Metro's board, said she envisions a seamless network of transportation services that move people efficiently throughout the eight-county Houston region. “The goal should be, wherever you get on our ultimate mass transit system, from commuter rail, to light rail, to bus, you get one ticket, you go anywhere in the region,” Parker said. ...

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6856178.html

 

    .07  Rotary speaker promotes regionalism, excited for growth of Great Lakes Bay Region

The Bay City Times - Bay City, MI, USA

The Great Lakes Bay Region is on the right track for future growth and development. So says William Rustem, co-director of a state group that’s promoting regional alliances throughout Michigan. “I remember back in the day when Saginaw, Bay City and Midland fought over where something would be built,” said Rustem, a Frankenmuth native. “It’s not like that anymore. This Great Lakes Bay Region is great and needs to continue thriving.”  Rustem, representing an East Lansing-based group called People and Land [http://www.peopleandland.org/ ], discussed the Great Lakes Bay Region’s outlook ...

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2010/01/rotary_speaker_promotes_region.html

 

    .08  Is regionalism actually taking flight in West Michigan?

Business Review West Michigan - Mlive.com MI, USA

...West Michigan’s decades-long quest to achieve regionalism. More than 15 years ago, business leaders in West Michigan — some quietly, some more vocally — expressed a desire to see Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids become the regional hub for air transportation. Their vision entailed a port more fully realized in its capacity and service. ...  the formation of the Regional Air Alliance of West Michigan represents a tremendous step in thinking of these 12 counties as something more than geographic neighbors. Had Grand Rapids business leaders deemed Gerald R. Ford the central hub for air traffic in West Michigan, it would have divided this region immeasurably.

...

 

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2010/02/is_regionalism_actually_taking.html

 

    .09  Regional chamber recognizes community service

Northern Virginia Daily - Strasburg, VA, USA (News from regional community)

The Top of Virginia Regional Chamber held its annual Regional Greater Good awards dinner Jan. 29 at Millwood Station to recognize businesses and individuals whose leadership and community involvement benefited the area in 2009. "Even in the worst of economic times, a positive energy is still in our community," Jim Youngblood, market president of Virginia National Bank, said in his opening remarks. ...

 

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2010/02/regional-chamber-recognizes-community-service.php

 

    .10  How regionalism works

Toledo Blade - Toledo, OH, USA

A plan by the City of Clyde to establish a steady, cost-efficient source of electricity in its backyard put regionalism to the test, and it passed. This initiative is in the best interest not only of Clyde but also of a much wider region of communities that are counting on reliable and affordable energy to retain and attract business. This is economic development worth noting. Clyde deserves credit for pursuing a novel arrangement with a local trash hauler and recycler that was looking to reduce costs. F.S.I. Disposal and city leaders expect to break ground this spring on a $20 million energy-from-waste plant on a 20-acre site on Clyde's west side. ...

 

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100205/OPINION02/2050315

 

    .11  Re-evaluating priorities, goals: Rawlins Public Works Department and City Hall cope with staff reductions

Daily Times - Rawlins, WY, USA

... 12.5 city staff layoffs would help offset a projected $1.1 million budget deficit in capital and operational funds this fiscal year and mitigate next years’ projected $2 million shortfall. These deficits are largely the result of diminished state sales tax revenue, the likely upcoming elimination of the food tax subsidy and other reductions in state funding, he said. Stolns said the reductions would require more interagency cooperation and the reassigning of duties. “We’ve seen as the numbers dropped, (cooperation) become more of a necessity. … We’ve started using everybody’s talents,” he said. “You may be in (another) division, but you still work for the city. It’s good for all of us to remember who we work for.” ...

 

http://www.rawlinstimes.com/articles/2010/01/29/news/doc4b627f4cca3df728477279.txt

 

    .12  Safety Risks At Regional Airlines Detailed By PBS

NPR - USA

The crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 last February — in which 50 deaths were attributed to pilot error — exposes widespread safety problems linked to lax regulation, according to an investigation by PBS. Among the risks found in the Frontline report: long hours and low pay at regional carriers, where some pilots become captains with less than a year of experience.  As PBS correspondent Miles O'Brien tells NPR's Renee Montagne, the incident highlights the dangers of a trend that has grown in the past 15 years: the outsourcing of short routes from large carriers to more obscure local airlines. The problem, he says, is that large airlines do little to ensure their business partners' safety standards. For instance, Continental 3407 was operated by Colgan Air. But the relationship between the two partner airlines — one large and well-known, the other small and regional — is mostly symbolic. ...

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123496427

    .13  Even regional casinos struggle through year-end

GamingTodaySlotsToday - USA

Any hopes that regional casinos would turn positive during the fourth quarter reporting season ended last week when Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. (PNK), Penn National Gaming Inc. (PENN) and Ameristar Casinos Inc. (ASCA) reported on the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, 2009. Pinnacle Entertainment said its net loss narrowed to $242 million or $4.03 per share compared to the previous year when the loss was $297.7 million or $4.97 per share. ... Company officials described the reporting period as challenging. "While the first half of the year was solid," said interim CEO John Giovenco, "the continuing deterioration of the economy resulted in less visitation and lower play per customer." ...

 

http://www.gamingtoday.com/industry-news/story.bv?storyid=24581

 

    .14  Schneider National to hire 2,500 drivers in 2010

Milwaukee Business Journal - Milwaukee, WI, USA

Schneider National Inc. of Green Bay, the largest privately held trucking company in the country, said Monday that it plans to hire 2,500 new drivers for its regional fleet this year to serve a growing freight base. Drivers will be hired in each of its five regions: West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast. Hiring is expected to take place during the entire year, with all 2,500 new drivers in place by December. ... “Work-life balance is more important than ever to today’s professional truck driver,” said Mike Hinz, vice president, Schneider National. ... Schneider said strong reception of the regional service by customers and drivers has accelerated Schneider’s regional expansion plans. ...

 

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2010/02/08/daily7.html

 

    .15  Saints' Super Bowl win will have lasting effect in Gulf Coast region

Victoria Advocate - Victoria, Texas, USA

The entire Who Dat? nation along the Gulf Coast is still somewhat disbelieving of the win and its importance to a region still recovering from the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina. But as the days and weeks unfold, the reality will set in about just how breathtakingly symbolic the Saints' rise truly was. Not to be hokey here, because sometimes the hyperbole gets the best of us when it comes to celebrating the importance of sporting events. After all, these really are just games. But on this one, I think we can all indulge in how truly special this turned out to be. All you need to do is look at the explosion of joy that New Orleans became when the clock ticked down and the realization set in that this really was happening. If you don't think this game had a palpable effect on the collective psyche of a region once torn apart by the chaos and cruelty of all that rain and all that wind and all that catastrophic loss of life and property, then you'll need to check for a pulse. ...

 

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/feb/08/bc-fbn-super-glauber-columnnd-_-sports/?sports&nfl

 

    .16  Proposal: Regional fire agency could save $800K

San Jose Mercury News - San Jose, CA, USA

A regional fire agency serving the city of Reno and Washoe County could free up fire companies and save the region much as $800,000, according to study recommendations from a California consulting group. ...  The study recommends a joint fire authority board manage the regional fire agency. The board would be comprised of two Washoe county commissioners and two Reno council members and would supervise a combined force of Reno, Truckee Meadows and Sierra Fire protection districts. Washoe County paid $81,400 for the draft master plan.

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14353957

 

    .17  Eat-onomics With Paul Willis of Niman Ranch

Fast Company - USA

FC: What's the biggest challenge facing sustainable food right now?

PW: It's probably the commodity system that is in place, and has been in place for quite a long time, that's based on high-energy inputs--fuel, chemicals, fertilizers. There are lots of input costs and energy costs. A big obstacle is the food system we have in place. What we need to look for in the future is a sustainable agricultural system where the environmental, social, and economic results are all taken into consideration. It's not just about yield, it's not just about dollars, but it's about taking into consideration long-term goals, and how the system affects the communities, environments.

FC: What does Niman Ranch do to tackle that problem?

PW: We provide a market for farmers that raise livestock with high animal welfare standards and are generally part of a diversified farm. Most of our farmers don't just raise livestock, but also raise crops. That allows them to minimize the impact on the environment. For example, the manure can be used as an asset, as a fertilizer, rather than being a waste product.

 

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/stephanie-schomer/write/qa-paul-willis-niman-ranch

 

    .18  The Amazing Twenty Ways to Promote with Promotional Products

WEBTRAFFICIDEAS.com

16. Community Activities - involvement inside the regional community can contain sponsorship and participation in regional actions and celebrations. Advertising solutions assist your involvement and exposure by way of handout treats, present bag inclusions, drink bottles, t shirts, balloons, stickers, confectionery and snack packs. ...

 

http://www.webtrafficideas.com/the-amazing-twenty-ways-to-promote-with-promotional-products/

 

 

11. Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet   Contents

    .01  MP Ken Clarke issues warning to One North East

Journal Live - UK

SENIOR Conservative MP Ken Clarke has warned development bosses he will consign them to the dustbin as he cracks down on the “last arms of John Prescott’s unwanted plans for regional governance”. In a bullish attack on the £270m regional quango One North East Mr Clarke told business leaders in Tynemouth that the region would have to make a strong case to prove “it really wanted to preserve” the development agency. In front of agency staff responsible for creating and safeguarding tens of thousands of jobs he questioned whether people across the North East felt any real regional connections, citing his experience which, he said, proved people in Teesside do not like to be told they are similar to Newcastle and the same with Wearside and Tyneside. In a clear message to quango bosses he warned it was not right for such agencies to continue beyond their original use. The shadow business secretary went on to tell regeneration bosses it was wrong for them to campaign against being closed down and questioned the wages and bills involved in running large public sector agencies. Mr Clarke insisted Tory plans to hand development cash over to city groups with elected councillors taking responsibility would be welcomed.  He agreed, however, that if the region presented an argument to save One North East it would be considered by a potential Conservative government. Addressing concerns that the region would be left with different cities competing against each other Mr Clarke insisted there would still be some overall regional body if a shake-up came and added he thought competition would be good for the North East. ...

 

http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2010/02/06/mp-ken-clarke-issues-warning-to-one-north-east-61634-25774016/

 

    .02  MMRDA woos global investors for funding

Daily News & Analysis - Mumbai, India

With a kitty of about Rs15,000 crore, the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) may be considered the richest planning body in the country. But with an investment of Rs1.14 lakh crore required to implement its 16 premier infrastructure projects, the authority is wooing worldwide investors to come to its rescue. Last week, MMRDA chief Ratnakar Gaikwad appealed to a world conference of architects, urban planners and investors being held in the city to pledge investments for the metropolitan region. At the conference, organised by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats along with the Remaking of Mumbai Foundation (RoMF), Gaikwad showcased the authority’s various projects, such as the 145-km metro corridor, the 100-km monorail, the iconic tower, innovation park, rental housing, the multi-modal corridor, and the funicular railway at Matheran. He said that these projects can set the city, along with the entire region, on a path of rapid growth. ...

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mmrda-woos-global-investors-for-funding_1344756

 

    .03  Indonesia and the World 2010 (Part 2 of 2)

The Jakarta Herald - Jakarta, Indonesia

Indonesia’s preoccupation with various global challenges in 2010 will not be at the expense of its commitment to contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of its own region – Southeast Asia. Almost mirroring Indonesia’s democratic transformation over the past decade, the period since 2003 when Indonesia last held the Chairmanship of ASEAN, has witnessed ASEAN’s own evolution towards an ASEAN Community.  … In the broader region, the past year saw renewed interest in the idea of an East Asia or Asia-Pacific wide regional architecture. Renewed because for Indonesia it is a debate that we had anticipated by forging ahead with the concept of an ASEAN Community. For Indonesia, there cannot be an East Asian community or an Asia Pacific without an ASEAN Community as its core constituent. Thus, the ASEAN Community, the various “ASEAN +” processes, the ARF, APEC and East Asia Summit constitute a multi-pronged path towards an East Asia community with ASEAN playing a central role. This is a vision that will continue to guide us in 2010. A notable emphasis, however, is the need to ensure that nationally, within our own borders, Indonesia itself is ready, including in terms of its national connectivity, in order to fully benefit from the regional community-building efforts. Our global and regional diplomatic efforts will be underpinned by solid bilateral diplomacy. ...

 

http://thejakartaherald.com/indonesia-and-the-world-2010-part-2-of-2/

 

    .04  Liverpool pioneers regional community renewable energy fund

Northwest Regional Development Agency (press release) – Warrington, UK

Liverpool City Council (LCC) in partnership with Foundation, a climate fund for the North West, has today (Monday, February 8th) become the first local authority in England’s North West to launch a community renewable power initiative that will deliver measurable carbon savings. Grants are available to charities, community groups and schools based in the city for micro generation schemes such as wind and solar projects and heat pumps that need some funding to make a start. The fund totaling up to £100,000 comes from LCC’s Area Based Grant Programme and the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).   Foundation is an innovative climate fund for the Northwest that helps local organisations to tackle climate change. Foundation will manage and administer the fund, applying its environmental expertise to assess the carbon benefit of each project proposed. ...

 

http://www.nwda.co.uk/news--events/press-releases/201001/liverpool-foundation.aspx

 

    .05  Olympic torch travelling through one of the most diverse regions of Canada

Winnipeg Free Press - Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA

As the Olympic torch run makes its way through metro Vancouver in the coming days, it will visit one of the largest Indo-Canadian communities in the world outside India and one of the most vibrant Chinese communities outside China. But some say the Olympic celebrations so far have failed to reflect that diversity in the host province of the 2010 Winter Games. There has been great debate over the presence of French at the Games, but the fact is that Mandarin or Cantonese would be more practical in the region where 43.6% of the total population is Chinese-Canadian, according to the 2006 census. There are more than 400,000 Chinese Canadians in the province, most concentrated in Richmond and Burnaby, B.C. ...

 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/olympics/83835132.html

 

    .06  Arroyo launches 'super region' project in Batangas

Inquirer.net - Makati City Philippines

President Arroyo described the Urban Luzon Beltway as being composed of the southern part of Central Luzon, the entire Metro Manila, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon region) and half of Region IV-B-- specifically the islands of Mindoro and Marinduque--which have been the country's bases of industry, manufacturing and trade and commerce. ... The beltway is one of the five super regions created by the President in 2006 pursuant to Executive Order No. 561. …She said that as an economist, she stressed discipline in fund management. Ms Arroyo stressed the need to strengthen the economy through human resources and infrastructure like the Urban Luzon Beltway. ...

 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20100208-252069/Arroyo-launches-super-region-project-in-Batangas

 

    .07  Putin to chair meeting of govt commission for regional development

ITAR-TASS - Moscow, Russia

... The development strategy of the information society in the Russian Federation that the Russian president approved on February 7, 2008 sets as one of the priorities higher efficiency of the state management, better cooperation between the civil society and business with the state authorities, a higher quality and quicker provision of the state services. One of the main components of the strategy is the concept of forming the Russian electronic government, ... In most Russian constituent territories the Internet portals were created to provide the official information about the work of the state authorities and state purchases. The agencies and structures, which are in charge of the informatization in the regions and the transition of the state services in the electronic form, were determined. Regional information systems are being created. In several federal constituent territories complex solutions are under development to embrace the informatization of all spheres of the work of regional authorities and the whole scope of the state services. ...

 

http://www.tass-online.ru/?page=pages&pageID=24&langID=2

 

    .08  SPO supports decentralization

B92 - Belgrade, Serbia

The Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) wants laws passed to encourage a decentralization of the country, SPO Director Aleksandar Jugović said.  “The SPO is strongly against any kind of initiatives for creating an independent statistical Sandžak sub-region, and we are serious in our efforts to decentralize Serbia. That is why we are demanding the emergency adoption of laws that would return property and authority to municipalities and cities in Serbia,” Jugović said. ... “Regionalization is a process with which we must economically restore the underdeveloped parts of Serbia. One of the goals of regionalization, respecting the principle of equal regional development, is stability, and unity in the entire country, not causing new divisions,” Jugović said.

 

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=02&dd=07&nav_id=65043

 

    .09  Asia's never-closer union: Regional economic integration has a long, long way to go

The Economist - London, UK

... for the past 20-odd years a pan-Asian conversation about the benefits of deeper integration has only grown. The end of cold-war tensions within Asia allowed the conversation to begin. An early prize, says Mr Nag, was the “Greater Mekong Subregion”, created in 1992. It grouped five South-East Asian countries (and two Chinese provinces) with the aim of building a transport and energy infrastructure shared by all. The breakthrough, says Mr Nag, came with the acceptance that though all member countries would benefit, they would not all do so equally or at the same time. Similar subregional initiatives are proliferating in South, Central and South-East Asia. For the moment, says Mr Nag, these subregions are separate “garlands”, that need to be strung together. There is a practical aspect to this. ...

 

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15452622

 

    .10  Disasters are not rare, so prepare

FT.com - London, UK

A natural event that kills more than 50,000 people has occurred, on average, once every four years since 1970. ... . Given the frequency of natural catastrophes, we need rapid response teams on a global scale analogous to local fire departments. In every region of the globe, we should have a rapid response organisation, under clear leadership, primed to organise the logistics, search and rescue teams, medical support, drinking water, basic nourishment and shelter within hours of a natural catastrophe. Each regional group would be responsible, with the affected government’s permission, for mobilising and managing the initial emergency response – for at least the first week after a disaster. It would direct the allocation of NGO resources in this period, ensuring that the most important are landed, unloaded and delivered where needed. ... Very bad, very big surprises happen often. They are all man-made to some extent. We need to be prepared – and we need stronger global management of them on this small planet.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e80454a-0925-11df-ba88-00144feabdc0.html?catid=9&SID=google

 

    .11  Regionalization Heralds New Era in Morocco's Institutional  Reforms, PAM SG

Brunei fm - Brunei Darussalam

Regionization is a new project which heralds a new era in Morocco’s institutional reforms and which will mark the decades to come, said Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah on Saturday. Speaking at the opening of a meeting on “Enlarged Regionalization and its socio-economic objectives”, Biadillah said this project reflects the will to change modes of governance based on proximity and on putting the human element at the heart of development strategies. He recalled that PAM’s agenda is based on these principles, insisting on the importance of the regional approach in the creation and the fair distribution of resources. ...

 

http://news.brunei.fm/2010/02/01/regionalization-heralds-new-era-in-moroccos-institutional-reforms-pam-sg/#

 

    .12  National anti-regionalism strategy to be drafted

Yemen News Agency - Sana'a, Yemen

Ministry of Endowments and Guidance is to draft a national anti-regionalism strategy. The ministerial committee of preparing the national strategy asked the ministry of endowments to draft the strategy which aims at enhancing moderation and combating bad thoughts in the society in addition to raise awareness about tolerance and loyalty for the nation. The strategy will be drafted in accordance with Holy Quran, laws, previous approved strategies and international conventions which have been ratified by Republic of Yemen.

 

http://www.sabanews.net/en/news204647.htm

 

    .13  Progress on East Africa Community Protocol

Africa Rise Blog

(Video and text) The East African Community (EAC) is the regional intergovernmental organisation of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Rwanda and Republic of Burundi with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. … The realization of a large regional economic bloc encompassing Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda with a combined population of more than 125 million people, land area of 1.82 million sq kilometres and a combined Gross Domestic Product of $60 billion (2008*), bears great strategic and geopolitical significance and prospects of a renewed and reinvigorated East African Community. …

 

http://unitedafrica.blogspot.com/2010/01/progress-on-east-africa-community.html

 

    .14  PRRD mulls carbon neutrality

Energeticcity.ca - Fort St. John, BC, CA

The Peace River Regional District [http://www.peaceriverrd.bc.ca/] is taking more steps towards becoming carbon neutral by 2012.  Directors met in Dawson Creek on Thursday, and discussed a Regional Community Energy Partnership.  ... What’s unique about the proposed Regional Community Energy Partnership, is that the PRRD wants to keep the generated carbon-offset funds within the Regional District. ... before any Regional Community Energy Partnership can come into play, a feasibility study needs to be conducted to investigate if the idea would actually work in the Peace. So, Directors voted in favour of including $45,000 in the 2010 budget for such a study. ...

http://www.energeticcity.ca/fortstjohn/news/01/28/10/prrd-mulls-carbon-neutrality

 

    .15  The Next Decade's Top Sustainability Trends

WorldChanging.com

What trends are likely the next ten years? … 8. Focus on Urban Agriculture and Foodsheds - Time Period: 2012-2019 - As fuel prices rise and unexpected energy shortages occur, food prices will rise rapidly, especially for food that must be transported long distances via airplanes, stored and processed. The alternative is greater local and regional food production in and around cities. Existing cities in Latin America (Havana, Cuba--pictured above--and Quito, Ecuador), Africa (Dar Es Salam, Tanzania; Kampala, Uganda) and Asia (Seoul, South Korea), have produced significant quantities of produce or aquaculture within their city limits. Cities in North America that have maintained or are building or rebuilding strong regional food networks include Seattle, Honolulu, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. … 9. Resiliency planning: cities, towns, homes - Time Period: 2010-2019

 

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010922.html

 

    .16  It's a National Shame Regionalism Has Undermined Nationalism in Mumbai

NewsBlaze - Folsom, CA, USA

... Besides, talking about Mumbai, he said nothing insulting except that Mumbai belongs to all Indians. It is really a matter of shame that two Senas have taken over the rights of Mumbai treating it as their exclusive property. It is also not clear who is ruling in Maharashtra, it is Senas or Congress. These extra-constitutional authorities are trying to undermine the unity of the country and create an atmosphere of distrust between the people. ...

 

http://newsblaze.com/story/20100207133055jams.nb/topstory.html

 

    .17  Crown Beverages eyes regional market

New Vision - Kampala, Uganda

LOCAL soft drinks manufacturer, Crown Beverages, is set to roll out its operations to other regional economies. The move, according to the company’s board chairman, Amos Nzeyi, aims to consolidate its market share amid increasing competition in the beverages industry. “Crown Beverages will cross borders and I believe with everybody’s support, we will be able to achieve this,” Nzeyi said. He was on Saturday speaking at an event to celebrate the company’s achievements for the past year at Hotel Africana in Kampala. ...

 

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/709487

 

    .18  Megaslumming - A Journey Through sub-Saharan Africa's Largest Shantytown

Share The World's Resources

Kibera has become one of the most infamous slums in the world. But the visiting pop stars, politicians and Western journalists seldom explain how the enduring poverty and inequality in Kenya is intimately related to an unjust economic system that connects our different worlds. In this exposé, Adam Parsons sets out to unravel how a ‘megaslum’ such as Kibera came to exist, what economic forces shape the reality of life for slum-dwellers in Africa, and what it really means to live in extreme poverty. In a mix of travel writing, history and political narrative, Megaslumming vividly describes life in the slum through the eyes of its different residents – the AIDS orphans, the grandmother-headed households, the neglected schools, the Nubian elders, and most of all the street boys who become the author’s guides and bodyguards inside the dangerous shantytown. …

 

http://www.stwr.org/megaslumming-a-journey-through-sub-saharan-africas-largest-shantytown.html

 

    .19  First-Ever Drop In Filings Under Patent Cooperation Treaty Seen In 2009

Intellectual Property Watch (blog)

International patent filings under the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Patent Cooperation Treaty fell for the first time in three decades in 2009, owing to a deep economic downturn, WIPO officials said today. Overall patent filings fell 4.5 percent in 2009, but industrialised nations were particularly hard-hit, and are also expected to have slower growth rates in 2010 than emerging economies. ... The picture was more variegated at the national level. The biggest industrialised-country players in the international patent system saw major declines in their filings in 2009, with the US filing 11.4 percent fewer patents than in 2008, Germany losing 11.2 percent, Sweden 11.3 and Canada 11.7 percent of filings. But China increased its patent filings 29.7 percent, enough to surpass France and become the fifth largest patent filer to the PCT, meaning that now three of the top five are Asian states. The other two Asian nations in the top five also saw increased performance, ...

 

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/02/08/first-ever-drop-in-filings-under-patent-cooperation-treaty-in-2009/

 

12. Blogging about Regional Communities   Contents

    .01  Regional Economy vs Global Economy

Loving Home in Practice

The horrible consequence of the predominance of global scale business (manufacture, logistics and retailing) is that regional marketplaces have been utterly destroyed. ... There clearly are regional businesses, but the norm is of national and global scale. ... At the time when the global retailers became prominent, they superceded (killed) regional marketplaces. The regional retailers, regional wholesalers, and largely regional manufacturers, all vanished in the 1980’s and 90’s. The institutional structure of the regional manufacturers and the networks of wholesalers is now destroyed. ... There is no warehousing and middle-men structure to support regional retailers, and those that would try would face financially compromised customers (paying late, going bankrupt). Its a remote prospect at this point. ... A state has very limited powers relative to the supply chain of labor standards (slave and child labor), environmental (toxins, deforestation), monopoly practices, etc. There is no regional scale governance. A large consequence of the shift to a regional scale economy would a great increase in the distribution of employment. If manufacturing, distribution, and retailing is relatively local, then jobs will be as well. …

 

http://rwitty.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/regional-economy-vs-global-economy/

 

    .02  Economic Development Marketing and Attraction: Communicating Your Community’s Economic Competitive Advantage

Inside Business Blog

In developing a community’s or region’s economic development marketing and attraction strategy, it’s important to have a greater understanding of the regional economy and its industries. The more accurately one can identify those industries and firms that best match the community’s existing capabilities, the more accurately one can target their economic development marketing and attraction efforts.

 

http://blog.nsbdc.org/2010/02/01/economic-development-marketing-and-attraction-communicating-your-community%E2%80%99s-economic-competitive-advantage/

 

    .03  Vote with Your Fork! State of the Pantry Report

Adventures In Daily Living

Here are our goals, in no particular order, with the over-arching consideration in parentheses.

    * to shun misery-laden production practices (personal ethical health, preservation of small parcel agriculture[usually]),

    * to shun edible-food-like products that have factory origins (personal physical health, personal financial health, regional environmental health*).

    * to shun farming practices that rely on the intense use of petroleum-based fertilizers (personal health, regional environmental health).

    * to shun foods laden with antibiotics and insecticides (personal physical health, community/regional environmental health).

Here is our State of the Pantry report:

Goals Met:

    * Beef -- Misery-free grass-fed beef born, raised, and butchered in one set of pastures within our region. Purchased directly from farmer.

    * Eggs -- Our own misery-free yard-fed hens give us plenty of these.

    * Flour -- Organic regional flour milled by locally-owned flour mill.

…

http://www.adventuresindailyliving.blogspot.com/2010/02/vote-with-your-fork-state-of-pantry.html

 

    .04  The commons as a common paradigm for social movements and beyond

CommonsBlog

We can only promote the commons as a new narrative for the 21st century if they are identified as a common denominator by different social movements and schools of thought. In my point of view, enforcing the commons would be not only possible, but strategically intelligent. Here are 15 reasons why:  … 6. Focussing the commons brings three big C into a new balance: Cooperation, Command and Competition. There is no cooperation without competition and vice-versa, but in a commons based society the recognition is gained by those who perform best in cooperation and not in competition. The slogan is: Out-cooperate instead of out-compete. The specific rules for cooperation in a commons system vary from setting to setting. Nobody can command them from above. From commons research and practice we learn, that all over the world many commons governance systems are self-regulating, that means: they are creating their own monitoring systems. Or they are self-regulating and coordinate at different institutional levels.  …

 

http://commonsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/the-commons-as-a-common-paradigm-for-social-movements-and-beyond/

 

and http://www.onthecommons.org/content.php?id=2642

 

    .05  Neo-liberalism beats Neo-realism

Politics in Motion

According to Neo-liberals there are many cases in which institutions do matter. They can: provide information; reduce transaction costs; make commitments credible; establish focal points for coordination, and in general facilitate the operation of reciprocity (Keoane & Martin 1994). What Keohane & Martin defend is that, contrary to Neo-realist belief, states can functionally make use of the existence and good function of institutions to improve the quality of information and optimize potential gains from cooperation. They also make more than, as Mersheimer criticizes, simply preventing cheating. Institutions have the ability to work as moderators and control to a certain extent “fears of unequal gains from cooperation” (Keohane & Martin 1994). ...

 

http://politicsinmotion.blogspot.com/2007/05/neo-liberalism-beats-neo-realism.html

 

13. Announcements and Regional Links.   Contents

    .01  International Conference of Innovative Cities - March 10 -13 - Curitiba, Brazil

Four Days, Four Major Themes:

1 - The Revival of Cities | Remarkable experiences on social and technological innovations that are competing for the construction of a new urban environment (including the environment for the development of the new industry)

2 - The reinvention of the government from cities | Remarkable experiences on management innovations (including urban planning and management of policies and innovative programs)| Remarkable experiences on political innovations (including policies and politics) | The City as "Living Organism".

3 - The development governance in cities | Remarkable experiences on innovations for the endogenous development | Remarkable experiences on innovations for sustainability | The City as a Network and Sustainability of Cities.

4 - Networking City and City Networks | Presentation of the FIEP-OPTI project, 'Curitiba, Innovative City' | Formation of the Innovative Cities Network initial center.

 

http://www.cidadesinovadoras.org.br/english/

 

    .02  Regional Studies Association Sessions and Annual Regional Studies Journal Lecture by Professor Paul Krugman - April 15 & 16 at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference, Washington D.C., USA

Thursday  - April 15^th

Regional Studies Association - Day of Sessions

Session speakers: Ann Markusen, Sam Ock Park, Maryann Feldman, Andrew Isserman,

Henry Yeung and Susan Christopherson

Session topics:

* Innovation and Restructuring

* Ecological and Social Perspectives

* Urban Responses and Strategies

* Regional Resilience Panel Debate

* Regional Resilience Plenary - Professor Ed Glaeser

   “Two Centuries of Urban Resurgence and Decline”

Regional Studies Journal Annual Lecture

Friday April 16^th - 12:40pm

Professor Paul Krugman - Nobel Prize Winner

 “The New Economic Geography, Now Middle Aged”

To attend the above sessions please register for the AAG Annual Conference.

Day rates available.  Discounts apply if booking before 17th March

http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2010/index.htm

Regional Studies Association - www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk

    .03  Oceanology International 2010 Conference - 9 - 11 March - London

 

Oceanology International is the world’s premier meeting place for the marine science and ocean technology community. The Oceanology International 2010 conference, developed with the Society for Underwater Technology, will focus on the five core technical disciplines: Navigation & Positioning; Hydrography/Geophysics; Marine Environment; Geotechnics; Ocean Observation and Forecasting.

http://www.oceanologyinternational.com/

 

14. Financial Crisis.   Contents

    .01  The Celtic Tiger Savaged the Irish - RenegadeEconomist

Fred Harrison lectures to five hundred people at Trinity College Dublin and explains where to go from here for Ireland and her people.

Video - 7:27 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBWTJsc5Og&feature

Books: http://www.fredharrison.org/publications.asp

    .02  Think the PIGS Are in Trouble? These 7 U.S. States Could Be Heading for Something Worse - SeekingAlpha.com

The inevitable coming of the sovereign debt panic finally engulfed Europe this week as the derisively (or perhaps affectionately) named PIGS spilled their slop on the continent. But Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain are hardly worthy of so much attention. In truth, they are little more than the currently favored proxies among the leveraged speculator community (cough) for the larger problem of all sovereign debt. Indeed, the credit default swaps on these smaller European satellite states were not alone this week in making large moves higher. UK sovereign risk rose strongly, and so did US sovereign risk. With a downgrade warning from Moody’s to boot.

Notable among three of the PIGS are their relatively small populations, and small contributions to either world or European GDP. While Spain has a population over 45 million, Portugal and Greece have populations roughly equal to a US state, such as Ohio–at around 10 million. And Ireland? The Emerald Isle has a population similar to Kentucky, at around 4 million. While the PIGS are without question a problem for Europe, whatever problems they present for Brussels are easily matched by the looming headache for Washington that’s coming from large, US states such as California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan.

I’ve identified seven large US states by four criteria that are sure to cause trouble for Washington’s political class at least for the next 3 years, through the 2012 elections. These are states with big populations, very high rates of unemployment, and which have already had to borrow big to pay unemployment claims. In addition, as a kind of Gregor.us kicker, I’ve thrown in a fourth criteria to identify those states that are large net importers of energy. Because the step change to higher energy prices played, and continues to play, such a large role in the developed world’s financial crisis it’s instructive to identify those US states that will struggle for years against the rising tide of higher energy costs.

...

 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/187051-think-the-pigs-are-in-trouble-these-7-u-s-states-could-be-heading-for-something-worse?

 

15. Custom search: region, regions, regional communities    Contents

To search on topics like those in Regional Community Development News use this custom search engine which utilizes over 2000 regional related sites.

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Tom (Thomas J.) Christoffel, AICP - http://www.regional-communities.com/

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Regional Community Development News – January 25, 2010 [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 - .18

Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet … 11.01 - .15

Blogging about Regional Communities … 12.01 - .11

Announcements and Regional Links … 13.01 - .03

Financial Crisis …14.01 - .02

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Top Regional Community stories

  1.  Uniting against casinos - Towns join forces to address impact - Boston Globe - Boston, MA, USA

Known for their rigid independence and fierce sovereignty, Massachusetts communities are usually suspicious of regionalization. But the possibility of a resort-style casino in Milford, or Marlborough, has communities thinking there is power in numbers.

“If I were even to support some expanded gambling bill, I believe it’s critical there be some regional acceptance. It has to go beyond just the host community,’’ said state Senator Karen Spilka, a Democrat from Ashland, who, as Senate chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, held Beacon Hill hearings this fall on multiple bills that would expand gambling. “It will have regional impacts. There has to be regional acceptance and regional mitigation as well.’’

Residents and officials from several towns, including Natick, Wellesley, Ashland, Hopkinton, Holliston, Milford, and Framingham, gathered at the Ashland Public Library on Wednesday for “Regional Casino Contingency Planning: Collaborative Preparation for a Potential Gaming Destination in 495/MetroWest,’’ the meeting organized by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council [http://www.mapc.org/], the 495/MetroWest Partnership, and other groups.

Participants talked about strategy with two Monson residents who have been successful in harnessing their region’s powerbrokers to air concerns about a possible casino in their area, and also got an update from Spilka on the state’s view of expanded gaming.

“The House is working on a bill now,’’ she said. “That will maybe come out in February or March. There will be a hearing on the bill, I assume. The House will take it up and then it will come to the Senate. . . . I honestly don’t know at this point what will be in it.’’

The Legislature could legalize resort casinos, with a limit on the numbers for either the entire state or for particular regions, said Spilka. There are also bills for “racinos,’’ she said, which would allow slot machines at racetracks.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2010/01/24/towns_plan_regional_front_to_address_casino_developers/

 

  2. Regionalism series misses the mark - Central Penn Business Journal - Harrisburg, PA, USA

Once again, the Business Journal has missed a great opportunity in addressing the regionalism issue. Your coverage ("One for all," Jan. 1, 2010) continues to promote the myth that those who support "consolidationism" are "regional," and those who do not believe in "consolidationism" are "anti-regional."

Constantly pointing to Charlotte, N.C., as a case study is irrelevant and counterproductive. Charlotte developed its boundaries through annexation of unincorporated territory. That situation does not and cannot exist in Harrisburg.

Let's get specific: When the Business Journal and others begin to advocate that Lower Paxton and Susquehanna townships should be annexed into the city of Harrisburg so they can subsidize the city's mismanagement -- regardless of the wishes of township residents -- then midstaters will understand what this model amounts to; and they will likely reject it, as they probably should.

In addition, your profiling of regional successes ignored the organizations that have done it well in this metro area: most importantly, the Capital Region Council of Governments,

[ http://www.capitalregioncog.org/ ] an inter-municipal alliance with members in four counties.

That decades-old organization has compiled a long and substantive, if incomplete, record of success. In part, it is successful because it eschews consolidation simple-mindedness, instead stressing shared services and purchasing, information sharing and policy partnerships, where they make the most sense.

Moreover, regionalism needs to embrace the entire south central Pennsylvania to succeed.

Just in recent days, our board of commissioners became the first of the region's eight counties to approve the proposed Regional Action Plan for Southcentral Pennsylvania, a work plan resulting from years of preparation by the South Central Caucus of Counties in partnership with the commonwealth.

The caucus is largely modeled on the same style of participative partnership as the COG. As a result, the RAP represents our best opportunity to date to pursue common goals for south central Pennsylvania in a truly cooperative regional fashion.

…

 

http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/industry_article.asp?cID=1&aID=74173

 

  3. Tupelo visit energizes Miss-Lou regionalism group - Natchez Democrat - Natchez, MS, USA

Seventeen community leaders rode a bus six hours to and from Tupelo hoping to learn the secret to the city’s success in economic and community development.

The secret may have been revealed, not in the much-touted north Mississippi city, but across the aisles of the bus, bouncing down Interstate 55 between laughs and serious conversations about the issues facing the Miss-Lou.

“The best thing that came out of the trip was, honestly, the six hours on the bus,” said Heather Malone, director of Concordia Economic and Industrial Development. “Everybody got a chance to get to know one another better.”

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton echoed Malone’s sentiments.

“More than anything, we’ve opened up a line of communication between ourselves and Concordia Parish,” he said.

The Tupelo site visit was the first such trip for the Miss-Lou Regional Steering Committee.

The committee of local elected and business leaders was formed last year with the goal of bringing together the communities of Natchez, Vidalia and Ferriday for economic and community development.

“We’ve taken a lot of baby steps, which are giant leaps for our community,” Malone said. “(We’ve been) getting everyone around the table month after month.”

The group has been meeting for approximately seven months, mostly building dialogue between community leaders.

“Each time we meet, like Heather said, at our first meetings, everyone was kind of a little bit to ourselves, now we’re all sort of laying it out on the table,” Middleton said.

Debbie Hudson, president and CEO of the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce, said the trip energized the group

“We allowed each other to give our thoughts, good and bad, and ignited great ideas,” she said. “They were talking and keying off each other’s ideas. I think that excited them and we just need to keep that going.

…

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2010/jan/16/tupelo-visit-energizes-miss-lou-regionalism-group/

 

  4. Coastal Vision 3000 to shut down; some wonder what it did for the region - The Northwest Florida Daily News -  Fort Walton Beach, FL

Coastal Vision 3000’s decision to close up shop this coming Friday has some local leaders questioning the group’s earlier promises of regional unity.

The tourism engine, which emerged in 2008 with plans to brand Northwest Florida as “THE Beach,” touted itself as committed to creating a single identity that could be marketed worldwide.

But last week Coastal Vision 3000 declared “Mission Accomplished,” … [ “Coastal Vision 3000 hits target”  http://www.waltonsun.com/news/vision-4100-southwest-foundation.html ]

…

Some Okaloosa County officials say the group’s efforts — and close ties to major economic driver St. Joe Co. — were slanted toward Bay County. …

Okaloosa County Administrator Jim Curry remembers that representation of regionalism. But he says Coastal Vision 3000 did not follow through on its pledge.

“We’re disappointed that it wasn’t more of a regional approach,” he said. “I’m not real sure what Okaloosa County got out of the experience.”

...

Coastal Vision, which charged dues of varying amounts to its members, built an extensive Web site, www.thebeachfla.com, that highlighted coastal communities and attractions from Pensacola to Apalachicola.

… groups such as Coastal Vision 3000 “come and go” and that no single organization is going to accomplish regionalism.

...

Inactive but intact

Coastal Vision 3000’s founders say the recession is the driving force behind shutting down, adding that the group has “a zero balance.”

The money collected from members’ dues was used to pay for staff and for at least $750,000 in regional and national advertising, said Dawn Moliterno, president of the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce.

…

Bagby said more work is needed to cement a regional brand.

“I don’t know if it’s feasible, but I will tell you, ‘THE Beach’ never caught hold,” he said.

Local developer Peter Bos agreed, saying “people did not buy into it.”

But the regional approach still is critical to Northwest Florida, Bos said.

…

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/vision-24819-coastal-wonder.html

 

RC:

West Florida Regional Planning Council - Counties Bay, Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Walton Counties - http://www.wfrpc.dst.fl.us/

Apalachee Regional Planning Council - Gulf County - http://www.thearpc.com/

 

  5. VA Planning District Commissions to Celebrate 40 Years of Regional Planning

Rockbridge Weekly - Lexington, VA, USA

The Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions (VAPDC), a statewide association bringing the Planning District Commissions (PDC) of Virginia together, will kick off celebrating their 40th year of existence at their annual Winter Conference on February 17 in Richmond.

Throughout this year, VAPDC is promoting efforts to address regional issues through regional cooperation among local governments. The majority of the state’s 21 PDCs were established in 1969 and 1970 following the General Assembly’s passage of the Regional Cooperation Act in 1968. The Act established the framework for PDCs “to encourage and facilitate local government cooperation and state local cooperation in addressing on a regional basis problems of greater than local significance.”

The VAPDC is honoring the 40th anniversary of the PDC’s creation throughout Fiscal Year 2009-2010. Virginia’s 21 PDCs are made up of elected officials and citizens appointed by local governments. The PDCs ...

Programming during the upcoming 2010 VAPDC Winter Conference will follow the theme of Celebrating Forty Years of Regional Innovation. ... The PDCs of Virginia have joined together to create the Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions to share best practices, and further regionalism across the Commonwealth.

For more information about VAPDC visit the website at www.vapdc.org

http://www.rockbridgeweekly.com/rw_article.php?ndx=16468

 

  6. A regional approach to poverty - Baltimore Sun (blog) - Baltimore, MD, USA

The good news is that Baltimore's poverty rate is on the decline, faster than nearly any other city in the nation. The bad news is that the number of poor people in the Baltimore region is virtually unchanged -- they are simply more spread out, so much so that, for the first time in modern history, more people who fall below the federal poverty guidelines live in the suburbs than in the central city.

That trend presents some benefits. If the poor are not as concentrated in one place and are integrated more fully into mixed-income communities, their opportunities for education and employment are likely to be better. But it also presents challenges. Suburban governments that are not as accustomed to providing services for large numbers of poor residents are swamped, and the spread of the poor makes it more difficult to make resources easily accessible for them. …

The situation calls for a more regional approach to attacking poverty. We already have regional groups to coordinate transportation and development. Why not one to address the needs of the poor?

Comments

...

Regionalism is a great idea, but hard to swallow for suburbanites who have always thought of themselves as insulated from the problems of Big Bad Baltimore. The best solution (though unlikely) would be for the city and Baltimore County to merge. Once accomplished, you would have one of the 5 or 6 largest cities in the country with a very diverse - racially and economically - population ...

... I am chair of Maryland Alliance for the Poor (MAP). I am so glad to hear the topic of poverty is being discussed, and yes it needs to be addressed. I would like hear more of your ideas on the topic of how to approach the issue regionally.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/2010/01/poverty_in_the_suburbs.html

 

RC: Baltimore Metropolitan Council - www.baltometro.org

 

  7. New RDA director embarks on PR tour - Gary Post Tribune - Gary, IN, USA

The Regional Development Authority [ http://www.in.gov/rda/]  has learned a valuable lesson: It needs to share the word of the good it does -- particularly in Porter County.

That's why RDA Executive Director Bill Hanna is making the rounds of communities in Porter County, starting with Valparaiso.

Leaders of the RDA understand they need to be more proactive in their approach, about what they do and what it means regionally and at a more local level.

The whole point of the legislation was to build regional infrastructure without having to deal with political fiefdoms and myopic, temporary politicians.

…

The RDA also has been successful in improving the infrastructure of the South Shore Line and Gary/Chicago International Airport and has helped build a beautiful new lakefront park in Portage.

Most leaders of communities in Porter County agree with the merits of the RDA. That's why Hanna is seeing support during his visits. Unfortunately, the County Council doesn't share the wisdom and is still trying to exit.

Even if the unincorporated parts of Porter County end up outside the taxing authority of the RDA, they'll still end up with the benefits of regionalism.

It's like a family. Decisions must be made to benefit the entire family, even if one of the sulky children has crawled into a corner to pout.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/opinion/1997314,edit-rda.article

 

  8. Ag Legislators Look into the Future - Daily Yonder Blog - Keep it Rural – USA

If you put the chairs of agriculture committees from 47 state legislatures in a room, what would they talk about?

Once a year, it happens. Legislative leaders gather at the Legislative Agricultural Chairs Summit and they discuss issues important to agriculture business and to rural communities. You can think of the weekend as a preview of what is likely to be the dominant issues in state legislatures over the coming year.

The latest meeting was in Orlando this past weekend. I was asked to be on a panel about migration. (The conference was managed by Carolyn Orr, who publishes the invaluable Agclips.)  The legislators in our session were uniformly interested in what to do with rural towns that are losing people.

...

Rural/Urban Division There was some discussion of the widening gap between rural and urban communities. As politics grows more testy, and as rural areas grow more Republican, Maryland Sen. Mac Middleton warned that “if the partisan spirit continues, rural areas could be left out.”

Regionalism Dallas Tonsager, under secretary of rural development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said he expected the federal agency to announce a new program promoting regionalism. This has become a popular development concept. The theory is that counties working together will be more successful in their development efforts than if they plunge ahead without cooperating.

“We’ll becoming out soon with a proposal on regionalism,” Tonsager told the legislators. “I would urge you to look at what Iowa did when (USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack) did when he was governor (of Iowa).”

In Iowa, Vilsack went so far as to propose reducing the number of counties from 99 to about 15, following the lines of community college districts.

...

http://www.dailyyonder.com/ag-legislators-look-future/2010/01/20/2548

 

The State Ag and Rural Leaders group was formed in 2006 at the 4th Annual Legislative Ag Chairs Summit in Tempe, Arizona. - http://www.agandruralleaders.org/about_us/about_us.htm

 

  9. Van den Brande asks Commissioner-designate Hahn to believe more in the real importance of multi-level governance and to consider regions and cities as real partners – EUROPA – Press Release

Speaking at yesterday's parliamentary hearing of Johannes Hahn, Commissioner-designate for Regional Policy, Committee of the Regions President Luc Van den Brande asked the candidate "to believe more in the real importance of multi-level governance as it will be the only way to succeed".

Instead of speaking about the regions and cities, Van den Brande, representing Europe's regional and local authorities, underlined the importance "to speak more with regions and cities directly and consider them as real partners" in developing future regional policy. He reassured that the Committee of the Regions will be a solid partner in such a dialogue and invited Johannes Hahn to address the Committee of the Regions' February Plenary session.

Voicing grassroots concerns about important budgetary decisions to be taken this year, President Van den Brande outlined the "credo" of Europe's regional and local authorities: "We are firmly speaking out against moving away from the most successful integrated EU policy that exists, against all forms of renationalisation of this policy. Cohesion Policy has proven to be an excellent decentralised strategy that is achieving two objectives: one is to implement EU objectives at regional and local level. The other is to empower cities and regions to better achieve their objectives."

Addressing the Commission's newly designated regional policy chief and the members of the European Parliament's committee on regional development, Van den Brande emphasised that regional policy is not just a vehicle for other strategic goals. Instead, it has to be a "global European development policy at the disposal of all European citizens." This is especially important as Europe's new rulebook, the Lisbon treaty, now requires the EU to respect the principle of "territorial cohesion" – meaning the harmonious development of all regions in the European Union: "All EU policies must recognize the impacts of their activities on the ground and must be aware of their effects on local communities. All EU policies need to take this new objective into account in their planning, implementation and evaluation stages."

Commissioner-designate Johannes Hahn strongly argued against the renationalisation of regional policy and stressed his willingness to work together with regions and local authorities: "We need the expertise of the regions to sustain a successful regional policy and to modernise it. At the same time, European regional policy has to follow an integrated approach and must be linked to all other EU policies. The success, reform and implementation of regional policy can only be achieved through coordination at the European level, and in cooperation with the regions."

…

 

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=COR/10/7&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

10. U.S. Regional Communities - sub-State, State or multi-State - in news articles.

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 U.S. in a news story as well as recognizing other regional organizations. In most cases, where a full name is present, a Google search will quickly get one to that organization. News reports do not always get the organization name correct.   Contents

    .01  Rep. Tallarita To Co-Chair Panel On State Grants To Municipalities And Mandate Relief

Government Announcements

Hartford Courant - Hartford, CT, USA

State Representative Kathy Tallarita (D-Enfield) will co-chair a legislative panel dealing with state grants to municipalities and mandate relief to cities and towns. The panel is part of a new commission implemented by House Democratic Leaders that will seek to identify opportunities for regional collaborations and create efficiencies to save money for municipalities. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Municipal Opportunities and Regional Efficiencies (MORE) has already begun its work and plans to make recommendations during the 2010 legislation session that convenes in February. ...

 

http://www.courant.com/community/hc-community-articleresults,0,5942637,results.formprofile?Query=24156HC

 

House Democrats of Connecticut – Speaker’s Commission

Doing M-O-R-E - Municipal Opportunities and Regional

Newsroom - http://www.housedems.ct.gov/MORE/MORE_PR.asp

 

 

    .02  Regionalism: How Much Are We Willing To Sacrifice To Reduce Government?

Hartford Courant - Hartford, CT, USA

Democrats in the legislature have taken up the regionalism cause again, appointing a blue ribbon panel to search for ways to encourage towns to work together as the state faces a deficit in the billions of dollars. This is admirable, but I wonder if we are ready for less government when this means eliminating services we take for granted. What if municipalities tried to trim the costliest portion of government — the public schools that make up most of town budgets? ... Region 14 must go back to having separate elementary schools in each town. That's a long way from less government. ... The Region 14 school board says you can't run a school district if you have to go back to the voters every time you make a change. ...

 

http://www.courant.com/news/breaking/hc-rick-green-column0122.artjan22,0,2445768.column

 

    .03  'Smart Growth' drives rail plan

Taunton Call - Taunton, MA, USA

The state’s poor fiscal health hasn’t stopped the wheels from chugging along on the proposed SouthCoast commuter rail. A new report released by state planners claims the train line and the growth it brings improves the environment, as well as the regional economy. The green benefits, outlined last week during a meeting of the regional Commuter Rail Task Force at Raynham Town Hall, principally stems from the adoption of the “smart growth” concept of concentrating business and residential centers around train stations. ... Southeastern Mass. is growing twice as fast the state average. Channeling some of the future development into mixed-use centers, the report says, cuts down on sprawl, traffic and water use. ...  While studies of the SouthCoast Rail move ahead, Whalley is taking advantage of no-cost planning services offered by the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District in Taunton. "Whether the commuter rail comes or doesn’t come, we’d like to see the advantages to the town." ...

 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/taunton/news/x1920337637/-Smart-Growth-drives-rail-plan

 

    .04  State Job Creation Strategies Part II: Supporting Innovation, Industrial Clusters and Green Job Creation

ProgressiveStates.org

... these steps emphasizes building partnerships between government, business, community and labor institutions to make continual learning and innovation an integral part of regional economies.

 Job Creation Opportunities During a Recession  

While policymakers might despair of encouraging new job creation during a recession, the seeds of future innovation and growth are often sown during recessions, as entrepreneurs analyze the failures of the previous boom and launch new ventures. In fact, well-over half of the Fortune 500 list of top companies and just under half of Inc. magazine's list of top small firms were founded during recessions or bear markets on the stock market, according to a 2009 Kauffman Foundation study.  Unemployment often encourages people to found their own firms during recessions, so making sure they have the support to thrive is critical.  New immigrants are an especially strong source of such job creation-- thirty-one percent of the engineering and technology companies founded from 1995 to 2005 had an immigrant as a key founder. 

 

http://www.progressivestates.org/node/24459#2

 

    .05  Some logical steps for emerging from the Great Recession

Arizona Republic - Phoenix, AZ, USA

... while nationwide and in parts of Colorado and New Mexico the recession is mostly over, the Monitor documents that only metro Las Vegas has been hit harder than the Phoenix area by the Great Recession and its aftermath. ... First, the Valley needs the federal government to intervene quickly to prevent further job losses from the massive down-drift in consumer and corporate demand still depressing the metro Phoenix economy. Right now, Arizona is broke; therefore, only the federal government is in a position to provide triage in bad times. So, now is not the time for anti-federal diatribes but instead collaboration with Washington to get the triage right. ... Beyond short-term stabilization, metro Phoenix needs to begin to build a more balanced, productive, resilient economy. ... Renewal of a dysfunctional state and regional governance system is a prerequisite for change. Consistency, prudent fiscal management, and regional cohesion and nimbleness will all be essential to reconstruction. But beyond that, the region must pour it on when it comes to the investments it has begun to make to position itself as an innovation-focused, export-oriented player in the emerging high-value, low-carbon economy. ...

 

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2010/01/02/20100102muro03.html

 

    .06  Subsidence forces shift to surface water

Community Impact Newspaper - Northwest Houston, TX, USA

Houston residents can expect to see their water bills increase as the city and its outlying areas convert from groundwater to surface water this year. The necessary conversion stems from long-term subsidence, or sinking, in the region caused by the overpumping of the Gulf Coast Aquifer that stretches from Florida to Mexico and supplies 54 Texas counties with all or part of their water supply. The Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, formed in 1975 by the state Legislature, was created to counteract as much as 10 feet of recorded subsidence in the two counties. ... “As the population has grown, generally towards the north and west areas, the demand for groundwater has increased. Subsidence is simply following the population,” he said. “As we convert from groundwater to surface water, subsidence has dramatically slowed or stopped.” ... “Water is the invisible infrastructure,” he said. “For the most part it’s buried underground.” While agriculture and single-family wells are exempt from the regulatory plan, the rest of the HGSD area will pay the price for surface water—literally. “There will definitely be a price increase. Conversion is not cheap,” Michel said. “The price will double to as much as three or four times the rate for groundwater.” ...

 

http://impactnews.com/northwest-houston/328-news/6742-subsidence-forces-shift-to-surface-water

 

    .07  With trash contracts set to expire, SE Mass. towns are urged to consider ...

East Bridgewater Star - East Bridgewater, MA, USA

When it comes to trash disposal, state and county officials are urging towns to regionalize their contracts to save thousands of dollars, and officials from nine Southeastern Massachusetts towns are listening. “There are regional opportunities to save on costs,” Brooke Nash of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Municipal Waste Reduction Program, said during a regional selectmen’s meeting ... Claire Sullivan, director of the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, suggested that towns look at their trash contracts and those of their neighbors and begin asking for contract extensions with SEMASS until every town’s contract expires in the same year, “then, you can work together to negotiate a good deal with SEMASS,” Sullivan said. ...

 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/bridgewatereast/news/x231955462/With-trash-contracts-set-to-expire-SE-Mass-towns-are-urged-to-consider-regionalization

 

 

    .08  Residents of smaller communities pay more for top lawmen, getting less

Scranton Times-Tribune - Scranton, PA, USA

The combined salaries of seven regional police chiefs is more than six times that of Scranton's police chief, even though they oversee fewer officers, and collectively protect a smaller population. ... The towns once mulled merging their departments into a regional police force to streamline functions, corral rising administrative costs and increase patrol capability, but abandoned the idea when they said it proved just as costly as the current system. ... Ron Stern, local government policy specialist with the Governor's Center for Local Government Services, said he thinks the reason the effort was not successful is because eight departments were too many to try to combine. Starting small, with two or three, makes it easier to get a consensus, he said. "It doesn't work when you have large groups." ...

 

http://thetimes-tribune.com/residents-of-smaller-communities-pay-more-for-top-lawmen-getting-less-1.567831

 

    .09  Talking change

Galena Gazette - Galena, IL

The Galena Rotary Roundtable, presented in cooperation with The Galena Gazette, ... Participants discussed economic development, education, health care and other changes that will shape the future. ... There are three major things the county needs to consider when it comes to economic development, explained economic development specialist Pat Leitzen Fye. ...  the third thing to remember: "We are a small county. We cannot do a lot of this on our own. We need to think in terms of regionalism." Fye suggested the county think about this whole Mississippi Valley Region, which will help grow the county. ...

 

http://www.galenagazette.com/main.asp?SectionID=142&SubSectionID=344&ArticleID=14675

 

    .10  More than just light entertainment

Daily Press - Newport News, VA, USA

... It was Cary McMurran's forward vision and his sense of regionalism that allowed the Virginia Symphony to grow into the orchestra it is today. He was most gracious during the merger and a true gentleman. He would not allow himself to stand in the way of his dream. As the 90th Season is celebrated it would be sad not to recognize his contributions to the growth of the symphony in Hampton Roads." ... 1970-1980 — Norfolk Symphony, Peninsula Symphony and Virginia Beach Pops orchestras merge to create regional professional orchestra. Chrysler Hall opens and becomes performance venue for symphony. ...

 

http://www.dailypress.com/features/family/dp-gl_vasym_0124jan24,0,4041561.story

 

    .11  Don Walker Leads Chamber

Greater Tulsa Reporter Newspapers – Tulsa, OK, USA

Don Walker, president and CEO of Arvest Bank, assumed the 2010 Chairmanship of the Board of Directors of the Tulsa Metro Chamber ... inauguration address, which unveiled the Chamber’s primary initiatives for 2010. Walker called for the expansion of regionalism and shared resources, the next phase of regional economic development, the funding of regional tourism marketing and the seeking and support of candidates for state office who are pro-business. ...

 

http://www.gtrnews.com/greater-tulsa-reporter/4821/don-walker-leads-chamber

 

    .12  A St. Paul chamber for St. Paul

Pioneer Press - St. Paul, MN, USA

Some have been suggesting, behind the scenes, that the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce should be subsumed into a larger collective, for purposes of regionalism and economic development. We brought the issue the fore last week in a guest column published on these pages. The writer argued for a merger of the St. Paul and Minneapolis chambers. We disagree, strongly. Here's why: - Diversity. The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce stands up for and serves a wide range of businesses — small, mid-size, large. Its voice is distinctly East Metro, and distinctly pro-business. ... We're all for efficiency, for getting full value from our assets, for regional cooperation on big projects. We're even glad to see St. Paul and Minneapolis meet up when it makes sense. So, meet. But don't merge.

 

http://www.twincities.com/opinion/ci_14249780

 

    .13  Mass Transportation Authority will study potential for high speed bus route from Bay City to Detroit

The Flint Journal - MLive.com - Flint, MI, USA

The Mass Transportation Authority wants know whether commuters from as far north as Bay City would support a high-speed bus service to Detroit, a potential first step toward establishing a light rail route through Flint in the future. ... Genesee County's Metropolitan Alliance approved accepting $494,128 in transit planning funds to be used primarily for what Foy described as a "major" study of the potential for a Bay City-to-Detroit bus rapid transit route. ...  "The big buzzword is regionalization (and) there are a number of folks who do commute to southeast Michigan already. It would probably be something they would use." Passengers like bus rapid transit better than riding typical city buses because the systems are typically set up to move people faster than personal cars and trucks by making fewer stops, using road shoulders or specialized lanes of traffic, and giving riders a comfortable station for getting on board. ...

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2010/01/mass_transportation_authority_3.html

 

    .14  Regional Community Forum talks about direction of CNY

WKTV - Utica, NY, USA

Community leaders came together with elected officials Thursday to talk about issues currently facing the Mohawk Valley. The goal of the Genesis Group's Fourth Annual Regional Community Forum is to point out common ideas and focuses in order to rebuild. It's not only a chance for officials to bring up topics but for the public to voice there opinions as well. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. says that feedback is important,  …

 

http://www.wktv.com/news/local/82269572.html

 

    .15  HOW I SEE IT: A challenge to live healthy in 2010

Culpeper Star Exponent - Culpeper, VA, USA

The dangers of obesity as well as the seriousness of the growing epidemic within our country and especially here in our community are increasingly evident. To help counteract this escalating issue, Culpeper Regional Health System, with our Powell Wellness Center, has developed “Drop It! The 2010 Healthy Living Challenge,” a free, 12-week weight loss and healthy living challenge designed to educate our entire regional community on leading a healthier lifestyle through better eating habits and exercise. This event is open to everyone in our region, and “the challenge” will begin with a Kick-Off Health Fair ...

 

http://www2.starexponent.com/cse/news/opinion/article/how_i_see_it_a_challenge_to_live_healthy_in_2010/50865/

 

    .16  Venture capital flow to 21-county Ohio region became a trickle in 2009, report says

Plain Dealer - Cleveland, OH, USA

One of the region's most positive economic trends in recent years -- a healthy flow of venture capital -- took a sharp downturn in 2009, the region's annual venture report shows. Emerging companies in a 21-county region drew just $99 million from venture capitalists and angel investors last year, down from $260 million in 2008 and an average of $249 million the last four years, a report from the Venture Capital Advisory Task Force shows. The 62 percent drop in venture capital flow went well beyond the 38 percent reported nationally. The recessed economy and uncertainty over health care reform are factors in the regional drop, task force members said. The latter has a big impact here because two-thirds of venture investment typically goes to health care companies, a number of them spinning out of Northeast Ohio's growing health care institutions, officials said. ...

 

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/venture_capital_flow_to_21-cou.html

 

    .17  UUA board considers far-reaching governance reform

uuworld.org

The UUA Board of Trustees is contemplating a radical change to the governance of the Unitarian Universalist Association that would involve reducing the size of the board, creating a system of regions to supplement the current 19 districts, and reconfiguring General Assembly to a biennial meeting with subsidized delegates. ... The proposed changes to General Assembly are based on a report by the Fifth Principle Task Force ... The report advocates subsidizing delegates, which it says would help young and low-income delegates attend; educating delegates about issues in advance and making them accountable to both the General Assembly and their congregations; and encouraging regional cooperation among congregations. ...

 

http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/157757.shtml

 

    .18  US Air Force Chief of Staff Warns Against Dependence on GPS

Air Force Times - USA

The Air Force’s top uniformed leader thinks the military is too dependent on global positioning and must develop an alternative to the navigation system to reduce its vulnerability to enemies. ... “We must … proceed to build more resilient systems, including next-generation protected space communications and air-breathing or terrestrial alternatives and complements for a variety of space-based capabilities,” he said. ...

 

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/01/airforce_schwartz_012310/

 

11. Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet   Contents

    .01  'City region' tag is sticking

The Bolton News – Bolton, UK

THERE was more evidence last week that the “city region” concept is here to stay. As previously reported here, 10 councils, including Bolton, Bury and Wigan, have signed up to a Greater Manchester city region idea.  But some people, proud of the civic histories are not very keen on this. However, a new Centre for Cities’ report says: “The turnaround of our largest cities will be critical to the national recovery. “More than one in three jobs (39 per cent) in England are based in just five cities — Greater London and the regions of Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool.” There it is, then. Bolton and the other towns and cities around here have an important part to play in any future economic boom. We can only hope that such an occurrence comes sooner rather than later.

 

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/yoursay/boltoncolumnists/alancalvert/4869954.___City_region____tag_is_sticking/

 

    .02  John Carter: Boards to breathe new life into local government

New Zealand Herald - Auckland, NZ

... On the matter of local boards, let's not judge them before they even exist. Local boards are an important part of the Auckland reforms under the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill. They are new entities that are unique to Auckland. From New Zealand's largest city, the Government wants strong regional governance, greater community engagement, local decisions on local activities, improved connections across the region and improved value for money - that is, a better return for rates and government funding. Putting the local back into local government in Auckland is what has been asked for stridently, via submissions and select committee hearings, since the Government embarked on these reforms. We have listened and believe local boards provide the solution. ...

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10622230

 

    .03  Council fundraiser

Regen.net - UK

... Whitby says Britain's cities should also be given greater funding powers, so they can raise finance of their own to drive forward regeneration. Last year, Greater Birmingham lost out to Greater Leeds and Greater Manchester in the race to become one of England's first statutory city-regions. This meant it missed out on extra housing, regeneration and economic development powers. Whitby says he was told by then communities secretary Hazel Blears that Greater Birmingham missed out not because its bid was poor, but because it was too ambitious. A key component of the city-region's case was the inclusion of an accelerated development zone. ... "The governance structure isn't the issue," he says. "The issue is the retention of revenue and funding from government. Britain needs to grow up and believe in its cities and release their energy, pride and ability."...

 

http://www.regen.net/inDepth/ByDiscipline/Economic-Development/979023/Council-fundraiser/

 

    .04  Amalgamation not a new idea

Telegraph-Journal - St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

In 1993, the mayors and councils of seven municipalities banded together to write a report entitled Strengthening Municipal Government in New Brunswick's Urban Centres. ... "The conclusion was the tax rate would jump to over $2, not just in the city, but everywhere else in the area and for some of the smaller communities it would have doubled their tax rates." The municipalities submitted their own report to the provincial government with three forms of administration, including a formal regional administration, amalgamation and partial regionalization. In the report, the municipalities recommended partial regionalization, which eventually happened in the formation of the larger towns of Quispamsis and Rothesay.  ... As for full amalgamation with Saint John, Artiss said it made a lot of sense, but not in the way Cormier presented it. ...

 

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/927813

 

 

    .05  'Move from regional grouping to global partnerships'

The Hindu - Chennai, India

A strong pitch for multilateralism was made by speakers from Africa, European Union and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the 16th edition of Partnership Summit 2010 ... The summit was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). ... Saying that regionalism and globalisation are interdependent, ASEAN's Deputy Secretary General S. Pushpanathan said: “We have learnt from EU what not to do.” Assuring that ASEAN economic community would be established by 2015, he said the objective is to narrow developmental gaps between the member States. ...

 

http://beta.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article93811.ece

 

    .06  The French Identity Debate Turns into a Farce

TheFasterTimes.com

... on the government website setup for the debate, offers this rather windy justification: …the excesses of nationalism, the development of new forms of ethnic identity and regionalism, the gradual creation of the European identity, and the accelerated globalization of trade appear to some to call into question the very idea of the nation. The often-asked question, what is a nation, that it makes individuals identify themselves body and soul with people they don’t even know, seems more relevant than ever. ... One could argue that simply holding a debate on national identity presupposes that there is a problem.  It is far from clear that national identity should be an easy thing to define—that would assume a narrow and backward-looking notion of identity. Happily, our 21st century self-conception is harder to pigeonhole, because it is more elusive and diffuse. Every one of us, individually, is a harmony of cultural, social, regional, ethnic, religious, gender, political and personal traits. And a noisy, trumped-up debate about national identity can’t drown our collective symphony.

 

http://thefastertimes.com/westerneurope/2010/01/22/what-does-it-mean-to-be-french-or-does-it-really-matter/

 

    .07  Paul Anderson: Electoral reform has a sorry history of missed opportunities

Tribune - London, UK

... What ought to have happened is easy enough to spell out. Labour should have agreed in 1994 or 1995 to propose a new constitutional settlement for the United Kingdom in its first term, with proportional representation for Westminster integrated with a democratic second chamber based on regional and national devolution – so that, when implemented, we’d have had something like the federal republic of Germany as our political system. Of course, that’s just a bit too neat: there are plenty of things in the German basic law that wouldn’t have worked for Britain, not least because we’ve got three stroppy Bavarias to contend with, hazy boundaries to regional identities in England and a monarchy (at least in stage one) …

 

http://www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/2010/01/24/paul-anderson-electoral-reform-has-a-sorry-history-of-missed-opportunities/

 

    .08  West Midlands takes major role in Europe's new €750 million world-leading programme to tackle climate change

24dash.com

Regional Development Agency Advantage West Midlands led work to co-ordinate a successful bid to the new European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which will see a unique consortium of six regions, including the West Midlands, five of Europe’s top universities including Imperial College and ETH Zurich and ten major companies including CISCO, Shell, Thales and Bayer deliver the Knowledge and Innovation Community on climate change, known as ‘Climate KIC’. The initiative is one of three KICs to be established and part-funded by the EIT. ... At the core of Climate-KIC will be four major new research and innovation programmes on the themes of climate science, low carbon cities, zero-carbon production systems and integrated water management.  ...

 

http://www.24dash.com/news/Environment/2010-01-21-West-Midlands-takes-major-role-in-Europe-s-new-750-million-world-leading-programme-to-tackle-climate-change

 

    .09  'PMRDA should follow Mumbai model'

Times of India - Mumbai, India

Pune guardian minister Ajit Pawar, on Saturday, said that the state government would soon announce the formation of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA).

Speaking at the District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) meeting Pawar said, "A request will be made to chief minister Ashok Chavan that the authority be along the lines of the Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority (MMRDA). In this way, we will ensure comprehensive public representation in the PMRDA." He added that henceforth the DPDC, which plans development for the district, will have to take a comprehensive view of the entire region. Pawar said that now, with Pune becoming a metropolitan area, various local governing bodies like municipal corporation and councils will have to work in tandem. ...

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/PMRDA-should-follow-Mumbai-model/articleshow/5493849.cms

 

    .10  Mottaki: Iran, S. Arabia Enjoy Great Potential for Regional Development

Fars News Agency - Tehran, Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki described Iran and Saudi Arabia as two major powers with ample and great potential for the development of the region and the Muslim world. "The two countries, in cooperation with other states, can take long strides and we see no dark point in the future of this cooperation," Mottaki said on the sidelines of the 19th international conference on the Persian Gulf ... Iran has designed a framework for the promotion of cooperation and intimate relations with the regional countries and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states, including Saudi Arabia. "We utilize capacities and potentials to develop cooperation," ...  two-day conference dubbed as "Persian Gulf: Challenges and Regional Mechanism" ...

 

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8810281052

 

    .11  Tocoist church against regionalist attitudes

Angola Press Agency - Angola

The bishop of the Tocoist church, Afonso Nunes, said over the weekend in Luanda that he is against regionalism and tribalism as a means for promotion in his institution’s positions. “As an institution, the church will never be favourable to appointing religious officials to various positions and functions based on their origin or place they come from”, the bishop said. ... The meeting gathered 150 delegates from Angola’s 18 provinces.

 

http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/portal/angop/index.html

 

    .12  Six Bruneians Off To Japan For Capacity Building Programme

Bru Direct - Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam

Six participants left for Japan yesterday to attend a human capacity building programme under the Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths (Jenesys) project. ... According to the statement, in the pursuit of Asean regionalism and economic integration, the importance of investing in youths has been acknowledged not only by the Mean [sic] member countries, but also by dialogue partners. ...

 

http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/2010011814215/Local-News/six-bruneians-off-to-japan-for-capacity-building-programme.html

 

    .13  The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester

San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller and a few of his humanist friends from the Gymnasium Vosagense in Strassburg (now Strasbourg) published a short geographical work called "Introduction to Cosmography." Accompanying the book was a world map drawn by Waldseemüller. The map had special mojo: For the first time, the New World was given a name - America; but more important, America was surrounded by water, making it a continent all its own. This was a strange and stunning departure, because we know of no European who had an inkling of the Pacific until Vasco Núñez de Balboa scaled the peak in Darien, and that was years in the future. So how did Waldseemüller's map come to be? This is the mystery, and Toby Lester brings a sure, learned hand to its detection. He builds a cumulative tale of rich, diverse influences that he juggles with gathering speed and showmanship until the whir of detail coalesces into an inspired, imaginative piece of mapmaking. …

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/27/RVKS1AE25G.DTL

 

CSPAN Video BookTV:  http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/290495-1

 

    .14  Strategic Plans Lose Favor

The Wall Street Journal - USA

During the recession, as business forecasts based on seemingly plausible swings in sales smacked up against reality, executives discovered that strategic planning doesn't always work. Some business leaders came away convinced that the new priority was to be able to shift course on the fly ...  "Strategy, as we knew it, is dead,'' he contends. "Corporate clients decided that increased flexibility and accelerated decision making are much more important than simply predicting the future." ...

 

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703822404575019283591121478-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html - 7 day link

 

    .15  Big Think Interview with Richard Florida

BigThink.com

A conversation with the bestselling author and leading expert on business and business sociology. (video)

 

http://bigthink.com/richardflorida

 

12. Blogging about Regional Communities   Contents

    .01  The Core Vitality Imperative

The Urbanophile

“You can’t be a suburb of nowhere.” – Bill Hudnut - What does a healthy urban core mean to a region? Maybe the difference between success and failure. Here’s a look at urban core and regional job growth for selected cities*, ranked by percentage job growth in the core county from 2001 to 2009. (table) Notice a pattern? Clearly, for these cities at least, core county performance is an excellent proxy for overall regional performance. I’m not making a statistical claim here, but the data for these cities is suggestive. I think it also foots with our common sense view. How many thriving metro areas have a core city/county that is going down the tubes? I can’t name one. ...

 

http://www.urbanophile.com/2010/01/24/the-core-vitality-imperative/

 

    .02  MVRN Seeking Community Assistance

Merrimack Valley Regional Network to End Homelessness Blog

As many of you may or may not know, the case managers throughout the region have been very busy re-housing chronic homeless men and women. The Merrimack Valley Regional Network to End Homelessness has recently housed 37 chronic homeless individuals in the City of Lowell. While we are able to provide assistance to get these men and women housed, there are some needs that have been identified in the process of moving into a new apartment that we are not funded to provide, nor do our clients have the means to acquire these items. The Merrimack Valley Regional Network is appealing to the community to perhaps fill some of these needs. Tax deduction documentation can be furnished to donors. Our clients would greatly appreciate any assistance that could be provided. ...

 

http://mvhomeless.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/mvrn-seeking-community-assistance/

 

    .03  Ann Arbor and Ypsi Chambers merge--New regionalism or a sign of trouble

Arbor Update (blog)

As reported by AnnArbor.com, Yesterday the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Chambers of Commerce had a breakfast to discuss their merger. What does the merger mean? Is it:    1. A sign of growing regionalism in the county? 2. A sign that the economy is hurting even Chambers and they have to band together to stay alive?  3. An indication that the whole Chamber of Commerce idea is getting less meaningful in today’s world, so Chambers have to band together to stay alive? ...

 

http://arborupdate.com/article/1875/ann-arbor-and-ypsi-chambers-merge-new-regionalism-or-a-sign-of-trouble

 

    .04  What’s new at Clever Commute? Plenty!

The  Clever Commute Blog

Clever Commute provides a way for commuters to use their smartphones to help each other by sharing real-time alerts & updates with fellow travelers. It started with a handful of commuters here in NJ…and has now become a part of the fabric of the daily commute in the top commuting markets. ... Now serving CHICAGO…in addition to serving all of the NY metro area and Boston ... An army of commuters: We are nearing the 10,000 member mark…and literally growing every day …

 

http://clevercommute.com/blog/?p=730

 

Select your region: NY Metro, Boston,  Portland, OR; Beta: Chicago, LA, London, Washington, D.C., San Francisco Bay Area   http://www.clevercommute.com/RoutesAndSignUp.php

 

    .05  4. How We Get There

UrbanNeighborhood.com

The implementation of the Avenue du Parc Light Rail Transit Line will build on the local neighbourhood character of the neighbourhoods it passes through and increase the corridors overall connectivity at both the local and regional scale. The line’s implementation will allow for more vibrant neighbourhoods, more pedestrian friendly urban spaces and can be a catalyst to a better sense of community among the local and regional residents.

 

http://urbanneighbourhood.com/?p=4430

 

    .06  Participation and Collaboration – Let’s Make It Work

Candi On Content

Open government. Public participation and collaboration. Awesome! So let’s make it work.

Let’s learn from the mistakes a bunch of us made back in the 90’s when we put up online “discussion” rooms and held online “town halls.” If you want the pay-off - if you want good ideas and positive outcomes - you have to invest the resources and plan strategically. Think of it as running a meeting. Invite participants ... Share background information ... Publish an agenda ... Designate someone to preside ... Conclude the meeting ... Follow up ... One more tip. Advocates and lobbyists will be all over opportunities for public participation and collaboration. But will average citizens come to the table…citizens across the political spectrum, across generations, across the country? You need to prime the pump. Create some quick success. ...

 

http://candioncontent.blogspot.com/2010/01/participation-and-collaboration-lets.html

 

    .07  Civic Engagement in Public Governance26

xiong_social work

Policy tasks are likely to have local/sub-national as well as national dimensions. Traditionally, much policy is formulated at the central government level. However, in a decentralized system of government, the information generated through local/regional government-civil society dialogue may influence the policy agenda at the national level. Conversely, an issue may be identified at a national level, but may require substantial public input from the local, regional and community level (for example, the PRSP process for determining the national poverty reduction strategy). ...

 

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5f3b25650100h9ao.html

 

Main page for "Evaluating Citizen Engagement in Policy Making" A paper presented at the Canadian Evaluation Society Conference - June 2, 2009, Ottawa

 

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5f3b25650100h9x8.html

 

   .08  How PDF and RSS Can Solve Information Retention Challenges

Civic Blogger

What I am about to suggest as a solution to some of the records retention challenges municipalities are facing with web 2.0 tools may, or may not, be mine. ... Municipalities are having to find ways of keeping track of the information being published online when they use social media.  Unfortunately, since the information is not hosted by the municipality, they have less control than they typically need, or would like.  ... the solution I am proposing? Using the existing tools of email, PDF document storage, and RSS feeds to create a semi-automated records retention system for your organization.  This requires three things: ...

 

http://civicblogger.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-pdf-and-rss-can-solve-information.html

 

    .09  Regional Repositories

Archives Outside

State Records has a network of six regional repositories across NSW; based in Armidale, Broken Hill, Newcastle (2), Wollongong and Wagga Wagga. ... About ... This website was developed to create a meeting place for people who have archival collections around New South Wales and researchers who wish to access them. While the main focus is on the State Records Regional Repository Network we welcome participation from all keepers of archives, from Archivists, Local Studies Librarians and Records Managers to members of Community Groups and Personal Collectors. ...

 

http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/regional-repositories/

 

    .10  Urban Exploration Tips, Tricks and Guides

WebUrbanist.com

Urban exploration (also known as ‘building infiltration‘) is a risky sport at best and an illegal one at worst. In short, it is the art of breaking into abandoned buildings and places. While WebUrbanist can’t endorse breaking the law there is fortunately no law against reporting on it and some forms of urban exploration are fortunately legal. Here are some introductory guides and additional resources for those interested in exploring this illicit urban sport. ... Unknown to many web surfers there are a vast number of regional urban exploration websites as well as specialty forums and other online urbex communities. ...

 

http://weburbanist.com/urban-exploration-tips-tricks-and-guides/

 

http://undergroundeureka.com/urban-exploration-links.php

 

    .11  Climate Change and Biodiversity Protection in Santa Barbara, California

McGinnis bioregional blog

The south-central coastal bioregion includes the northern Channel Islands, Santa Barbara Channel, the coastal watersheds from Morro Bay to the Ventura River, the mountain ranges of the Santa Ynez, San Raphael, and Sierra Madre. ..

 

http://climatesantabarbara.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html

 

13. Announcements and Regional Links.   Contents

    .01  Research Networks - Introduction and Guidelines - Regional Studies Association

Regional Studies Association Research Networks are formed by the Association's members to organise a series of events to examine an issue of collective interest (the issue discussed need not necessarily have a direct policy focus but the examination would normally lead to policy related conclusions) and the Association can offer grants of up to a maximum of £3000 to members wishing to establish a Research Network. Organisers must be current members of the RSA at the time of the application and throughout the duration of the Research Network. ...

2010 deadlines for applications: 23rd April, 24th August, 25th October

 

http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/research-networks/introduction.asp

 

    .02  Call for Papers -Local Food Systems in Old Industrial Regions: Challenges and Opportunities - IGU Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces - Toledo, Ohio USA — August 3-7, 2010

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the topic of local food systems. This heightened interest can be found among policy makers, planners, public health professionals, environmentalists, community developers, academics, farmers and ordinary citizens. While there are common characteristics that most local food systems share the purpose of this conference is to explore the unique challenges and opportunities associated with local food systems located within old industrial regions.

The conference aims to bring together both academics and practitioners to share their knowledge, experience, and expertise with regard to developing and maintaining local food systems in old industrial regions. While this conference is sponsored by the International Geographical Union we are particularly interested in participation from individuals in a variety of academic disciplines (including, but not limited to, geography, planning, public policy, public health, environmental science, horticulture, women and gender studies, sociology, anthropology, and economics.)

Chair: Professor Michael Taylor, Department of Geography, University of Birmingham, UK

Vice Chair: Dr. Neil Reid, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toledo, USA

 

http://uac.utoledo.edu/igu_commission/ToledoMC2010-Home.htm

 

    .03  Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

 

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is a not-for-profit academic research consortium that has as its goal making high quality international research data on entrepreneurial activity readily available to as wide an audience as possible.  GEM is the largest single study of entrepreneurial activity in the world. Initiated in 1999 with 10 countries, GEM 2009 conducted research in 54 countries. The GEM 2009 Global Report was launched in Santiago, Chile on Thursday 14th January 2010.

 

… This 11th report in the GEM series focuses on the impact of the recession on entrepreneurship and the extent to which entrepreneurship can help reverse a downward economic trend. Also included are: 1) a special report on global perspectives of social entrepreneurship; 2) an analysis of the impact of the recession on funding to support new businesses; and 3) updates on entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions, entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurial aspirations. … The year 2009 will be remembered for an economic recession that shattered the economic landscape in most countries across the world. As national and regional governments search for ways of rebuilding their economies, our understanding of the relationship between entrepreneurship and development remains incomplete. …

 

http://www.gemconsortium.org/

 

14. Financial Crisis.   Contents

    .01  The Quants Book Review: How A Group Of Mathematicians And Computer Scientists Nearly Destroyed Wall Street

HuffingtonPost.com

On Thursday, President Barack Obama proposed new rules to curb a number of Wall Street's risky--and highly profitable--trading activities. One target: The secretive trading operations within banks that use large doses of leverage, or borrowed money, to make huge bets on the market. Wall Street says the regulations are unnecessary, and since the financial crisis struck, most banks have cut back on these trading outfits. But when the downturn first hit in the summer of 2007, several of them were among the first to suffer, and collectively they lost billions over a matter of days. ...

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/23/the-quants-book-review-ho_n_434309.html

 

    .02  Nomi Prins: Behind The Bailouts

KUOW.org

More than $13 trillion into America's financial bailout, Nomi Prins says regular Americans are worse off than before, and she's angry. "Most of what the Federal Reserve has done to support the banking industry is completely secret," she says. Prins was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns before becoming a journalist. She's been poring through spreadsheets and SEC filings to try and figure out where the bailout money came from and where it went. Nomi Prins is a senior fellow at Demos, a policy think tank dedicated to "fostering civic engagement and a more equitable economy." She's the author of several nonfiction books and a Wall Street thriller, "The Trail." Her new book is "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street." She spoke at Town Hall Seattle on December 3, 2009. …

 

http://kuow.org/program.php?id=19235

 

15. Custom search: region, regions, regional communities    Contents

To search on topics like those in Regional Community Development News use this custom search engine which utilizes over 2000 regional related sites.

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=000551187207053117963:m1gvkhigkeo&hl=en

 

For the Blog and RSS feed go to: http://regional-communities.blogspot.com/

News updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/tomchristoffel

Questions, comments or items to feature in Regional Community Development News?

Please email the Editor: Tom.Christoffel@...

To search previous issues since 2003 go to: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/regions_work/

To join Regional Community Networkers and get a free subscription use this email link – no additional information required:  regions_work-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

For the Google Groups version go to:

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Tom (Thomas J.) Christoffel, AICP - http://www.regional-communities.com/

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

Regional Community Development News – December 23, 2009 & January 11, 2010 [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 - .19

Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet … 11.01 - .15

Blogging about Regional Communities … 12.01 - .10

Announcements and Regional Links … 13.01 - .04

Financial Crisis …14.01 - .05

Custom search: region, regions, regional communities … 15.

Bold Italic highlights search terms and/or phrases of interest.

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Note: Beginning with this issue, RCD News will be published as of the 2^nd and 4^th Monday. Ed.

Top Regional Community stories

  1.  Trends on the Road Ahead - The Outlook: Columbia River Economic Development Council - Southwest Washington, USA

In lieu of an economic forecast for 2009 I will share my observations on the trends that will drive the regional economy over the short and near term.  These are a synthesis of ideas in other posts on this blog.

…To glean the scope of local shifts the Columbia River Economic Development Council did not go to the Wall Street Journal but to the 130 business investors in the organization. …

The Primary Focus of Banks Will Be to Collect, Not Lend, Money

Banking (access to credit), especially for our regional community banks, will not return to normal in the near future. …

Development Takes a Sabbatical

I take no pleasure in pointing out the obvious: residential, commercial and speculative industrial development will not recover within the next five years. …

If You Are Looking for Growth/ Revenue, Follow the Stimulus

The development industry from consulting to contracting is focused (dependent?) on public sector projects. …

Whither Liquidity?

With the collapse of the Commercial Mortgage Backed Security (CMBS) market and the stampede for the exits by traditional long term financers (e.g. insurance companies) there is an almost total lack of capital for long term development financing. …

Manufacturing for the Niches

Manufacturing will remain a component of the regional economy. …

Definition of Incongruence: Public Expectation of Services and Willingness to Pay

Government has spent the last decade learning to do more with less. …

Retail Commercial Flips Upside Down

The Clark County retail market has moved from underserved to over-retailed in the span of two short years. …

It’s Chic to Be Cheap

Consumers are purchasing down-market products both because of necessity and because they are being effected by the negative consumer sentiment. …

For Healthcare the Gig Is Up

…

http://credc.blogspot.com/

 

  2. West Michigan Regional Policy Conference update in Kalamazoo an opportunity to  bridge region - MLive.com - MI, USA

…

When the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce announced its West Michigan Regional Policy Conference in 2008, its four co-chairs all came from the Grand Rapids area: Jeff Connolly, of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; James Dunlap, of Huntington Bank; Doug DeVos, of Amway Corp.; and Peter Secchia, of SIBSCO.

…

The conference was a massive and daring undertaking for a chamber of modest size. It turned logically to the individuals of influence with whom it was most familiar to help its inaugural venture succeed, then sought the participation of nearby cities in the region.

Some, including the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce and Southwest Michigan First, attended the conference — many did not.

Now, as the bi-annual conference enters the year of its second gathering, it is making a stronger effort to reach out to the neighbors of this region. The Kalamazoo chamber and Southwest Michigan First will hold an update …

Have you ever heard Peter Secchia speak? If not, get thee to this event. No, seriously, it will be worth it.

Whether you agree with the business leader’s politics, you cannot deny he comes to the podium with passion and candor. And therein lies the key to true regionalism.

We need to accept that Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids are not going to agree on much. There it is, gleaming on the table.

…

Can we overcome it? Can we reach agreement on any business issues? Can we come together as a region?

If we can’t bridge these divides, I fear what it means for the future of our state.

But the key qualities we possess in common in West Michigan are passion and candor, and those we can build a region upon. Those outside Michigan may not understand us, but we must learn to understand each other.

…

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2010/01/west_michigan_regional_policy_2.html

 

 

  3. Dreaming big with wish list for new year - Buffalo News - Buffalo, NY, USA

The new year means new starts, new hopes, new ideas and—for some—a new hangover. Welcome to the first day of 2010. Drink in one man’s wish list for the next 12 months:

A job-generating industry— Hey, if you cannot wish big, why bother? I have lived here nearly 30 years and I— we—still await an economic engine half as powerful as the steel mills and full-throttle auto plants that once fueled Buffalo’s growth and polluted its skies.

There is plenty of promise and pretenders. Bioinformatics remains more about potential than payoff. …

Until we find job-growing industries, the landscape will not change. God, are you listening?

Less government— Our clutter of boundaries inflates the number of local politicians, jacks up the cost of delivering services and reinforces the small-picture thinking that keeps us battling among ourselves instead of fighting together for our share of the global economy. Any elected official who claims he is indispensable should be sent to Charlotte to report back on how its regional government manages with one-fifth as many politicians as less-prosperous Greater Buffalo. Now that would be a public service.

Regional sanity— Little makes less sense to me than the stretch of small manufacturers lining Walden Avenue far outside of the city. The outer-suburbs location separates the army of inner-city poor from decent-paying, lower-skilled jobs. It encourages sprawl and undercuts public transportation. It ignores the existing network of roads, rail, sewer and water lines in the city. While hardly the only example, it stands as Exhibit A of the painful consequence of our lack of regional planning. More than 10 years after national experts at the Chautauqua Regionalism Conference laid this all out, we still hardly have a clue.

…

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/909623.html

 

  4. Regionalizing transportation a core value behind creation of RTA - Arizona Daily Star - Tucson, AZ, USA

One of the most effective and unifying endeavors by our citizens was the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), sculpted in large part by its Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), on which I was honored to serve.

The CAC brought together diverse groups and "communities" to sit down together to address Pima County's transportation quagmire. One term that was pounded into all CAC members to embrace was the term "regionalism," a concept to urge decision-makers, elected or not, to shed our narrow views that had historically been focusing only within our city/town limits and instead expand them to look upon Pima County as a shared "region."

If we couldn't or wouldn't make this conceptual leap, the RTA was doomed to fail.

Second to the RTA's success, we were lectured, was the urgency to include in the plan an invigorated and updated Sun Tran/public bus system. The CAC listened for hours to passionate presentations from public transit proponents and battle lines were drawn between those wanting more road construction versus those who wanted more public transit emphasis in the RTA plan's financing.

As a new-car dealer at the time, needless to say, I didn't hang my hat in the "more public transit funding" camp. I've always questioned the economic rationality of taxpayers subsidizing the cost of public transit based on its very limited ridership.

However, in the spirit of regionalism and cooperation, talks evolved within the CAC to the point where I made a motion that would devote approximately 30 percent of the RTA budget toward public transportation. The motion passed and, in 2006, the RTA plan was approved by the voters.

…

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/321936

 

  5. Group's focus is on region - Winston-Salem Journal - Winston-Salem, N.C.

For more than 40 years, civic and elected leaders have lauded regionalism as a worthy economic pursuit that is just waiting for somebody to get the ball rolling.

Yet, it has proved difficult to persuade those same leaders to pour money into a joint account to assist economic initiatives with potential regional impact. Equally challenging has been getting elected officials to provide money for projects in other counties.

The latest, and perhaps most ambitious, attempt at regionalism is coming from the Piedmont Triad Leadership Group.

The group, whose chairman is Kelly King, the chief executive of BB&T Corp., has received pledges from more than 30 investors worth a combined $6.5 million over five years.

That includes …

The Piedmont Triad Partnership has identified four industry sectors to benefit from the money: home furnishings, logistics and distribution, nanotechnology, and regenerative medicine.

Both King and Jim Morgan, the chairman of the partnership for 2009-10, took time recently to discuss the initiative and why they think that this effort will gain traction in the Triad.

An edited version of their comments follows:

Q. What made this fund-raising effort work in ways that previous efforts did not?

King: The real difference is that the fundraising followed the consensus that we built ­-- that we could no longer continue to operate in the future as we have in the past if we expect things to improve.

In the past, there have been debates and disagreements about theoretical or philosophical issues. If we don't change, we're never going to be able to improve our region. We have to be willing to move the needle to create jobs through meaningful projects.

…

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/dec/20/groups-focus-is-on-region/

  6. Leadership Northern Colorado aims for regional success - Northern Colorado Business Report - Fort Collins, CO, USA

Regional economies are the most relevant in today's global economy, an economic development consultant told the inaugural class of Leadership Northern Colorado at its kickoff meeting on Wednesday.

Michael Langley, founder and president of Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Langley Group, addressed the 30-member class and other members of the business community about the importance of regionalism. Langley pointed out that while metropolitan statistical areas make up only 12 percent of the U.S. geography, they account for 86 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

"Every region is becoming more relevant in the global economy," he said at the Embassy Suites-Loveland.

Langley said that Northern Colorado was already ahead of the game in having its three largest chambers of commerce working together. He explained that the private and nonprofit sectors must open the lines of communication with the public sector before, during and after issues impact the whole region.

"Success in regions doesn't just happen," Langley said. "Leaders make it happen."

Leadership Northern Colorado was launched as a partnership of the Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland chambers of commerce with support from the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado and the Community Foundation serving Greeley and Weld County. Greeley Chamber President Sarah MacQuiddy explained that the regional leadership class is meant to enhance, not replace, the localized leadership classes in each community.

...

http://www.ncbr.com/article.asp?id=103465

 

  7. Editorial: Regionalism out of whack - Salisbury Post - Salisbury, NC, USA

Before Rowan County severs its ties with the Centralina Council of Governments [ http://www.centralina.org/ ] , we hope some serious soul-searching and frank discussions take place among all parties to this frayed relationship. If COG is to continue as a viable entity working to improve the quality of life in our region, it needs Rowan and Cabarrus among its nine-county fold. By the same token, Rowan and Cabarrus counties have much at stake in COG's work on regional issues such as water and air quality, job creation and economic development and providing services for a growing elderly population.

Rowan County commissioners have given COG six months' notice of their intent to withdraw from the planning group. Rowan isn't alone in its disenchantment. Cabarrus County also plans to pull out, as do the municipalities of Spencer, Norwood and Concord. Defections on that scale suggest COG's leadership needs to listen to the complaints driving this exodus and look at ways it can better serve these member agencies that don't feel they're getting their money's worth — $34,000 a year in Rowan's case and almost $40,000 a year for Cabarrus.

Officials here and in Cabarrus have ticked off some specific issues driving the disaffection. One is the sense that COG has worked at cross-purposes to Rowan and Cabarrus on devising a federally required plan to bring the area into compliance with air-quality standards. That, in turn, could jeopardize millions of federal dollars in highway improvement funds, including possible replacement of the Yadkin River bridge. Some are also upset over COG's effort to revise the multi-county road-planning agencies known as Metropolitan Planning Organizations, or MPOS, which officials believe have functioned well in their current form. Yet another issue is whether some of the planning services offered by COG duplicate those already available through local government staffs. There's also an underlying apprehension that Centralina is promoting the interests of Charlotte-Mecklenburg at the expense of outlying counties and municipalities.

...

http://www.salisburypost.com/Opinion/123009-edit-cogdefections

 

  8. Idea of regional planning group has found favor in Conneaut - Ashtabula Star-Beacon - Ashtabula OH, USA

A plan to make low-cost planning expertise available to every Ashtabula County community has its first convert.

Conneaut City Council this week approved a resolution of support for the Intra-Ashtabula County Regional Planning Corroboration and Association. The group would use the planning talents of people already in place and possibly those of people in adjoining counties.

“I’m happy to see Conneaut is in favor (of the concept),” Peggy Carlo, Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners’ president, said Tuesday.

The program is before commissioners, who are trying to enlist the support of Lake County and adjacent areas.

“It’s an opportunity to utilize the resources in the community,” Carlo said. “It’s an opportunity to look at regionalism.”

Conneaut council is intrigued because the organization could help the city revamp its zoning code without the need of expensive consultants. The city has kicked around a major overhaul of the code and recently decided the task would be too much for local talent. Instead of hiring a high-priced consultant, Conneaut could confer with the planning corroboration and use the planning experts on its roster.

“Conneaut’s zoning code could be their first project,” Law Director Lori Lamer said Monday night.

Participating communities probably would pay a membership fee based on population. In Conneaut’s case, the cost would be a few thousand dollars for planning/ zoning service, a steal compared with the price of consultants, Lamer said.

“It’s really a bargain,” she said. “I don’t think we can pass it up.”

The corroboration also could give the area a little more leverage to secure government grants and funding, said City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr. Regionalized programs find favor when the time comes to hand out money, he said.

…

http://www.starbeacon.com/local/local_story_351111648.html

 

  9. Green Acres Is the Place to Be - WSJ.com - USA

…

While urban and suburban real estate is still generally under pressure, the rural market is holding up better in many areas, thanks in part to buyers such as the Dawleys. Sometimes dubbed "ruralpolitans," these city and town dwellers are looking at land as their new safe investment, one they hope could prove more stable than their jobs and 401(k)s -- and provide a better lifestyle.

Motivations can vary, but typically there are three groups: young people buying land as an asset or investment, with vague hopes to live on it someday; exurban commuters who have jobs in big towns or cities but want to escape the sprawl; and back-to-the-land types who want to dabble in hobby farming. While the 76 million-strong baby boomers eyeing retirement represent the largest ruralpolitan segment, they're being joined by a growing contingent of 20-to-early-40-somethings freshly imprinted by this recession's pain.

http://cityguides.msn.com/articles/cityarticle.aspx?cp-documentid=22794861

Word Spy – ruralpolitan  n. An urban dweller who moves to a rural area. Also: rural-politan. [Blend of rural and metropolitan.] —adj.

http://www.wordspy.com/words/ruralpolitan.asp

10. U.S. Regional Communities - sub-State, State or multi-State - in news articles.

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 U.S. in a news story as well as recognizing other regional organizations. In most cases, where a full name is present, a Google search will quickly get one to that organization. News reports do not always get the organization name correct.   Contents

    .01  Top Planning Issues Of 2009

PLANETIZEN.com

Over the course of the year, the editors of Planetizen review and post summaries of hundreds of articles, reports, books, studies, and editorials related to planning and urban development. Now, we take a look back at 2009 and the trends and issues that defined the year in urban planning. The economic recession infiltrated nearly every news story this year, especially in terms of urban planning and development. … The Great Recession … Shrinking Cities … The "Shovel-Ready" Conundrum … High-Speed Rail ... Transportation wonks are understandably excited by the vision and troubled by the implementation. As Rob Goodspeed, a Planetizen blogger, put it, "In reality, limited funds, our dysfunctional planning processes, and the historical lack of investment in rail will mean the U.S. will most likely end up with a diverse collection of regional rail systems that may not go that fast."

 

http://www.planetizen.com/node/42294

 

    .02  Does Santa have gifts for Miss-Lou?

Natchez Democrat – Natchez, MS, USA

... with weather worries behind us, what should our community seek from Santa this holiday season? ... • Maybe the guy in the big red suit will also bring us some more togetherness so we can continue the work begun with the area’s regionalism effort. For several months, community leaders from Natchez, Vidalia and Ferriday have been meeting to discuss ways to work together more. That kind of effort will, in the long run, reap great benefits to our collective community. ...

 

http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2009/dec/20/does-santa-have-gifts-miss-lou/

 

    .03  When Did Your County's Jobs Disappear? An interactive map of vanishing employment across the country, updated with the latest figures.

Slate.com - USA

The economic crisis, which has claimed more than 5 million jobs since the recession began, did not strike the entire country at once. A map of employment gains or losses by county tells the story of how those job losses first struck in the most vulnerable regions and then spread rapidly to the rest of the country. As early as August 2007, for example—several months before the recession officially began—jobs were already on the decline in southwest Florida; Orange County, Calif.; much of New Jersey; and Detroit, while other areas of the country remained on the uptick. ...

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2216238

 

    .04  Have the days of regionalism arrived?

Macon Telegraph - Macon, GA, USA

... Mayor Havrilla finally let the cat out of the bag. At least he realizes that G-RAMP, a proposed aircraft maintenance facility that would cost between $45 and $90 million, can’t succeed if it’s up to Warner Robins alone. He suggested a regional group should spearhead the effort. Hallelujah. The thought of regionalism has finally taken hold on Watson Boulevard. And it needs to spread all the way to Perry on a number of issues, particularly the encroachment issue that is more of a threat to Robins Air Force Base than not having G-RAMP. ...

 

http://www.macon.com/203/story/957660.html

 

    .05  Cleveland Foundation Dramatically Cuts Funding to Regional Development Group

90.3 WCPN ideastream® - Cleveland, OH, USA

The Cleveland Foundation has poured 22 million dollars into the Fund For Our Economic Future over the past 6 years. It will reduce its contribution to just 300 thousand dollars over the next three years. The Fund acts as an umbrella organization that provides grants to groups like BioEnterprise, Team NEO and Nortech – groups dedicated to attracting businesses and capital to the region.  Cleveland Foundation Vice President Robert Eckhardt says the foundation wants to have a more direct connection with those groups, and so is inviting them to apply directly for grants.  Eckhardt:  “As a community foundation and in these tough times we thought it was important to focus on the work that we had joined the fund and helped start the fund to do, which we would feel was much more the focus on the first order economic development than some of the other activities the fund had moved into.” Those other activities include making grants to encourage more inter-governmental collaborations as a way to promote regionalism. ...

 

http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/29043/

 

    .06  One for all: Regionalism, USA

Central Penn Business Journal - Harrisburg, PA, USA

If Pennsylvanians saw how well regionalism works elsewhere in the country, they'd realize how much they are missing out on, argues Alex Hartzler, managing partner of WCI Partners, a Harrisburg real estate development firm. Charlotte, N.C., is one place that has been very smart in its regional thinking, he said. That has helped the Mecklenburg County city of 687,000 people become a thriving financial center and even attract two professional sports teams, the NFL's Carolina Panthers and the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. Charlotte has been thinking regionally for at least two decades, said Gina Howard, director of communications and public relations for the Charlotte Regional Partnership, a public-private economic development partnership. ...

 

http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/industry_article.asp?cID=5&aID=73941

 

    .07  One for all: Regionalism not a cure-all, Central Pennsylvania analysts warn

Central Penn Business Journal - Harrisburg, PA, USA

Regionalism often makes sense from a cost-saving and efficiency perspective, but it isn't a panacea, some regional leaders said. Sometimes a regional approach is not the right choice when it comes to the municipal delivery of state and federal funding, police protection and other services municipalities are responsible for because legally they can't use grants and other governmental funds outside their municipalities, said Ed Messner, outgoing president of the West Shore Chamber of Commerce. Messner, who had been with the West Shore chamber for 41 years, retired at the end of last year. He is the chamber's longest-serving president, heading it for 36 years. Other times, the cost savings don't outweigh the service benefits, or there aren't cost savings. ...

 

http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/industry_article.asp?cID=5&aID=73946

 

    .08  One for all: A regional discussion with Francis 'Frank' B. Haas Jr.

Central Penn Business Journal - Harrisburg, PA, USA

It is not a stretch to say that Frank Haas Jr. has left his mark on Harrisburg and Central Pennsylvania as whole. A vocal and longtime proponent of regionalism, Haas, 83, had a career that included multiple positions in state, local and national government. Haas is retired from his position of managing partner of Harrisburg-based law firm McNees, Wallace & Nurick.

Q: Why have you made regionalism such a cornerstone of your career?

A: I think you have to start out by defining regionalism. Almost no two people define it the same way. Some people think of it as cooperating between municipalities, others think of it as consolidation between municipal facilities and municipal services. And the fact is, it means whatever the speaker says it means. ...

 

http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/industry_article.asp?cID=5&aID=73947

 

    .09  One for all

Central Penn Business Journal - Harrisburg, PA, USA

Central Pennsylvania is stuck in a twisted maze of segmentation. The disadvantages of fragmented government have grown for decades. But it's a problem that's becoming more apparent in the shadow of the financial recession that has left the state's various levels of government strapped for cash. Examples are seemingly endless of how a multitude of local government entities and the divisiveness of area organizations are holding back the midstate. The commonwealth's struggling city school districts, the area's complex permitting processes and the region's inability to work as one to market itself to the outside world are just the beginning. There are more than 200 municipalities and nearly 60 school districts among Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties. This fragmented system of boroughs, townships and cities dates back to the origins of the commonwealth. …

 

http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/industry_article.asp?cID=5&aID=73939

 

    .10  Partin: Cayce infrastructure investment helps region

The State - Columbia, SC

Significantly, the new plant sets the stage for a regional approach as we tackle other growth challenges. This facility has been a true collaboration many years in the making. The city of Cayce, the town of Lexington and Lexington County have worked together for the good of our citizens. All have played an important role in moving this critical, forward-looking piece of infrastructure from the drawing board to reality. This plant is an investment that will serve the people and businesses of this area well into the future. It is a symbol of a new Cayce, a city focused on smart growth that's strategic, progressive and pro-active. It's also a symbol for the entire Midlands of what can be accomplished with a spirit of regionalism and collaboration. ...

 

RC: Central Midlands Council of Governments  http://www.centralmidlands.org/

 

http://www.thestate.com/editorial-columns/story/1096337.html

 

    .11  TEN best PROMISES WE HOPE GREENSBORO POLITICIANS WILL KEEP

Yes! Weekly - Greensboro, NC, USA

MAYOR BILL KNIGHT: PROMOTE REGIONALISM

During the campaign, mayoral candidate Bill Knight said he would like Greensboro to have more of a presence at the Piedmont Triad Partnership’s meetings, and promised that as mayor he would travel to meet with Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines and High Point Mayor Becky Smothers. As a newspaper that serves the entire Triad, we hope Knight will fulill that promise. We have a vested interest in the three major cities marketing the Triad as a single entity to companies considering relocation, in integrating the talent pool to nourish more vital business activities, in having new venues like the Aquarius Music Hall in High Point succeed by tapping into a regional market and in improving transportation in and around the Triad. …

 

http://www.yesweekly.com/article-8263-ten-best.html

 

    .12  EDITORIAL: A few resolutions for the new year

Crain's Detroit Business – Detroit, MI, USA

• For Brooks Patterson: Commit to regionalism. Please. Automation Alley is a terrific example of a county initiative that became regional to the betterment of the county and the region. The haggling over aerotropolis and Cobo management has at times sounded more dedicated to killing action than to improving the plan on the table. ...

 

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20100103/SUB01/301039976#

 

    .13  Burying the Lede on Detroit

The New Republic - USA

... Another buried treasure in the story: Substantial majorities feel optimistic about the future of the region, including 79 percent of city dwellers (nowhere to go but up!), and 59 percent of suburbanites. The divisions that seem to drive the gloom and doom angle come from the analysis of how people feel about the services that their local government provides. Not surprisingly, city residents feel their services are poor and quality of life is declining, while suburbanites are much more content. The recognition of metropolitan connectedness won’t solve all of the region’s or city’s problems – particularly the appalling quality the city’s public schools. But it can advance regional competitiveness and may create the conditions for addressing the stark racial divisions between city and suburbs. Ignore the headline--this is cause for celebration.

 

http://www.tnr.com/node/72333

 

    .14  State Officials See 66-Point Plan As Guide To Prosperity

Hartford Courant - Hartford, CT, USA

The agency's draft plan suggests that keeping talented young professionals in Connecticut, becoming more competitive with other states, and encouraging "smart growth" rather than more suburban sprawl are the state's chief goals. It offers 66 strategies for accomplishing that, ranging from recommendations for a statewide agency to oversee shipping ports to a $100 million public-private loan pool for students who pursue technical or health care careers in Connecticut. Some are very specific, such as reducing the size of the General Assembly, eliminating the commercial utility surcharge on small business, and building the Springfield to New Haven commuter rail system with a spur to Bradley International Airport. Others are broad, including: "Encourage regionalism and give priority for federal and state programs to those communities that form regional partnerships."  The full report is at www.ct.gov/ecd . The recommendations begin at Page 530. ...

 

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-new-britain-economic-0102.artjan02,0,7351684.story

 

    .15  Real Problems Demand Real Leadership

Hartford Courant - Hartford, CT, USA

Connecticut will become an increasingly poorer state, unable to meet the basic needs of its residents unless our political leaders confront these issues with long-term strategic thinking and action. Members of an informal statewide group of clergy have been meeting and offer the following New Year's advice to our elected officials: Love thy neighbor. The partisan sniping and ideological brinksmanship that characterized last year's endless budget debates and which are beginning to rear their ugly heads now are at best a distraction, at worst a monumental failure of leadership. Please do not sacrifice Connecticut's economic future for the sake of winning short-term political battles against each other. ... Trust that we are stronger together. Accept the reality that Connecticut's long-standing home rule system is unsustainable. There is widespread agreement that regional cost-sharing will lead to greater government efficiency, yet we still lack the will to abandon home rule. Regionalism's day has come. ...

 

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-pawlek-state-priorities.artjan06,0,5481256.story

 

    .16  In A Name

The Soccer Daily - U.S. National Soccer Players

Once upon a time, there was an idea that the future for a handful of professional sports teams in North America was regional. Why tie yourself to one city, when you could take a broader place name? Even better if you were justifying a stadium far from a city center. ... Considering the relative marketing value of regionalism versus city-specificity for the 1997 and 2003 World Series winners, who really can say. ... Major League Soccer has already been through the regional issue. They fell for a concept invented by the World League of American Football, ... You normally end up having to make corrections, and that tends to make the whole thing seem a little silly. It's a very good reason for not looking forward to the Pennsylvania Union. Get it right the first time, and re-branding never needs to be an issue.

 

http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/ussoccerplayers/2010/01/in-a-name.html

 

    .17  Northwest Arctic Heritage Center Community Opening

NationalParksGallery.com

Saturday, December 19, was a big day in Kotzebue, Alaska.  The National Park Service and the NANA Regional Corporation hosted a community opening of the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue, Alaska. The opening included songs, Eskimo dances, and the opportunity for people of the region to tour the facility. ... First envisioned in 2000, the single-story structure is approximately 12,350 square feet. Space includes 8,450 sq. ft. for visitor services and 3,900 sq. ft. for NPS operations.  It offers people of the region and visitors from around the world a high-quality interpretive experience of the natural and cultural history of the region, a variety of educational programs, and personal administrative services. ...

 

http://www.nationalparksgallery.com/park_news/9414

 

    .18  Seven RI communities seek to regionalize services

Providence Journal - Providence, RI, USA

Mayor David N. Cicilline has submitted legislation to the General Assembly this week that would empower seven Providence County communities to regionalize municipal departments. The proposal comes in the form of three separate bills enabling the communities of Providence, North Providence, East Providence, Cranston, Pawtucket, Johnston and Central Falls to form “metropolitan districts” around either police, fire or public works functions. Those communities represent nearly 43 percent of the state’s population. Cicilline, who has been meeting quietly with officials from the six other communities since September, says the proposals are purposefully vague as he expects the communities to work out the logistics following Assembly approval of the enabling legislation. “It’ll require some careful planning, but I’m convinced it will save money,” he said. “But what’s the point in doing all this work to regionalize if the General Assembly won’t give us the power to do it?” …

 

http://www.projo.com/news/content/CICILLINE_REGIONALIZATION_12-25-09_0EGSI0T_v23.361aa3a.html

 

    .19  Chambers merge: Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti business group form joint operation

AnnArbor.com – MI, USA

The business advocacy groups for Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti will merge in 2010, forming the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber. Directors of both the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce and Ypsilanti Area Chamber of Commerce voted to form the regional entity. "We're very excited about this," said Karl Couyoumjian, chair-elect of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. "It's exciting ... for both chambers to move toward regionalism and move away from any kind of dividing line. That's the goal of this." ...

 

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/chambers-merge-ann-arbor-and-ypsilanti-business-group-form-joint-operation/

 

11. Other Regional Community News for Our Local Planet   Contents

    .01  We May Be Born With an Urge to Help

The New York Times - NY, USA

When infants 18 months old see an unrelated adult whose hands are full and who needs assistance opening a door or picking up a dropped clothespin, they will immediately help, Michael Tomasello writes in “Why We Cooperate,” a book published in October. Dr. Tomasello, a developmental psychologist, is co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. ... Dr. Tomasello finds the helping is not enhanced by rewards, suggesting that it is not influenced by training. It seems to occur across cultures that have different timetables for teaching social rules. ... For parents who may think their children somehow skipped the cooperative phase, Dr. Tomasello offers the reassuring advice that children are often more cooperative outside the home, which is why parents may be surprised to hear from a teacher or coach how nice their child is. “In families, the competitive element is in ascendancy,” he said. ... Inductive parenting is simply communicating with children about the effect of their actions on others and emphasizing the logic of social cooperation. ... The shared intentionality lies at the basis of human society, Dr. Tomasello argues. ... the human capacity for cooperation “seems to have evolved mainly for interactions within the local group,” Dr. Tomasello writes. Sociality, the binding together of members of a group, is the first requirement of defense, since without it people will not put the group’s interests ahead of their own ...

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01human.html

 

    .02  Visualizing the Arctic Oscillation

Resilience Science

The Arctic Oscillation is unusually strong right now.  The consequences, a warm arctic and cold N Europe and E North America, are illustrated in the image Winter Temperatures and the Arctic Oscillation from NASA’s Earth Observatory’s Image of the Day:  “If you live nearly anywhere in North America, Europe, or Asia, it’s no news that December 2009 and early January 2010 were cold. This image illustrates how cold December was compared to the average of temperatures recorded in December between 2000 and 2008. Blue points to colder than average land surface temperatures, while red indicates warmer temperatures. Much of the Northern Hemisphere experienced cold land surface temperatures, but the Arctic was exceptionally warm. This weather pattern is a tale-tell sign of the Arctic Oscillation. ...

 

http://rs.resalliance.org/2010/01/10/visualizing-the-arctic-oscillation/

 

    .03  The Wealth and Poverty of Regions: Why Cities Matter - Mario Polèse - The University of Chicago Press

Synopsis: As the world becomes more interconnected through travel and electronic communication, many believe that physical places will become less important. But as Mario Polèse argues in The Wealth and Poverty of Regions, geography will matter more than ever before in a world where distance is allegedly dead.

This provocative book surveys the globe, from London and Cape Town to New York and Beijing, contending that regions rise—or fall—due to their location, not only within nations but also on the world map. Polèse reveals how concentrations of industries and populations in specific locales often result in minor advantages that accumulate over time, resulting in reduced prices, improved transportation networks, increased diversity, and not least of all, “buzz”—the excitement and vitality that attracts ambitious people. The Wealth and Poverty of Regions maps out how a heady mix of size, infrastructure, proximity, and cost will determine which urban centers become the thriving metropolises of the future, and which become the deserted cities of the past. Engagingly written, the book provides insight to the past, present, and future of regions. 

Link and Google Preview: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=1226388

 

    .04  Sander van der Leeuw: The Archaeology of Innovation

Long Now Foundation – FORA-TV

Cowell Theatre, San Francisco, CA - 11.18.09  Speakers: Stewart Brand, Sander van der Leeuw

Summary: Are we the first civilization to try and innovate our way out of climate change? How have past societies engineered sustainable solutions to a shifting world? Sander van der Leeuw, Director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University and External Faculty Member of the Santa Fe Institute, has spent his career studying these questions. During his seminar, van der Leeuw explores this research into the past, as well as its application to our current global predicament.

 

http://fora.tv/2009/11/18/Sander_van_der_Leeuw_The_Archaeology_of_Innovation

 

Professor van der Leeuw … His research interests have been in archaeological theory, reconstruction of ancient ceramic technologies, regional archaeology, (ancient and modern) man-land relationships, GIS and modelling, and Complex Systems Theory. He did archaeological fieldwork in Syria, Holland and France, and conducted ethno-archaeological studies in the Near East, the Philippines and Mexico. …

Since 1992, he has been involved in a series of research projects financed by the European Union in the area of socio-natural interactions and environmental problems. Among these projects are ARCHAEOMEDES I (1992-1994) and II (1996-1999), concerned with understanding and modelling the natural and anthropogenic causes of desertification, land degradation and land abandonment and their spatial manifestations, and "Environmental Perception and Policy Making" (1994-1996), all of which he coordinated. In the case of the ARCHAEOMEDES Projects, up to 65 researchers from 11 European institutions were involved, which included disciplines from Physics, Mathematics and Computing, via Geology, Hydrology and the Life Sciences to Sociology, Social Anthropology, History and Archaeology. …

http://www.public.asu.edu/~vanderle/

 

    .05  Caricom needs a new economic model — Jagdeo

Kaieteur News - Georgetown, Guyana, South America

As we enter into a New Year — 2010 — one wonders what will be the future of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), since there is dissatisfaction in many quarters about the regional grouping, especially at this time when hundreds of Guyanese and other CARICOM nationals were forced to leave Barbados, another CARICOM state, following the expiration of the new immigration policy ... The CARICOM Community was established in August 1973 as the Treaty of Chaguaramas with the English-speaking Caribbean. In 1995, the Dutch-speaking territory of Suriname joined and in 2002 the French-speaking country of Haiti did likewise. There are now 15 member states of CARICOM. ... The whole idea was for regional economic integration and cooperation, but it seems as though there are far too many obstacles in achieving this goal. One of the concerns is that Barbados does not recognise economic citizenship, which is being touted by some countries and, despite the CARICOM Single Market, a few countries trade with countries outside the region. ... Some critics feel that very little has been achieved by CARICOM since its establishment 36 years ago. It is said that the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the West Indies cricket team have brought strong regional unity and it is hoped that every effort will be made not only by the political leaders but by organisations and groups for more integration.

 

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2010/01/10/caricom-needs-a-new-economic-model-%E2%80%94-jagdeo/

 

    .06  Lee proposes liaison offices with North

Korea Herald - Seoul, South Korea

"Election system reform is also a task that must be completed this year as it is essential for taming extreme regionalism and overcoming the politics of confrontation," he said. Ahead of the June local elections, the government will push more aggressively for regional development policies. He said the government will accelerate its new mega-regional economic zone scheme which emphasizes economic agglomeration, regional interconnection and specialized competitiveness. "This year, strategies specifically tailored to bring about regional development will begin to bear fruit. The economic recovery must also be felt in the regions," he said. ...

 

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/01/05/201001050043.asp

 

    .07  The case for messy multilateralism

Financial Times - UK

Multilateralism is not one thing but many. The issue takes on a new urgency in the aftermath of the recent Copenhagen conference, which brought together representatives of 193 governments in an unsuccessful effort to reach a formal, binding and comprehensive accord. Whatever its consequences for climate change, Copenhagen is but the most recent reminder that classic multilateralism is increasingly difficult to achieve. ... we are seeing the emergence of multiple innovations. One is regionalism. The proliferation of bilateral and regional trade pacts (most recently in Asia) is in part a reaction to the failure to conclude a global trade accord. ... A second alternative is functional multilateralism - coalitions of the willing and relevant. A global accord on climate will prove elusive for some time to come. But that need not translate into international inaction. ... Multilateralism in the 21st century is, like the century itself, likely to be more fluid and, at times, messy than what we are used to.

 

http://www.cfr.org/publication/21132/case_for_messy_multilateralism.html

 

 

    .08  KENYA: Dealing with drought

World-Countries.net

Residents of Moyale in the upper eastern region of Kenya, along the border with Ethiopia, are used to unpredictable and mostly dry weather. “When the rains come, they are erratic,” Rashid Karayu, chairman of the Golbo Integrated Development Programme, a local NGO, told IRIN. Golbo is an administrative division in Moyale. ... According to the Moyale DMO, Sora, there is a need for better timing and coordination of drought responses as well as their integration into development programmes. “For example, the livestock off-take programmes started long after many pastoralists had lost their livestock,” he noted. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a British think-tank, urged in a November report, Pastoralists’ vulnerability in the Horn of Africa, Exploring political marginalization, donors’ policies and cross-border issues, that pastoralist marginalization had to be addressed to improve their ability to recover before another drought hits. ... At present, some 3.8 million people in Kenya need food aid, and the outlook is grim. ...

 

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=24553&t=Kenya%3A+++Dealing+with+drought

 

    .09  Funding biological data resources revisited

business|bytes|genes|molecules

It is time for a whole new approach. Front-line biology cannot function without these resources, so solutions must be found at both national and international levels. That’s from an editorial in Nature talking about the need to change the way data resources are funded, ... What is the right model? It’s a combination of factors. ... Sustaining a data resource of any kind requires a dedicated team, a team of software engineers, curators, informaticians and biologists and funding that understands that these need to be maintained. ...

 

http://mndoci.com/2009/12/14/funding-biological-data-resources-revisited/

 

    .10  Shaolin Temple's kung fu monks prepare IPO

Telegraph.co.uk

A joint venture between Dengfeng, the city where the ancient Buddhist temple is located, and the state-run China Travel Service (CTS) will be listed in either Hong Kong or Shanghai in 2011. CTS (Dengfeng) Songshan Shaolin Cultural Tourist Company Ltd will have the temple's annual ticket sales of 150m yuan as part of its revenues. However, a government source said that the temple's buildings would not be included in the new company. ... "The joint venture will promote tourism in the region," said the government source. "But the assets of the temple itself, and its cultural heritage, will not be part of the group," he added.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/6831187/Shaolin-Temples-kung-fu-monks-prepare-IPO.html

 

    .11  Sandžak officials angered over regionalization

B92 - Belgrade, Serbia

Leaders of three Sandžak parties reacted to news that the government is not planning to include six municipalities of the Sandaćak in one statistical region. They claim that the adopted government decree goes against all the guarantees given to officials of the Bosniak (Muslim) minority by the government. ... Ugljanin said that the problem occurred because of "oversights made by the state administration". The map of the statistical regions was made by the Statistical Office, and was checked by the European Agency for Statistics, which confirmed that it met all European criteria before adoption, reports said. In order for a territory to become a statistical region, it must have a population of 800,000. The law on regional development was adopted in July 2009.

 

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=01&dd=06&nav_id=64277

 

    .12  A Reading In The Speech of His Majesty King Mohamed VI of January 3rd, 2010 Calling for Regionalization

Moroccan Post - Alexandria, VA, USA

... create a unique national system for regionalization, away from professional imitation and formal cloning of foreign experiments. Our ultimate goal is to establish a pioneering example of regionalism for developing countries and to establish the special position of our country as an example to follow in taking courageous national positions and finding creative Moroccan responses to Morocco’s main concerns”. ... four foundations ... 2- Commitment to solidarity with these regions, since regionalism can not be reduced merely to a new redistribution of powers between the center and the regions and since regional development can only be equal if each region is allowed to invest in a maximum of its capabilities as best as possible, and when effective mechanisms for solidarity that promotes cohesion between the various regions are found. …

 

http://www.moroccopost.net/politics/535-a-reading-in-the-speech-of-his-majesty-king-mohamed-vi-of-january-3rd-2010-calling-for-regionalization/comment-page-1/

 

    .13  Advisory Committee on Regionalization holds first meeting in Rabat

Maghreb Arabe Presse - Morocco

The Advisory Committee on Regionalization, set up on Sunday by HM King Mohammed VI, held, here on Monday, its first meeting. ... Its mission is to propose a general conception of regionalization, while bearing in mind its relevant dimensions and the role of competent constitutional institutions in its implementation.

 

http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/politics/advisory_committee_o2192/view

 

    .14  2010 preview: What next?

Regen.net

The Conservatives' regeneration policy is built around the idea of localism outlined in their Control Shift green paper last February. They want to minimise central government ring-fencing and give councils and local communities more say in how to spend their funding allocations. But policy detail is still lacking.  "There is still a divide within the party," says Toby Blume, chief executive of umbrella body Urban Forum. "On one hand, you have progressive figures like Philip Blond (director of think-tank ResPublica) who are driving the 'Broken Britain' agenda to tackle poverty and social inequalities, while on the other you have people who would happily hark back to the days of Thatcher. We won't know for sure what the Tories would change until they are actually in power." What is certain, though, is that the Tories would strip regional development agencies of powers over planning and housing growth. Indeed, they might scrap most of the RDAs.  "The money distributed by regional development agencies should be spent at a lower level and we would address this immediately (on winning power)," says shadow communities and local government minister Stewart Jackson. According to Blume: "The future of regional governance has hit a brick wall and I think it's safe to say that RDAs are not long for this world. The tiers of bureaucracy would not work well for a Tory administration trying to cut costs and minimise state intervention."  According to Blume: "The future of regional governance has hit a brick wall and I think it's safe to say that RDAs are not long for this world.

 

http://www.regen.net/inDepth/ByDiscipline/Policy/976282/2010-preview-next/

 

    .15  11 daring predictions for 2010

ComputerWorld.com

Socially Savvy - While the concept of a social networking guru might seem quaint by 2013 (do you have a photocopier guru in your office?), there is an opportunity in 2010 for people who really understand how to make social networking happen within the enterprise. While there are still a lot of carpetbaggers and "gee-whiz" cheerleaders playing in this market, I still find that there are a lot of people who don't have a basic understanding of social networking and are reluctant to ask for help.

 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/345456/11_daring_predictions_for_2010?taxonomyId=14&pageNumber=2

 

 

12. Blogging about Regional Communities   Contents

    .01  Transition Town-Country Initiatives - Cascadia Bioregion

Transition United States

A place to post your beginning Transition Initiative efforts in the cascadia bioregion, and receive encouragement & advice from your bioregional neighbors. ... This list is growing, and new Transition Initiatives can be found at:

 

http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionCommunities

 

http://transitionus.ning.com/group/transitioncascadia/forum/topics/transition-towncountry?commentId=2320371%3AComment%3A33747&xg_source=activity&groupId=2320371%3AGroup%3A9944

 

    .02  Envisioning Your Perfect Global Virtual Community... Visioning Your Perfect REALNEO

realneo.us

 

After five years of operation, REALNEO has reached a critical mass of content and activity generating significant global traffic over time. We have developed mature referral networks, good public awareness in broad, important sectors, and excellent search results, expanding our new and return visitor activity daily. Our demographics have mature, recognizable characteristics... but, who are we?.

As part of 2010 REALNEO/COOP Annual Planning and reporting, we will review benchmarking analyses of activity and demographics of REALNEO.US and dozens of other websites with interests like REALNEO, including comparative analysis of visitors' sex, age, % with children, household income, ethnicity, and educational attainment.

 

http://realneo.us/content/envisioning-your-perfect-global-virtual-community-your-perfect-realneo

 

    .03  VT Community Development grant app workshop

Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission

Please save the date, the Vermont Community Development Program (VCDP) will be hosting an application workshop on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 here at our offices at National Life (6th Floor Calvin Coolidge Room), 1 National Life Drive, Montpelier, Vermont. Registration and refreshments will begin at 8:30AM with the program starting at 9AM. Please find the agenda attached. Starting January 13, 2010 you will be able to register online for the event and will have the option to pay by check or credit card, … The registration fee for this workshop will be $20. ...

 

http://cvrpc.blogspot.com/2010/01/vt-community-development-grant-app.html

 

    .04  And the Second Greenest City Is . . .

The Daily Score

On January 4, Seattle inaugurated a new, ultra-green mayor, which got me thinking comparatively. Which of the three largest Cascadian cities is the greenest? Not in plans and intentions and declarations but in facts? I recently pored over data from the Cascadia Scorecard and other sources. The answer? No contest: Vancouver, BC. ... What’s more interesting is the next question, Who takes second? By reputation, Portland—darling of planners, ... No Northwest city is yet close to the destination of sustainability: carbon neutrality; widely shared prosperity; stable populations in strong communities; educational and economic opportunity for all; hyper-efficient use of natural resources; zero-pollution industries; and low-stuff, high-satisfaction lives. To achieve these goals, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver—and all the other communities in Cascadia—will best succeed if they not only compete for the lead but also cooperate, sharing lessons. In the race for sustainability, we all win only when we all finish. Still, competition can motivate us onward. And the city of Seattle, it turns out, is currently leading the city of Portland. Who knew? ...

 

http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2010/01/11/and-the-second-greenest-city-is

 

    .05  A New Market For New York's Regional Food

GOOD.IS/GOOD BLOG

Robert LaValva: The New Amsterdam Market has evolved over the past four years—our first market was in October, 2005—into a reinvented public-civic space that was last seen in New York in the 19th century. Marketplaces in New York functioned around a broader local community that cultivated relationships between regional vendors and purveyors, not just the farmers themselves.

G: What do you mean by “regional” and how does this relate to our understanding of “local”? How far does the New Amsterdam Market region extend?

RV: Grocers, cheesemongers, and butchers as well as farmers are included as market vendors. They are sourcing from local farms and make up a collection of new small businesses that are contributing to the natural evolution of the growing awareness around food. I try to use “regional” whenever possible as we have drawn a broad circle around the city. With a huge metro area all around New York, a 100-mile radius could prevent our desire to support the regrowth, reinvention and reimagination of a regional food system.

 

http://www.good.is/post/A-New-Market-For-New-York-s-Regional-Food

 

    .06  Intentional community in indiana

A Greener Indiana

... how are your community plans going? what is the name of the community in indianapolis you mentioned in a previous post? it would be interesting to have a regional intentional community group to support each other and bring more attention to the community movement. have you seen the interviews with diane on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlMDckgqU30  Communities Magazine editor Diana Leafe Christian interview about the book: "Practical Tools to Grow an Intentional Community"

 

http://www.agreenerindiana.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1995154%3ABlogPost%3A27887&commentId=1995154%3AComment%3A34439&xg_source=activity

 

    .07  Regional Funders Perspective on Collaboration

NYCON-New York Council of Nonprofits – NY Nonprofit Executive Directors Network

Colgate University offered the following funders' conversation: Dunn says that Central New York has a modest foundation community, with only $400 million in assets and $20 million in annual grants. With those funds, how can we have the most impact. He has seen many encouraging conversations about sustainability in not for profit organizations in the community, and discussions about merging, sharing objectives, and regionalization. OShea says that, as the largest funder in their area, several smaller foundations have come under their umbrella as donor advised or designated funds. This enables them to have a conversation about their interests and the impact of their charitable dollars. …

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmzL4ILkqN4&

 

http://ohedg.blogspot.com/2009/12/regional-funders-perspective-on.html

 

 

    .08  Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2009 published today (Dec 14)

European Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2.0.

A new Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) has been published today Dec. 14 assessing innovation performances across 201 regions in the EU and Norway. The 2009 (RIS) adopts the European Innovation Scoreboard approach at regional level and provides a richer analysis compared to previous reports due to the availability – for the first time – of more comprehensive regional Community Innovation Survey data. The analysis shows that all major EU countries have diverse levels of performance and relative strengths within their regions, and that Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic are the most heterogeneous. The report marks a significant step forward in measuring regional innovation performance although it also shows that more progress is needed on the availability and quality of innovation data at regional level.

 

http://europeanris.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/regional-innovation-scoreboard-2009-published-today-dec-14/

 

    .09  Rudd's Reckless Regional Rush

Kerry B. Collison Asia News

Australia repeatedly said the purpose of the Sydney conference was to start a conversation about regional architecture and that Australia did not want to be prescriptive. ... One of the findings of Woolcott's extensive consultations with regional leaders was that the region had no appetite for a new institution. Notwithstanding this, the organisers tried to push the contrary view that we agreed existing institutions were inadequate and ineffective. ... Australia had expressed some views on the region's existing institutions and whether they could be used to evolve the Asia-Pacific community. Australia dismissed the ASEAN Regional Forum as not useful because it was too large and had the wrong membership. ...

 

http://kerrycollison.blogspot.com/2009/12/rudds-reckless-regional-rush.html

 

    .10  Bioregional ecological economics: a prescription for health:

Gaia Emerging

"Eco-economics" means bioregionally-scaled economies designed on the basis of ecological principles. It means running an economy the way nature runs a forest. Ecological principles mandate decentralization, deconcentration, and regionalization of our economic systems. As much as possible, there must be local production, consumption, and full-scale recycling, drawing from local resources. It further mandates that no economic activity be allowed that is destructive or compromising to the ecological integrity of the region within which it takes place. Under bioregional economics," capital and resources are cycled within the region. As little as possible is allowed to "leak out." …

 

http://www.gaiaemerging.com/2009/12/bioregional-ecological-economics.html

 

13. Announcements and Regional Links.   Contents

    .01  World Rankings of Think-Tanks - 21 January, 2010 - United Nations University Office at the UN, New York

Please note that the event will include a simultaneous live, interactive webcast, for those who are not able to attend in person.

The United Nations University Office at the UN, New York is organizing a discussion as a part of the Current Affairs Series entitled World Rankings of Think-Tanks with Dr. James G. McGann, Director of Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program and assistant director of the International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. McGann is also a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

As Professor McGann notes in an article written for Foreign Policy, think tanks, also called governments in waiting, are needed by leaders around the world to provide independent analysis, help set policy agendas, and bridge the gap between academia and policy-making. Professor McGann will discuss his recent work on a comprehensive ranking of the world's top think tanks, which serves as an insider's guide to the more 6500 think tanks around the globe. Dr. McGann is currently working on a book on Global Think Tanks, Policy Networks and Governance due out later this year (Routledge, Global Institutions Series).

...

http://www.ony.unu.edu/events-forums/new/CA/2010/world-rankings-of-thinktanks.php

 

    .02  2010 National Conference of Regions - February 21-23, 2010 - Washington, DC -  The Ritz-Carlton Hotel - National Association of Regional Councils (NARC)

This conference will focus on the Obama Administration’s priorities, Congressional activities, and critical policy issues and pending federal legislation that will impact regions. The 2010 National Conference of Regions' conference will lay out the legislative framework by which region’s and their local governments can reinvigorate their vital role in federal transportation, economic development, homeland security and environmental policies and programs.

Contact: Lindsey Riley, Member Services Manager lindsey@...

Agenda and registration:  http://narc.org/events/conferences/ncr/2010-national-conference-of-regions.html

 

    .03  Innovation and the American Metropolis - April 16, 2010 – New York City - Waldorf-Astoria- Regional Plan Association (RPA)

RPA's annual Regional Assembly is New York's premier civic event, bringing together several hundred top business, civic, philanthropic, media and government leaders from across the metropolitan region. Each year the Assembly focuses on a priority issue. In the wake of the financial crisis, the 2009 Assembly "America 2050: Building the Next Economy" took on a national emphasis with an in-depth look at what went wrong and what we could do to rebuild our economy with smarter investments. This year, we look at the role of innovation and technology in shaping better cities and regions.

http://www.regionalassembly.org/2010/

 

    .04  Office of Advocacy – U.S. Small Business Administration

The voice for small business in the federal government and the source for small business statistics. …

Recent reports:

States with higher gross state product growth are more likely to attract highly mobile and high-achieving college graduates, both self-employed and wage-and-salary workers, according an Advocacy paper, Educational Attainment, “Brain Drain,” and Self-employment: Examining the Interstate Mobility of Baccalaureate Graduates, 1993-2003.

 

Much has been said about small employers of up to 500 workers, but little is known about the three-quarters of firms in the economy that are “nonemployers,” generating full- or part-time work for their owners. A new study, The Nonemployer Startup Puzzle, examines basic statistics about the entry and exit of these very small firms.

 

http://www.sba.gov/advo/index.html

 

14. Financial Crisis.   Contents

    .01  CASH-STARVED STATES NEED TO PLAY THE BANKING GAME: NORTH DAKOTA SHOWS HOW - Web of Debt

…

One of the four states that is not insolvent is an unlikely candidate for the distinction – North Dakota. As Michigan management consultant Charles Fleetham observed last month in an article distributed to his local media:

“North Dakota is a sparsely populated state of less than 700,000, known for cold weather, isolated farmers and a hit movie – Fargo. Yet, for some reason it defies the real estate cliché of location, location, location. Since 2000, the state’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. This year the state has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion!”

What does the State of North Dakota have that other states don’t? The answer seems to be: its own bank. In fact, North Dakota has the only state-owned bank in the nation. The state legislature established the Bank of North Dakota in 1919. Fleetham writes that the bank was set up to free farmers and small businessmen from the clutches of out-of-state bankers and railroad men. By law, the state must deposit all its funds in the bank, and the state guarantees its deposits. Three elected officials oversee the bank: the governor, the attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture. The bank’s stated mission is to deliver sound financial services that promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. The bank operates as a bankers’ bank, partnering with private banks to loan money to farmers, real estate developers, schools and small businesses. It loans money to students (over 184,000 outstanding loans), and it purchases municipal bonds from public institutions.

Still, you may ask, how does that solve the solvency problem? Isn’t the state still limited to spending only the money it has? The answer is no. Certified, card-carrying bankers are allowed to do something nobody else can do: they can create “credit” with accounting entries on their books.

...

 

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/state_bank_option.php

 

    .02  Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor – The Observer - guardian.co.uk

Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.

…

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims

 

    .03  Q&A:  'Stiglitz-Sen Moving in the Right Direction, but Slowly' - Miren Gutierrez* interviews HAZEL HENDERSON – IPS News

IPS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked award-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, and 20 other experts to find new ways to measure growth. The panel issued a report that says that countries need to find ways to measure happiness and well-being alongside raw economic growth. How would this new way of measuring growth affect poor countries? Bhutan, for example, declares a high "Gross National Happiness". If a new well-being index is the reference for wealth, Bhutan may need no aid, trade or investment in spite of being one of the poorest countries of the world...

HH: The Stiglitz-Sen report is moving in the right direction but too slowly and is still trapped intellectually in the now-defunct "economics box".

Complex human societies can never be measured by using a single discipline, especially by economics which was never a science. Economic calculations are blind to most of the social and environmental costs its narrow decisions impose on others, reframed as "externalities," i.e., costs companies and projects omit from their balance sheets. These uncounted impacts of financial decisions have accumulated unnoticed by economists until they are now crises of poverty, inequality, social exclusion and pollution - culminating in the greatest market failure: climate chaos.

Stiglitz and Sen cannot see that new national indicators of "progress" must be multi-disciplinary and use many metrics as appropriate in the kind of systems approach used in the Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, an alternative approach I designed with the Calvert Group, tracking 12 aspects of quality of life.

I am very cautious about "happiness" indicators because they are culturally dependent and too subjective (e.g., people living near a hidden toxic dump or drinking polluted water can say they are "happy" while ignorant of these dangers). Conservative economists and statisticians have seized on "happiness" surveys as an excuse to cut social welfare budgets.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48492

 

    .04  Is Financial System Dysfunctional? - Mostly Economics

Adair Turner’s speech and Prospect’s top 25 list alerted me to the work of Paul Woolley. Paul Woolley has worked in financial firms, at IMF, has taught in Univs etc. So he has seen it all.

He has been working to show how efficient financial markets theory is not right and we need a new paradigm.

He has set up a Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality at LSE where much of the work is being done. ...

He says:

Is society well-served by its financial institutions? I am referring here to private sector institutions such as the banks, investment banks, fund managers, and capital markets generally, rather than the public sector bodies such as central banks and supra-national agencies. Surprisingly, the question is hardly ever posed, let alone attempts made to answer it. There seems to be a tacit, and more or less universal assumption that competitive markets are efficient markets and, since competition does not appear in short supply among financial institutions and investors, everyone seems to be happy.

Indeed the notion of efficiency lies at the core of finance theory. The belief in the efficacy of competition propounded by the classical economists from before Adam Smith, was applied formally to finance in the shape of the “Efficient Market Hypothesis” in the 1960s. The ability of equity markets to deliver efficient pricing leading to the most productive allocation of resources was unquestioned through the 1980’s and even now holds centre stage as the principal building block of academic finance.

But reality is different

By most measures finance has become the dominant industry sector accounting, for example, for between 30% and 40% of the aggregate profits of the quoted corporate sector in the US, UK and globally, compared with only around 10% forty years ago. What model can explain its dominance? It seems strange that an industry whose role is that of intermediation rather than the production of consumption goods and industry whose role it is to allocate resources, retains the biggest share for itself?

This is the formal statement of the problem.

http://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/is-financial-system-dysfunctional/

 

    .05  Funding and the patriotism test - Financial Times - UK

In recent months, some of the brightest minds at Moody’s rating agency have been mulling a fascinating question: should they introduce a formal rating of “social cohesion” into sovereign debt indices, when they judge whether a government is likely to default on its debt – or not?

So far, neither Moody’s nor any other agency has actually done this, after all it is pretty hard to feed a specific “cohesion” number into any model.

But the discussion points to a fundamental issue that will hang over bond markets this decade.

In the past few years, when markets have tried to judge the risk attached to western government bonds, they have typically done so looking at hard macro-economic data, such as projected gross domestic product. Such data, of course, continue to be critically important, given the size of the western fiscal hole.

What is becoming clear is that hard numbers do not tell the entire tale. What will be equally crucial in the coming years is not the sheer scale of debt, but whether governments can implement a rational and effective way of cutting it – and potentially allocating pain – without unleashing (at best) political instability, or (at worst) full blown revolution.

...

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0306069c-fbb4-11de-9c29-00144feab49a,_i_email=y.html

 

 

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