The Importance of Walkability

By Gene Krebs

Greater Ohio has been forecasting for several years that people would be and are already choosing to move to walkable communities and leave the car-centric city behind.  According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, the free market is now validating this assertion in stronger terms than we had anticipated.  The article explains that the desire to live in a walkable community is reshaping the real estate market.

"Today's home buyers aren't just looking for good schools and low crime rates when they evaluate a neighborhood, many brokers say. They're paying much more attention to what they can walk to."

This article confirms that the increased interest in walkability is not just a blip, but a burgeoning trend that is worthy of the attention of homeowners and policy makers alike.  If you want to checkout the walkability of your neighborhood, visit https://www.redfin.com/how-walk-score-works.

Ohio Foreclosure Legislation Stalled

Despite statistics from the Ohio Supreme Court showing that foreclosure filings in Ohio have experienced an annual increase for the past 14 consecutive years andmore than 24,700 foreclosure filings occurred in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 9 percent over the same time period last year, the Ohio Senate has decided to postpone until after the Summer break consideration of several key pieces of legislation designed to protect homeowners and renters in the event of a foreclosure.

Three specific pieces of legislation have passed the Ohio House, but have all stalled in the Ohio Senate, that would help address concerns that Greater Ohio and others have expressed with various parts of the foreclosure process. House Bill 3 would regulate mortgage servicers and charge a filing fee, the proceeds of which would return to communities to fund prevention counseling and foreclosure mitigation programs.  House Bill 9 would require landlords to notfiy current and potential tenants if a property is or will soon be in foreclosure. The final bill, House Bill 323, would limit the amount of time that properties are vacant and deteriorating by requiring that the mortgage holder file for default judgment in a foreclosure proceeding within a set period of time or risk a court ruling that they abandoned their interest in the property. It also establishes penalties to discourage homeowners from vandalizing their foreclosed property.

Greater Ohio, informed by a combination of extensive research and outreach around the state with our local partners, has stressed the need to pass a legislative package of foreclosure protection and corrective action bills most recently in our jointly issued report with the Brookings Institution, Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio's Communities for the Next Economy, and in a paper released last year, Addressing Ohio's Foreclosure Crisis: Taking the Next Steps, commissioned by Greater Ohio and written by national urban affairs expert Alan Mallach.

We encourage you to contact your local representatives of the General Assembly, particularly your Ohio Senate members, throughout the summer and ask them to research these important bills and also urge the Ohio Senate in particular to take action on the legislation when they return in the fall. Unfortunately as statistics such as the ones from the Ohio Supreme Court show, Ohio’s foreclosure problem is getting worse not better and the time for reform is now.

On the GO (The Greater Ohio Newsletter)

Check out the new format of Greater Ohio's Newsletter, On the GO. If you are not signed up to receive these newsletters, please sign up here.  Here is the top story from the newsletter: Experts Converge to Provide County Land Bank Training

Greater Ohio Policy Center, in partnership with the newly formed Center for Community Progress, whose goal is to create vibrant communities through reuse of vacant, abandoned properties with offices in both Washington, D.C. and Flint, Michigan, hosted an interactive training session for select counties on Ohio’s current land bank law, which was recently expanded to an additional 41 counties.

Over 60 representatives from 11 counties participated in the daylong event with presentations by Greater Ohio’s Lavea Brachman, the Center for Community Progress’s Dan Kildee and Amy Hovey, as well as Gus Frangos, President of the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation.

Greater Ohio, a key figure in the legislation that enabled additional counties to access this important tool, provided specific information on Ohio’s legislation that addresses county land banks. From Dan Kildee, former Genesse County Treasurer, participants learned about the basic concepts behind a county land bank and how the entity is financially structured. Amy Hovey, a former consultant to the Genesse County Land Bank and integral in its development, discussed various land bank models throughout Michigan and the country to show how this important tool could be customized to meet the needs of individual counties. Finally, Gus Frangos provided first-hand knowledge on how to set up a county land bank in Ohio as well as provided practical advice on the trigger points for different operation and policy decisions and the pitfalls to avoid.

Greater Ohio hopes to continue to edcuate counties on this powerful tool to address the foreclosure and vacant property crisis plaguing our communties, so continue to check our website for additional trainings.

ODOT Provides Clean and Green Buses for Local Transit

Using federal money that was allocated in the last transportation budget, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced Wednesday that it will direct $15 million to local transit authorities across the state to purchase 41 clean fuel buses. ODOT Director Jolene M. Molitoris made the announcement during a rain-soaked press conference at the department's Columbus headquarters that featured one of the buses already purchased by the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA). She said she hopes it will be just the first investment in cleaner technology by the department.

COTA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Lhota said the two buses purchased with ODOT funds will join with $2.1 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program funds to bring the transit authority's fleet up to six hybrid diesel buses. The hybrid buses featured a battery-powered electric motor and a diesel-fueled combustion engine. The 40-foot bus seats up to 39 passengers or up to 83 with standees. At a cost of $573,620 each, they are more expensive than the standard low-sulfur diesel buses that cost $341,141 each. Lhota said the hybrids are expected to last about 12 years, the same amount of time as a regular bus.

Still, Lhota and Pat Stephens, the vice president of operations, said that they will run the hybrid buses on heavily traveled routes with numerous stops along with the regular diesel buses and collect data on the performance of the vehicles to demonstrate what kind of benefit the buses have for COTA. ODOT said it received nearly $33 million in applications from local and regional transit authorities across the state.

Receiving funds are: • Akron Regional Transit Authority ($2 million) - four hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Central Ohio Transit Authority ($1.2 million) - two hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Clermont Transportation Connection ($750,000) - two diesel 40 ft. buses • Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority ($2.3 million) - four hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Miami County Public Transit ($150,000) - two diesel light transit vehicles • Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority ($375,000) - five diesel light transit vehicles • Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority ($1.9 million) - three hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Springfield City Area Transit ($684,320) - four hybrid electric/diesel 30 ft. buses • Stark Area Regional Transit Authority ($2.3 million) - six biodiesel 30-35 ft. buses • Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority ($3.3 million) - eight biodiesel 30-35 ft. buses • Washington County/CABL ($75,000) - one diesel 30 ft. bus

Greater Downtown Dayton Plan

Check out this video of the Greater Downtown Dayton plan.  This is a great example of an Ohio city building on its assets and coming together to transform the Greater Downtown Dayton area into a more thriving, vibrant place.

For more information, check out their website at http://www.downtown-dayton.com/plan/.

Columbus On the Record Featuring Gene Krebs

Check out this video of Greater Ohio Policy Center's Co-Director, Gene Krebs. Gene offers the smart growth policy perspective while discussing a range of different topics.

Bridges to the Future

Check out this great ad from the University of Akron.  It connects the importance of anchor institutions, such as the University of Akron, to the larger metropolitan region, recognizing that metropolitan regions are the key functional units in today's global economies (as described in our Restoring Prosperity to Ohio report).

Click here to zoom in on the ad: Bridges to the Future

New Greater Ohio White Paper Released

Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Canton and Youngstown have been the drivers of Ohio's economy for most of the 20th century. Today, however, these "Big Eight" cities are experiencing sustained, long-term population loss, turning them into Ohio’s “shrinking cities” and prompting city and state officials to ask: How will they reshape and reinvent themselves? Ohio’s Cities At A Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward attempts to answer just that question.  The white paper released today by the Greater Ohio Policy Center and the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program lists 10 policy recommendations to guide leaders as the cities undergo a physical transformation.  Lavea Brachman, co-director for Greater Ohio and a non-resident senior fellow for the Brookings Institution, co-authored the paper along with Alan Mallach, non-resident senior fellow for the Brookings Institution.

According to the white paper, the following seven premises must frame any vision for recreating the physical footprint of Ohio’s largest cities:

• These cities contain significant assets for future rebuilding.

• These cities will not regain their peak population.

• These cities have a surplus of housing.
• These cities have far more vacant land than can be absorbed by redevelopment.
• Impoverishment threatens the viability of these cities more than population loss.
• Local resources are severely limited.
• The fate of cities and their metropolitan areas are inextricably inter-connected.

Specific recommendations from Ohio’s Cities At A Turning Point include the call for joint regional planning and economical development; targeted, strategic investment of resources; prioritization of state funding to cities adopting proactive plans that address their population loss and need for land reconfiguration; and local government consolidation where appropriate.

We are proud to release this white paper, whose research also helped inform the Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy Report released in February.

The State of Metropolitan America

Yesterday, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a new report entitled, The State of Metropolitan America. The report tracks the social and demographic trends of nation’s metropolitan areas that have taken place during the first decade of the new millennium using data collected from the Census Bureau and the American Community Survey.

Over the last several years, Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program has been a close partner of Greater Ohio and a co-authored our Restoring Prosperity report; Brookings’ latest effort provides valuable data that supplements the figures found in Restoring Prosperity and is a useful resource for anyone interesting in learning more about the metropolitan areas leading Ohio and the nation into the next economy.

For more information see the report: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0509_metro_america.aspx

Community Design Supports Good Health

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrates the importance of considering public-health factors, such as physical activity, respiratory and mental health, water quality, social equity, healthy aging, and social capital, when creating the built environment.  The report is the latest product of CDC’s Healthy Community Design Initiative, aimed at combating soaring rates of asthma, diabetes, and obesity by improving the way communities are designed. Greater Ohio Policy Center applauds these efforts.  As a place- based organization that emphasizes the importance of vibrant, walkable, bikable quality places, Greater Ohio agrees that the built environment is the cornerstone of healthy communities.  In our Restoring Prosperity to Ohio report, we list several recommendations to strengthen our quality places and build on our assets.  Not only do these quality places drive economic development, but they also impact the health of their inhabitants as well.

For more information on the report and CDC’s Healthy Community Initiative, contact Charles Green at 770-488-0626 or clg8@cdc.gov. You can also subscribe to the Healthy Community Design News Listserv.