Greater Ohio Calls Commission on Local Government Reform Report a Modest First Step

More reform, action still needed to prepare Ohio for the competitive Next Economy Greater Ohio Policy Center called a draft report, which was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration Friday, a modest first step toward increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of local government and fostering economic development in Ohio, but called for government leaders to quickly build upon the commission’s efforts.  Today is the statutory deadline for the commission to issue its final report, the culmination of 19 months of work to develop recommendations to increase the efficiency of local government, achieve cost savings for taxpayers and promote economic development.

“The report and its recommendations are a step in the right direction, but the pending state budgetary crisis makes real local government reform all the more urgent, as the gap between costs and revenues on the local level continues to widen with reduced ability for the state to make up these differences,” said Greater Ohio’s Executive Director Lavea Brachman. “To avoid crippling budget cuts in the next state budget and make Ohio economically competitive, local government must become more attentive to reducing costs through collaboration and consolidation. The commission’s recommendations are not the bold action steps required under the current dire fiscal and economic conditions.”

These issues require long-term attention, and, as a logical next step, Greater Ohio calls for the creation of a permanent, intergovernmental, collaborative body responsible for continuing the work of the current commission.  To read more, see Greater Ohio's press release posted on our website.

Lucas County Land Bank is Approved

Lucas County Commissioners yesterday unanimously approved the creation of the state's second county land bank.  The new non-profit entity is expected to start acquiring properties in the coming weeks, and we at Greater Ohio look forward to following its progress.  For information about the recent decision, check out today's Toledo Blade article.

Creation of Lucas County Land Bank Nears Critical Vote

Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz is preparing to go before the Lucas County Commission today to ask for formal approval to form a county land bank.  If approved, Lucas County will be the first county that has sought such approval since this authority was expanded to an additional 41 counties earlier this year.  Check out this article from The Blade for more information.

Greater Ohio Partners with German Marshall Fund in Transatlantic Shrinking Cities Project

Greater Ohio Policy Center announced it has entered into a partnership with the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States in Washington, D.C. and will play a leadership role in a new three-year GMF project, Cities in Transition: Shrinking Cities. The project will provide unique opportunities for Ohio’s local and state leaders to learn from European cities’ rebuilding practices. “This initiative aligns directly with Greater Ohio’s ongoing work to address challenges in Ohio’s ‘shrinking cities’ and provides a golden opportunity to evaluate successful European policies and practices for their application to Ohio’s cities, as well as inform state and national policies crafted for Ohio’s many older industrial cities of all sizes,” said Greater Ohio’s Executive Director Lavea Brachman. “Ohio is ‘ground zero’ for ‘cities in transition,’ so our state and our cities truly can benefit disproportionately from this initiative.”

The project is designed to build a sustained network of leading policymakers and practitioners from several older industrial U.S. cities and to provide opportunities to examine European practices for their applicability in the United States. Through tours, meetings and charrettes, participants from five selected cities – including Youngstown and Cleveland in Ohio – will work together to articulate policy challenges in their communities and identify and adapt successful innovative strategies adopted by European older industrial cities to address the myriad challenges arising from physical transformations associated with disinvestment and economic restructuring.

Brachman has been named a 2010-11 GMF senior fellow based in Columbus as the practitioner in the field who will help shape and lead the first year of this initiative, which focuses on land use and physical revitalization efforts. Representatives from participating U.S. cities will analyze and determine applicability of successful European policies and practices, such as “shrinking in order to grow,” in order to draw out and implement key elements that can contribute to addressing the complex challenges surrounding vacant properties and other land use issues in their communities.

They will also work together to identify state and federal level policy changes that would be critical to help implement changes on the ground and facilitate the transferability of these policies from the European to American context.  The project will be launched in October with a one-day stakeholder meeting. Also planned is a December 2010 study tour to Leipzig, Germany and Manchester, England, both demonstrating successful shrinking strategies.

The Greater Ohio-GMF partnership aligns with Greater Ohio’s on-going work implementing the comprehensive blueprint, Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy, that it released to position Ohio for the next economy and with pilot projects Greater Ohio is planning with partners in cities around the state that link these recommendations to effective and new ways for Ohio’s cities to redevelop.  In related work, Greater Ohio also jointly released a white paper with Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, Ohio’s Cities at a Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward, specifically focused on the “shrinking city” phenomenon in Ohio.

3C Updates from the Urbanophile

Aaron M. Renn's blog, The Urbanophile, had a great post earlier this week with archive summaries of previous Urbanophile entries about Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.  For updates from all three cities, here is his list. Cincinnati

• A Midwest Conundrum – I talk about all those great assets, and ask why they haven’t powered the region to better performance.
• The Neighborhoods of Cincinnati – A photo tour showing off some of the fantastic neighborhoods and architecture in the city. It can really shock people who aren’t ready for it.
• Dramatic Riverfront Revitalization Nearly Complete – Randy Simes looks Cincinnati’s riverfront transformation.
• Agenda 360 – My look at Cincinnati’s regional strategic plan.

Cleveland

• What’s Wrong? – I ask what happened to make Cleveland suffer so, when unlike Detroit there is no easy narrative such as the auto industry collapse and extreme racial segregation.
• Reactions to What’s Wrong – The post above spawned more comments than any in Urbanophile history. I summarize some of the best of them here.
• Will a Dying City Finally Turn to Immigrants? – Richard Herman’s plea for Cleveland to embrace immigration.
• “James Drain” Hit Cleveland – What LeBron’s departure means for the city.

Columbus

• The New Midwestern Star – My overview post on this little known but strong performing metro.
• Rebranding Columbus – A look at the city’s recent re-branding initiative.
• Downtown Mall to Be Demolished – My take on plans to replace the failed City Center Mall with a park.

How Do we Make Smart Growth Happen?

By Alison Goebel. Recently the New Yorker published an article about Moscow's traffic and the city's efforts to mitigate its paralyzing congestion.  Despite numerous attempts, Moscow’s wide streets (one as large as 18 lanes across!) continue to be choked with cars.  Consulting with traffic experts, the author, John Gessen, concludes that Moscow’s traffic problems are part planning (for example, the mayor recently did away with red lights along one major road to the airport, thus preventing safe and easy on/off turning), and part social.  The number of drivers has increased exponentially since the 1990s, as has the presence of large luxury cars on the roads.  “Swaddling you in leather,” Gessen writes of a friend’s Mercedes, “in Moscow, there are far worse places to be trapped.”  If the choice is between waiting for the crowded metro and sitting in traffic, Moscovites prefer traffic.

Instead of expanding public transit options, enforcing and strengthening traffic codes, or creating zoning laws to prevent commercial districts from directly entering and exiting major highways, the most recent solution to Moscow’s traffic problems has been to begin building another beltway around the city.

Since reading this article, I’ve been thinking about Moscow and other cities that need policies which depend upon and reward smart growth.  With this question in the back of my mind, it seemed apropos when I and other GO-ers recently began talking about the high cost of being both a public transit user and a car owner.   Many of us who live in the city can only afford a car or a bus pass, but not both.  But as Erica Spaid pointed out, if we had to pay for parking (or pay to drive downtown), the costs wouldn’t seem so high and there would be more incentive to use a transit pass.

It will take much more than toll fees to get Moscovites and Ohioans out of their cars and using public transit (and admittedly it’s not just about cost, but also commuting time, limited service options, and other factors), but the issue remains the same: how do we encourage and successfully implement smart growth practices when the status quo feels all right?

Wind Energy in Ohio

By Gene Krebs. A new book has been published called Wind Energy in Ohio: Our Past, Present and Future.  It is a compilation of articles edited by Heidi Callender.  It highlights the potential for wind energy in Ohio and how it could help bring some manufacturing back to certain areas.  She dedicates the book to the people of Ohio with the hope that an educated public will appreciate Ohio’s past and present wind energy industry, and would be inspired to contribute to Ohio’s prosperous wind energy future.

There was a very successful book signing Tuesday night in Cleveland.  I’m in the preface because one evening over dinner at Schmidt’s in German Village with Heidi and her husband Jamie we discussed Ohio’s future.  My minor role was to give her a laundry list of people to contact, many of whom are in the book.  You can go to Amazon to get a copy.  You can’t have mine; Heidi signed it herself!

Ranking Transit Access

You may have seen our earlier entry about the importance of walkability and a tool to measure exactly that, walkscore.com.  Recently Walk Score has become multi-modal with the introduction of a new component, Transit Score which also ranks access to public transit.  So far over 40 cities are included in this ranking system, including Cleveland, Ohio.

Transit Score uses transit agency scheduling data to create a new index. This time, it rates how good the public transit service is, taking into account factors like how far you’d have to walk to get to the nearest bus/train stop and how often buses and trains arrive once you get there. The creators of Walk Score, a company called Front Seat, have also partnered with Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology to release an app that calculates exactly how much you spend on transportation, no matter what form you use.

The big question is how much will these new tools affect home-buying and development decisions.  We certainly think these factors are worthy of heavy consideration.

How Transportation Affects the Health of our Communities

A blog entry from the Infrastructurist today provides two sources which both indicate that increased driving leads to less healthy lifestyles.

• A fascinating graphic shows the correlation between how much driving a state’s residents do and the state’s rate of obesity. (Good)

• And a new study says that people who live near public transport live “healthier, longer lives.” (APTA)

These are both interesting sources which confirm the need for multi modal transportation options and communities that are walkable and bikable.  The data are clear; transportation is not just about getting from point A to point B.  It’s an important factor for the health and vitality of our communities.  How does transportation affect your life?  What do you want to see changed here in Ohio?

San Juan Unveils Plan for Car-Free Walkable City

We just came across an interesting article describing San Juan, Puerto Rico's proposal to transform the city's historic district, Isleta, into a car-free "Walkable City".  The ambitious plan was released recently, and it calls for bold approaches to make Isleta more livable and walkable.  Banning automobiles from Old San Juan and adding a light rail system are the first steps, followed by the revitalization of old neighborhoods, an emphasis on public spaces and walkability, and new mixed-use developments.

The motivation for the city re-design is partially due to the city’s massive decrease in population over the years.  By making the old city more appealing, the government of Puerto Rico hopes to reverse this trend.

While Puerto Rico and Ohio face many different challenges and therefore require different approaches, it is always interesting to see what innovative ideas are being discussed and proposed across the globe.  Do you think any of these ideas could work in Ohio?