Regional Community Development News – June 24, 2009 [regions_work] - Part 2
Tom Christoffel, AICP
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Regional Community Development News – June 24, 2009 [regions_work] – Part 2
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
Announcements and Regional Links … 13.01 - .09
Financial Crisis …14.01 - .03
Custom search: region, regions, regional communities … 15.
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13. Announcements and Regional Links. Contents
.01 Transportation Authorization Information and Materials - NARC
Activities in both the House of Representatives and Senate have begun on the surface transportation authorization bill. The current law, SAFETEA-LU, expires in September 2009, and both Congress and the Administration are determining ways in which the nation’s transportation system can be financially sustained, while meeting national goals and fulfilling state, regional and local needs. The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) is working with Congress, the Administration, our state, local, and private partners to create a new transportation vision through flexible and innovative regional collaboration, solutions and partnerships for a sound national transportation system.
http://narc.org/news/231/385.html
.02 Texas Triangle Megaregion Forum: Megaregions & MetroProsperity Sustainable Economics for the Texas Triangle - September 23-25, Houston, Texas
convened by Houston Tomorrow and America 2050.
Confirmed Partners to date: University of Texas Austin, Houston-Galveston Area Council
Purpose:
* Build support for a national infrastructure investment plan and establish knowledge of Megaregions by leaders in the metro areas of the Texas Triangle, which includes Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Antonio.
* Identify the major transportation, energy, and water infrastructure priorities in the Texas Triangle megaregion
* Seek common ground among regions in the Texas Triangle on programs and policies to meet core infrastructure challenges.
* Explore emerging economic trends and strategies for sustainable prosperity in metro regions
* Create a framework for working toward a vision for sustainable prosperity in the Texas Triangle
http://www.america2050.org/2009/06/save-the-dates-september-23-25.html
.03 Call for papers - Special session on spatial competition - 56th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 18-21, 2009
Ever since Hotelling’s seminal paper on spatial competition in 1929, the subject of location choice and endogenous product differentiation has given rise to discussion among economists. Up to the present day, the theory is extended and innovative empirical applications are brought forward. We want to organize a special session at the 2009 NARSC conference to bring together recent theoretical and empirical additions in this field. The annual conference of the North American Regional Science Council (NARSC) is structured around a number of thematically-focused sessions during which regional scientists present their work. NARSC-Conference deadline for Abstract Submission : August 1, 2009
Paper submission and registration should be done through the NARSC website below. In addition, express your willingness to participate in the special session by sending an email listing the author(s)’s name(s) and affiliation, title, and abstract to Mark Lijesen, VU University Amsterdam mlij...@feweb.vu.nl
Abstract/Session Submission: http://www.narsc.org/newsite/?page_id=64
.04 Call for Papers - "Global Recession: Regional Impacts on Housing, Jobs, Health and Wellbeing" - Regional Studies Association Annual Winter Conference - November 27, 2009 -London
Contributions are welcomed on the following themes: Health and welfare at the local and regional scale; Happiness and wellbeing: definitions and indicators; Poverty, exclusion and wellbeing; Jobs, employment and wellbeing; Social impacts of housing; The personal, social and financial costs of housing; Funding public health, housing and care; Social justice, quality of life and standards of living; Healthy lifestyles and healthy living
Please submit offers of papers in the form of 400 word abstracts through the Regional Studies Association on-line conference portal by Tuesday 30th June 2009.
To submit go to http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/ and follow the Winter Conference 2009 Call for Papers link.
.05 “Michigan – The 'Car Capital' as Crucible of Midwest Economic Transformation”
The Global Midwest Initiative releases its second Global Midwest Policy Brief, part of a new series that frames and analyzes pressing issues facing the Midwest in the global era and offers recommendations on how best to move forward. In this issue, the author charts a path for how Michigan can respond to the collapse of the auto industry by building on new and innovative industries to compete in the global economy. John C. Austin, the Brief’s author, is the vice president of Michigan’s State Board of Education, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, co-director of their Great Lakes Economic Initiative, and a member of the Global Midwest Initiative’s Steering Committee.
http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/taskforce_details.php?taskforce_id=14
.06 MetroMonitor - Brookings
The Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings has initiated the MetroMonitor, a quarterly, interactive barometer of the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies. The monitor looks “beneath the hood” of national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country.
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroMonitor.aspx
.07 Institute of the North
Since its creation in 1994, the Institute has gained a wide reputation as a center for the study of commonly owned lands, seas and resources using the “owner state” of Alaska as a model. Its mission combines both economic relevance and geopolitical urgency as most trouble spots around the world are found in regions where the commons has been mismanaged or exploited.
http://www.institutenorth.org/
.08 what does regionalism stand for? - Stand For - English to English Dictionary
regionalism stands for: (3 meanings in total)
1. n. loyalty to the interests of a particular region (view details)
2. n. a foreign policy that defines the international interests of a country in terms of particular geographic areas (view details)
3. n. a feature (as a pronunciation or expression or custom) that is characteristic of a particular region (view details)
Meaning 1: (noun) loyalty to the interests of a particular region
regionalism is a kind of: loyalty ( what does loyalty stand for? )
Meaning 2: (noun) a foreign policy that defines the international interests of a country in terms of particular geographic areas
Meaning 3: (noun) a feature (as a pronunciation or expression or custom) that is characteristic of a particular region
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
What do YOU think regionalism stands for?
http://www.stand-for.com/what-does-regionalism-stand-for.html
.09 Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World - bookitplus.net
In this provocative new book, Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu tell the fascinating story of the Internet’s challenge to governmental rule in the 1990s, and the ensuing battles with governments around the world. It’s a book about the fate of one idea–that the Internet might liberate us forever from government, borders, and even our physical selves. We learn of Google’s struggles with the French government and Yahoo’s capitulation to the Chinese regime; of how the European Union sets privacy standards on the Net for the entire world; and of eBay’s struggles with fraud and how it slowly learned to trust the FBI. In a decade of events, the original vision was uprooted, as governments time and time again asserted their power ... Note: Free download.
http://www.bookitplus.net/2009/06/who-controls-internet-illusions-of.html
14. Financial Crisis. Contents
.01 Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe - BookTV on CSPAN2
A Financial Times reporter's insider story of how a team at JP Morgan devised the new financial instruments that produced "a revolution in banking" - and the market events of 2008. Ms. Tett was named British Business Journalist of the Year for her coverage of the market decline in 2008. She was also awarded the Wincott Prize (for financial journalism) in 2007. Currently, Ms. Tett runs the global market coverage for Financial Times newspaper.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=286433-1
.02 Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation - Dmitry Orlov
This talk was presented at The New Emergency Conference in Dublin, on June 11, 2009.
1. Good morning. The title of this talk is a bit of a mouthful, but what I want to say can be summed up in simpler words: we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours. I will take as my point of departure the unfolding collapse of the global economy, and discuss what might come next. It started with the collapse of the financial markets last year, and is now resulting in unprecedented decreases in the volumes of international trade. These developments are also starting to affect the political stability of various countries around the world. A few governments have already collapsed, others may be on their way, and before too long we may find our maps redrawn in dramatic ways.
2. "Sustainability" -- what's in a word?
In a word, unsustainable. So what does that mean, exactly? Chris Clugston has recently published a summary of his analysis of what he calls "societal over-extension" on The Oil Drum web site. Here is a summary of his summary, in round numbers. I don't want to trifle with his arithmetic, because it's the cultural assumptions behind it that I find interesting. The idea is that if we shrink our ecological footprint by an order of magnitude or so, that should make the whole arrangement sustainable once again. This is expressed in financial terms: here we are lowering the GDP of the USA from, say $100 thousand per capita per annum, to, say $10 thousand. Clugston draws a distinction between making this reduction voluntarily or involuntarily: we should make it easy on ourselves and come along quietly, so that nobody gets hurt. I find the idea that Americans will voluntarily lower their GDP by a factor of 10 rather outlandish. We keep the same system, just shut down 9/10 of it? Wouldn't that make it a completely different system? This sort of sustainability seems rather unsustainable to me.
...
Dmity Orlov, a Russian who grew up in the U.S. since age 12, later returned there several times after the 1989 collapse, did a PowerPoint “Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US” - http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
Orlov is on video presenting at The Long Now organization, February, 2009 -
http://fora.tv/2009/02/13/Dmitry_Orlov_Social_Collapse_Best_Practices#chapter_01
.03 Right Sizing the Economy: Can Herman Daly's Prescription for a Steady State Economy Accomplish this Task? - The Oil Drum - USA
... here are some questions to be considered by anyone hoping that new economic paradigms can ultimately be established.
1. What mechanism(s) should be used for community finance? ...
2. What levels of organization of community finance should exist (e.g. village, bioregion, province, nation-state, international, global)? ...
3. What specific mechanisms should be used to make it clear to everyone that a stable, right sized economic community is the real source of our long term security rather than private financial stashes? ...
4. If atomized wealth accumulation by individuals and families is abandoned as the driving force behind economic activity how can efficiency and productivity to be encouraged and rewarded? ...
http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5487
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 2,106 regional related sites as of June 24, 2009. Entering the term collapse returned 350 items; rebuilding returned 455 items.
Search engine link: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=000551187207053117963:m1gvkhigkeo&hl=en
My name is Tom Christoffel. I've worked in the field of intergovernmental and regional cooperation since 1973. As a consequence, "I see regions work.” Regional Community Development News is published bi-monthly based on news reports as of Wednesday of the publication week
Making visible such cross-boundary planning, collaboration and cooperative action at multi-jurisdictional networked regional scales, public, private and NGO is my purpose. "Think globally, act locally" was innovative in its time. Today the local scale is often too small to address today's needs and opportunities. "Think local planet, act regionally,” is my candidate paradigm. No one said we're only allowed one paradigm.
We can see that “regional communities of communities” are organized locally and now act both to avoid tragedy in the commons and gain benefits. An effective multi-jurisdictional regional community has DNA. It is geographically Defined; has a common Name and its Alignment is inclusive of smaller communities and participatory in larger communities. So, by scanning this compilation, reading articles and checking organizations - you too will be able to see the regional communities that already exist.
News references are found using the Google News search service. Media article excerpts and links are “fair use” to transform globally scattered reports to make regional approaches visible. Links go to the publisher and do not compete with it. Such publishers are likely to have related stories and thus be seen by new customers. “Regional” is an emerging news category. There is no charge for this service and no profit is made from its use, though any user can become more aware of the topic itself.
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_wor...@yahoogroups.com
For the Google Groups version go to:
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Questions, comments or items to feature in Regional Community Development News?
Please email the editor: Tom.Chr...@gmail.com
Thomas J. (Tom) Christoffel, AICP - http://www.regional-communities.com/