Mayor one of top 25 doers, dreamers and drivers
Fort Wayne, Ind. -- Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard has been selected by Government Technology magazine and the Center for Digital Government as one of the top 25 doers, dreamers and drivers in the nation who have made significant contributions to the digital government movement.
Government Technology magazine's March 2005 issue recognizes public sector leaders from all areas of government who are reshaping and advancing digital government.
"I am pleased that we're being recognized for what we're doing with technology in the City," said Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard. "We are making great strides in providing technology services for our community. An example is the $65 million Verizon fiber optic broadband program that makes Fort Wayne a leader in technology and innovative investments."
Other top 25 members include Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson, California CIO J. Clark Kelso, and Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn.
In 2003, Fort Wayne was ranked as the number one digital city in the country by the Center for Digital Government.
April 2-April 30, 2005
Opening 4/2 7:00pm
Rolland Art and Visual Communication Center, Weatherhead Gallery.
This exhibition displays the work by art students studying at University of Saint Francis. More than 750 pieces are exhibited throughout the department. During the opening, there is a ceremony honoring the very best artists represented in the exhibition as well as scholarships that are given to specific students for high achievement in the arts.
The Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department is 100 years old! We are looking for old photos, stories, and anecdotes or history of your family's recreational experiences with the park system. No photo is insignificant and no story is too silly. The collection will result in a display that will be featured at an anniversary celebration at Salomon Farm in August. All original documents will be safely returned to you; we will copy any information we need. Volunteers are also needed in many capacities for this summer's celebration. Please call 427-6466 if you are interested in helping out or if you have any questions. Look for information in May on a complete list of Centennial Events that will be posted and plan to celebrate this year with us! >Link
Submitted by Sal DeSoto:
Friday, April 22, 2005
Avant-Garde Gallery
1301 Lafayette St.
Fort Wayne, IN
7:00 p.m. - 11:00 pm.
FREE ADMISSION
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
www.desototm.net
Submitted by Karen Goldner
Whether you love theater, OR if you're not sure what you like and aren't good at committing, here is the event for you. For the first time ever (at least in anyone's memory), all of the theater groups in town are getting together in one place, one time, one fun show:
"BECAUSE WE CAN"
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Scottish Rite Center Auditorium
431 West Berry Street
Downtown Fort Wayne
8 PM
$21 per person
Should be a great night out -- and not EVERYONE in Fort Wayne heads south over spring break!
The show is a benefit performance for the Clark family whose 16-month old daughter, Elizabeth, is being treated at Riley Children's Hospital for cancer, sponsored by the Clarks' church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Wayne.
This event will showcase scenes, music, and dance performed by local performing artists from Arena Dinner Theatre, First Presbyterian Theater, Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, Fort Wayne Youththeatre, IPFW Department of Theatre, the 24hour Playhouse, and more. The theater community has really come together in the spirit of "hey kids, let's put on a show" and the evening promises to be enormous fun.
This is a one night only event. Tickets are available at the Scottish Rite Box Office, (260) 423-2593 ext. 1, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, (260) 744-1867, or at the door the evening of the performance.
When we wonder at the so-called "red" and "blue" divisions of politics, we need look no further, some social observers say, than at the loss of what's been called "third places" — safe, neutral gatherings spots.The corner store, the local pub, the coffee shop that doesn't involve a long car ride. "Third places" cultivate deeper support and a broader range of ideas than you find at your first place (home) or second place (work).
"They bring you into contact with people who are different," says Seattle University professor Mara Adelman. "And if we don't expose ourselves to divergent points of view, we become very closed minded." >Link
Over the past few years, people have grown accustomed at looking to Seattle (and the Pacific Northwest in general) as a source of new ideas and inspiration. Grunge rock, Microsoft, Starbuck's coffee and amazon.com have all sprung out of Seattle into the center of American and global culture. In less publicized ways, the northwest region has also become a laboratory for new ideas about how we think about our places. Pike Place Market is widely celebrated as a national symbol about the possibilities of public spaces, and Seattle, Vancouver, and particularly Portland are looked to as beacons for new ideas in urban livability.So it should come as no surprise that the first comprehensive meeting about launching a movement around the ideas of Placemaking should take place near Seattle, with a sizable number of Seattle participants. >Link
Mayor Eddie Perez has an ambitious plan to make Hartford a free wireless technology zone, one of the first in the country. It would mean free Internet access across the city. But industry could stand in the way. >Link
Fort Wayne, Ind. — Volunteers are needed for this year's Great American Cleanup. The annual cleanup is from 8-11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 21.
Individuals interested in volunteering can sign up online at www.cityoffortwayne.org or by calling the City's Solid Waste Department at 427-1270 to request a registration form. The registration deadline is April 15.
Volunteers will be provided with T-shirts, gloves, flower seeds, and garbage bags. Volunteers will also be treated to a party at Headwaters Park following the cleanup. The party runs from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and will feature food, music, games, and raffle prizes.
The Great American Cleanup is the country's largest litter prevention, beautification and community improvement program. Last year, more than 2,000 volunteers helped clean Fort Wayne's neighborhoods, parks and rivers.
Daylo is a new website where you can buy, sell and exchange all kinds of services in your local area. Some services are more traditional, like the ones you might find advertised in the yellow pages and classifieds. Other services are more unique and specialized, like the ones you might find offered in...well in Daylo Profiles. Daylo combines the immediacy of a real-time architecture with the accountability of a comprehensive Feedback system. The result is an innovative new way for buyers and sellers of services to find and communicate with one another. >Link
Our keynote speaker is City Futures Authority Charles Landry, and he will be joined by community leaders from both sides of the Atlantic to explore the many facets of urban regeneration.The symposium will include interactive panel discussions and dynamic roundtable discussions addressing such topics as: the Role of Government - Beyond Downtown - Preservation vs. Innovation - Education - Entrepreneurial Spirit - Urban Policy - Winners and Losers - Civic Culture - the New Economy - and more. >Link
For nearly four years, Young Professionals of Milwaukee has been making Milwaukee a cooler place for under-40 workers who already live here. Now it's adding services to help employers recruit that demographic, too.YPM, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, and the Institute for Diversity Education and Leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are collaborating to develop a "regional recruitability index." >Link
A recent proposal by Senate Republicans in Iowa to eliminate the state income tax for residents under the age of thirty has brought the issue of the out-migration of young, educated adults once again to the forefront. In recognizing that brain drain leads to the loss of necessary skills for global competitiveness and economic development, policymakers across the nation are responding with innovative ideas. While the Iowa Senate Republicans have dropped their proposal, a number of other states are pursuing new approaches. >Link
On the surface, Baton Rouge's Gas, Food & Lodging Music Festival doesn't seem like much at all -- a handful of live music venues attaching a name and a logo to a few weeks worth of shows.But the idea behind "GFL Fest" is a bit more subversive. >Link
From Bryan-College Station, Texas, to Madison, Wis., America's college towns are producing more than diplomas - they have become job machines.The cap-and-gown nests, in fact, have some of the fastest economic growth and lowest jobless rates in the nation. This reflects a change in the way many universities now think of themselves: The ivory towers have been replaced by research parks working on cutting-edge technologies from stem-cell research to fuel cells. >Link
Scorecard is the web's most popular resource for information about pollution problems and toxic chemicals. Find out about the pollution problems in your community and learn who is responsible. See which geographic areas and companies have the worst pollution records. Identify which racial/ethnic and income groups bear more than their share of environmental burdens. Then take action as an informed citizen - you can fax a polluting company, contact your elected representatives, or get involved in your community. >Link
Artlink, Inc., artlinkfw@juno.com - 437 East Berry St., Fort Wayne, IN, (260) 424-7195, Betty Fishman, Director - www.artlinkfw.com
Under 30 opens Friday, April 15, 2005, from 7-9 p.m. and runs through May 18. 16 local artists under the age of 30 will present a variety of innovative paintings, drawings and mixed media in this exhibition. The participating artists are Josh Angel, Emily Bender, Elizabeth Callender, Brad Ferrier, Seth Harris, Ryan Helsel, Jarod Isenbarger, Justin Johnson, Max Meyer, Jeremy McFarren, Tracy Row, Chad Shaw, Eric Stine, Jason Stopa, Joshua Tuck, and Nate Utesch.
Hours are Tues-Sat, 12 –5, Sun 1-5, Fri & Sat evenings 6 – 9. Members free, non-members $2.
Sponsors: Morrill Charitable Trust, Members of Artlink, Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, Regional Partnership Grant IAC.
By Dan Stockman in The Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne's Rivergreenway system will soon get another extension as officials work to stretch the trail toward its counterpart in Aboite Township.
City park officials will conduct an information meeting next week to unveil plans for the Tow Path Trail, which will eventually link Fort Wayne's Rockhill Park with the Aboite New Trails system on Aboite Center Road.
Rockhill Park has been connected to the Rivergreenway only since last summer, when the 1.1-mile West Jefferson Trail opened between it and Swinney Park.
"This is one of the most important trails we're working on in the whole area because it will link to Aboite new trails," Greenway Coordinator Dawn Ritchie said. "This is a high-priority trail for us."
The trail will follow the route of the Wabash-Erie Canal and is named for the dirt paths that ran next to the canal for mules to tow canal boats.
The canal once linked the Maumee River to the Wabash River, enabling the flow of goods across the state of Indiana, but was made obsolete by the railroads. Now, most of it is known only by the historical markers that dot its course.
Next week, officials will unveil Phase One of the project, which will take the trail from Rockhill Park to the intersection of Ardmore Avenue and Taylor Street.
Officials have applied for a $150,000 state grant toward the estimated $180,000 cost of the .85 miles of trail, but will not know until the fall whether the grant will be awarded. That means construction will not start until spring 2006, Ritchie said. Officials hope to have the 3.5-mile project completed in three years.
Officials have applied for a similar grant to extend the trail north along the St. Joseph River from Johnny Appleseed Park to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and eventually Shoaff Park.
Most of the Tow Path Trail's Phase One already has existing sidewalk along its length, but it will be widened and upgraded. Later phases will take the trail down Country Club Road, across Covington Road, south of the Country Club and Canterbury High School to Engle Road, then west to Jefferson Boulevard.
The public meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Portage Middle School, 3521 Taylor St. Use either Entrance 2 on the east side or Entrance 3 at the rear of the school.
Friday, March 18, 2005
Java & Jazz Cafe
Entertainment Feature: Kevin Hiatt – 8:00 – 11:30p.m.
On Saturday, March 5, the Java & Jazz Cafe opened its doors to the artistic public. The cafe offers coffee, expresso drinks, baked goods and a full menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, this new cafe isn’t your average coffee shop. Internet access will be available for business, as you sip on your favorite early morning java. Also, live entertainment will be featured 5 nights a week.
Soon, Monday night will cater to Karaoke with Steve Witt. Tuesday we will feature “Bosco” & Company. Wednesday night will feature comedy open mic with Jeff Burdek & Fwig. Thursday night we will have open mic poetry. And of course, Friday and Saturday nights will have either live Jazz, Blues, or Acoustic music.
The brainstorm behind the cafe concept is entrepreneur/renaissance man, Cornelius Thomas, who not so long ago owned and operated the Coffee & Toast Cafe at 1805 E. Washington. This time he has teamed up with private investors, and also the Mill Bread Co., who will provide the Java & Jazz Cafe with their specialty products.
The cafe is housed in the historic building of 1301 Lafayette Street, now owned by Sal DeSoto. This beautiful building is also the office location of INK Newspaper and the home of the Avant-Garde Gallery, where various professional artists produce their artistic designs.
Thomas says the Java & Jazz Cafe initially will provide 15 new full and part-time jobs for the city, and its projected yearly growth will result in an estimated $130,000 annual investment.
Saturday, March 19 - David Johnson & Michael Patterson Duo - 8:00 - 10:30p.m.
Friday, March 25 - Blackswamp Allstars - 8:00 - 11:00pm.
Saturday, March 26 - Ty Causey & W.R. Sanders - 8:00 - 10:30p.m.
For more information please contact Cornelius Thomas at 260-420-5499.
Fort Wayne, IN: The Parks and Recreation Department is announcing a new program that will improve the Greenway by enlisting the help of community volunteers. The new program is called the Greenway Rangers, and requires some dedicated and civic-minded volunteers to patrol the greenway.
"Mayor Richard has committed $2 million dollars to improve the existing Greenway and to expand its length beyond the current 14 miles," said Dawn Ritchie, Greenway Coordinator. "As a step toward maintaining what we have, I am looking for volunteers who would serve as the Parks and Recreation's 'eyes' every week or so on a designated section of the Greenway."
Training for the Rangers will begin in late April, so that they will be prepared to identify and report problems such as maintenance, graffiti, litter concerns and security issues. Greenway Rangers will check an approximate 1/2 mile section of the Greenway each week during the spring, summer and fall, and will be identified with a cap, shirt and ID tag.
"The Ranger program is a great way for any interested and dedicated citizen to help beautify Fort Wayne," said Ritchie. "While these volunteers get regular exercise, their reports will also help make Fort Wayne a safer place."
If you are interested in becoming a Greenway Ranger, contact Dawn Ritchie by March 30th at 427-6002 or dawn.ritchie@ci.ft-wayne.in.us.
This 'living arrangement ... has no future' when cheap gas disappears: Documentary
by CHRISTOPHER HUME in The Toronto Star
Already the cold winds of change have started to blow through the suburbs. Everywhere around us there are signs of looming catastrophe.
But as anyone who watches the upcoming television documentary The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream will see, that doesn't seem to have caused us even a moment's hesitation. If anything, we are rushing towards oblivion faster than ever.
The one-hour special, which airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Vision TV, should be a wake-up call to all those denizens of sprawl. If the talking heads who appear in this compelling and deeply disturbing Canadian-made program are right ? and they most assuredly are ? North America had better figure out new ways of living that don't depend on cheap, plentiful oil.
Perhaps the most compelling expert on hand, Matthew Simmons, chair of the largest energy investment bank in the world, puts the case against suburbia very eloquently.
"Everything in society we cherish ended when the blackout (of August 2003) came," Simmons states. "If that wasn't a fire drill for how important energy actually is ... but people didn't get it. I don't think we actually learned a thing from it."
Indeed, as other speakers make clear, rather than deal with these issues, we simply elect politicians who aid and abet our refusal to get real.
Their argument is simple: suburbia couldn't exist without cars, and people couldn't afford to drive those cars without endless cheap gas. As they also make clear, the amount of oil pumped out of the ground is expected to peak sometime between now and 2010 at the latest. After that, every gallon of gas grows more and more expensive, rendering auto-based sprawl obsolete.
"The whole suburban project can be summarized pretty succinctly as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world," explains author James Howard Kunstler. "America took all its post-war wealth and invested it in a living arrangement that has no future."
What makes the situation even harder to understand is our unwillingness to face up to it while it's still possible. This cultural, intellectual and economic inertia can be seen right here in Ontario where the debate about the greenbelt has only just started. To his credit, Premier Dalton McGuinty has adopted a greenbelt plan, but the development industry and ? God help us ? some farmers will do everything they can to stop it. Groups such as the Fraser Institute and various home builders' associations parade their experts, mostly American, who for a fee explain people actually enjoy commuting, that sprawl is good and global warming isn't happening.
If only. The truth is we will have to learn how to make do with much less. As Kunstler points out, the days where the ingredients of a Caesar salad travel 4,800 kilometres to your table are over, whether we realize it or not. Those farmers busy railing against McGuinty's perfectly sensible, desperately needed scheme to stop sprawl will soon find themselves part of an agricultural system based on proximity to local markets. Future growth based on oil and natural gas is not possible, Simmons warns. Those holding their breath for hydrogen fuel should get serious; it's not going to happen. Instead, we'd rather carry on building suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow, McMansions that will be obsolete long before the mortgage has been paid off.
Though there's some discussion on the show about the New Urbanism, a movement that seeks to reform urban planning, it's unlikely to be the answer.
If author Richard Heinberg is correct, we are at the end of an era that stretches back uninterrupted almost 50 years. The question, he says, is whether future generations will look back on the second half of the 20th century as a golden age or a time of unmatched stupidity.
Not surprisingly, he opts for the latter.
Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca
Over the past 15 years, there has been an amazing renaissance in downtowns across America. From 1990 to 2000 the number of households living in a sample of 45 U.S. downtowns increased 10.6 percent.2 The fact that many downtowns have experienced such growth and development—in spite of zoning laws spurring suburban sprawl and real estate and financial industries that don't understand how to build and finance alternatives—is testament to the emotional commitment to our urban heritage and the pent-up consumer demand for walkable, vibrant places in which to live and work.The appeal of traditional downtowns--and the defining characteristic that sets those that are successful apart from their suburban competitors--is largely based on what can be summarized as walkable urbanity. >Link
Foundation takes snapshot of new arrivals
By Rick Farrant in The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne and Allen County are among the national leaders in the percentage of certain languages spoken in households, a report released this week by the U.S. English Foundation revealed.
The Fort Wayne Metropolitan Statistical Area, defined as Allen, Wells and Whitley counties, ranked first among 203 metropolitan areas in the percentage of people speaking Burmese, 10th for those speaking German and 20th for those speaking Serbo-Croatian, said the foundation, which promotes English comprehension and literacy.
Of 3,141 counties studied by the foundation, Allen ranked fifth in the percentage of people speaking Burmese, 13th for those speaking Macedonian and 46th for those speaking Serbo-Croatian.
By far, Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the region behind English, but foundation and local officials say it is the other languages that illustrate the vast linguistic diversity of the Fort Wayne area. Local officials also note that the study was based on an analysis of the 2000 census and the area?s diversity has grown in the past four years.
The trend, perhaps fueled by the Fort Wayne area's accommodating nature, presents both advantages and challenges, local officials say.
"It allows our students to have exposure to students all over the world, and that has got to be a good thing," said Greg Slyford, manager of academic support for Fort Wayne Community Schools. "But it is challenging because of the nature of the demands that are required of a diverse population."
Among those demands is teaching English to students from other countries while at the same time preserving their native languages and cultures.
The process, he and others say, is costly.
Of the roughly 32,000 FWCS students, Slyford said, 3,200 are classified as language minority students, which generally means they have either successfully completed English-as-a-second language courses, are taking them, or have opted to not take them. There are 1,300 FWCS students currently enrolled in ESL classes.
A year ago, about 1,000 FWCS students were enrolled in ESL classes.
The numbers are also growing at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, said Connell Nelson, director of International Student Services.
Although he did not have comparative statistics, he said the university now has more than 150 foreign students attending on study visas and more than 200 non-English speaking immigrants and refugees.
When the foreign students first arrive, he said, many need to take ESL courses to help with their school work and assist them in getting employment so they can support their education.
Hospitals have also had to make adjustments to meet the needs of non-English-speaking people.
In 2001, St. Joseph Hospital contracted with a service called Intrepretphone at the Texas Medical Center in Houston so physicians and nurses locally could communicate with patients speaking languages other than English.
Jernice Watson, director of the St. Joseph Hospital Emergency Department, and Barbara Schoppman, vice president of community and adult services, said interpreters are usually on the line within seconds.
Watson said the number of non-English-speaking patients has doubled in recent years. It used to be that most non-English-speaking patients spoke Spanish, she said, but now the hospital is seeing a rise in Burmese and Laotian speakers.
Fort Wayne's police department is another agency that has taken a step toward removing communication barriers, although public information officer Michael Joyner said the agency is behind the curve.
The department about a year ago purchased an electronic mobile translator. The ultimate goal, Joyner said, is to hire staff members who can speak other languages.
"Our department needs to look like our community," he said, "and we are diligently working toward that eventuality."
Numbers from the U.S. English Foundation and local statistics don't align perfectly. The foundation reported that 43 languages are spoken in the Fort Wayne area. FWCS's Slyford said more than 70 languages are spoken in the schools.
Slyford said the difference might be because of a number of things, such as varying distinctions between a language and a dialect or simply that the number of languages and dialects have grown rapidly.
IPFW's Nelson would agree with the latter. He said the university is seeing a burgeoning number of students from the African nations of Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Nelson believes the language diversity in the Fort Wayne area stems largely from local residents' propensity to welcome people from other countries.
"What we do to accommodate in terms of services is above and beyond what a lot of cities are doing," he said.
There are also special circumstances that bolster the diversity, and one of those is the long-standing efforts of Catholic Charities to resettle Burmese in Fort Wayne.
Debbie Schmidt, Catholic Charities executive director, isn't sure why Fort Wayne was initially chosen as a Burmese resettlement site in the early 1990s, but the influx has snowballed.
Fort Wayne became better prepared to handle Burmese refugees, she said, leading the federal government to send even more. At the same time, some Burmese living in their native Myanmar began asking to be reunited with relatives already resettled in Fort Wayne.
In the past four years, Schmidt said, 346 Burmese have been resettled in Fort Wayne. She expects 100 more to arrive this year.
Like other local organizations, Catholic Charities provides ESL classes for the people it serves.
And like the other organizations, the emphasis is not on erasing the language and culture of newcomers; it's on adding English to their bank of knowledge.
Schmidt said that despite all the inherent work and cost involved in helping people from other countries feel at home, having a language-diverse community is enriching.
The diversity is reflected in her own agency, where 15 languages are spoken.
"It gives us," she said, "a broad perspective of our world."
Words spoken
This is how the Fort Wayne area is ranked nationally for the percentage of people speaking certain languages in 2000, followed by the percentages and the number of people:
1. Burmese -- 0.11 percent; 410
10. German -- 1.2 percent; 4,200
20. Serbo-Croatian -- 0.13 percent; 480
53. Laotian -- 0.07 percent; 260
54. Greek -- 0.12 percent; 415
80. Hindi -- 0.07 percent; 260
82. English -- 93.3 percent; 336,160
106. Spanish -- 3.3 percent; 11,965
108. French -- 0.4 percent; 1,455
146. Chinese -- 0.11 percent; 400
Source: U.S. English Foundation
March 10, 2005: 7:30 pm
In preparation for Holy Week, Dr. Esperanca Camara will explore the spiritual and theological issues underlying Michelangelo's continued reflection on the theme of the Pieta. Achatz Hall of Science, Gunderson Auditorium.
March 6, 2005
By TIMOTHY SPENCE Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON ?- The federal government spends billions of dollars every year on airports, canals, harbors and interstate highways. Yet when it comes to Amtrak passenger rail service, there is an annual struggle over how much taxpayers should have to spend to keep the trains running.
Amtrak is caught nearly every year between those who want to do away with passenger rail and those who complain that it's chronically underfunded.
In its budget for next year, the Bush administration proposes spending only $360 million for passenger rail service to maintain tracks used by commuter rail services in the Northeast and other urban areas. Amtrak says it needs $1.8 billion to continue operating in the 2006 fiscal year that starts this Oct. 1.
The White House budget is much more generous with other kinds of transportation, calling for:
$34.7 billion in highway construction and maintenance funds.
$13.8 billion for he Federal Aviation Administration, which provides the nation's air traffic control system that guides commercial airliners.
$3 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for the expansion and maintenance of ports, harbors and inland waterways ? a benefit to operators of barges and ships that transport coal, petroleum, chemicals, and industrial metals and countless consumer goods.
"Rail has always been the ugly stepchild of transportation options," says Jason Jordan, government affairs director of the American Planning Association, an organization that promotes mass transportation.
Amtrak was created in 1971 with $50 million in federal money and was intended to be a self-supporting network within four years. It never achieved that goal, and since then, the government has spent $29 billion to subsidize a system that serves fewer than 1 percent of Americans. Several states pump in millions more each year to support regional rail services.
Every president since Ronald Reagan has sought to either cut off money for rail passenger service or force Amtrak to function on its own. This year, Amtrak's operating budget is $3 billion, one-third of it in federal subsidies.
Denying these subsidies for Amtrak "would likely lead to the elimination of inefficient operations and the reorganization of the railroad through bankruptcy procedures," says the U.S. Department of Transportation's proposed budget for 2006. "Ultimately a more rational passenger rail system would emerge."
According to the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a Washington-based lobbying organization, federal funding for highways and aviation more than doubled in the past 20 years, while funding for passenger rail service fell 27 percent.
The federal government rushed a $15 billion bailout to the passenger airlines to compensate for the loss of business when all commercial aviation was grounded in the week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Nobody blinks at giving them however many billions of dollars to save that system," says Anne P. Canby, director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), an independent transportation policy organization. Canby, a former Delaware transportation secretary, says there is a "national interest" in supporting many different types of transportation.
Scott Bernstein, director of Reconnecting America, a transportation policy organization in Oakland, Calif., says money given to Amtrak ? which has averaged over $1 billion per year over the last few years ? is a "pittance" compared to the amount of federal money pumped into other transportation modes.
Groups like STPP and Reconnecting America are urging policymakers to loosen restrictions on how states can spend federal transportation dollars. For example, they say, federal policies restrict state and local officials from spending highway and airport grants on passenger rail, even though railroads linking airports to downtowns or other nearby airports could ease both air and highway congestion.
Canby says current regulations create a "silo" effect, making it difficult to transfer funds between projects.
Meanwhile, the Association of American Railroads, an industry trade group, complains that while the trucking, shipping and air cargo industries benefit from indirect federal subsidies, "railroads must finance their infrastructure investment needs through their own earnings and from outside capital providers."
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO, estimates that 16 percent of all freight is shipped by trains. In a recent report that calls for greater public-private investment in American rail lines, AASHTO says if this cargo were shifted to trucks, it would cost an additional $64 billion in highway improvements over the next 20 years.
Organizations that represent the other industries, including the American Trucking Associations and the Air Transport Association, deny they are subsidized, saying they pay their fair share through fuel taxes and other fees.
The perennial debate over subsidies for Amtrak is not likely to go away. Advocates of improved passenger rail service note that rising oil prices, political uncertainty in major oil-producing nations, and ongoing financial trouble in the airline industry mean that trains will be more important in the future. They also note that Amtrak became a transportation lifeline in the busy Northeast Corridor when the airlines were grounded in the 2001 attacks.
"This is the best imaginable time to be asking, 'How do we want to move our transportation system forward?"' Bernstein said. "It's a really good time to be taking a look at what we are financing and how we're financing it."
Timothy Spence can be reached at 202-263-6400 or tspence(at)hearstnp.com
March 10 at 7 p.m.
Pontiac Branch Library (2215 Hanna Street)
Presented by David Duvall, Indiana State Architect,Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology
Learn about tax incentives available for historic properties, both commercial and residential. These tax credits are beneficial for rehabilitating historic structures and are valuable community and economic development tools. The lecture is hosted by ARCH, Fort Wayne's historic preservation organization, and is free and open to the public.
Project for Public Spaces invites you to two separate workshops, "How to Turn a Place Around" and "How to Create Successful Public Markets" on May 19-20, 2005 in New York City.
http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course
HOW TO TURN A PLACE AROUND
Is a two-day workshop designed for professionals and non-professionals who help shape towns and cities -- from highway engineers and real estate developers to community garden advocates and housing specialists. Based on PPS's 30 years of experience in placemaking, and inspired by our popular book, "How to Turn a Place Around," the course shows step-by-step our unique approach to revitalization.
During the course, participants work in small teams to observe and analyze places in Greenwich Village and Battery Park City*, two contrasting areas of New York City. The sites will be used to illustrate complexities in making places, encourage a user's point of view, and provide insight into how public spaces function. (*Site subject to change.)
The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including a neighborhood tour, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, a copy of How to Turn a Place Around, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and an optional dinner Friday night (please note the dinner is a change from previous workshops and is not included in the fee.)
To register and for more information, please visit the workshop webpage, http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/httapa_training_course, or contact Kathleen Zeigenfuss at 212-620-5660, kzeigenfuss@pps.org.
http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course
HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL MARKETS
Is a two-day workshop led by our own public market experts Steve Davies and David O'Neil. Cities and towns across the US are rediscovering the benefits of public markets.
At this workshop, you will:
Learn how to start a market in your neighborhood or town;
Look at case studies and explore the market planning process, including goal-setting, concept development, economic feasibility, management, site selection and design;
Visit and analyze some of New York's most famous markets;
Meet other folks from around the country working on a variety of public market projects.
The registration fee covers two days of tuition, including tours, in-depth presentations and discussions, on-site evaluation, case studies, and training support materials. Light lunch and refreshments will be provided on both Thursday and Friday. There is a reception Thursday evening (included) and an optional dinner Friday night (please note the dinner is a change from previous workshops and is not included in the fee.)
Sign up now and join a small, dynamic group of people which in past workshops has included mayors, planning officials, community development officials, neighborhood organizers and market sponsors.
About the instructors:
STEVE DAVIES, as vice president of PPS, has directed nearly 400 major projects in the U.S and abroad and is sought out as one of the major thought leaders in public markets. He oversees the activities of PPS's Public Market Collaborative where he currently works on a new local economic development initiative with the Ford Foundation.
A specialist in all phases of market development, DAVID O'NEIL has worked on over 100 market projects around the world and has directed three international public market conferences. He recently published "Reading Terminal Market: An Illustrated History," a beautifully illustrated narrative about one of the country's largest public markets located in Philadelphia, PA.
For more information about the workshop, or to register online now, go to http://www.pps.org/info/ppsnews/markets_training_course
For additional inquiries, please contact Chris Heitmann at 212-620-5660 or at cheitmann@pps.org.
Sunday, March 6th at 6:30 p.m.
FREE
The St. Francis Student Activities Council will sponsor the second annual USF Film Festival at Fort Wayne Cinema Center, 437 E. Berry St., on Sunday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m.
Films from fifteen students will be shown in the categories of live action, animation, special effects, and walk cycles. After judging, prizes will be awarded in each category. For more information, please phone Chad Edwards, Director of Student Activities, at 260-434-7412.
In classifying a whole host of occupations as "creative," our leading pop economist overstates the influence of urban professionals.
By Karrie Jacobs, from Metropolis Magazine
Now cities are back in fashion, thick with new museum buildings, loft-style apartments, noodle bars, and boutique hotels. This trend naturally has its own pundit, Richard Florida, a professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon and swami of the "Creative Class." Like Garreau, Florida has come along to codify and capture a movement already in progress. He seized on a process that's been playing out in American cities really since they hit bottom in the 1970s: the Soho phenomenon, where artists reclaim undervalued real estate, give it a new purpose and value, and make it appealing to the real estate industry again. The influx of artists, culture, and hipster enterprise has now remade so many urban places large and small that it's possible to forget that the Edge Cities and their denizens are still out there (except, perhaps, at election time). But we don't talk about them anymore. Instead we talk about the Creative Class. >Link
Ask Congress to Preserve Investment in Community Development
February 15, 2005
>Link
In its proposed FY 2006 budget, the Bush Administration proposed an historic, sweeping restructuring of federal aid to municipalities for community development. The plan calls for 18 existing programs, mostly based in HUD's community planning and development program, to be consolidated into a new "Strengthening America's Communities Initiative" grant program to be administered by the Department of Commerce. Overall funding for community development would be dramatically scaled back under the plan. The popular and effective Community Development Block Grant would be eliminated outright.
Congress must approve the President's plan when it adopts the FY 2006 budget. Contact Congress today and urge your elected representatives to preserve CDBG and the federal commitment to improving America's communities. Tell Congress that CDBG should be maintained as a separate program with funding at least equal to its current allocation. Access and eligibility to CDBG funding should not be further restricted.
Funding for the new "Strengthening America's Communities" program would be pegged at $3.71 billion, however that amount represents a significant cut. FY 2005 funding for the Community Development Block Grant, one of the 18 consolidated programs, was $4.7 billion. Other consolidated programs include the Empowerment Zone / Enterprise Community and the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative.
The existing CDBG program would be eliminated. The new Commerce Department-led grant program would be based on new criteria. Administration officials indicated that the new criteria, although not yet fully defined, would likely be considerably more restrictive. The White House Office of Management and Budget also alluded to new 'accountability measures' that communities would have to meet. Officials at a HUD budget briefing stated that separate authorizing legislation outlining the program would be sent to Congress with the Commerce Department taking responsibility for drafting that proposal.
CDBG has been a critical resource for America's cities and neighborhoods for 30 years. The program has a proven track record in attracting private investment averaging a return of three private dollars to every public dollar invested.
CDBG is an essential tool for creating and sustaining affordable housing. HUD estimates that in 2004 alone CDBG directly supported the rehabilitation of 19,000 rental units and 112,000 single- family homes. Last year, CDBG resources aided more than 11,000 families to become new homeowners.
CDBG creates jobs and builds infrastructure. CDBG is the tool planners and cities use to improve neighborhoods and communities. As more communities struggle with the costs of repairing, securing and modernizing critical infrastructure, CDBG resources will be needed more than ever. Nine million Americans benefited last year from infrastructure build or repaired with CDBG funds.
Act now to save CDBG and renew our national commitment to building strong, safe, vital communities. Tell Congress to maintain CDBG as a separate program providing direct and flexible funding to local governments.
Get involved in APA's grassroots network, Planners Legislative Action Network -- PLAN, at www.planning.org/legislation. Make your voice heard directly during APA's Legislative Conference and Advocacy Day, May 11-13. Details are available at www.planning.org/legislation/2005policyconf.htm.