Citiwire.net

Neal Peirce on America's "Legacy" Cities, Roberta Gratz on Hydrofracking III

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:22:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">04 February 2012</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> Can there be fresh hope, promising futures, for America's 'legacy' cities of the Northeast and Midwest? A new American Assembly report and book assert so -- the topic of my column this week. On the same theme -- for a wonderful TedX talk by veteran Pittsburg-based planner Don Carter, with surprising conclusions on older versus newer cities and their long-term prospects, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85GyCnWib30" target="_blank">click here</a>. Carter's 'Remaking Cities Institute' at Carnegie Mellon has its own book -- 'SynergiCity: Re-Inventing the Post-Industrial City' due for publication this spring. … In the companion column this week, Roberta Gratz winds up her series on the perils of hydrofracking."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3202" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m02 d04 h15" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3202/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to ‘Rustbelt’ to ‘Legacy’ — Rethinking Old Cities’ Potential" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">‘Rustbelt’ to ‘Legacy’ — Rethinking Old Cities’ Potential</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3209" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m02 d04 h16 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3209/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Hydrofracking and the Rural Future" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Hydrofracking and the Rural Future</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Roberta Brandes Gratz</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3202" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m02 d04 h15" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, February 5, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>"Rustbelt" is out. "Legacy" is in. </p> <p>For years we've needed a new word for the arc of cities and regions, stretching from the Northeast to the Great Lakes and so deeply damaged by decades of vanishing factories, abandoned properties and alarming population loss.</p> <p>Now, a new report and book, "Rebuilding America's Legacy Cities," gives us a way out. Looking deeply into the plights of our Youngstowns and Toledos, Detroits and Flints, it's the report of the 110th session of the American Assembly, the non-partisan political forum founded 62 years ago by Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was president of Columbia University.</p> <p>The Assembly, held last spring in Detroit, actually had a spirited debate about applying the "legacy" word to the hard-hit cities. Some suggested "legacy" meant something from the past that's outdated, such as "legacy software," outmoded cost structures, or fragmented governance.</p> <p>But Henry Cisneros, the Assembly co-chair and former former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, painted a highly positive view of these cities' legacy at a late January Brookings Institution forum on release of the session's report. Many of these historic industrial cities, he noted, gave the North the arms and men it needed to win the Civil War. The factories of Akron, Flint, Buffalo and Rochester were critical to America triumphing in World War II. Detroit was long synonymous with American industrial strength. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3202/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3202/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3209" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m02 d04 h16 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, February 4, 2012<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Hydrofracking's vast grid of pipelines is having an enormous impact on the rural Northeastern landscape -- the topic of my prior two columns in this Citiwire series. But what's the impact on local economies, jobs and real estate?</p> <p>The experience of slow, bumper-to-bumper traffic entering the historic Bradford County (Pa.) seat of Towanda, could discourage any resident or visitor. One local businessman reported that his daily commute escalated from 20 to 45 minutes. From a window table at a Main Street café in Towanda, one observes the non-stop freight train quantity of huge, rumbling trucks. One wonders what the vibrations must be doing to structures along all routes, from 100-year-old Main Street buildings to older roadside churches. </p> <p>One shopkeeper reported the loss of most local customers unwilling to face downtown traffic. She gained onetime customers from the families visiting gas workers.</p> <p>Experienced engineers, technicians, geologists, surveyors and drill rig operators come from elsewhere. Training programs exist in upstate New York but it will be years before locals in either Pennsylvania or New York will be qualified. Passing the drug test for applicants is often a problem. The high local employment -- Bradford has only a 6 percent unemployment rate -- is mostly the ancillary businesses created by the gas companies, such as restaurants, hotels, supply companies and some truckers.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3209/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3209/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Science and the GOP, Roberta Gratz on Hydrofracking II

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:18:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">28 January 2012</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> Republican environmentalist? Still possible? One wouldn't think it from the party's presidential debates. But William K. Reilly, a splendid public servant and keen mind whose Republican ties run back to the Nixon presidency, strikes a dramatically different (and timely) chord. … Roberta Gratz, meanwhile, contributes a second piece critiquing the hydrofracking push and its highly disturbing impacts."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3182" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d28 h12" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3182/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Veteran GOP Appointee Asserts ‘Science Has Left the Building’" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Veteran GOP Appointee Asserts ‘Science Has Left the Building’</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3192" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m01 d28 h14 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3192/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Hydrofracking: The Impacts Continue" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Hydrofracking: The Impacts Continue</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Roberta Brandes Gratz</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3182" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d28 h12" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, January 29, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>The words are harsh: Clean-air regulations are under "demagogic assaults." House Republicans are dangerously "advocating abandonment of toxic regulations" that have demonstrably protected Americans' health. They're "ignoring climate change." In fact, "for some of the most prominent leaders of the Republican party, science has left the building."</p> <p>The speaker, William K. Reilly, has gilt-edged Republican credentials. He was a senior staff member of President Richard Nixon's White House's Council on Environmental Quality. For four years, he served as President George H.W. Bush's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. </p> <p>Indeed, Reilly credits the first President Bush's "monumental contribution to the environment" for his support of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. And when critics assault EPA regulations as "job killers," Reilly argues EPA rules have had dramatic public health benefits even while the U.S. economy has grown by 200 percent since Nixon signed the original Clean Air Act in 1970.</p> <p>What I've always found fascinating about Bill Reilly, whom I've known since the '70s, is not just the political candor he brings to big issues. Nor just his array of top public service posts including heading the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, directing the Global Water Challenge, and co-chairing the recent National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3182/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3182/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3192" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m01 d28 h14 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, January 28, 2012<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>There’s much more to be said about hydrofracking, the topic of my Citiwire column last week which generated quite a bit of comment.</p> <p>Consider, for example, the pipelines. </p> <p>Hydrofracking involves injecting clean water, sand and an undisclosed combination of chemicals into the shale to free the gas from vast lateral reserves that are then brought to the surface. Each well site -- known as as a pad -- contains multiple wells on three to four acres of compacted gravel. The sites are spaced maybe 40 acres apart and connected by pipelines crisscrossing the land. </p> <p>In recent years, local fights occurred in many farm areas when windmills started to fill the landscape, kill birds and emit noise heard at great distances. People worried about the impact on the land of the pipeline grid required to distribute the generated energy. In the case of gas, the grid connection is a more complex piping system, indeed one so vast that it is difficult at this point to fully comprehend how many pipelines and multiple compressors will be required as wells proliferate, or how many farms, wetlands, woodlands and mountain tops they will cross. Gas makes windmills look benign in the impact on the land. </p> <p>"To connect to the larger, interstate pipelines" companies are moving forward "on what is expected to be thousands of miles of smaller pipelines," Marc Levy of the Associated Press wrote in August. And that doesn't include a possible network of water pipelines called for to avoid the current endless truck trips required to deliver water.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3192/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3192/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Mississippi Pardons, Roberta Brandes Gratz on Hydrofracking

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:02:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">21 January 2012</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> The widely publicized news of outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's pardons/sentence suspensions for convicted murderers led me to focus on the entire idea of broad executive pardoning in our society, and what might mean for (1) sensible justice and (2) reducing our absurdly high inmate rolls. … In the meantime, Roberta Gratz's report from rural Pennsylvania takes us, in one of two columns on the topic, into the controversy over 'tracking' for natural gas and its potential to tear up and pollute broad swaths of natural countryside."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3169" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d21 h10" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3169/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Mixing Mercy with Justice: Barbour Had a Point" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Mixing Mercy with Justice: Barbour Had a Point</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3172" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m01 d21 h10 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3172/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to The Hydrofracking Impact" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">The Hydrofracking Impact</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Roberta Brandes Gratz</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3169" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d21 h10" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, January 22, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>"<em>You'll be woken in the morning by a convicted murderer.</em>"</p> <p>It was some years ago (1982), and the governor of Mississippi -- William F. Winter -- was talking. He'd graciously invited me to spend the night at the Governor's Mansion. As he predicted, the next morning I was indeed politely awakened by a convict serving as a trustie at the mansion.</p> <p>So earlier this month, when outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour stirred up a hornet's nest with his pardon or clemency for over 200 offenders, I wondered if mansion trusties were among the bunch. And indeed, five -- including four convicted murderers -- were included. I checked with my friend former Gov. Winter (now 88), and he confirmed it was long-standing Mississippi custom -- not just to assign several well-behaved and stabilized criminals from the state penitentiary to the mansion, but to suspend their sentences at the end of each governor's term.</p> <p>Barbour said he'd had so much confidence in the mansion trusties that he'd let his grandchildren play with them. Winter told me there'd even been one occasion, when other staff was off duty and he was obliged to be out of town, that he'd felt free to leave his wife, feeling ill, to the care of a single murderer trustie.</p> <p>The Mississippi custom raises an intriguing question: What ever happened to the idea of rehabilitation in American justice as a whole? Historically, notes Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, it was common for governors to issue a significant number of pardons and commutations -- typically just before Christmas, in a spirit of mercy and forgiveness.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3169/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3169/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3172" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-roberta-brandes-gratz untagged y2012 m01 d21 h10 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, January 21, 2012<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Is natural gas the clean energy source it has been successfully marketed to be? My judgment? <em>No</em>. It may burn more cleanly than other fossil fuels. But the process to create the wells and then to transport the gas -- even before and after the actual hydrofracking process -- is so destructive of the natural and built environment that it is a wonder anyone can call it clean.</p> <p>Just visit western Pennsylvania, relatively new to the gas exploration industry that really started ramping up operations two years ago. In this one state, 3,000 wells have been drilled. Thousands more are planned. And already, enormous change has occurred. </p> <p>Pennsylvania is not the first state to experience intense gas exploration. But it is a popular target because of its location on top of the Marcellus Shale rock formation that also fans out under New York, West Virginia and Ohio. A map of existing and proposed drill sites makes Pennsylvania look like the victim of chicken pox. Add to that the requisite pipelines either in construction or yet to be and it is difficult to imagine any community large or small escaping the impact.</p> <p>A recent visit to Bradford and Susquehanna Counties in western Pennsylvania, currently a prime drilling target, revealed very troubling impacts that have received little attention so far. On scenic farm roads that never before bordered anything but farms -- not even a gas station -- industrial sites are sprouting left and right, representing the different segments of the gas production process -- compressors, storage tanks, staging sites, maintenance operations and more.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3172/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3172/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on the National Popular Vote, Mark Pisano on the Transition

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:04:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">15 January 2012</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> An election year, and the totally ridiculous (for our times/all times) Electoral College rears its head again. I wrote my <a href="http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-peoples-president-the-electoral-college-in-american-history-and-the-direct-vote-alternative-by-neal-r-peirce.jsp" target="new">first book</a>, outlining its scary potentials, published in 1968 -- and the dangers remain, as vivid as ever. The National Popular Vote initiative now being circulated among the states is, without question, the best chance for reform in a century or more. … Meanwhile, following up our Pocantico essays, Mark Pisano -- a veteran regional director and one of the nation's keenest analysts -- writes a guest column tieing the USA's laggard worldwide economic positioning to a major hope: smart economic megaregions acting in their own, and thus the national interest."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3151" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d14 h17" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3151/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to The ‘National Popular Vote’ — Time At Last?" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">The ‘National Popular Vote’ — Time At Last?</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3154" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-mark-pisano untagged y2012 m01 d14 h17 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3154/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to The Jig is Up: Unless We ‘Change the Rules of the Game’" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">The Jig is Up: Unless We ‘Change the Rules of the Game’</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Mark Pisano</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3151" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d14 h17" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, January 15, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>WASHINGTON -- Newspapers, the airwaves and the blogosphere are already delivering 24-7 news and speculation focused on the 2012 presidential campaign.</p> <p>But in the end, will we get the president the most Americans favor?</p> <p>Don't count on it. The hoary electoral college system lets states cast their electoral votes any way their legislatures determine. A minor electoral switch in one state can reverse the entire national election. There's always a temptation to meddle.</p> <p>Take Pennsylvania. For five elections running, Democratic candidates have triumphed there in "winner take all" style, capturing all of the state's 20 electoral votes. Great for Democrats.</p> <p>But the 2010 election gave Republicans control in Harrisburg. Gov. Tom Corbett endorsed a bill to split Pennsylvania's electoral votes by congressional district. The motive was transparent: to cut -- roughly in half -- the number of Pennsylvania electoral votes that President Obama could hope to win in the Keystone State. </p> <p>That effort now seems shelved, but it reflects a bipartisan habit: When we can pull it off, we try to rejigger the election system to favor our side. A Supreme Court majority even did it in its infamous Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, stopping a recount that might have awarded the presidency to Al Gore (who actually led by more than 500,000 popular votes nationwide).</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3151/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3151/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3154" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-mark-pisano untagged y2012 m01 d14 h17 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, January 14, 2012<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Americans are now beginning to realize that their world is not the same, that fundamental change is underway. Incomes have dropped for ten years; the unemployment rate, while slightly lower right now, is persistently high. Looking to the future, Americans know there will no quick return to normalcy. Support for bipartisan leadership is actually a cry for a new direction that will provide long term real changes and not more incremental quick fixes and policy spins that do not work. </p> <p>Why this change in fortunes and what can we do about it? We are caught in the wave of a fundamental transition greater than any period in recent memory, a transition that will redefine how we think and act going forward. The promise of a "flat world" of cheaper products so we can consume more and find interesting places that we can visit has resulted in a migration of jobs from the US to abroad and, according to the World Bank, the largest movement of peoples (country to city) in recorded history.</p> <p>The world is not as flat as we envisioned. Instead the gateways to this global world, the places where international airports, ports, finance, marketing and distribution centers converge, are the attractors of growth. New logistic supply megaregions, involving multiple states and portions of large states such as Texas and California, have been identified by the public policy group, America 2050. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3154/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3154/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Smarter Cities, Curtis Johnson on Oregon's Education Reforms

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:10:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">07 January 2012</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> America's high tech firms are becoming major players in devising state-of-the-art information and management systems for cities -- both in the U.S. and around the world. The potentials for improved city management seem high. My column this week focuses on IBM's Smarter Cities strategy with some top examples; later I hope to capture more of Cisco and other companies' efforts. … The companion column this week, from my Citistates partner Curtis Johnson, focuses on an effort at truly significant, long-term education reform that's being tried in a state that historically leads others -- Oregon."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3136" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d07 h04" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3136/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to A High Tech Revolution Opens for World Cities" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">A High Tech Revolution Opens for World Cities</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3141" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-curtis-johnson untagged y2012 m01 d07 h05 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3141/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Oregon Learns — Can Other States Be Students?" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Oregon Learns — Can Other States Be Students?</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Curtis Johnson</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3136" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2012 m01 d07 h04" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, January 8, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>What can high technology do to help cities confront their thorniest problems -- from police strategies to water systems, traffic control to waste disposal? </p> <p>A group of high technology firms, led by IBM and Cisco, are plunging into the city management business. In varied forms, they offer super-efficient new-generation computerized information and control systems.</p> <p>If the systems prove out -- and first signs are positive -- the companies stand to garner billions of dollars in business. But savings for cities, measured by dollars, by livability, by human lives protected, may be far greater.</p> <p>IBM already reports over 2,000 "Smarter Cities" programs in cities worldwide. A lead example is Memphis. The city faced the dilemma of shrinking budgets even while crime -- especially violent crime -- was rising. Though 2,000 officers were responding to some 1 million calls a year, there was scant time to "connect dots" of incidents and develop strategies. </p> <p>IBM's solution (working with the University of Memphis' Department of Criminology) was to apply "predictive analytics" software to compile volumes of crime records by type, time of day, victim/offender characteristics and more.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3136/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3136/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3141" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-curtis-johnson untagged y2012 m01 d07 h05 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, January 7, 2012<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>2011 saw Oregon once again daring to be the first bird off the wire on an audacious policy agenda. Governor John Kitzhaber, having been governor from 1995 to 2003, won the office again in 2010. What he told seasoned politicos was that he wasn't running just to be governor again -- "been there, done that." But if elected again, he would put all his chips down on doing something bold, with the power to endure.</p> <p>Kitzhaber's bold maneuver: a proposal to overhaul the entire system of education -- from toddlers to twenty-somethings, now called Oregon Learns. </p> <p>In the 2011 session of the legislature he won a down payment on the promise -- a liberalization of the chartered school law, a better welcome for on-line schools, and an official board. It's called the Oregon Education Investment Board, intended from its enactment forward control how money is appropriated to get better education results.</p> <p>Sounds tame enough. But the governor's agenda is actually aimed at radical change in the system. For the first time (anywhere, not just in Oregon), the system of education would find its financial pivot point on results. The entire budgeting process would be re-engineered around outcomes rather than inputs. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3141/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3141/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Rio+20 and Habitat III, William Dodge on Thai Governance

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:09:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">30 December 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>New Year's Greetings from Citiwire.net!</strong> In this Century of the City, cities starting to demand a significant role in important global conferences. Including seats on nation state delegations. The pressure's been building for years, now going public as New York's Mayor Bloomberg and other leaders make the case. My column covers that story (given my column focus, how could I resist it?) But I also relate news of UN General Assembly approval of a Habitat III world conference of cities in 2016, and some unusual ideas surfacing on how it spark be a multi-year, multi-media set of debates on cities and their collective challenges and possibilities. … Speaking of global, Citistates Associate Bill Dodge reports on regional progress and impediments from Thailand. "   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3120" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d30 h05" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3120/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to World Cities Demand: ‘Hear Us!’" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">World Cities Demand: ‘Hear Us!’</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3124" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-bill-dodge category-column-of-the-week untagged y2011 m12 d30 h06 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3124/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Regional Governance: Thai Style" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Regional Governance: Thai Style</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Bill Dodge</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3120" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d30 h05" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, January 2, 2012<br /> (c) 2012 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>NEW YORK -- The world's cities are impatiently demanding that they be heard earlier, and heeded seriously, in the decisions of nations -- and at the United Nations.</p> <p>A top case: preparations for "Rio+20," the UN's global conference on sustainability that's scheduled for next June in Rio de Janeiro. It will mark the 20th anniversary of the historic 1992 Rio conference, attended by 17,000 delegates and observers including 108 heads of state. They forged the world's first joint environmental accord, which included the start of global climate consultations.</p> <p>Greater global sustainability starts with "bottom-up approaches," so Rio+20 should -- in contrast to the 1992 conference -- hear local governments' voice and report on their role. That's the case being made by UCLG -- United Cities and Local Governments, the umbrella organization of world cities.</p> <p>New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg presses the point even more forcefully. Speaking at an event at UN headquarters Dec. 15, Bloomberg championed a major role for cities at Rio+20, specifically including the naming of mayors to national delegations.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3120/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3120/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3124" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-bill-dodge category-column-of-the-week untagged y2011 m12 d30 h06 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Friday, December 30, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>The Kingdom of Thailand practices governance with some unusual twists, some of which offer intriguing models for regional governance in America.</p> <p>During my recent visit, Thailand was struggling with massive flooding. I monitored the interactions among national, provincial and local governments during the disaster. And I spent time with flood refugees in Pattaya, a city renown for sun and sex south of Bangkok. </p> <p>Thailand is unique among its neighbors as having never been a European colony. It was ruled by an absolute monarchy until the 1930s and still has a strong royal presence in a constitutional monarchy. The national government structure has a prime minister, National Assembly with a House and Senate, and a complex judiciary -- in all a blend of western laws and cultural practices that go back to the Khmer roots of the kingdom.</p> <p>The Thai people have suffered through 16 constitutions, usually triggered by governance crises or military coups. Most of the constitutions make only small changes in the basic government structure. But each redistributes political and economic clout among the traditional powers -- old families, the military, and the royal family -- often with little consideration of citizen desires. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3124/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3124/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Outdoor Holiday Markets, Edward Blakely on Moscow's Emergence

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:52:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">22 December 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Holiday Greetings from Citiwire.net!</strong> People pouring back onto the streets of America's cities, selecting Christmas gifts crafted by local or regional artisans? What a radical idea in the Era of the Big Cheap Box– or ultra-Tiffany luxury. But it's happening, continent-wide, as my column reflects. It's a far call from Europe's fabled urban Christmas markets (which I've covered in past years). But still, it's a heartening start. … And more good urbanism: As cities worldwide rethink, reposition, to compete in the new global economy, even fabled dour Moscow is getting ready to refashion itself, as Ed Blakely reports from his trip there this month."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3104" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d22 h13" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3104/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Outdoor Holiday Markets Spread Across America" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Outdoor Holiday Markets Spread Across America</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3108" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-edward-j-blakely untagged y2011 m12 d22 h13 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3108/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Moscow an Emerging Global City" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Moscow an Emerging Global City</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Edward J. Blakely</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3104" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d22 h13" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, December 25, 2011<br /> (c) 2011 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>A heartening sign of Christmas, 2011: holiday festival markets are emerging and flourishing in and near central city squares across America, smartly following the model of the great Christmas markets of Germany and other European lands.</p> <p>The biggest and possibly most spectacular may be Union Square in New York, where over 100 merchants have been on hand this season offering delights ranging from hand-blown glass housewares to hand-tooled leather belts to "German delights … sweet and savory treats, cider and cappucinno to keep you warm." A strong runner-up: New York's Bryant Park, with dozens of stands.</p> <p>But when I queried David Downey of the International Downtown Assn. about other cities, he e-mailed his member list and in hours was flooding my in-box with examples spread across the continent.</p> <p>Rochester, Minn., for example, has "Market Strasse -- our attempt to be an authentic German winter market." Downtown Lancaster, Pa., created space for 20 local "creatives" to show their products. Kirkwood, Mo., turned its farmers' market into a "Christmas Market & Gingerbread Shoppe." The Roanoke, Va., "Dickens of Christmas" event has featured handmade crafts, soaps, and photography.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3104/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3104/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3108" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-edward-j-blakely untagged y2011 m12 d22 h13 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Thursday, December 22, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Moscow is usually depicted as a dark, drab and dangerous place in US movies. In most of the plots there are big burley necked-less mafia as central characters in these thrillers. But the real Moscow isn't any more like the old gangster movie depictions of New York or Chicago. In fact, Moscow is an easy city to fall in love with. The Czars may have been brutal but they had pretty good architectural taste. On this old framework Moscow is actively and very smartly trying to become one of the world’s mega-global cities.</p> <p>Last week December 7-9, on the edge of Russian winter Moscow put on a spectacular Global City Forum with a stunning panel of international experts from all over the world, especially from China. Whatever differences Russia and China have nationally, there are no barriers among the big cities of China and Russia. Both nations are embracing the notion that city-regions are the drivers of the new economy. As China urbanizes to industrialize, Moscow is urbanizing because of the de-industrialization of the Soviet factory towns that dotted central Russia. There early post-Soviet era attempts to resurrect steel and fabrication industries are over. This transition from not just as old managed economy to a new innovation entrepreneurial economy is far from easy. Russia has no history of small factories like China and Japan to draw on.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3108/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3108/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on Drug Reform, Ian Scott on a Meeting of the Regional Minds

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:09:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">17 December 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> Opening a national debate on marijuana, even as polls show a seismic shift toward legalizing it? On the merits, my column suggests, President Obama should consider it. First, because it's right: prohibition triggers not just mass incarceration and waste of so many young lives. And second, it's precisely the youth of America, their life prospects most threatened by current law, who the president needs to win back if he hopes for a second term in the White House. … Our guest column this week is from Ian Scott of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, commenting on our recent Pocantico conference on America's metropolitan regions."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3094" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d17 h05" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3094/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Drug Reform: An Obama Rx to Reignite Youth Support?" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Drug Reform: An Obama Rx to Reignite Youth Support?</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3097" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-ian-scott untagged y2011 m12 d17 h06 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3097/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Studying Regionalism on a Palatial Estate" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Studying Regionalism on a Palatial Estate</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Ian Scott</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3094" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d17 h05" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, December 18, 2011<br /> (c) 2011 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>"Dance with one that brought you" is the title of a well-known song. But the Urban Dictionary offers a deeper meaning: "the principle that someone should pay proper fealty to those who have gone out of their way to look after them."</p> <p>Barack Obama should pay attention. In 2008, young voters were enthused and turned out for him by the millions. </p> <p>But now? The campus/youth enthusiasm factor has declined sharply. The deficiency seriously imperils Obama's reelection effort.</p> <p>There's one issue, though, that might reignite youthful enthusiasm. That issue is marijuana -- partly its medical use, but especially Americans' right to recreational use free of potential arrest and possible prison time.</p> <p>Today's grim reality is that police continue to arrest youth for marijuana possession by the hundreds of thousands. But each arrest is a red flag of danger, threatening life prospects for a young man or woman suddenly saddled with a permanent "drug arrest" record that's easily located by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies and banks.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3094/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3094/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3097" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-ian-scott untagged y2011 m12 d17 h06 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, December 17, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>What can you learn in two days and two nights at a palatial estate in the Hudson Valley with a room full of smart, experienced regionalists? I'm sure glad I'm in a position to answer.</p> <p>In late October I participated in a symposium on states and regions organized by the Citistates Group. The event was generously hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and supported by the Carnegie Corporation and the William Penn Foundation. Citistates founders Neal Peirce, Curtis Johnson and Farley Peters pulled together this "meeting of the regional minds" to address one central challenge: metropolitan regions are the geography of the economy but not the geography of government.</p> <p>Along with a couple of chamber leaders, I was joined by representatives from MPOs, COGs, universities, foundations, think tanks, and several former big city mayors. To articulate the professional accomplishments and accolades of this distinguished group of veteran practitioners and thinkers would easily run two hours or more. And it did. Thirty minutes into the introductions my suspicions were confirmed; I was the low man on the totem pole in both credentials and class. I just hoped a few of the collected IQ points might rub off on me.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3097/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3097/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on the Right to Vote, William Hudnut on Cluster-Focused Models

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:48:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">10 December 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> The right to vote for all citizens has only been won through generations of struggle -- and now faces its biggest obstacle in decades. A barrage of bills ostensibly designed to prevent voter fraud, in reality efforts to curb minority and student voting, have erupted across the country this year– driven, it appears, by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council. But the Justice Department may be poised to counterattack -- the topic of my column. … Bill Hudnut, meanwhile, reflects on federalism issues emanating from our Citistates Group's recent forum on the issue."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3080" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d10 h04" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3080/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Justice Department Poised for Right to Vote Suits?" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Justice Department Poised for Right to Vote Suits?</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3083" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-william-hudnut untagged y2011 m12 d10 h04 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3083/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to New Cluster-Focused Models for Regional Growth and Collaboration" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">New Cluster-Focused Models for Regional Growth and Collaboration</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By William H. Hudnut III</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3080" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d10 h04" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, December 11, 2011<br /> (c) 2011 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>WASHINGTON -- Is the Justice Department poised for a counterattack on the sweeping wave of photo identification and related voter restriction laws that newly-Republican-controlled state legislatures have been grinding out this year?</p> <p>Opponents of the laws are hoping so, awaiting a major speech on voting rights that Attorney General Eric Holder delivers in Austin on Dec. 13.</p> <p>The stage was set Dec. 1 by Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, addressing a American Constitution Society forum. Florida, South Carolina and Texas, Perez said, would "bear a burden of showing" that their new photo I.D. laws "are not intentionally discriminatory and have a retrogressive effect" in assuring a broad right of all Americans to vote.</p> <p>Perez noted that judicial decisions spanning a century have identified the right to vote as "preservative of all rights." He called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and companion statutes "the crown jewels" of American participatory democracy, "a sacred trust" to be protected.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3080/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3080/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3083" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-william-hudnut untagged y2011 m12 d10 h04 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Saturday, December 10, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>As I listened to the dialogue at the Citistates Group's Pocantico retreat in late October, I was impressed by the way the conversation about regional thinking and acting had shifted from structure to form, that is to say, from governmental fiat to organic growth. Here was a new paradigm!</p> <p>Given the discouraging state of affairs at the federal and state levels of government, the creation of by the state legislatures of creative interjurisdictional mechanisms, or revised federal mandates, beyond what is already in place (MPOs and COGs, for example) is a pipe dream. </p> <p>What then can stimulate real progress in affirming the reality, and recognizing the necessity, of regional cooperation? It's the a focus on creating clusters of economic development opportunity. Clusters can grow organically, and do not need official action by government to happen. Harvard's Michael Porter has famously described clusters as "geographically proximate groups of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities."</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3083/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3083/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on HUD Sustainable Communities, David Warm on Federal and Local Action

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:54:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">04 December 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> How do we create a truly sustainable America? What are the principles? What's the role of the federal government? How does local ingenuity get tapped, magnified? That's the theme of both columns this week. I look into the new focus on economics in analyzing HUD's Sustainable Communities program. David Warm, veteran Executive Director of the Mid-America Regional Council in Kansas City, takes a thoughtful, broader philosophic look at the entire nexus of federal and local action."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3066" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d04 h04" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3066/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to The 52-Cent Case for ‘Sustainability’" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">The 52-Cent Case for ‘Sustainability’</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3069" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-david-warm untagged y2011 m12 d04 h04 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3069/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Federal Leadership in Sustainable Development — It Is Important!" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Federal Leadership in Sustainable Development — It Is Important!</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By David Warm</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3066" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m12 d04 h04" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, December 4, 2011<br /> (c) 2011 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>"Sustainability." It's 14 letters, six syllables. Small wonder many people blanch when they read or hear the word. Some may ask -- "Is it something about the environment?"</p> <p>For clarity and to stress the timeliness of their work, the managers of the Obama administration's "Sustainable Communities" program are switching strategies. Competitive planning grants for cities and regions are still the top goals. But instead of talking first about more efficient land use, transit or town planning, the new focus is now on raw economics.</p> <p>Check the 52 cent figure, they say. Research shows that for every dollar the average American family has to spend, 52 cents is taken up right away for housing and transportation. That means everything else gets squeezed, sometimes dangerously. And not the least, such essentials as food and clothing.</p> <p>So what's a promising cure? It's clearly to push the 52 cents figure down by helping workers and families gain easier, more affordable access to jobs and schools. And that does dictate that communities pivot away from yesterday's sprawl patterns, embracing instead such smart development strategies as housing closer to real work centers, homes closer to schools, and transit services to help households spend less on car travel. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3066/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3066/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3069" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-column-of-the-week category-david-warm untagged y2011 m12 d04 h04 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, December 4, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Across America, regional communities are actively envisioning and investing in new patterns of sustainable growth and development that aim to promote economic competitiveness, environmental integrity and social opportunity. For the most part, these efforts are homegrown, prompted by a host of new market forces, social realities and environmental constraints.</p> <p>In recent years, the federal government has stepped up its role in this process, bringing engaged leadership, yet also prompting questions about whether it should be involved in this arena. From my perspective, the answer is clear: federal leadership in fostering sustainable development is important to both the interests of the federal government and to the health of the nation.</p> <p>There is a clear and compelling federal interest in promoting sustainable development as a <em>proactive</em> strategy to target and leverage federal investments in infrastructure, innovation and human capacity, as a <em>protective</em> strategy to guard the efficacy of federal assets and investments, and as a <em>preemptive</em> strategy to minimize the need to expend federal resources to mitigate the environmental, social and economic consequences of inefficient and unsustainable development practices. </p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3069/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3069/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>

Neal Peirce on GOP Justice Study, Bill Barnes on Messy Regional Issues

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:59:00 GMT

<img src="http://citistates.com/mailinglist/spacer_image/citiwire//spacer.png" /> <div id="wrapper" style="border: 5px solid #555; width: 600px;"> <table id="container" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td id="header" style="background: #555; padding: 0 20px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; font: 36px 'Century Gothic', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase;">Citiwire<span style="color: #cbcb69;">.net</span> <span style="color: #ccc; font-size: 24px;">25 November 2011</span></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background: #d2d2c2;" id="greeting"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <p style="color: #121212; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><em>"<strong>Welcome to Citiwire.net!</strong> When Sen. James Web first proposed his national commission on the USA's bloated and inefficient criminal justice system, he conferred in at length with fellow legislators and outside groups. And the proposal seemed so timely and logical that scarcely any opposition would arise. But oh no -- Senate Republicans actually mounted a filibuster to defeat it! My column checks beyond the partisan foolishness, with a special eye on state and local prosecutors. … And we continue our series of commentaries following up on our Citistates Group's Pocantico Conference on regional issues, this one by the National League of Cities seasoned and wise veteran Bill Barnes."   -- Neal Peirce</em></p></td> <td style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0; width: 100px;"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/npeirce.email.jpg" alt="Neal Peirce" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td> <table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" style="background: #555; font: 20px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;"> <tr> <td id="post-3049" class="hentry p1 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m11 d25 h13" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3049/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Senate GOP Filibusters Justice Study: What’s Really Afoot?" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Senate GOP Filibusters Justice Study: What’s Really Afoot?</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Neal Peirce</p> </td> <td id="post-3052" class="hentry p2 post publish author-shod category-bill-barnes category-column-of-the-week untagged y2011 m11 d25 h13 alt" style="vertical-align: bottom; width: 50%;"> <h2 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3052/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" title="Permalink to Confessions of a Messy Regionalist" rel="bookmark" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;">Confessions of a Messy Regionalist</a></h2> <p style="color: #eee; font-size: 12px; margin: 0; padding: 0;">By Bill Barnes</p> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td id="content"> <table cellpadding="10" style="font: 16px 'Georgia', 'Times New Roman', 'Times', serif; line-height: 22px; border-left: 1px solid #000; border-right: 1px solid #000;"> <tr> <td id="post-3049" class="hentry p3 post publish author-shod category-neal-peirce category-neal-peirce-column untagged y2011 m11 d25 h13" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Sunday, November 27, 2011<br /> (c) 2011 Washington Post Writers Group</span></p> <p>WASHINGTON -- There's no sane way to say that America's criminal justice system is "OK." It costs over $100 billion a year; it imprisons hundreds of thousands for minor drug possession or sale; overall it's incarcerating 2.3 million men and woman -- the most of any nation on earth.</p> <p>But that didn't stop 43 Senate Republicans from recently wielding the weapon of a filibuster to torpedo a proposal by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) for a bipartisan national commission to undertake a stem-to-stern examination of how we apprehend, try and punish in America.</p> <p>The ostensible reason the Republicans gave was states' rights -- that because the study would encompass state and local practices as well as federal, it would somehow violate our constitutional separation of federal and state powers.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3049/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3049/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> <td id="post-3052" class="hentry p4 post publish author-shod category-bill-barnes category-column-of-the-week untagged y2011 m11 d25 h13 alt" style="vertical-align: top; width: 50%;"> <div class="entry-content" style="text-align: left;"> <p><span style="color: #191919; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif;">For Release Friday, November 25, 2011<br /> Citiwire.net</span></p> <p>Among the congenial regional sages at the October Citistates convening at Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Pocantico Conference Center, I felt I could admit to a long-time failing -- I've been a messy regionalist.</p> <p>By messy, I mean "devoid of neatness and precision." That sounds right -- regional problem-solving is usually complicated, difficult, frustrating and full of surprises, and often not successful. In other words, it's like most human collective action endeavors.</p> <p>Addressing regional challenges is also urgent and important and worthy of special attention. But we would do well to acknowledge and accept the reality of what Dan Gilmartin, executive director of the Michigan Municipal League, calls the "on the ground stuff" in the regionalism picture -- the mix of grit and public interest vision that constitutes regional efforts. It's really not about making nice; it's about working through competing interests and values and about dealing with often fierce disagreements on matters of mutual concern.</p> <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3052/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch#comments" style="background: #cbcb68; color: #6b6b32; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Comment »</a> <a href="http://citiwire.net/post/3052/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 7px;">Full column »</a></p> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr> <td> <p style="background: #555; color: #fff; font: 14px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 10px; text-align: center;"><em><a href="http://citiwire.net/subscribe/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff;">Subscribe</a> to receive this Citiwire.net dispatch with new columns weekly.</em></p> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background: #555; border-top: 2px solid #d2d2c2;" id="mission"> <p style="color: #fff; font: 12px 'Century Gothic', 'Verdana', 'Helvetica', 'Arial', sans-serif; text-decoration: none; margin: 0; padding: 20px; line-height: 16px;"><a href="http://citiwire.net/about/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dispatch" style="color: #fff; text-decoration: none;"><em style="font-size: 16px;">Our mission...</em> to reflect a new narrative for 21st century cities and regions. Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://citistates.com"><img src="http://citiwire.net/wp-content/themes/citiwire/images/logo-email-top.png" alt="Citistates logo" style="border: 0; margin: 0;" /></a></td> </tr> </table> </div>