Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology is a pioneer in sustainable development and promoting livable urban communities. Calling itself a “think-and-do” tank, over the years the CNT has done foregrounding work in the areas of climate, energy, natural resources, transportation and community development. Their 2007 key accomplishments include performing a comprehensive analysis of Chicago’s green house gas emissions and researching 33 reduction strategies for the Chicago Climate Action Plan, and launching an interactive green infrastructure map of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Other ongoing CNT projects that address transportation issues are Transit Future and I-GO car sharing. Transit Future is a campaign that advocates for transit reform and increased funding in Northeastern Illinois and maintains grassroots advocacy and citizen mobilization as the tools for change. I-GO is a Chicago based car sharing non-profit with 100% low emission vehicles. In recent news, I-GO is teaming up with the Chicago Transit Authority to issue a new combined smart card that can be used both to ride the CTA and gain access to I-GO vehicles.

Another interesting CNT project–especially to those of you interested in making the argument for public transit–is the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, a interactive map of 52 metropolitan areas intended to provide a more comprehensive measure of housing affordability by taking into account transportation costs and gas prices. The bottom line: urban cores (and other places with access to walk-able destinations and public transit) are often more affordable places to live because of their lower household transportation costs. You can check out how your city measures up (and use this information as ammo when designing your Complete Streets policy) here.

An incredible tour of Milwaukee, given by Milwaukeeans, is featured over at Next American City as the most recent stop in their 24:Hrs series.  The write-up by Dave Steele gives Milwaukee its due, showcasing a diversity of experiences: ethnic cultures, environmental remediation, industrial past and present, and sunrise over a beautiful city.

(Thanks Juli for forwarding this along, and to all the GLUEsters who helped NAC pull this off!)

The Cleveland Colectivo is hosting a forum tomorrow night to teach the basics of how to start a giving circle and how to submit a project proposal to the Colectivo for funding. Come see what it’s all about! 

Wednesday November 19th
6:00 to 7:30 pm
Carnegie West Public Library
1900 Fulton Rd.,
Cleveland OH 44113 

For more information visit the Cleveland Colectivo’s webpage.

From our friends at the Transportation for America Campaign:

Congress is likely to discuss an economic stimulus package in the coming weeks and Transportation for America has put together a letter with our recommendations for the type of investments to prioritize–strategic transportation projects that help create jobs, reduce our dependence on oil, and save people money at the gas pump.  We support money to spur the construction of ready-to-go transit and bike/pedestrian projects, repair our crumbling highways and bridges, support inter-city rail, and ensure that transit remains affordable in the face of rising energy costs. 

The deadline for sign on is COB this Thursday, November 13th.  Contact Natalie Robles to sign on and for more information (natalie.robles@t4america.org).  Please pass this letter on to other organizations that are supportive of smart transportation investments.

The letter is attached here: T4America Partner Signon.

One of the things I miss most about living in New York is being able to buy essentials without leaving the block. After running to the bodega next door for a pint of ice cream during a commercial break and making it back before the show resumed, no shopping experience will ever seem so convenient.  Most urban dwellers love their neighborhood store, but are frustrated by a lack of grocery stores and fresh produce in their community.  And we’ve all seen the true food deserts of mostly lower-income neighborhoods–where the only food option for blocks is under some golden arches.

But even these neighborhoods usually have a bodega.  And couldn’t these bodegas be the front lines on improving the health of your urban community?  An oasis in a desert of fast food?  Only if you show them that they should.

If you want to show off ‘your’ bodega and simultaneously encourage that bodega to feature more fresh produce, check out “Bodega Party in a Box.” For $35 dollars plus shipping you get healthy recipes, shopping tips, invitations, stylish shopping bags and party decorations. And, the money from your Bodega Party in a Box goes to the Food & Liquor Project, which helps get more fresh produce into local corner and liquor stores, and other Neighbors Project initiatives. Just think, you can throw a party, support local businesses, and help your neighborhood at the same time.

***Note from the GLUE Team: We love the (founded in Chicago) Neighbors Project’s grassroots model, can-do attitude, creative thinking, and, of course, their friendliness.  Check out other programs on their website.

We’ve talked before about some big transportation-related happenings (reminder: the Transportation for America Campaign needs your help).  But for those of you who prefer to work at the local or state level (or at all levels), a must-visit resource can be found over at the Complete Streets Coalition.

A few of the extremely helpful things you’ll find there:

1. Real examples of successful complete streets policies, from Chicago to Massachusetts.
2. Model language and implementation guides that you can use to develop a complete streets policy for your city or state.
3. Thorough arguments, fact sheets, and other data to prepare you to make a case for complete streets, in areas ranging from economic to health to air quality.
4. Lists of the sometimes surprisingly diverse members of the coalition.  Their local affiliates might be great contacts for you to build your own local coalition.

From the homepage:

The streets of our cities and towns ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams. They’re unsafe for people on foot or bike — and unpleasant for everybody.

Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners, engineers and designers to build road networks that welcome all citizens.

You can build that movement in your city.

Thanks to the Adler Institute in Chicago for sending along this interview (from Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview) about social exclusion, with Hilary Armstrong and Dr. Lynn C. Todman.  They define social exclusion as people and families that don’t get engaged with existing services that would enable them to be self-sustaining and participatory.  Ms. Armstrong, a former Member of U.K. Parliament, wants to use the concept of social exclusion to move from a conversation that focuses on poverty and race, to a more complex and holistic recognition of exclusion.  Armstrong offers the example of a study done in a U.K. urban community, where researchers tracked who was using social service programs in the area, and found that the same people were utilizing multiple types of services.  For Armstrong, understanding that social issues are usually interconnected and interdependent is relevant to serving the public and suggests the need to join up domains at a policy level.  She contends that trying to create a place in which a full range of needs are met would not only work better, but be more cost effective than a multitude of separate programs that serve essentially the same group of people.

Dr. Todman envisions the main function of the concept of social exclusion as a new way of looking at the disadvantaged.  She asserts a need to redirect focus from the individual to social institutions and ask the question, “How do our laws, public policies, and the behaviors of our institutions contribute to the problems that we have?”  Especially considering that in our urban cores, we find concentrated social exclusion, and simultaneously a concentration of resources and institutions who could, if coordinated, provide the best defense against it–Dr. Todman’s assertion provides additional evidence for the cross-sector collaboration that GLUE applauds.

Jennifer Epps, 26, is an organizer with Milwaukee’s Good Jobs and Livable Neighborhoods Coalition, which successfully negotiated a Community Benefits Agreement for Milwaukee’s Park East area, a section of the city’s core just north of downtown. Although the coalition’s attempt to codify the agreement at the city level failed, their efforts at the county level prevailed.  Earlier this month, an ordinance was introduced to Milwaukee’s Common Council regarding local hiring, prevailing wage regulations, and training and apprenticeship.  Information about the ordinance’s status is available here.

From our conversation: 

Our movement has been to make community benefits a matter of public policy rather than to focus agreements on single developments.  We have also tried at every step to ensure that end use jobs pay family supporting wages, not just the construction jobs required to complete these projects. Who is going to be working on the site once it has been completed? We do not want taxpayer dollars to underwrite poverty level jobs.

So far, the conversation has been totally one sided, where developers have had a seat at the table, and residents have been totally excluded.

What, over the process of drafting and building support for this ordinance, have been the best public forums? Or, how successful have you been in creating a sense of urgency about this legislation?

Our first and best public forum during drafting the ordinance was during a municipal election cycle. We made accountable development standards part of the cycle’s ongoing discussion.

We engaged in direct action – direct door to door, community based organizing, engaging people in conversation that would take them one step closer to understanding the power of something like this.

What were you telling them?

Call your electeds. Ask for their support. Tell your story.  We videotaped testimony at the door. Testimony from door to door canvasses available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrog3V-LcNc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1VQ_U2wkIo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjXHD1zTVQU

What opportunities for employment training are available for residents who want to participate in them?

The best training programs are coming out of labor for new entrants into the workforce. Once they graduate, they have a letter they can take to contractors.  Unfortunately, graduates have no options, though. There’s a legacy within the construction industry – a hand me down kind of profession – a lot of these are 7th or 8th generation jobs

One of our organizers went through training, got a certificate for carpentry, never got picked up, got a job washing dishes.  For a lot of these people, there are no jobs inside the city – this is the only way to move families out of poverty, and they’re being asked to go to the suburbs where there is no transportation.

If you’re going to a union program, you need to go through certification apprenticeship. The unions have been transparent in acknowledging a lack of diversity and dealing with it. Opponents blame unions for being racist – and for people who have experienced racism and who are wary about unions this is a problem, as our labor community has worked hard to create opportunities for people of color.

We have seen in Milwaukee that projects with minority hiring requirements have to go outside the city for firms that specialize in that area.  The Marquette Interchange, a Chicago firm, the Stadium, a Michigan firm.  These businesses have had to operate under these standards - they breed the quality that’s sought after in these situations.  We can do that here in Milwaukee.

Tell us about yourself.

I’ve been an organizer for over a year now – I came to the coalition as a new mom who wasn’t planning on going back to work.  I was struck by the question, how do we expand opportunity for a city in a devastating economic crisis? I personally never had to make those tough choices. I grew up in a financially stable home.  But, whether I grew up in those circumstances or not, I’ve seen how resourceful committed and intelligent people are – and they are not the problem.

This is ground zero – direct daily impact. Compared to the normal process of how change gets made – 3,5,7 years – we can’t wait – people fall off the map.  And it all stems from no jobs.

What is your average day like?

My day would start with a normal community outreach meeting, trying to bring together Community Based Organizations, religious organizations, labor unions, and residents. I might start in a meeting with a CBO or at a mtg with elected officials go to office and do task work, materials, flyers, press releases.

At 3 PM we go out canvassing and are out there as long as we can be.

Has the Presidential election had a positive impact on your ability to engage people?

I think it’s made it easy to engage folks who are already involved or inclined to be involved in civic projects, like students. We got a paid sick day referendum on the ballot, for example.

As far as engaging the most disenfranchised, though, it’s a challenge – given that more than 50% of African American men of working age in Milwaukee are unemployed, we should be hitting it out of the park, but we’re not.  There’s a process in terms of organizing that has to restore trust, hope and people’s belief that there can be an impact – in order to get them involved. They have been abused and lied to by the political system and they have checked out.

What does being an organizer require personally, other than time and dedication?

It requires checking your assumptions at the door. Since I’ve started law school I get an hour a day with my daughter, so I’m not taking as many calls. When I finally got back to this resident who had called me after three or four days, he was really upset.  I needed to understand what my responsiveness meant to that man and that I had built his trust.

Tell us about the Coalition itself:

The staff is pretty much all volunteer.  At one point we were lucky to be able to fly in volunteers from other parts of the country for a canvass.

My salary and the salaries of two part time organizers was paid for with a small grant. Similar organizations with small budgets can get around this by looking at internship credits. We take on service learners during the summer. They are a great resource.

Every time I vote I am impressed and a little dazed by the array of races on the ballot - judges, school board, coroners etc. Here are some resources for the upcoming election so that ballots don’t take us by surprise:

Vote Smart and the League of Women Voters are non-partisan organizations that can help familiarize you with your ballot and help select the candidates that best agree with your policy wish-list.

The League of Conservation Voters publishes an environmental scorecard, so that you can see where candidates line up on global warming and other critical environmental issues.

And for the stance of candidates on the many science-based policy issues, check out the Science Debate 2008 website.

For those of us in Ohio (excuse me while I get local for a sec) there are several important ballot initiatives. Especially important for urban areas is Issue 2, which would reauthorize Clean Ohio Funds. Clean Ohio provides funding for brownfield clean up, which is good news for economic development inside our ailing cities. Issue 2 will not raise taxes as the entire Clean Ohio program is funded through the sale of state bonds.

If you live in and around Cleveland, check out this voter education forum on Tuesday evening. If there are similar events in your area please leave those in the comment section.

Residents in Cuyahoga County can also check out this online resource for judicial elections.

Lastly, remember to vote on November 4th, and offer to take a neighbor to the polls. Let’s make sure policy makers hear the voice of the GLUE region.

Thanks to Juli for sharing this editorial from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, arguing for the culture change our region needs: a shift mega-regional competition to collaboration.

But cooperation isn’t yet part of Midwestern DNA. Longworth found example after example of communities facing similar problems in isolation. And he found state governments reluctant to change - governors still love poaching companies from their neighbors. “State economic development directors know how silly this is, but they all say, ‘My governor just loves to cut ribbons,’ ” Longworth said.

Fortunately, the editorial cites anecdotal evidence to show that the trend is catching on: the new Global Midwest Institute of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs*, founded after Richard Longworth’s book, Caught in the Middle, and The Brookings Institution’s Vital Center report first made the argument for collaboration.  There’s the Great Lakes Compact and cooperation by Big 10 schools. Oh, and of course, there’s GLUE!

*I can’t actually find any information about the new institute, please email me if you know anything!