Alvaro Lima / Sep 10 2011
For Release Saturday, September 10, 2011
Citiwire.net
This week President Obama called on Congress to pass a job plan to help Americans cope with this long and painful recession. Here is something that Washington should do to help create over one million new American jobs during the next decade: Increase the number of overseas visitors to the United States. It wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime, require any new government spending, or add to the deficit.
Travel is already one of America’s largest industries, generating $1.8 trillion per year in economic output. Approximately 7.4 million Americans are directly employed in travel-related jobs. In Massachusetts, where I live, more than 120.000 jobs are created by the travel industry, representing 3.8 per cent of total employment in the state. And unlike jobs in many growth industries, these jobs can never be outsourced.
Of course, both business and leisure travel have a positive impact on our economy that extends well beyond airlines, hotels and other sectors traditionally associated with the industry. Read More »
Tom Downs / Sep 03 2011
For Release Saturday, September 3, 2011
Citiwire.net
The new demographics are found in two generations deeply influenced by suburbia. First there’s the 20-30 something’s who grew up in suburbia and, like all generations, do not want what their parents wanted. The second demographic are their parents, who are now becoming empty nesters with a five-bedroom McMansions in the suburbs.
According to housing and location preference surveys, the younger crowd wants to be in the center of things — downtown. They want cafes, restaurants, entertainment, and other young people to socialize with. They want walkable communities with parks; they want bike trails; they want to bike to work; and they want transit.
At the aging boomer cutting edge, what are we interested in? For boomers, preferences split almost down the middle. Half of the 50-60 somethings want to move to a larger house in a semi rural area. They wanted to build their “Dream House”, the house they wanted all their life, but deferred it to raise their children. The other half want to move to a central urban area with a walkable, transit- accessible life style. Read More »
Sam Newberg / Aug 25 2011
For Release Thursday, August 25, 2011
Citiwire.net
What is the best way to experience and be a part of your surroundings? In city or countryside, this urbanist knows being on foot is tough to beat, but a recent trip to the Boundary Waters (BWCAW) caused me to reconsider. A canoe is hard to beat as the best way to experience wilderness lakes in northern Minnesota. Could a bicycle be the best way to experience the city? Perhaps the canoe and bicycle are kindred spirits.
In his 1956 collection of essays about the Boundary Waters entitled “The Singing Wilderness,” author Sigurd Olson describes “The Way of a Canoe” as an excellent means of experiencing the wilderness. The fluidity of dipping a paddle in the water and the responsiveness of the canoe allows one to truly experience the beauty and wilderness the Boundary Waters has to offer.
Read More »
David Cieslewicz / Aug 19 2011
For Release Friday, August 19, 2011
Citiwire.net
As the federal government continues to spin its wheels and state governments keep struggling with lean budgets, cities are starting to experiment with ideas about how to create local, self-sustaining economies.
That starts with local purchasing, keeping as many dollars in the community as possible. Every dollar spent at a local business recirculates in the community several times before it leaves. Every dollar spent at a national chain leaves overnight.
Municipal governments themselves can use their buying power to purchase products and services locally to stimulate their economy. Here in Madison, we allow for up to a 5 percent premium to buy all kinds of supplies and services if the vendor is in the city.
Read More »
Edward T. McMahon / Aug 12 2011
For Release Friday, August 12, 2011
Citiwire.net
Friends who live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado recently complained that pine bark beetles were bringing devastation to the forests around Steamboat Springs and throughout the Rocky Mountain West. According to recent reports, Colorado and Wyoming have lost 3.5 million acres of mountain forest to the bark beetle, with up to 100,000 trees on average falling every day.
As bad as the problem is, scientists with the US Forest Service say the problem is likely to get even worse in coming decades as coniferous forests adjust to climate change. Warmer winters allow the beetles to survive and multiply.
Read More »
Alex Marshall / Aug 05 2011
For Release Friday, August 5, 2011
Citiwire.net
There is really no denying that transportation makes money. Just consider the huge shopping malls perched around interstate off-ramps, the office parks positioned close to airports, the skyscrapers next to subway stations.
But transportation itself is usually a money loser. We pour billions of public dollars into highways, airports and transit systems, while others, the home builders, the department store mavens, make the money that comes slows from those public investments.
Hong Kong’s metro system, MTR, has changed this equation, and that is why it’s worth looking at.
If you are ever lucky enough to visit Hong Kong, which is Manhattan-like with its narrow streets lined with high rises, you will see that the MTR’s services are excellent. You may ride the gleaming new high-speed rail line from the new airport that takes you into the new central rail station. Or one of the nine rail and subway lines, including the special train that goes to Disneyland Hong Kong.
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MarySue Barrett / Jul 21 2011
WITH MANDY BOOTH
For Release Friday, July 22, 2011
Citiwire.net
At a time when all levels of government are looking to cut, cut, cut, the scarcity mindset is poisoning America. Far too many municipal, county, state and federal agencies have lost their way fighting over crumbs, wasting time, and distracting everyone from the ultimate goal: planning for the next economy.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of breeding competition, scarcity is the platform from which creativity is flourishing in several clusters of Chicago suburbs. Still reeling from the housing crisis, these groups of neighboring communities are demonstrating a more optimistic and effective approach to their problems by working together across borders to rehabilitate, revitalize and re-imagine the local housing stock. They are flipping the script on scarcity by collaborating, which is allowing them to do more with less — and, in so doing, provide greater opportunities to more people in their communities.
Their collaboration is paying off — literally and figuratively. On July 11, the state of Illinois awarded $6.6 million to the Chicago Southland Housing and Community Development Collaborative, some 20-plus suburbs working together to target limited foreclosure recovery funding to areas near job centers and rail lines. Read More »
David Cieslewicz / Jul 16 2011
For Release Saturday, July 16, 2011
Citiwire.net
For years the mantra for cities has been that we need to compete for young talent. We’re just starting to understand the need to compete for experience and to accommodate the aging.
A recent interesting Associated Press story describes how progressive cities like New York and Portland are starting to think about how well they work for the mass of aging Baby Boomers who will inhabit them.
There are 77 million of us BB’s born between 1946 and 1964. As we moved through life we changed everything. When we were young adults we changed social mores, higher education and politics. When we started families we changed the way families function. Now that we’re graying we’ll change the way we think about aging.
I know how annoying this is to our parents and our kids. Boomers can be obnoxious with our sense of self-importance. Nonetheless, you can’t argue with the numbers. We’re important just because there’s so damn many of us and because we have very different ideas then generations that came before us. And, for the most part, I think you have to admit that we changed most things for the better. (Please ignore the 1970′s. We made big hair mistakes among other things.)
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Roberta Brandes Gratz / Jul 07 2011
For Release Thursday, July 7, 2011
Citiwire.net
In 1969, Walter Cronkite, in one of his nightly newscasts, called Chattanooga “the dirtiest city in America.” The pollution was so thick that drivers needed headlights to see through the fog, men took two white shirts to work for morning and afternoon, and respiratory deaths were 20 percent higher than national average. Today, Chattanooga is one of the cleanest cities; its success on a number of fronts has raised concern of being too successful.
The city is indeed blessed with the spectacular Tennessee River snaking through it, a setting surrounded by small mountains and woodlands filled with recreational attractions. The 1970 Clean Air Act forced the issue of pollution and by 1972 clean air standards were met. In the meantime, the city was working on big plans for change.
“We were the smart ones,” Mayor Ron Littlefield, a professional planner, told a meeting with the Citistates Group last week. “The city produced a detailed plan, colorful documents and maps, gathered lots of figures and then delivered them to the people. We figured they would recognize our genius and run with it.”
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Richard Louv / Jul 01 2011
For Release Friday, July 1, 2011
Citiwire.net
In 2009, Janet Ady of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stood before a crowd of grassroots leaders gathered by the Children & Nature Network. She held up an outsized pharmacy bottle. Within the bottle was a physician’s prescription — one that would be as appropriate for adults as it would be for children.
The contents of the medicine bottle included a variety of information, including a Web address to National Wildlife Refuges, a guide to animal tracks, Leave No Trace tips, a link to information on planting native vegetation to help bring back butterfly and bird migration routes, a Power Bar, and other items — including a temporary tattoo of migratory birds.
The label read: Directions: Use daily, outdoors in nature. Go on a nature walk, watch birds, and observe trees. Practice respectful outdoor behavior in solitude or take with friends and family. Refill: Unlimited. Expires: Never.
Here’s a cost-effective way to improve the health of children and adults.
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