Metro Organizer: Equitable Development UpdatesAugust 12, 2008 | |
Event | Region: Law, Policy and the Future of the Twin Cities Resource | 2007 Housing Counts Report Resource | Transportation Performance in the Twin Cities Region Resource | The Effects of Inclusionary Zoning on Local Housing Markets Article | Metros Move to Forge Their Own Transit Futures Article | Pockets of Poverty on the Rise in the Twin Cities Job Opportunity | 2008 Careership - Twin Cities LISC Event | How to Save the World One Block at a Time - Placemaking and the Untapped Power of Neighborhoods The Cuningham Group's August Urban Currents program will feature Jay Walljasper, who will speak about placemaking and the untapped power of neighborhoods. Walljasper is a fellow and editor at On the Commons, an organization devoted to restoring an appreciation of common purpose and common assets to contemporary life, and senior fellow at Project for Public Spaces, a New York-based organization that helps citizens enliven their communities by improving public places. Walljasper is also editor-at-large at Ode magazine, author of The Great Neighborhood Book (2007, New Society) and the former editor of Utne Reader. Event | Tools for Radical Democracy - Reflections from the Twin Cities Social Justice Community Whether you made the first book club or not, please join us for a discussion on the second half of the book on Tuesday, August 26. We’ll meet at the rooftop garden of the Phillips Eco-Enterprise building to discuss Part 3 (Developing and Running Campaigns) and Part 4 (Building a Movement). Free books are still available from the Headwaters Foundation by contacting Jennifer at jennifer@headwaters.org. Event | Region: Law, Policy and the Future of the Twin Cities The University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute on Race & Poverty, in cooperation with the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities and the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, invites you to attend Region: Law, Policy and the Future of the Twin Cities. The conference will highlight the demographic, transportation, education and land use challenges facing the Twin Cities, and the available policy alternatives, given the metro’s unique regional and local governance structures. Speakers will include Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Metropolitan Council Chair Peter Bell. This event is free, but please register (PDF). Resource | 2007 Housing Counts Report HousingLink and the Family Housing Fund have released a new resource in affordable housing: the 2007 Housing Counts report (PDF). Housing Counts measures affordable housing production and preservation in the Twin Cities seven-county metro area. The report is issued annually so stakeholders in the affordable housing community can track yearly production and preservation progress using common data. Resource | Transportation Performance in the Twin Cities Region "If you don't measure results, you can't tell success from failure." So begins a report released this week by Alliance member group Transit for Livable Communities and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. The report suggests that the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council are not adequately measuring the key indicators that would drive Minnesota to address the challenges of rising gas prices, an aging population and climate change. See the full report at Transit for Livable Communities' web site.
Resource | The Effects of Inclusionary Zoning on Local Housing Markets Inclusionary zoning is a policy tool that ties the production of affordable homes to the production of new market-rate housing by requiring, or providing incentives to encourage, developers to reserve a share of units in new residential developments for low- or moderate-income households. While hundreds of communities have established inclusionary zoning programs since the first policy was adopted in 1972, relatively little is known about the effects of these programs on local housing markets. This inclusionary zoning report from the Center for Housing Policy helps to advance the current understanding of inclusionary zoning by answering the following questions about programs in three metropolitan areas: What kinds of jurisdictions have adopted inclusionary zoning programs? How much affordable housing has been produced by these programs, and what factors have influenced production levels? What effects have inclusionary zoning programs had on the price and production of market-rate housing in these markets?
Article | Minnesotans Urge Action to Create Green Jobs Union members, environmentalists and other citizens rallied on July 27 to call on Governor Tim Pawlenty and other elected leaders to create and implement a plan for “green jobs.” While climate change is a threat to the planet, it can spur the creation of a green economy and millions of good-paying jobs. Read more about the rally in the Twin Cities Daily Planet. And check out Alliance board member Rachel Dykoski's commentary Green Jobs, Now!, written on behalf of Alliance member group Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota America’s major metro regions may be on the verge of transit independence. They tap federal aid whenever they can. But increasingly they’re being obliged to find money for system expansion right at home. They’re learning to get cities and suburbs on the same page as they prepare for a post-petroleum age. And where they’re not succeeding, anger is mounting. Read more from Citiwire.net. Article | Pockets of Poverty on the Rise in the Twin Cities The Brookings Institution released a report this week indicating that major metropolitan areas are experiencing a rise in concentrated poverty. Poor people who live in neighborhoods with high poverty levels face a "double burden," researchers argue in the study. "Very poor neighborhoods tend to have under performing schools, higher crime rates, less private investment in these communities and less job opportunities for people living there," a senior research analyst is quoted as saying in an article from the Star Tribune. According to the study, concentrated poverty rates in the Twin Cities rose from zero percent in 1999 to 3.4 percent in 2005. Alliance Executive Director Russ Adams offered a counter argument to the Brookings Institution's assertion that the rise in concentrated poverty represents "lost ground." "It's not enough to say, 'isn't this terrible?'" he said. "You have to tackle it from all angles. We should never blame people for being poor and choosing to live close together. We should always give them more opportunities, build more affordable housing and create more mobility and access for them to get better jobs." Job Opportunity | 2008 Careership - Twin Cities LISC A careership is a mid-career apprenticeship program dedicated to training new leaders, particularly people of color, for professional positions in the community development field. Careership apprentices attend a community development seminar at Metro State University and are supported by LISC staff throughout their one-year term and beyond. Careership apprentices work 15 hours per week for one year, to acquire job experience from a host organization in the community development field. A $12,000 work stipend is paid to the apprentice over the course of the year. Download a 2008 Careership program brochure (PDF).
The Metro Organizer is a resource to Twin Cities-based organizers who work on racial, environmental and economic justice issues. The newsletter keeps organizers connected to the most recent and valuable information related to organizing, equitable development and regional equity. To contribute a news item for the next Metro Organizer, please contact Tracy Nordquist at tracy@metrostability.org. Like the Metro Organizer? Donate to the Alliance. Get this from a friend? Subscribe to the Metro Organizer.
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