2012 November

30 Nov: What is a Public Housing Authority?

NEOSCC counts numerous Public Housing Authorities among its membership.  Shawna Daugherty of Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority prepared a NEO 101 Series presentation on “What is a Public Housing Authority?” to educate our board on the different aspects of PHA’s.  Here are a few facts: Public Housing Authorities (PHA)provide housing and rental assistance to low-income families through two programs: Public Housing With this method, the PHA owns and manages properties. Approximately 1.2 million families reside in public housing around the country. Properties range from single family homes to high-rise apartments. Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) This method allows families to use a voucher anywhere a landlord is willing to accept it. The housing authority will subsidize the rent and utilities. Voucher programs serve about 3 million families nationwide. Beyond these core services, PHA’s offer a variety of ancillary community services in support of their housing developments. There are a number of community partners…

27 Nov: Eastgate Surveys Transportation Needs of Elderly and Disabled

Eastgate Council of Regional Governments, a NEOSCC Board Member, and the Western Reserve Independent Living Center (WRILC) are working together to help improve the delivery of transportation services and options for older adults, and persons with disabilities. The WRILC is a non-profit community based non-residential center dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities. The two surveys below will help with the four-county coordinated transportation network. Download the surveys for a chance to win a drawing that is sponsored by the WRILC. To take the transportation provider survey, please click here. To take the transportation services survey, please click here. Interested in more information on Eastgate, access their newsletter here.   What Can I do Today? Learn: Discover our Digi-NEO Gallery of Facts about NEO Act: Become a member of the Conditions and Trends Platform and let us know what you think about our findings Act: Attend our Board Meeting in Summit County

26 Nov: Finding the tools to keep Northeast Ohio’s future bright

In The Plain Dealer yesterday, Hunter Morrison, NEOSCC Executive Director and Jason Segedy, NEOSCC Board Chair contributed a guest column, “Finding the tools to keep Northeast Ohio’s future bright”,  to the Forum section discussing NEOSCC, the Conditions and Trends Platform and Vibrant NEO 2040.  Here is an excerpt from the piece: Admit it: You love Northeast Ohio. You love the people, or the history, the museums, the food, or the parks and the sports. For all of us, there are aspects of our region about which we are proud, unique qualities that make it a great place to live. We all want to see the things that we love about Northeast Ohio thrive and grow, just as we would like to see the challenges facing our region addressed and put behind us. The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium works to help residents preserve and build upon what we value, and to fix…

21 Nov: A Visit to Summit County

As a conclusion to the first half of our 12 Counties in 12 Months program, NEOSCC will be taking our board meeting to Summit County on Tuesday, November 27.  This will cap a six month tour of Mahoning, Lorain, Stark, Cuyahoga, Ashtabula and Summit.  To avoid potential weather difficulties in the winter months, we will be restarting the tour in April with the remaining six counties.  NEOSCC counts many organizations as part of our board member organizations: the City of Akron, Summit County, Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS), Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Akron Urban League, Summit County Health District and NEFCO. Prior to the meeting, Summit County leaders will introduce NEOSCC board members to local assets and successful projects via a bus tour. While traveling around the county, the group will discuss the Summit Lake Community Center, Bridgestone, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, the University Park Alliance, The Austen BioInnovation…

20 Nov: Via Good…Infographic: How to Have a 100-Mile Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, we wanted to share a recent post from the Good website proposing a 100 mile Thanksgiving challenge.  Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of using less fuel and supporting local farms and food artisans, we challenge you to try a 100-mile Thanksgiving. A 100-mile Thanksgiving uses ingredients sourced from within 100 miles of your dinner table. Think of it as an opportunity to celebrate local food, rather than an obligation to source every last ingredient from within 100 miles. Food miles, or the amount of miles a certain product has traveled to its final destination, are an important consideration when trying to reduce your carbon footprint and the amount of oil and gasoline used in making a meal. What Can I Do Today? Learn: Visit NEO Food Web for information on Local Food Act: Visit the Local Food Network to get involved Share your thoughts on our…

19 Nov: Lots of Green in Youngstown

Back in June, NEOSCC took its board meeting to Mahoning County.  As part of our 12 Counties in 12 Months Program, the NEOSCC Board had an opportunity to tour some of Youngstown’s unique assets as well as some of the redevelopment work that is occurring. Part of the tour was led by Youngstown Neighborhood Development Council (YNDC), a multifaceted neighborhood development organization launched in 2009 in partnership with the City of Youngstown and The Raymond John Wean Foundation to catalyze strategic neighborhood reinvestment in neighborhoods throughout the city.  YNDC highlighted some of the neighborhood revitalization work during the tour. We wanted to showcase a recent YNDC publication:  Lots of Green 2012 Impact Report. YNDC’s Lots of Green program is a nationally-recognized, vacant land reuse strategy implemented in Youngstown neighborhoods by the YNDC and multiple partner organizations. The program engages residents and volunteers through several programs, including Iron Roots Urban Farm, Market Gardener Training, Community Gardens,…

16 Nov: Collaborating on Shared Services

Across the state of Ohio, communities are utilizing shared services to improve their operations and reduce costs. Learn more about these opportunities at the upcoming  Shared Services Expo on November 27 at Ideastream from 8:00 to 2:30. The program will highlight successful shared services programs and provide practical advice to those interested in collaborative shared service projects. Keynote speakers include Former U.S. Senator George Voinovich, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald and Controlling Board President and Policy Advisor Randy Cole. Interested in finding out what shared service collaborations are already underway in the region before the Expo? Check out EfficientGovNetwork, a sponsor of the Expo, for details. Preregistration required due to limited capacity. Registration is $50, and includes a continental breakfast, box lunch and conference materials. For more information What Can I Do Today? Act: Register to attend Countryside Conservancy’s Exploring the small farm dream Event on November 19 Act: Attend the Cleveland…

15 Nov: Northeast Ohio has a story…help us tell it

Northeast Ohio has a story. Help us tell it. You are an expert on your piece of Northeast Ohio. No one else knows your experiences better than you. As part of the Vibrant NEO 2040 initiative, we want to tell stories about what makes Northeast Ohio such an extraordinary place to call home. Through these stories we can all have a better sense of what we need to create a more vibrant, resilient and sustainable present and future Northeast Ohio. MyVibrantNEO wants you! In fact, it IS you! What do you love about our region? What needs work? We started the MyVibrantNEO campaign to help connect Northeast Ohioans as part of a conversation about what makes each community great, and what could make each community better. Visit MyVibrantNEO to learn more.

14 Nov: Redeveloping East Liberty Neighborhood, Pittsburgh

As part of a grantee peer-to-peer exchange in Pittsburgh this week, we were given a tour of the East Liberty Neighborhood redevelopment project. From the East Liberty Development Corporation’s website: Our first community plan, A Vision for East Liberty, produced in 1999, helped guide our neighborhood’s recovery from urban renewal efforts. Recognizing the success that followed the 1999 plan, we decided to come together again to include new and old neighbors and expand and refine our vision. Through a process of community meetings, a broad range of people who live, work, shop, play, worship, and invest in East Liberty shared our love for the neighborhood, our concerns, and our dreams for its future. The guiding principles below, which emerged from these meetings, will guide residents, developers, organizers, and stakeholders through the ever-evolving process of planning and development toward our community’s goals. Over the last 12 years, 1,400 high-rise public housing…

13 Nov: What’s missing from our Library?

In developing our Conditions and Trends Platform, NEOSCC staff, Consortium members and over 150 subject-matter experts distilled information from public policy plans, planning initiatives and other resources from across the region into a comprehensive set of findings about our region. These findings are the heart of this Conditions and Trends Platform. They are not a definitive list; instead, they are a starting point for understanding our region. And there are no solutions or recommendations within these findings; any recommendations resulting from NEOSCC’s work will be developed in collaboration with Northeast Ohio’s leaders and residents. This information included 100’s of planning efforts completed and underway throughout Northeast Ohio. NEOSCC has compiled pre-existing policy plans and initiatives that are available across the Ohio region into a searchable database.  Our question to you is… what is missing?  Visit our Vibrant NEO 2040 Library and let us know.   What Can I Do Today? Learn: Discover our…