2013 April

16 Apr: First Vibrant NEO Workshop only 2 Weeks Away – Have You Registered Yet?

What are you doing April 30, May 1 or May 2?  Creating NEO’s Future Depends on You? Speak up and voice your opinions about OUR home! What brought you to Northeast Ohio? What keeps you here? What do you value most about Northeast Ohio? What will keep you and your family here in the future? The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC) will be hosting a series of workshops to create a vision for a Vibrant NEO in the year 2040. Workshops will be two hours long and will be held at various locations throughout the region.  Please feel free to pick the time and location that is most convenient for you, regardless of your county of residence. Your help is needed to help NEOSCC focus the workshops on issues that are most important to YOU – today and in the future! CLICK ON THE BLUE LINKS BELOW TO REGISTER! ALL WORKSHOPS…

11 Apr: The Oberlin Project

The Oberlin Project is a joint effort of the City of Oberlin, Oberlin College, and private and institutional partners to improve the resilience, prosperity, and sustainability of the Oberlin Community. The City of Oberlin is located in southwest Lorain County, less than 10 miles from Elyria. In 2012, the city was named a “Best Hometown” by Ohio Magazine.[1] Oberlin College & Conservatory is a four-year liberal arts college and conservatory of music. Founded in 1833, the school counts approximately 2,900 students.[2] The Oberlin Project’s aim is to revitalize the local economy, eliminate carbon emissions, restore local agriculture, food supply and forestry, and create a new, sustainable base for economic and community development.[3] The Oberlin Project was founded by Professor David W. Orr and is currently managed by Bryan Stubbs. David Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President of Oberlin…

10 Apr: Have you signed up yet? Less than three weeks until first Vibrant NEO Work Shop

Help create a more sustainable Northeast Ohio The VibrantNEO process uses public workshops to look at the future of our Northeast Ohio.  What will it look like in 2040 if we keep doing what we’re doing?  What are the potential outcomes if we do things differently?  To answer these questions, we need to understand our values and priorities. This first round of VibrantNEO public workshops revolves around a scenario called “Business‐As‐Usual.”  It outlines what Northeast Ohio’s future will look like if we keep doing what we are currently doing.  We need your help to define what we value and what’s most important to this region as we start to create a vision for Northeast Ohio’s future.  We can only answer these questions together! Pick a date and location that’s most convenient for you and join us!  All events begin with an open house and registration from 5:30 – 6:30 PM….

09 Apr: Keep Akron Beautiful Initiative

Keep Akron Beautiful is encouraging all area residents to get involved in the 2013 Great American Cleanup™, by participating in the 32nd annual Clean Up Akron Month during April 2013. This year, we are cleaning up for an entire month, with the culmination event taking place on SUPER SATURDAY, April 27, 2013 at the Akron Zoological Park. We look forward to cleaning up with you, your civic groups and your families in April. For 32 years Keep Akron Beautiful has been working to recruit thousands of civic-minded volunteers to adopt a public parcel of land to clean during Clean Up Akr on Week. This year, Akron volunteers will be joined by volunteers from 1,200 affiliates of Keep America Beautiful around the country to participate in the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program that harnesses 4 million volunteers to build vibrant communities. Each year, we engage volunteers to take action…

08 Apr: Stark County Area Transportation Public Meeting on Wednesday

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is developing the State Fiscal Year 2014-2017 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). The STIP is the four-year plan listing highway, transit, pedestrian and bicycle projects that will occur throughout Ohio for the next  four fiscal years. Projects are derived from Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO), ODOT Central and District Offices, and from others throughout the State. This includes projects originated from the Stark County Area Transportation Study (SCATS), which is the MPO for Stark County. As part of the public involvement process, SCATS will hold a Public Meeting at the Stark County District Library Main Branch on Wednesday, April 10th, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. You are invited to review and comment on the current list of projects scheduled by ODOT for state fiscal years 2014-2017 as well as the SCATS 2014-2017 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and SCATS 2040 Long Range Plan. For more information,…

04 Apr: Policies and Strategies in Shrinking Cities

On Thursday, March 28, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany (TUD), and German Marshall Fund (GMF) hosted a workshop in Youngstown titled: Policies and Strategies in Shrinking Cities: The Case of Youngstown, Ohio. The event was attended by more than 60 people including: stakeholders from throughout Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and representatives from the cities of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Akron. The invitation only workshop included a site visit of abandoned industrial sites with potential for reuse, an expert panel discussion, and presentation of redevelopment ideas from urban planning students from the Technical University of Dortmund. The expert panel discussion included Alan Mallach, Brookings Institution; Lavea Brachman, Greater Ohio Policy Center; Professor Thorsten Wiechmann, Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, and Ian Beniston, YNDC. The students’ redevelopment ideas included opportunities to reconnect Youngstown to its riverfront and industrial heritage and integrated best practice ideas from the Ruhr…

03 Apr: ACT: AMATS Engaging Public on Transportation in Greater Akron

The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) invites you to participate in the development of two items key to the future of the Greater Akron area: Transportation Outlook 2035 and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for Fiscal Years 2014 through 2017. Transportation Outlook 2035 is the area’s draft long-range transportation plan of identified needs and recommendations.  The plan includes highway, transit, bike and pedestrian project recommendations that are expected to be completed by 2035.  Transportation Outlook 2035 recommends over $4.3 billion in highway infrastructure investments through 2035, which includes over $2.5 billion for preservation of the existing system.  The draft plan includes investment of over $1.7 billion in the region’s public transportation system and recommends $30 million in bicycle and pedestrian improvements. AMATS Planning Coordinator Krista Beniston says that the draft plan represents the agency’s focus on using the Greater Akron area’s shrinking funding resources wisely.  “These recommendations reflect a…

02 Apr: Imagine MyNEO!

In May, NEOSCC will be launching an on-line engagement tool entitled Imagine MyNEO! Based on an open source software called Crowd Gauge, Imagine MyNEO! will allow the entire region to share their priorities with the Vibrant NEO process. As an introduction to the new tool, we have included an article by Sarah Madden of Sasaki Associates (our Scenario Planning consultant).  It includes background about the creation of the tool and some examples of its previous use. Gauge the values, priorities and preferences of the crowd. by Sarah Madden, Sasaki Associates Web-based technology can help planners promote literacy about planning issues and increase public engagement. We already deploy sophisticated data analysis and modeling tools, but many of these tools are more suitable for back-of-house number crunching than for interactive public engagement. This divide between tools for technicians and tools for engagement is significant:  despite all of the public- and client-facing communication work we do, few…