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Schedule released for Fair Housing Report Review and Presentations

May 17, 2013 in Housing, News

2013 Northeast Ohio Fair Housing Draft Report Review and Presentations

The Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC ) is currently undertaking a study to evaluate fair housing throughout the 12 Counties of Northeast Ohio.  It is known as a Regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice.

The public comment period for the report draft will include on-line, in-print and presentation options for your review.  Provide your knowledge, opinions, and feelings about fair housing choice.

The purpose of the comment period is to allow the public an opportunity to review and comment on the draft findings and suggested recommendations.  COMMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL JULY 9, 2013.  Please note that these are proposed findings and recommendations and are subject to change.  All interested citizens are encouraged to attend any of the public meetings and/ or forward written comments to:  NEOSCC, 146 S. High Street, Suite 800, Akron, OH 44308 or akobak@neoscc.org.

State and Federal fair housing laws prohibit discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, familial status, ancestry or military status.

Schedule

On-Line or In Print Review

June 10 – July 9

Three-volume draft study available for public comment online at www.vibrantneo.org or may be reviewed at the following location (fees may apply for copies):

  • NEOSCC, 146 S. High Street, Suite 800, Akron, OH

Presentations

June 18

  • 9:00am – Mahoning County, Covelli Centre (Community Room), 229 E. Front St., Youngstown
  • 11:30am – Trumbull County, The Wean Foundation (Western Reserve Room), 147 W. Market St., Warren
  • 2:30pm – Lake & Geauga Counties, Mentor Municipal Center, City Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, 8500 Civic Center Blvd., Mentor
  • 7:00pm – Ashtabula County, Ashtabula County Old Courthouse, Commissioners Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, 25 W. Jefferson St., Jefferson

June 19

  • 9:00am – Portage County, Portage County Regional Planning Commission,  124 N. Prospect St., Ravenna
  • 11:30am – Summit County, Akron Urban League (President’s Hall), 440 Vernon Odom Blvd., Akron
  • 2:30pm – Medina County, City of Medina, City Hall (Multi-purpose Room),  132 North Elmwood Ave., Medina
  • 7:00pm – Stark & Wayne Counties, The Lillian Beane Center, 1711 16th Street SE, Massillon

June 20

  • 9:00am – Lorain County, Lorain County Transportation & Community Center, 40 East Ave., Elyria12:00pm – Cuyahoga County, Castell Conference Center at Lutheran Hospital, The Castele Learning & Conference Center, 1730 West 25th St., Cleveland
  • 2:30pm – Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights Community Center, All-Purpose Room, 1 Monticello Blvd., Cleveland Heights

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MassDot Greening the State Transportation System

April 18, 2013 in Transportation

 

Massachusetts Department of Transportation launched GreenDOT, a comprehensive environmental responsibility and sustainability initiative that will make MassDOT a national leader in “greening” the state transportation system. GreenDOT will be driven by three primary goals; reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, promote the healthy transportation options of walking, bicycling, and public transit, and support smart growth development.  In May of 2012, MassDOT released a Draft GreenDOT Implementation Plan for public review. The Plan was written to embed the sustainability vision of GreenDOT into the core business practices of MassDOT. According to the website, GreenDOT calls for MassDOT to incorporate sustainability into all of its activities; from strategic planning to project design and construction to system operation. The initiative includes greenhouse gas reduction targets mandated under the Global Warming Solutions Act, signed by Governor Patrick in 2008. GreenDOT was designed in response to several existing state laws, Executive Orders, and MassDOT policies.

For more information about GreenDot visit the website at http://transportation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2013/03/greendot-plan-leads-the-way-sustainable-transportation.html

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Keep Akron Beautiful Initiative

April 9, 2013 in ACT, Quality Connected Places

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 in our community through programs that deliver positive and lasting impact through events focused on waste reduction, recycling, beautification and community greening

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Imagine MyNEO!

April 2, 2013 in Communications, Engagement, News, Sustainability

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 of today’s data modeling or scenario planning tools were built to be inviting to lay audiences. We need to apply our technological design prowess to facilitating interaction and better engaging the very people our work supports.

Faced with the challenge of engaging people across a spread-out region, Sasaki, PlaceMatters, and the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (DMAMPO) partnered to build a new tool—called CrowdGauge—to help communities achieve better public participation and understanding of trade-offs. CrowdGauge is an open-source framework for creating educational online games. It first asks users to rank a set of priorities, then demonstrates how a series of actions and policies might impact those priorities. The third part of the sequence gives users a limited number of coins, asking them to put that money towards the actions they support most.

We first developed the platform in partnership with the Des Moines Area MPO (DMAMPO) as part of The Tomorrow Plan, a regional plan for sustainable development in the Central Iowa region. The original game, named DesignMyDSM, can be played at designmydsm.thetomorrowplan.com. The study region included 480,000 residents, 17 cities, approximately 540 square miles, and parts of four counties—requiring an outreach strategy that went beyond in-person open houses and workshops. DesignMyDSM captured over 1000 unique users in the region, and was especially effective in the under-40 demographics who typically would not have participated in a traditional community engagement process.

CrowdGauge is entirely open-source and available under the permissive MIT license. Currently, Sasaki is preparing to apply the CrowdGauge platform to the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium Initiative (NEOSCC) in spring 2013, and Denver-based PlaceMatters is beta testing the software for use on other HUD-funded regional planning projects.

As web-based technologies grow in both functionality and beauty, planners have the opportunity to create new places for people to enjoy expressing ideas, solving problems, and realizing goals. Most importantly for planners, web technologies offer the opportunity to help ask interesting questions and confront tradeoffs. Visual design, information architecture, and usability are increasingly important to match the strength of our technical muscle with the complexity of the human experience—which means designing with clarity and user experience in mind.

In the spirit of open source, we are pleased to share this front-end tool with the planning community. We are excited to see the clever applications and brilliant new iterations we will all build next.

 

Credits for information and photo/graphics: 
Sarah Madden, Sasaki
smadden@sasaki.com
crowdgauge.org
designmydsm.thetomorrowplan.com

 

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Learn: What is the cost to live here and get there?

March 28, 2013 in Housing, News, Transportation

As two of the most significant expenses in our personal lives, housing and transportation cost can play a key role in our quality of life and where we choose to live.  Over the last few years a new tool has been developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology to analyze some of these costs relative to income and geography.

To integrate this way of thinking into the choices and decisions made by home buyers, renters, urban and transportation planners, and developers, CNT and our collaborative partner, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), developed a groundbreaking tool, the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, that measures the true affordability of housing choice-by factoring in both housing and transportation costs in a neighborhood.

The cost of getting around takes a significant bite out of household budgets. The average family in the United States spends about 18% of after-tax income on transportation, but this varies significantly by income and geography. The H+T Index establishes an affordability standard for transportation costs of 15% of household income.

The H+T Index offers an expanded view of affordability that combines housing and transportation costs and sets the benchmark for housing and transportation affordability at no more than 45% of household income. By this measure, the number of affordable neighborhoods in the United States drops to 28%.

A regional view of H + T Costs can be found on the Conditions and Trends platform. You can use the index on-line to compare different geographies in Northeast Ohio as well as other parts of the country.

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Fair Housing Forums – Presentations Now Available

March 25, 2013 in Engagement, Housing

The NEOSCC is currently undertaking a study to evaluate fair housing throughout the 12 Counties of Northeast Ohio.  It is known as a Regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. In early March 2013, through a series of Fair Housing Forums, we reached out to each of the 12 Counties to present preliminary data and listen to your thoughts on this important issue.

The documents below represent the data from the presentations given in each County during the week of March 11 through 15.

Please continue to provide your feedback through our Fair Housing Surveys or by emailing comments to info@neoscc.org.

Presentations by County

Ashtabula County FHF

Cuyahoga County FHF

Geauga County FHF

Lake County FHF

Lorain County FHF

Mahoning County FHF

Medina County FHF

Portage County FHF

Summit County FHF

Stark County FHF

Trumbull County FHF

Wayne County FHF

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Share: What makes Northeast Ohio Vibrant?

March 20, 2013 in Engagement, News

Lakewood Beach

The story of the Northeast Ohio region begins with you. What makes Northeast Ohio special for you? What would you change if you could? MyVibrantNEO is an opportunity for local residents to share their experiences with NEOSCC and the broader region. Submissions can be in many formats, including photos, videos, essays, songs, poems, and more!
Northeast Ohio is your region, and it’s important for you to share why you love it and what you would improve. Using your input, we can gain further understanding of what we can do to encourage a more vibrant and sustainable future for Northeast Ohio. We would love for you to be involved in this ongoing conversation!

 

NEOSCC has already received some submissions, but it’s not too late to let your voice be heard! Some of the submissions thus far include photos of locals enjoying the Mahoning Riverfest, the sunset at Lakewood Park, and locals enjoying a canoe excursion at the Trumbull Canoe Trails Club Picnic. Submissions will be displayed on NEOSCC’s website, and the best submissions will become a part of NEOSCC’s ongoing engagement campaign! And, of course, you will be credited whenever your submission is used.

To view the submission gallery or upload your entry click here.

Share your piece of Northeast Ohio with NEOSCC, and tell the region what you love about your community!

What Can I Do Today?

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Thriving Communities Institute: From Vacancy to Vitality

March 19, 2013 in ACT, Conditions and Trends, economic development, Housing, News, Toolkiit

In 2011, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy launched an effort to combat the devastating impact of abandonment and disinvestment on Northeast Ohio’s core cities. Entitled the “Thriving Communities Institute,” the initiative targeted the reduction of vacant residential properties, primarily through demolition. These properties, according to Institute Director Jim Rokakis, reduce property values in our neighborhoods. Studies show that one vacant property on a street will significantlyreduce the value of adjacent homes. Soon, due to loss of value, foreclosures and “bank walk-aways,” the nearby homes become vacant as the disease spreads. Soon the entire neighborhood is dead and diseased, having been destroyed by this contagious and toxic process. Then the adjacent areas are infected and the disease spreads further … predictably, relentlessly, and with devastating consequences.

The impact of disinvestment in the urban core also has negative implications for the region’s natural environment. Depressed urban markets drive potential residents further away from the center and into suburban and exurban communities. The demand for housing and retail services away from the core increases development pressure on previously undeveloped open spaces and agricultural lands. The abandoned housing left behind prevents reuse of urban properties for urban gardens, parks, and greenways. Residential vacancies cause unnecessary consumption of “greenfield” land for development while prohibiting the repurposing of unoccupied land for environmental remediation; it is a two-edged sword.

According to Director Jim Rokakis, Thriving Communities Institute is already lending its hand to transform vacant and unproductive properties into new opportunities to attract economic growth, to bring green space to the region’s cities, and to support safe, beautiful neighborhoods. In working with community leaders in Northeast Ohio, the Institute has learned that urban revitalization is a process, one with many steps supported by great partnerships. Thriving Communities is helping secure vacant, unhealthy properties by establishing and supporting county land banks throughout the region. County land banks provide counties with much-needed ability to quickly acquire foreclosed and vacant property. These land banks can safely hold a distressed property, clean its title, and prepare it for a better day. The goal is to secure vacant properties – which would otherwise attract crime, lower neighboring home values, and incur public services costs – so that they can be put to better use in the future.

Additional information about the Thriving Communities Institute is available through their website: http://thrivingcommunitiesinstitute.org/. This site includes opportunities to provide support, become better engaged, and share stories or photographs. Questions about the Institute may be directed to either Jim Rokakis (jrokakis@wrlandconservancy.org) or Robin Thomas (rthomas@wrlandconservancy.org).

What Can I Do Today?

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City of Cleveland Seeks Input: Climate Action

March 18, 2013 in cleveland, climate action, Environment, News

The City of Cleveland Mayor’s Office of Sustainability is leading a community process to create a Climate Action Plan (CAP) to not only reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but also plan for changes in the climate that will affect Clevelanders. The CAP is crucial to making Cleveland a more sustainable community. The City of Cleveland is examining how planning, policy, funding, infrastructure and land development decisions affect GHG emissions and local resilience to the impacts of climate change. The City of Cleveland needs your input to help create goals, actions, and policies that are both bold and achievable, to tailor national best practices to Cleveland, and to take Cleveland to the next level with an integrated and more detailed approach to sustainability and climate action planning.

There are two ways to get involved in this process:

  1. Participating online at The Civic Commons. Join the conversation here. 
  2. Save the Date and attend the Public Meeting, on April 11, 2013, from 5:30-7:30pm at Tri-C Main Campus

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Digi-NEO…facts about Northeast Ohio

March 15, 2013 in Conditions and Trends, Connections, Engagement, Environment, News, Quality Connected Places, Transportation

During the course of developing the NEOSCC Conditions and Trends Platform, we developed 33 findings across the subject matter areas of economic development, transportation, housing, the environment and quality connected places in Northeast Ohio.  In order to communicate some of these findings, we have developed the Digi-NEO program which highlights different facts about the region’s successes as well as its challenges.

Visit our Digi NEO Gallery to learn more about our region.

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