NEOSCC Board approves release of Vibrant NEO 2040 Vision, Framework and Products Member organizations to now consider Vision for approval The Board of Directors of the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium (NEOSCC) yesterday voted to release the Vibrant NEO 2040 Vision, Products and Framework documents to NEOSCC member organizations for review, consideration and potential vote of approval. The NEOSCC Board will take a final vote on approval of the Vision at its February 25, 2014 meeting. You can review the board meeting presentation above. “Over the course of the last year, NEOSCC has engaged residents, elected officials, and experts throughout our 12-county region in a rigorous scenario planning process to identify the choices we can make now to help create a Northeast Ohio that is more vibrant, resilient, and sustainable in the future,” said Hunter Morrison, NEOSCC Executive Director. “Based on input and feedback from residents and leaders, the overarching…
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In the Record-Courier today, the paper endorses the Vibrant NEO 2040 Vision saying: The better way to confront our future is to deal with what is here, cleaning up the mess, shouldering our obligations to leave a better world for all. That’s the kind of thinking the people behind Vibrant NEO 2040 are trying to stimulate and hats off to them for doing so. You can read the entire piece here. We were also featured in the Warren Tribune-Chronicle recently as well: Laying out a future for the entire northeastern Ohio region – plans that include economic development, revitalization of jobs and creation of quality living environments – is a daunting task, and one that Vibrant NEO has boiled down to three major components it presented Thursday. Continue reading here. You can also check out the coverage in Lorain County Morning Journal here, the Cleveland Plain Dealer here and WKSU here.
Today kicks off the next round of Vibrant NEO Open Houses where we will look at Alternative Scenarios – different potential futures for Northeast Ohio – that could result from different choices. These are critically important discussions. The entire Vibrant NEO process is an attempt to help the residents of Northeast Ohio define what we want for the future, and then determine what choices we need to make in order to get to the future. The first round of workshops in early May helped to define a baseline for discussion – i.e. what will Northeast Ohio look like in 2040 is we continue our currents trends. (You can learn more about these findings here.) We gathered input from residents at those workshops, and later through ImagineMyNEO, our online planning tool which is still open for use. That input has helped us create Alternative Scenarios that you can view and discuss at our Open…
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…
Interested in learning more about the Vibrant NEO process and the schedule for the rest of the year? Download our new overview piece, What future do YOU want for Northeast Ohio?
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.