Keep Scrolling for 3E Links!
January
19, 2006
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EVENTS
(Click on Links)
·
Eighth
Annual Summit Against Racism
·
Join
Save Our Transit at the Bus Riders Rally
·
Nexus
The Pittsburgh Dialogue for Volunteers, Philanthropists, and Activists
·
Global Warming 2006 An
Activist's Primer
·
Reinventing
Older Communities: People, Places, Markets
·
Save
the Date: 6th Annual Southwestern
Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference
·
Save
the Date: Sustainable Sweden Tour
LEGISLATIVE
ALERTS
·
Credit
Reporting and Property Donation Bills SB 640 and HB 459
LAND
USE NEWS AROUND THE REGION
·
Monroeville OKs new
billboard zoning
·
Winter doesn't slow down
development
·
Committee to examine
undeveloped areas
·
Borough taking steps
to welcome B&Bs
·
New hotel going in over
Nakama
·
Hillcrest Acres
residents organize to oppose plan
·
Shops, up to 550 homes
planned for Koppers site
RESOURCES
·
Urban Colleges Learn to
Be Good Neighbors
·
2006 Community
Revitalization Awards Competition
·
City approves $18
million for Downtown development
·
'Day surge' puts 41%
more people in the city
·
Pa. lobbying costs
average $1.4 million per senator
·
Time at hand to downsize
state Legislature?
·
Green Energy Begins to
Make Sense
·
How bricks and mortar
can help save the planet
·
In Appreciation of Small
Towns
·
AAA is among the groups
lobbying Harrisburg to kill a program that would reduce vehicle emissions.
·
Plants not getting the
pollinators they need
Saturday,
January 21
8:30
am – 2:30 pm
Cost:
$20 or $10 for low income, under 18, or groups of 10 or more.
For
more information: 412-758-7898, B-PEP or 412-441-3800 ELPC
Opening Plenary and Discussion: Showing of documentary "Enough is
ENOUGH: The Death of Jonny Gammage." Film producer, Billy Jackson will
moderate workshop topics including: Police brutality and misconduct, Community
and Police relations, and Criminalization of Youth Art Expression Space -
Opportunities for participants in the summit to express their views/experience
of racism. Enjoy quilting, painting, music, poetry, spoken word, etc.
Thursday,
January 26
8:30
– 9:00 am
Downtown
Speak up and share why you care about public transit!
Tell your friends and family!! Neighbors!! Or anyone else you know who cares
about this issue! Let the TFRC
members know that you care about a dedicated, predictable, reliable, and growing
source of funding for public transit! You
can make a difference.
Monday,
January 30
Refreshments:
5:30 pm; Program: 6:15
The
Cabaret at
Seventh
Street and
Downtown
Parking
at
Please
register in advance: call
412-227-6814 or visit www.rmu.edu/bcnm
We need your voice! Volunteers, philanthropists and activists hold the
keys to engaging our entire community in the work of building the best possible
future for our region. As part of Nexus, a series of national nonprofit leaders
will visit
Join us as we discuss the powerful community solutions forged across
Saturday,
March 25
Coraopolis
Participants will learn the latest on global warming science, hear from
experts on federal and state policy and network with other activists from across
the state and region.
Wednesday,
April 5- Friday, April 7
Hyatt
Regency
Early
Bird (Before February 28) $275
Regular
(Before March 15) $300
Late:
(After March 15) $325
For
more information: email info@communityaffairs@phil.frb.org
or call 215-574-6458
This year's conference has been designed around three themes: people,
places and markets. Diverse topics will include changing racial patterns,
improving health in urban communities, and re-establishing neighborhoods by
cleaning brown fields, transit stations and the buildings around them to harness
positive market and demographic changes.
Co sponsors of the event are the Federal Reserve Bank of
Coming Together to Revitalize Our Communities:
RenewSWPA Cross-Community and
Friday, May 19
7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Omni William Penn Hotel,
Keynote: David
Soule, Associate Director
Center for
Urban & Regional Policy, Northeastern University
Cost: Early
Registration: $30. Registration
after May 12: $40 (free to elected officials)
Call (412)
258-6642 for early registration
The 2006 SWPA Smart Growth Conference will address
strategies to revitalize the region's core communities and seek to identify a
set of policy opportunities around which there is consensus for collaboration.
Leading up to the conference, a series of
community forums will be orchestrated around the region to identify common barriers
and opportunities to redevelopment. Common needs and policy options identified
through the forums will be presented at the annual conference toward
developing consensus on policies to renew
Please mark your calendars for May 19 and
register early.
The annual Smart Growth conference and regional
forums are hosted by the Regional Coalition of Community Builders, Southwestern
Pennsylvania Commission,
Tuesday, June 6- Saturday, June 10
Sponsored by Sustainable
Description: http://www.sustainablesweden.org/tours/sustour2006.pdf
Description and photographs of 2004 tour: http://www.sustainablepittsburgh.org/NewFrontPage/EcoMunicipalities/Eco_Municipalities_Sweden.html#Projects
Contact:
Susanne Erickson+46 (0) 8-618 06 10
Mona Pettersson Lahti +46 (0) 90-786 13 90
Sustainable community
development is this year's tour theme of one of the world's most progressive and
committed sustainable countries. Cities and communities to be visited during the
tour include:
Helsingborg, Falkenberg,
·Eco-Municipalities
·Energy
·Sustainable Business
·Bio-Diversity
·Sustainable Planning
·Sustainable
Construction and many more topics
SB 640 amends the
Municipal Claim and Tax Lien Law (applies to
HB 459 and SB 640 would
require the counties to maintain such information. Counties would then have the
option of providing these lists to credit reporting bureaus. Property tax
delinquencies could then be reported on credit reports, so that when a property
owner attempts to make a consumer purchase on credit, the tax delinquencies will
appear.
Since many, if not
most, vacant properties are also tax delinquent, SB 640 and HB 459 provide an
incentive to owners to donate their properties in exchange for tax forgiveness.
The bills lay out a system by which all effected taxing authorities are notified
and given an opportunity to participate in negotiations. No taxing authority
would be required to accept a property it does not want. By establishing such a
system, properties can be acquired more easily and returned to the tax rolls
more efficiently.
To read the entire text
of SB 640 http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/ALL/2005/0/SB0640.HTM
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06012/636314.stm
Winter is usually quiet in terms of development
in
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/tribnorth/s_412152.html
Members of Plum Borough's impact fee committee
are on a mission to predict the future -- or at the very least they will try.
The 10-member committee has the next three or four months to figure out
what is the highest and best use for each undeveloped parcel in the borough.
http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/plumadvanceleader/57208/
After slamming the door on a woman's request to
operate a bed and breakfast in town, Delmont council may now be rolling out a
welcome mat for them as early as February.
http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/murrysvillestar/57298/
Inspiration rarely proves as convenient as when
Fort Myers, Fla.-based developer Phil Hugh had dinner with a friend at Nakama,
a Japanese steak house on
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/01/16/story7.html?jst=cn_cn_lk
A group of
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06015/637066.stm
Plans to redevelop the former Koppers chemical
plant adjacent to Interstate 79 in
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06012/636365.stm
County and municipal governments interested in
improving boat access in their communities should contact the Pennsylvania Fish
and Boat Commission, which will begin a new round of funding this year through
its Boating Facility Grant program.
Private groups and non-profit organizations are
not directly eligible, but can partner with local governments if the projects
are on public property. Ramps, floats, parking areas, access roads, and
landscaping are among the projects that can be funded. The deadline for
applications is June 30.
The
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801164.html?sub=new
Hosted by the Federal Home Loan Bank of
Winners will receive three free registrations to
the 2006 National Community Reinvestment Conference to be held March 19 – 22,
2006, in
Please direct any questions to Lena Robinson at
(415) 974-2717 or via e-mail lena.robinson@sf.frb.org
Councilman William Peduto said he wants to know
whether the building will be environmentally friendly, enhance the value of
neighboring buildings, and affect vacancy rates in existing Downtown offices and
hotels, among other things. "These criteria that I'm setting up today are
necessary because the city of
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06019/640574.stm
More than 180,000 suburbanites flow into
Downtown, Oakland and other city neighborhoods each day to work, boosting
Pittsburgh's population by 41 percent, the fourth-highest proportional "day
surge" among large cities in the nation...Jobs inside the city rose from
about 300,000 in 1992 to 320,000 in 2001, the most recent year statistics were
available, he said. "It's pretty amazing that we have had employment in the
city at the same level or higher than it was 20 or 40 years ago," Mr. Briem
said. "That's an amazing juxtaposition when you look at the people we've
lost" in city population...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06015/638256.stm
"These numbers confirm what Pennsylvanians
have long believed: Lobbying is big business, and as the issues legislators
confront become more complex and more contentious, the resources poured into
lobbying will continue to grow," said Senate President Pro Tem Robert C.
Jubelirer, R-Altoona.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06017/639153.stm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06018/639680.stm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06019/640368.stm
One reason is to reduce the cost of government,
he said. For the 2005-06 fiscal year, which ends June 30, the House plans to
spend $204 million on its staff, offices and operations, while the Senate will
spend $106 million, with another $30 million going for bill research and other
legislative agencies...Reducing the size of the Legislature would require a
constitutional amendment. That would involve passage of a bill in two
consecutive sessions and then approval by voters in a statewide November
referendum.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06018/639647.stm
Chinese leaders have pledged to aggressively
increase alternative energy production in their eleventh five-year economic
plan. The message has been spread vociferously at various high-level meetings on
sustainable development and global climate protection in recent months...With
soaring oil prices, frequent electricity shortages all over the country and
worsening pollution, it would seem that the prospects for China's renewable
energy industries have never been better.
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTc5MDU
Early this year, new rules on energy efficiency
came into force in the European Union. As of January 4, a directive on the
energy performance of buildings, which passed into EU law in 2003, should have
been implemented in all member states. There are high hopes for this legislation
as EU research has found that by improving energy efficiency, the carbon
emissions from buildings could be reduced by as much as 22 per cent.
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTc4OTg
Some small towns are in the middle of nowhere.
But that's really somewhere: "now" and "here." Small towns
offer an experience of the present that is wholly unmediated, face to face. With
nowhere to hide, we can stop trying to. And thanks to technology, these places
are no longer isolated from the world outside.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0112-33.htm
The Pennsylvania AAA Federation is lobbying
against the state's Clean Vehicles Program, meant to reduce the air pollution
problem plaguing