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Events

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Less than one week left!

Register now for the 11th annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference: “Smart Growth is Smart Business”

Why is smart growth essential to protecting and enhancing your business investments? Come be part of determining your business's success by engaging in how the region can invest in new patterns of growth to promote economic competitiveness, environmental health, and social equity. The 12/13/11 Smart Growth Conference is an invitation to explore and influence regional strategies for regional prosperity and business opportunity. Over 240 currently registered.

- Read the Economy League’s take on why Smart Growth is Smart Business.

- New Smart Growth Testimonials added. View them here!

Resources Continued

Final days to register! 11th Annual SWPA Smart Growth Conference “Smart Growth is Smart Business”

Keynote:
- Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView "Smart Capital for Smart Growth"

Also featuring:
- Robert Lang, Professor of Sociology and the Director of Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada and Fellow of the Urban Land Institute

Tuesday, December 13
8:00 am - 4:15 pm (Registration begins at 7:30 am)
David L. Lawrence Convention Center, downtown Pittsburgh
Networking Lunch Included
Cost: $45
More information and registration
View video testimonials on the conference web page!

Business leaders increasingly recognize regional growth and development patterns -- guided by principles of smart growth and sustainability -- improve quality of life, lessen the cost of doing business, increase profitability, help reduce tax and infrastructure costs, and contribute to talent recruitment and retention. With the business case of smart growth apparent, the conference will galvanize a 'businesses for smart growth' initiative for southwestern Pennsylvania to spur economic prosperity and extend our region's signature livability to more persons.

The conference will focus on three interrelated smart growth imperatives:
"Business opportunity while building community and regional economy"
- Innovative Finance for smart growth solutions for urban real estate, housing, and metropolitan infrastructure
- Blight and Abandonment - business and economic stakes
- Green Infrastructure - savings for businesses, dividends for developers and communities

Be sure to visit the conference website for more information, including a speakers' list.

The Imperative of Integration: Race and Education

Friday, December 9
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm
School of Social Work Conference Center, 2017 Cathedral of Learning, 20th Floor
Lunch will be provided; registration is not required.
(412) 624-7382 / www.crsp.pitt.edu

The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work Center on Race and Social Problems, as part of the Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Fall 2011 Speaker Series, presents "The Imperative of Integration: Race and Education" featuring Elizabeth Anderson, Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan.

Dr. Anderson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Rawls Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987 and previously taught at Swarthmore College. She is the author of Value in Ethics and Economics (Harvard UP, 1993), The Imperative of Integration (Princeton UP, 2010), and over 60 articles in journals of philosophy, law, and economics. Her research interests include feminist theory, democratic theory, and critical race theory. She has written extensively on affirmative action and racial integration, antidiscrimination law, and egalitarianism.

Marcellus Shale Organizer Training Workshop

Saturday, December 10
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Carnegie Library of Squirrel Hill
RSVP here.
For more information, contact Erika Staaf at estaaf@pennenvironment.org.

These workshops are designed to provide citizens with the skills to protect their Western Pennsylvanian communities from deep shale gas drilling. Whether new to activism or experienced in Marcellus Shale issues, this training will help you take the fight to the next level.

You’ll learn from PennEnvironment staff and other organizers in the area how to:
Effectively engage with decision makers on the shale gas issues,
Generate media coverage,
Hold your elected officials accountable in tackling the Marcellus Shale gas drilling issue.
And, you’ll get to meet more people working on these issues so you can band together to protect your community.

WEBINAR: Updating Local Codes to Cultivate Green Infrastructure and Foster Sustainable Stormwater Management

Tuesday, December 13
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST (Noon – 2:00 CST)
Free Register here

This free 2-hour webinar, sponsored by the US EPA, will offer practical strategies and case studies for amending zoning language, development standards, and review processes to improve MS4 stormwater permit compliance and encourage sustainable stormwater management approaches, including green infrastructure practices.

What You’ll Take Away:
* Technical information relevant to planners MS4 permits and green infrastructure
* Relevant examples and strategies for zoning, standards and manuals, review procedures to support green infrastructure implementation
* Practical strategies for making green infrastructure the “default setting” in your codes and review processes

Who Should Attend:
* Municipal, County, and Regional planners
* Municipal and County stormwater program and engineering staff
* Public works officials
* State stormwater, environmental planning, and watershed program staff

Speakers Include:
* Bob Newport, U.S. EPA
* Juli Beth Hinds, Tetra Tech, Inc.
* Karen Knittel, City of Cleveland Heights, Ohio

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the Webinar.
System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Resources

Port Authority bosses, union chiefs clamor for extra funding from state

Without increased state funding and worker concessions, Port Authority CEO Steve Bland said the agency's projected $64 million deficit for next fiscal year would force it to eliminate up to 40 of its remaining 98 routes and dramatically reduce night and weekend service; lay off up to 600 of its 2,500 workers; and close as many as two of its four bus garages. "Such a massive paring back of service will produce hardships for many transit users and possibly impact the county's economy," said economist Jake Haulk, president of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy in Castle Shannon. Read more: Port Authority bosses, union chiefs clamor for extra funding from state - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/roadwork/s_770389.html#ixzz1fwvVwVRQ

It’s “déjá vu all over again” — transit benefit to be cut in half at the end of the year

If Congress does nothing by the end of the year, if you take transit to get to work each day you could be paying more out of your own pocket when the tax benefit for transit is cut in half. If that wasn’t enough, drivers will keep enjoying the same great parking benefit ($230) – nearly double what transit commuters will be eligible to receive. We don’t think that’s fair, and Congress needs to hear about it. . . Transportation is the second largest household expense for many households. The millions of Americans who depend on transit to get to work each day shouldn’t have to pay more, and certainly not for something that also saves us energy, reduces congestion and emissions, and uses less oil. Americans need more low-cost transportation options.

More

The Smart Growth Priority Advocates Are Forgetting

McMahon’s article further reports that 10 million acres of urban parks, family farms, forests, and natural areas have been voluntarily conserved by individuals and nongovernmental entities since 2005. The total amount of land saved through purchase, easement, or other measures increased from about 37 million acres in 2005 to 47 million in 2010. . . These numbers are impressive, and we can be glad for them. But what matters just as much – and I am sure that McMahon would not disagree – is which acres are saved. In particular, the environment is far better served by the consolidation of connected tracts of land important to ecosystems, farming, forestry and the retention of our cultural landscape than it is by random parcels here and there. The environment is especially well served by conservation when environmentally important areas are in the path of suburban sprawl.

Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. Emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, according to an analysis released Sunday by the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists tracking the numbers. The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions, the report found.

Federal Leadership in Sustainable Development — It Is Important!

Across America, regional communities are actively envisioning and investing in new patterns of sustainable growth and development that aim to promote economic competitiveness, environmental integrity and social opportunity. For the most part, these efforts are homegrown, prompted by a host of new market forces, social realities and environmental constraints. . . Progress in almost every federal policy area — transportation, air quality, water resources, public health, agriculture, education, management of federal lands and military bases, housing, social welfare, workforce development — is advanced if federal investments are aligned with sound strategies for the sustainable development of the places in which investments are made.

Pivot away from yesterday's sprawl patterns

Research shows that for every dollar the average American family has to spend, 52 cents is taken up right away for housing and transportation. This means that everything else gets squeezed, sometimes dangerously. So what's a promising cure? It's clearly helping workers and families gain easier, more affordable access to jobs and schools. And this does dictate that communities pivot away from sprawl patterns, embracing instead smart development strategies such as housing closer to work centers, homes closer to schools, and transit services to help households spend less on automobile travel.

Water Use Efficiency and Jobs

Public investments in water use efficiency projects stimulate economic activity that is twice as great as the initial investment. One person-year of employment is created for each $72,400 that is invested. Underwritten by the City of Los Angeles, PIPE, IAMPO and NITCC.

Group wants more energy grants

Pennsylvania is providing $2.9 billion a year in subsidies to fossil fuel industries but not offering similar government supports and incentives to cleaner, renewable energy development, according to a report released Tuesday by the PennFuture Energy Center for Enterprise and the Environment.

Recession hit blacks hard

As of last month, black unemployment in the U.S. was 15.1 percent, nearly twice as high as the 8 percent rate for whites and higher than the 11.4 percent rate for Hispanics. Even more telling is the gap in household wealth. Most Americans' chief source of wealth is the equity in their homes, but the recent housing collapse has hit minorities particularly hard. Between 2005 and 2009, the median home equity value for black Americans fell from $76,910 to $59,000, a drop of nearly a quarter, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Best Smart Growth Projects in America

This year, the Environmental Protection Agency looked at "articulate" city plans that aimed for a more sustainable future. There were five plans across that nation that were awarded for "achievement in smart growth."

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Sustainable Pittsburgh affects decision-making in the Pittsburgh Region to integrate economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality bringing sustainable solutions to communities and businesses.

Sustainable Pittsburgh benefits from support ($1,000 and up) in 2011 from:

Alcoa Foundation
Allegheny County - Dan Onorato, County Executive
Bayer Corporation
Bayer USA Foundation
Buhl Foundation
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
BNY Mellon
Dollar Bank
FedEx Ground
The Heinz Endowments
Highmark
Elsie H. Hillman Foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Pashek Associates LTD
Pittsburgh Quarterly
PNC Financial Services Group
Port Authority of Allegheny County
UPMC


Special thanks to the SP Members

Sustainable Pittsburgh
425 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1335
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
(412) 258-6642
fax (412) 258-6645
E-mail SP