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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 32 27 April 2015 1. Urban Blight Isn't Just Bad To Look At, It's Bad For Your Health 2. The Future of Water in California Looks Gray—and That’s a Good Thing 3. FHWA Releases New Planning Tools to Enhance Community and Regional Quality of Life 4. New Report Examines The Limits of Prevailing Economic Impact Models 5. Rural Issues Survey 6. 8 Fascinating Images Explain California’s Dangerous Drought 7. Why Preservationist Are an Integral Part Of – Not an Obstacle to – Good City Planning 8. Hike it, Bike it, Raft it ~ Eastern Oregon’s Scenic Byways 9. Get Growing With These Three Tools 10. Unexpected Art Makes City Dwellers Reassess Familiar Urban Spaces 11. TREC Friday Seminar: Travel Decisions & Their Implications for Urban Transportation 1. Urban Blight Isn't Just Bad To Look At, It's Bad For Your Health We know that abandoned lots dampen a neighborhood's economic attractiveness, scaring away prospective tenants and investors. But what about their impact on our health? Is that affected as well?

It might be. Research finds that poorly-kept areas can raise our stress levels and lead to other adverse effects, offering further reasons to invest in inner-city turnarounds. "There is increasing evidence to show that our environments do affect our health," says Gina South, a physician in the school of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Urban planners really need to consider that as we intervene in places.

Cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia all have high rates of vacant land and that really impacts the health of people living in those neighborhoods."

Quote of the Week: “When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.” ~Joe Namath Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon is super lucky to have a crew like you!!!

To access the full story, click here.

2. The Future of Water in California Looks Gray—and That’s a Good Thing One of my proudest moments as a gardener came last summer, when I showed my neighbor Salvador my backyard. On seeing the beds of kale, tomatoes, eggplant, and peas, he declared me an honorary campesino, or peasant farmer—high praise from a longtime resident of my largely Latino neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, his own backyard host to an orchard of pomegranate, apple, and avocado trees.

Maintaining that garden has become environmentally fraught for me over the past two winters, which have left California with little rain and even less snowpack in the high Sierra—one of the state’s most important reservoirs. In order to still grow some food and water less, I have turned to drought-resistant varieties of watermelon, corn, beans, Page 1 of 4

and squash. Last weekend, I dug up the patch of grass on the parkway—between the sidewalk and curb—and have designs on removing what’s left of it too.

To access the full story, click here.

3. FHWA Releases New Planning Tools to Enhance Community and Regional Quality of Life FHWA recently developed two new planning resources, the Community Vision Metrics and the PlaceFit tools to emphasize the connection between transportation, livability, and communities. The Community Vision Metrics tool enables planning practitioners to search for performance indicators or measures relevant to a county or community’s specific circumstances and quality of life goals.

This tool may be used during the visioning and goal setting steps in the planning process. The PlaceFit tool is an investigative tool that allows the user to select primary and secondary characteristics that describe what they are looking for in a community, as a desirable place to live.

Click here to listen to a recording of a recent FHWA webinar that demonstrated these two tools.

4. New Report Examines The Limits of Prevailing Economic Impact Models Decisions on whether to invest in community-based food systems are often based on economic impact studies that claim to estimate the gains in jobs and income that might result.

Yet often, the new economic activity generated by a local food project is not well represented in economic modeling software. The multipliers generated by these computer models appear to be precise, but often do not accurately reflect local conditions.

A new report, Critical Analysis of Economic Impact Methodologies, written by Ken Meter and Megan Phillips Goldenberg of Crossroads Resource Center, assesses economic impact methodologies — and concludes that often, this powerful economic modeling software is inappropriately used.

Striving for measures that community members can implement for themselves, the report further suggests that strong local multipliers are the result of strong social networks — and that measuring the strength of these social networks may be an equally valid way to assess potential economic impacts.

The report is part of a larger report just published by the Illinois Public Health Institute, called Exploring Economic and Health Impacts of Local Food Procurement. Crossroads Resource Center was a key partner in producing the full report.

For further information, contact Ken Meter or Megan Phillips Goldenberg at Crossroads Resource Center. **This study was funded by the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI) through its Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

5. Rural Issues Survey Do you care about the future of rural communities? Please take this short (10 minute or less) survey.

The results of this survey will help create a public conversation guide about what we can do together to strengthen our rural communities as part of a national project with the Kettering Foundation and 9 other states across the U.S.

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The deadline for completion of the survey is May 13. You do not need to be from rural communities to participate.

To access the survey, click here.

6. 8 Fascinating Images Explain California’s Dangerous Drought California has entered its fourth year of a historic drought, and residents and businesses are desperately trying to slash their water use to meet new mandatory restrictions. Here are eight fascinating graphics that explain some of the forces behind the epic drought.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Why Preservationist Are an Integral Part Of – Not an Obstacle to – Good City Planning Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about historic preservation as a social cause. This is not entirely new for me (I spend an embarrassing amount of time thinking about these things), but I have slightly changed my view on the topic given recent events. I get so frustrated by the way I see preservation presented in the media. Recent examples being coverage of conflict between Nicole Curtis and the Minneapolis City Council over demolition of a house on Colfax Avenue (see my post on this topic here) or tensions between preservation groups and developers amid the proposed construction of a high rise tower within a historic district and next to Nye’s Polonaise. It seems the only time we hear about preservationists is when they are fighting with someone and they’re often depicted as “not in my backyard” fanatics. In an effort to reframe what I believe to be a huge misconception, I’d like to offer up some alternative views for your consumption.

Preservationists can be urbanists, too I would like to start be dispelling any idea that preservationists are automatically anti-density. I would say the majority of preservation-minded people which I’ve come into contact with understand the need for dense development. As a preservationist, I think of our viewpoint more on the side of advocating for thoughtful land-use. I often hear people say “just because it’s old doesn’t make it historic and worth preserving” — that’s true and I agree with that, but I’d counter with stating that just because a project adds density doesn’t mean it fits the culture or needs of the community.

For more information, click here.

8. Hike it, Bike it, Raft it ~ Eastern Oregon’s Scenic Byways Travel Oregon…We see your 7 Wonders and raise you 7 of our own! In fact, we have packaged our Wonders into to great itineraries along our scenic byways and tour routes.

In a region that is as diverse as Eastern Oregon, it is difficult to choose the “Wonders” we could boast about. How do you choose between the deepest river gorge in North America and sheer fault face of 10,000 ft.steens-mountains Steens Mountain? Could there be a compassion between the ancient rock formations of the Painted Hills and the ancient knowledge of the Columbia River, or Snake, or John Day? It is impossible to choose. So we packaged the incredible “Wonders” of Eastern Oregon into connecting scenic byways and tour routes that are literally…Wonder-Full!

To access the full story, click here.

9. Get Growing With These Three Tools It takes more than fertile soil to grow food in your community – the right policies make all the difference! From your backyard to a vacant parking lot, we’ve got resources to help you get growing.

Here are a few of our favorite tools from the ChangeLab Solutions library:

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Seeding the City: A great introduction to urban agriculture! This comprehensive resource also provides model language so policymakers can support growing in their community.

Ground Rules: Community gardens are a fun, fresh, and healthy addition to any neighborhood landscape. This toolkit helps aspiring gardeners consider the legal and practical barriers to establishing community gardens.

Digging In: An easy-to-use infographic with all the places you can get growing!

10. Unexpected Art Makes City Dwellers Reassess Familiar Urban Spaces A Dutch man secretly upholsters park benches in Rotterdam. A woman in Brazil slathers buildings with decorative tiles made from sugary fondant. A Swedish electronics wizard rigs up audio sensors allowing New York City pedestrians to hear themselves through loudspeakers as they walk through the Park Avenue Tunnel. And in Venice, amateur boat-builders sail a rickety raft sculpture through the canals in defiance of local authorities.

As documented in the new book Unexpected Art the artists behind these ephemeral pieces—Joost Goudriaan, Shelley Miller,Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Swoon, respectively—personify the come one, come all aesthetic embraced by a growing number of international art-makers.

Rooted partly in Dada-esque subversion and eco-sensitive Land Art precedents, the 58 projects featured in Unexpected Art share one common aim: to jolt viewers into fresh awareness of familiar spaces. Co-author Jenny Moussa Spring became fascinated with public art in 2002. "When Christo did The Gates in Central Park, that was my public art epiphany," she says. "I experienced it with all these other people I didn't know and suddenly we're all sharing this moment together. It was completely mesmerizing."

To access the full story, click here.

11. TREC Friday Seminar: Travel Decisions & Their Implications for Urban Transportation The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels. Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached. This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals' attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters' transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination... Read more Seminar Speaker: Gulsah Akar, Assistant Professor, Ohio State University Seminar Cost: Free and open to the public Event Date: Friday, May 1, 2015 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm Watch online: Use this link on the day of the seminar.

Attend in person: Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center at PSU

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