A national plan for infrastructure

In 1808, at the request of President Thomas Jefferson, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin created a national plan of ports, roads, and inland waterways to encourage settlement of the nation and facilitate trade. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt convened governors to draft a plan for inland waterways, irrigation, river restoration and dam projects, in tandem with the nation’s vast railway network.
     In 2008, a new national plan for infrastructure is taking shape, responding to 21^st century challenges including economic competitiveness, energy independence, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At “Rebuilding and Renewing America: Toward a 21^st Century Infrastructure Investment Plan” on May 9 in Washington D.C., members of Congress, representatives of state government, and civic, business, and labor leaders came together to share ideas on the ambitious task.
    The forum, a project of America 2050, an initiative of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy with the Regional Plan Association, took place at the Woodrow Wilson Center. A big emphasis of America 2050 has been thinking about the nation as a collection of about a dozen “megaregions,” such as the Boston-Washington corridor or the Pacific Northwest, that share economic, environmental, and other concerns. Armando Carbonell, senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute, said that megaregions provide a useful framework for making decisions on infrastructure investments such as intercity rail.
    Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, said that infrastructure investment was “the most important issues not yet on the front burner” in this presidential election year, although Speaker Nancy Pelosi has it on her agenda. Other members of Congress at a session moderated by Jonathan Capehart from The Washington Post included Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Tom Petri (R-WI), Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Jim Obserstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, by video. “We have an infrastructure that has been left unattended,” said Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, who also spoke at the forum. “It’s time to get serious.”
     Other speakers included Terence M. O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, Thomas J. Donahue, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, and Jonathan P.F. Rose, president of Jonathan Rose Companies. The forum was taped by C-SPAN.

Universities and cities

Being in Cambridge means always understanding the powerful presence of colleges and universities. Town-gown tensions may always remain, but many cities are forging new partnerships with higher education institutions, as well as hospitals and medical centers. At the one-day symposium "Eds, Meds and Municipalities" at Holy Cross in Worcester last month, representatives from both sides traded concerns, from working with neighborhood groups to payments in lieu of taxes. Tina Brooks, undersecretary at the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, talked about the importance of such institutions in revitalizing downtowns. All of this is by no means an American story: universities and cities are discovering or building on synergy all around the world. David C. Perry, director of the Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will be at Lincoln House May 28 to talk about the overseas experience and to celebrate the publication of Global Universities and Urban Development: Case Studies and Analysis, published by M.E. Sharpe and the Lincoln Institute, with Wim Wiewel, the new president of Portland State. The event is a lecture 4 p.m., followed by a book-signing and reception. Register here.

Lincoln Institute author moves to Portland State

Wim Wiewel, provost at the University of Baltimore and a longstanding contributor of writing and research for the Lincoln Institute's Department of Economic and Community Development and its City, Land and the University program, was named president of Portland State. His most recent book, with David Perry, is Global Universities and Urban Development, published with M.E. Sharpe. His previous books include Partnerships for Smart Growth: University-Comunity Collaboration for Better Places, with Gerrit Jan-Knaap, and The University as Urban Developer: Case Studies and Analysis , also with David Perry. Perry is scheduled to appear at Lincoln House May 28 for a Lincoln Lecture, reception, and book-signing for Global Universities and Urban Development.

Planning and population

The news from the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference in Las Vegas, as reported by Haya El-Nasser in USA Today, includes the provocative suggestion that the population of the United States could hit 1 billion by 2100. While many planners don't see that happening, of greater concern is the expected increase from 300 million to 400 million people by 2050. And because future settlement patterns will be informed by soaring energy costs and the need to reduce emissions that worsen global warming, much of the talk here has centered on some basics -- namely, a more coherent plan for the nation's infrastructure. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, started off the proceedings by detailing plans in Congress for a fresh approach for transportation infrastructure, whch is up for reauthorization in 2009. In his remarks, Blumenauer cited the Lincoln Institute and its partnership with the Regional Plan Association, which is co-sponsoring a major event May 9 in Washington with members of Congress, business, labor, and other leaders to explore a national planning framework for infrastructure. A suggested organizing principle is to focus on the nation's "megaregions," such as the Boston to Washington corridor in the Northeast, in making infrastructure investments as efficiently as possible. Megaregions are spelled out at the Web site for America 2050; more details to come.

Data aiding communities

Technology and information are undeniably hallmarks of the 21st century. Now comes evidence that readily available data on the Internet is helping build better neighborhoods.

Geographic information systems (GIS) and Internet-based parcel data inventories are increasingly being used in community development, to revitalize urban areas, target resources for needs such as affordable housing, and even to help curb foreclosures, according to a new report. Transforming Community Development with Land Information Systems, the latest Policy Focus Report published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, includes case studies on Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., where planners and community organizers used GIS or parcel data systems to guide policy and initiatives.

A task force in Cleveland used data on loan transactions to take action against property flippers, for example. Community groups in Chicago used Web-based GIS tools to support planning for transit-oriented development and to target resources with parcel data so low-income families could better maintain and improve their homes.  The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society used a parcel data system to rehabilitate 150 acres of Philadelphia's vacant lots into parks and urban greenspace.

Rosalind Greenstein, senior fellow and chair of the Department of Economic and Community Development at the Lincoln Institute, said there was "vast potential" in the use of technology in community development. Sarah Treuhaft, senior associate at PolicyLink in Oakland, Calif., and co-author of the report with G. Thomas Kingsley, research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., said the beauty of these systems is that they are already readily available - up and running on the Internet.

"To make the right choices for their neighborhoods, people need the right information," she said.

Kingsley, director of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, said the use of GIS and parcel data systems creates more efficient, and more creative, action among those engaged in community development. The report, which can be downloaded here, concludes by recommending that foundations and government at the local, state and federal level support continued innovations and best practices in land information systems.

Land matters

Americans continue to vote for protecting land, even when it means taxing themselves to do it - though they prefer to finance land conservation with bond issues. Between 1998 and 2006, some 1,550 referenda appeared on state, county, and municipal ballots across the United States, and 80 percent of these measures passed, many by a wide margin, according to an article by H. Spencer Banzhaf, Wallace E. Oates, and James Sanchirico in the April issue of Land Lines.

The issue also includes an article on the land value impact of bus rapid transit, and details on the Lincoln Institute's six new books - a new record! -- coming out this spring: Making the Property Tax Work; Fiscal Decentralization and Land Policies; Global Universities and Urban Development: Case Studies and Analysis; Toward a Vision of Land in 2015: International Perspectives; European Spatial Research and Planning; and Visioning and Visualization: People, Pixels, and Plans.

Spring in Beijing

The Center for Urban Development and Land Policy, established by the Lincoln Institute and Peking University, will mark its opening at a special event in Beijing on April 21. The center, directed by Joyce Man, also director of the Lincoln Institute's Program on the People's Republic of China, is on the campus of Peking University, routinely described by observers as the Harvard of China.

Among those invited to speak are Arnold C. Harberger, professor of economics at the University of California Los Angeles, addressing international fiscal policy reform; and Gang Yi, vice president of the People's Bank of China. Gregory K. Ingram, president of the Lincoln Institute, and Kathryn J. Lincoln, chair of the board of the institute, will deliver remarks, as will Roy C. Bahl, professor at Georgia State University and a Lincoln Institute board member, Guoqiang Long, vice director and senior fellow at the development Research Center of State Council, and many others.

Though the event will be a formal celebration of the Lincoln Institute's presence in Beijing, the center has already hosted events and begun to explore new areas of research. Maxine Griffith, executive vice president for government and community affairs at Columbia University and a past Lincoln Institute board member, gave a talk earlier this year at the center, on the role of universities in urban environments.

Joining the blogosphere

By this time next month, At Lincoln House is scheduled to change from a monthly column to a weblog, with posts and commentary on a regular basis. A compilation of posts will still be sent in a monthly email format for those who have registered at the Lincoln Institute website. But joining the blogosphere with the new format, along with a whole new look for the entire Lincoln Institute Web site, will allow a more dynamic updating of content - and more interaction, from what we hope will be an engaged and growing readership.

-- ANTHONY FLINT, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

In brief and upcoming

Julie Campoli and Alex MacLean, co-authors of Visualizing Density, along with Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chair of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute, will appear Friday April 4 in a session on designing density at the Congress for the New Urbanism XVI in Austin, Texas, which runs April 3-6.

Tina Brooks, undersecretary at the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, is scheduled as a keynoter at Eds, Meds and Municipalities: Developing Shared Goals and Strategies for Mutually Beneficial Results, a special conference put on by the Lincoln Institute and the Cecil Group, April 7 at the Holy Cross Hogan Center in Worcester, Mass. The conference aims to help municipalities form better partnerships with such anchor institutions as colleges and hospitals.

Every year the Lincoln Institute joins with the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University to name a joint fellow, and this year's is Douglas Meffert, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the Sustainability Subcommittee of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission. His talk, The Resilience of New Orleans: Urban and Coastal Adaptation to Disasters and Climate Change, will be Wednesday, April 23 at 12 noon at Lincoln House.

Universities have a powerful presence in urban environments not just in the U.S. but around the world. David C. Perry, director of the Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-authored Global Universities and Urban Development: Case Studies and Analysis, published by M.E. Sharpe and the Lincoln Institute, with Wim Wiewel, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Baltimore, and now the new president of Portland State. Perry will discuss the new book Wednesday May 28 at Lincoln house at 4 p.m., followed by a book-signing and reception. Register here.

Claudia De Cesare, a property tax adviser to the Secretariat of Finance in the municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil and principal developer "Comparative Analysis of Property Tax in Latin America," in the Resources and Tools section of the Lincoln Institute Web site, will present Understanding the Performance of Taxes on Property in Latin American Countries: A Preliminary Analysis on Thursday, June 5 at 12 noon at Lincoln House (note change of date).

Planning for climate change

Even if greenhouse gas emissions could be sharply curtailed tomorrow, the atmosphere will continue to warm and temperatures and sea levels will rise over the next 50 years, scientists believe. Cities, particularly coastal settlements, will take the brunt of these impacts. Yet there is little research on how urban planning should be re-oriented to focus on adaptation.

The Lincoln Institute asked Edward Blakely, director of recovery for New Orleans, to help begin a conversation on climate change and urban form, and his preliminary analysis, in the working paper Urban Planning for Climate Change, is now available.

Droughts, floods, heat waves, wind and rain storms, and rising sea levels all pose distinct challenges for urban areas, Blakely says. Urban planning must address these challenges through the environmentally sustainable design of buildings, streets, and communities. The urban science related to climate change and its implications for human settlement is in its early stages. Nonetheless, climate change is already becoming a concern of insurance and actuarial industries as they begin to assess the risks to human settlements, construction, and infrastructure posed by atmospheric conditions. A new paradigm for urban problem-solving is needed, Blakely says.

The working paper outlines areas that need further research, and explores post-Katrina New Orleans in a case study profiling risk to infrastructure and economic systems. "New Orleans is not unique," Blakely writes. "Cities all over the world will have to learn how to cope with extreme events."

The Lincoln Institute has focused on land use, land policy, and cities as a central part of the climate change agenda. In addition to the Blakely research, the annual convening of big city planners included a review of best practices in meeting emissions reductions goals; the institute has also been investigating how the management of conservation land must adapt to ecosystems altered by changing temperatures.

Later this month, the Lincoln Institute and the Regional Plan Association is sponsoring the Northeast Climate and Competitiveness Summit in Baltimore, http://www.america2050.org/ bringing together civic, business, and government leaders from 12 Northeast states and the District of Columbia to develop a shared action agenda for economic competitiveness, quality of life, and sustainability. The gathering Feb. 29 includes talks by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell and Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

The institute is also inviting journalists for a professional development forum on cities and climate change in partnership with the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Graduate School of Design. Finally, Nicky Gavron, currently deputy mayor of London and one of the key authors of that city's climate action plan, is scheduled to deliver a special Lincoln Lecture on June 10 at Lincoln House. Details will be forthcoming.