The Ferguson Group Blog

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

White House Creates New Cybersecurity Agency

On Tuesday, the White House announced the creation of a new agency designed to combat cyber threats and to coordinate digital intelligence among federal agencies. The $35 million Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center is designed to "connect the dots" among cyber threats facing the United States, "so that relevant departments and agencies are aware of these threats in as close to real time as possible," a White House official said in a statement. Read more...

Why Boston is Spending $20M on Affordable Housing

Boston has announced a $20 million affordable housing project that will redevelop 250 city-owned parcels of land into housing specifically for low- to middle-income families. The strategy is to help maintain affordability while infilling vacant land in urban neighborhoods. Read more...

Restoring the Concrete Jungle: How to Address Urban Blight in 2015

Reducing blight and preventing its spread is best achieved when the solution incorporates the interest and input of active and engaged citizens. Many cities are starting to harness innovative civic tech products to begin repairing and rebuilding some of the country’s most severely affected areas with help from residents. Read more...

NYC’s Plan for Free, Citywide Wi-Fi

Private companies are paying New York City $500 million to transform old pay phones into high-speed Internet hotspots. The plan is called LinkNYC, and it’s important for two reasons. One, it may be a plan other cities can copy -- there are certainly plenty of old public pay phones around. Two, it’s an example of reimagining old assets and connecting citizens to what is increasingly a vital and life-enhancing service: the Internet. Read more...

An Interactive Gathering for City Leaders

On February 11-12, Louisville will host the Governing Summit for Innovation, a meeting that will convene city leaders to discuss how to get more out of less through synergy and innovation. What makes the gathering unique is that every detail of the meeting, from the room setup to the discussion, is intentionally interactive and challenging. While this event is sold out because of the unique set up of the accommodations and the “everyone participates” format, those who are interested should make a note and watch Governing for similar opportunities in the future. Read more...

Let your Fingers do the Walking – and Talking

Our friends at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy let us know that United States Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is developing a Call to Action on walking that will urge efforts to improve walkability, including identifying best practices for making communities more walkable.

They’ve provided an easy link to provide input to the Surgeon General, plus some suggested key principles be used in evaluating proposed interventions.

1.       Ensuring Equal Access for All — all people should have access to safe and comfortable walking environments and be able walk to important destinations.

2.       Connecting People and Places — walkable communities provide seamless networks of safe places to walk that connect people with their desired destinations.

3.       Integrating Walking into Organizational Practices — walking should be promoted in programs and policies as well as infrastructure choices.

4.       Collaboration — we want to see more collaboration among government agencies in promoting the many benefits of walking.

I hope you’ll join me in taking them up on their suggestion and let the Surgeon General know that you too share the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s commitment to walkable communities.

Complete Streets Report Hits the Streets

Smart Growth America (SGA),  a coalition of state, local and regional organizations dedicated  to bringing smart growth practices to more communities nationwide, released a report yesterday highlighting some of the best Complete Streets policies and projects established in the past year.  If you’re not familiar with the term, complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders, making it easy to cross the street, walk to shops, and bicycle to work.

From the Report:

“In total, 488 Complete Streets policies are now in place nationwide, at all levels of government. Statewide policies are in place in 27 states as well as the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Forty-two regional planning organizations, 38 counties and 379 municipalities in 48 states also have policies that allow everyone to safely use America’s roads. The policies passed in 2012 comprise more than one quarter of all policies in place today.”

In releasing the report SGA highlights the ten communities that have done exceptional work in the past year, which are:

1	Indianapolis, IN	6	Portland, ME
2	Hermosa Beach, CA	7	Oak Park, IL
2	Huntington Park, CA	8	Trenton, NJ
4	Ocean Shores, WA	9	Clayton, MO
5	Northfield, MN	10	Rancho Cucamonga, CA

 

We congratulate these communities and others that have helped to advance the Complete Streets movement and improved safety and quality of life for their residents.

 

Produce…Conserve…Innovate…Motivate!

You still have until the end of this week to put together a pre-proposal  for the 2013 Conservation Innovation Grants.  The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced availability of Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies.  This is a voluntary program intended to inspire conservation approaches in conjunction with agricultural production. Funds will be awarded through a two-phase nationwide competitive grants process that will include a pre-proposal process and a full proposal process, an awards procedure that many federal agencies have adopted this year for their most popular and competitive programs.

Application materials can be found here.

For samples of successful past awardees, follow this link to view the 2011 Grantee Showcase.

CPR Act: A Lifesaver for Our Parks

This month U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) plans to introduce legislation, entitled the Community Parks Revitalization (CPR) Act, that would provide matching, federal competitive grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to local parks and recreation agencies for the construction of new, and to rehabilitate existing, outdoor and indoor recreational resources in metropolitan areas. It also allows for planning and programming aimed at improving the delivery of recreation services, increasing access for military families and disabled veterans, and engaging at-risk youth. There is a waiver at the Secretary’s discretion for a percentage to be awarded to areas not in MSAs, so rural communities are included. The bill simply gives the Secretary authority to use discretionary dollars for these purposes, so there is no budget impact. The CPR Act is a tool for helping to build stronger communities, create jobs, enhance a state’s economy, protect the health and well-being of the public,  conserve natural resources, and contribute to a higher quality of life for hard-working Americans and their families.

Senator Hagan’s office is seeking original cosponsors. Please contact your U.S. Senators amd ask that they sign on. You may also contact me directly at [email protected] or 202-255-5760, or your TFG client manager, for assistance.

 

Did you "Get Wild" this month?

July is National Park and Recreation Month, so our friends at the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) have been encouraging park-goers this month throughout America to “GET WILD” about their local parks and recreational places. Each year NRPA sends out notifications in advance about all of the fun and family-friendly activities they have planned for the celebration of National Park and Recreation Month. To see these events and to learn more about NRPA visit the website here. If you missed out on this year’s festivities, add a reminder in your calendar to register your park and recreation agency for next year. If you were able to “GET WILD” I would love to hear all about it. Please comment below or reach me at  [email protected].

Time for the House to Move on the Farm Bill

Last week, the Senate passed the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, S. 3240, by a vote of 64-35 after voting on nearly 70 amendments. Of particular interest to local governments, the bill reauthorizes various broadband programs - the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant program is reauthorized with no changes, and the Broadband Access Program is changed substantially to the benefit of local governments. It provides a grant and loan component — similar to the stimulus broadband programs — unlike the previous Farm Bill program that relied solely on loans for broadband expansion. Local governments are eligible loan and grant recipients and all applicants are required to collaborate with their units of local government (if the applicant is not the local government, but a private entity).

The rural business programs are reorganized: the Rural Business Opportunity Grant program and Rural Business Enterprise Grant programs are consolidated into the Rural Business Development Grants program.

The conservation title of the bill was cut by $6.44 billion, largely by reducing the Conservation Reserve Program and consolidating 23 existing programs into 13. The bill combines the easement authorities of the Wetlands Reserve Program, Grasslands Reserve Program, and Farmland Protection Program into a new Agricultural Conservation Easement Program in which local governments will still be eligible to preserve working agricultural lands.

Finally, the bill includes an amendment introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) that reinstates $150 million in mandatory funding to rural development and beginning farmer/rancher programs. The bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee did not include mandatory funding for any programs in the rural development title, but the final Senate-passed bill includes funds for the water/wastewater backlog, two rural development business programs, and additional funds for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

Action on the Farm Bill now turns to the House, where the House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to mark up its version of the bill on July 11.

Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

EPA Opens FY 2012 Brownfield Application Period

This afternoon, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released solicitations for its FY 2012 Brownfields Assessment, Cleanup and Revolving Loan Fund Grants. Full Requests for Proposals for each program can be found here and applications are due by November 28.

Brownfields Assessment Grants provide localities with funding to inventory, characterize, assess, and conduct planning (including area-wide planning, economic reuse planning and cleanup planning) and community involvement related to sites potentially contaminated by petroleum or hazardous substances (brownfield sites). Brownfields Cleanup Grants allow localities to fund cleanup activities at brownfield sites that are owned by the grant recipient. Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund Grants provide funding that allows localities to capitalize a revolving fund and to make loans and provide subgrants to carry out cleanup activities at brownfield sites.

Although these guidelines are very similiar to those produced by EPA in FY 2011, long-time applicants should note that EPA has made one significant change to the Brownfield Cleanup Grant program. Now applicants for Cleanup Grants must prepare a draft Analysis of Brownfields Cleanup Alternatives and make this document available for public review and comment no later than November 14.

Guide to the American Jobs Act for Local Governments

Last week, President Obama addressed a Joint Session of Congress and outlined his strategy to help boost the economy and create more jobs in America.  On Monday, September 12th, he sent the American Jobs Act (AJA) to the Hill. In outlining his legislative proposal, the President declared that this bill would “provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled” and repeatedly urged Congress to “pass this jobs bill.”

Although Congress is unlikely to quickly pass the AJA in its entirety, several elements of the proposal have attracted preliminary support from House Republican leadership and it is possible that segments of the legislation will be considered by Congress in the coming months. To view an overview of how new federal funding might flow to local governments if the AJA is enacted, please visit our Guide to the American Jobs Act. Stay tuned to this blog to remain up-to-speed on the progress to enact the AJA.

$37.4 Million in Land and Water Conservation Fund Grants Announced

The U.S. Department of Interior yesterday announced $37.4 million from the FY11 Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for grants to establish and renovate parks and open spaces nationwide.  This funding is distributed by formula to each State and then awarded by competitive grant to the local level. Funds may be used, for example, to establish urban parks and community green spaces; to restore and provide public access to rivers, lakes and other water resources; and to conserve natural landscapes. Grant-assisted areas are to remain available in perpetuity for public outdoor recreation use, or be replaced by lands of equal market value and recreation usefulness. To learn more about the LWCF, your state’s allocation and how you can apply for these funds, please visit www.nps.gov/lwcf or contact TFG’s parks and recreation team leader, Leslie Mozingo, at [email protected] or 202-255-5760.

-Posted by Leslie Mozingo, The Ferguson Group