Tag Archives: Joseph Schilling

A Pre-Conference Roundtable: What Next? The Future of Brownfields Research in Policy and Practice

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Brownfields 2013 bannerFor individuals heading to the 2013 EPA National Brownfields Conference, a pre-conference roundtable has been organized by Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, St. Louis University and Ryerson University. This roundtable will explore the latest developments in Brownfields research as well as discuss opportunities for future collaborations among researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

Coffee and light breakfast fare will fuel the brainstorming!

This is an excellent opportunity to hear directly from policymakers and practitioners on their research ideas and needs.

Click here to RSVP.

Discussing Resilience at the Federal Reserve

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Selected from amongst 180 submissions, Joe Schilling, Maggie Cowell and Lauren Bulka presented a poster while attending the Federal Reserve System Community Development Research Conference, “Resilience & Rebuilding for Low-Income Communities: Research to Inform Policy and Practice,” hosted at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, DC from April 11-12, 2013. The conference brought together a range of researchers, practitioners and policymakers involved with the community development field to discuss collaborative strategies for working with and for low-income communities, as well as to highlight new evidence-base research ideas and data approaches.

FBR2The poster  presented, “Pursuing Adaptive Resilience: Building Institutional Capacity, Designing a Cohesive Policy Framework and Reclaiming Vacant Properties in Cleveland” sets forth a resilient policy system for reclaiming vacant properties.

The work draws on Schilling’s ten years of participatory research in part through the National Vacant Property Campaign.

Please see the FRB handout for more information.

Schilling assists the City of Newburgh with the launch of its Code Enforcement Initiative

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Schilling MI Photo

Director Joe Schilling

Joseph Schilling, Interim Director of the Metropolitan Institute and Professor and Program Director of the Urban Affairs & Planning Program-Alexandria, partnered with Kermit Lind, retired Cleveland Marshall College of Law professor in the City of Newburgh, NY to head the launch of its new Strategic Code Enforcement Initiative.  Both are law professors with extensive experience in helping cities rebound from near catastrophic conditions.  Click here for more details.

17 Fellows Selected for Inaugural Strong Cities Strong Communities (SC2) Fellowship

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The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Cleveland State University (CSU), and the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech have launched the Strong Cities Strong Communities (SC2) Fellowship Program with the selection and placement of 17 fellows working to build local capacity in seven SC2 pilot communities: Chester, PA; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Fresno, CA; Memphis, TN; New Orleans, LA; and Youngstown, OH.

The fellows have varied backgrounds, ranging from planning and economic development to workforce development and program management. Over the next two years, they will work on a variety of high priority projects in each of the communities, including small business development, grant writing, vacant property management, and the creation of data-driven economic strategies.  A full list of fellows and brief bios can be found here.

The full press release is available online here.

Vacants to Value: How Baltimore is tackling vacant properties

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East Baltimore Stoops

East Baltimore Stoops

Joseph Schilling was recently interviewed on the Baltimore NPR-affiliate on the Vacants to Value program. The program focuses on selling the vacants in specific transitioning neighborhoods.

Listen to the whole story here.

Schilling speaks to the importance of community engagement when addressing vacant property concerns. The Metropolitan Institute hosts the Vacant Property Research Network, which shares information between researchers, practitioners, and the community.

New Book: The City After Abandonment

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The City After Abandonment (Margaret Dewar and June Manning Thomas, Editors, University of Pennsylvania Press) is a collection of essays from top urban planning experts focusing on policy and planning issues related to three questions: what are cities becoming after abandonment?  How did they get here? What should abandoned areas of cities become? By suggesting an urban design scheme for shrinking cities, the books lays out a strategy for policymakers and planners to approach the future through processes and ideas that differ from those in growing cities.

The book features a chapter by Metropolitan Institute Interim Director, Joe Schilling, and  former MI research assistant, Raksha Vasudevan, titled The Promise of Sustainability Planning in the Regeneration of Shrinking Cities. Schilling and Vasudevan assessed formulas for addressing vacancy and abandoned urban lots by examining the sustainability plans of Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They suggest that well-designed sustainability plans would establish strong policy connections between the unique physical, social, environmental and economic challenges that confront many distressed communities by developing new urban regeneration elements. A comprehensive, collaborative, and coordinated sustainability planning framework could establish stronger policy and programmatic connections between vacant property reclamation, green jobs, and sustainable reuse, rebuilding city and civic capacity. Such framework would not only expedite and enhance legacy cities regeneration efforts, but position these communities for a more sustainable, low carbon future.

Information Techology and Local Sustainability Planning

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Kevin Desouza and Joe Schilling co-authored an exploration of local sustainability planning in the PM Magazine of ICMA. The article, available online, provides a preliminary snapshot of local government sustainability plans and discusses ways that information technologies can enhance their design and implementation.

These are just a few of the questions we are exploring at the Metropolitan Institute’s Sustainability Planning Lab. Virginia Tech’s Sustainability Planning Lab is continuing to inventory, catalog, and assess the current planning landscape. Starting with a preliminary list of 240 cities, we found that 84 of these places did not have a true sustainability plan, but instead relied on an assortment of plans and programs.

Information technology plays a pivotal role in advancing sustainability. Instead of relying on a small cohort of experts to interpret residents’ needs and desires, through crowd sourcing and modeling solutions, residents themselves develop and even implement solutions to urban issues.

Cities in Transition: A Guide for Practicing Planners

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Earlier this month Metropolitan Institute Associate Director Joseph Schilling and Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institution were in Los Angeles at the American Planning Association’s annual conference promoting the new PAS report on Cities in Transition. The report offers practicing planners a comprehensive menu of place-based strategies for addressing different dimensions of urban distress—from the reclamation of vacant properties to rebuilding local government and civic capacity. Schilling and Mallach view cities in transition through a typology that includes older industrial, shrinking cities, fast growing boom-n-bust cities, declining first tier suburbs and small, but growing gateway cities. All of these cities, large and small, east and west, share similar challenges of trying to confront the convergence of many socioeconomic transitions.

Distressed cities typically have chronic or acute urban decline, decreasing revenue and resources, loss of population, and high rates of poverty and crime, etc. These challenges are often concentrated in poor neighborhoods, but are now spreading to more stable neighborhoods thanks in part to our overall economic downturn. Today cities of all stripes face changes in maintaining previous or consistent growth rates as they goes through their own sets of transitions. Many cities exacerbate the problems by failing to strategically target existing resources.

In light of these complexities, the report sets forth a strategic policy planning framework that could help communities create new visions and coordinate all of these moving pieces into a more efficient suite of policy and planning interventions. Schilling explains, “Planners in distressed cities should reflect on the past, assess the present, and realign resources. It’s important for planners to break old habits and think critically about the city’s slower growth trajectory.” The report will help planners and community leaders recalibrate classic planning strategies and tools, such as comprehensive plans and zoning codes to be consistent and effective within the new reality. The report contains excerpts of “Text Box Interviews” that examine the realities of planning in distressed cities through the eyes of planners and community leaders who are experimenting with new approaches. The complete interview as well as additional interviews can be found at the Institute’s Vacant Properties Research Network site.

The PAS report on Cities in Transition was a joint project with the American Planning Association with support from The Ford Foundation’s Metropolitan program and is part of the Metropolitan Institute’s larger Vacant Property Research Initiative. Copies may be purchased at at APA Bookstore.

 

 

 

Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program Twitter Town Hall TOMORROW

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On February 28 at 3:00 p.m. EST, the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD )Secretary Donovan and Assistant Secretary Poethig will host a Twitter town hall to launch the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Fellowship Program. The event will be streamed live on HUD’s website.

The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech is pleased to be partnering with the German Marshall Fund (GMF) and Cleveland State University (CSU) for HUD’s SC2 Fellowship Program. Over the next few months, the GMF will manage the national selection process in search of a highly-skilled group of mid-career professionals who will work in  the seven pilot cities for two years.  In the coming months, MI and its partners will build the support network for the fellows and the host local governments through a series of workshops, webinars, and mentoring sessions. Underwriting for the fellowships is provided by a generous gift from the Rockefeller Foundation.

During the Twitter town hall, Secretary Donovan will provide more details about how you can apply for the SC2 Fellowship Program and be a part of this new generation of innovative leaders committed to public service. We will tweet about eligibility, timing, selection criteria, and other details you will want to know to apply. The event will be streamed live on HUD’s website. Twitter users will be able to ask questions in advance and during the Town Hall using the hashtag #AskSOHUD.

SC2 is about effective government and fostering the type of change that can positively impact communities. By creating long-lasting partnerships with local governments, philanthropies, academic institutions, business, and non-profits, we can help revitalize and strengthen America’s cities.

Letter From the Director – Wrap-Up of the First Semester

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My first semester as Director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech (MI) is drawing to a close. Similar to my 60 day update, I would like to share with you selected achievements and strategic activities of the institute. The institute is now home to a number of blossoming research efforts, including a policy informatics network, expanding work on citizen engagement, critical looks at development patterns in distressed cities, and the local and global patterns of community resiliency.

Roundup on Grants and Proposals
We continue to diversify our funded research portfolio. Joe Schilling led the Metropolitan Institute’s effort to partner with the German Marshall Fund and Cleveland State to manage, mentor, and evaluate a new executive fellowship program as part of the Obama Administration’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative which seeks to build capacity in six economically distressed cities—Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, Fresno, and Chester, PA. Joe and his colleagues at Cleveland State will assess the impacts from the fellowship while mentoring roughly 30 professionals over a 3-year period. Maggie Cowell and I received a seed grant from the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment to build a research program on designing resilient networks for local communities. Read more about the project here. We received an IBM Center for the Business of Government grant to study the role of citizen apps and its influence on governance. Read more about the project here. We are hoping to hear positive responses on several grant proposals we currently have under review.

New and Emerging Partnerships
An institute’s strategic alliances are one of its most valuable assets. Building winning partnerships takes time and effort, and the payoffs for both parties are not immediate. We have spent a great deal of time and effort to connect the Metropolitan Institute with our industry, non-profit, and government friends. We have formed a partnership with ACT for Alexandria, a community foundation dedicated to stimulating philanthropic giving on the local level within Alexandria, VA. The ACTion Alexandria project is a new citizen engagement platform with interactive tools to make it easier for residents to take an active role in addressing community problems. The institute will partner with Act for Alexandria and use the ACTion platform to design and test practices that encourage citizen participation using online tools. Read more on this project here. Tentative collaboration agreements are in place or being cultivated with a number of other organizations including the American Red Cross, the US Green Building Council, the International for City/County Managers Association (ICMA), and City and County of San Francisco, among others. Within Virginia Tech, we continue to work closely with our partners in the Northern Capital Region and Blacksburg on a number of collaborative efforts.

Please continue reading for updates on our work in Community Resiliency, Policy Informatics and exciting international outreach and our vision of the future.

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