Civic Dialog

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=200 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1278dfc3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id77_m.htm" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Civic Dialog"><U><B>Civic Dialog</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77_m.htm#town_civic_partnerships" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Civic Dialog"><U><B>Town-Civic Partnerships</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77_m.htm#what_are__deliverables__" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Civic Dialog"><U><B>What are "Deliverables?"</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77_m.htm#shared_equity_housing" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="Civic Dialog"><U><B>Shared Equity Housing</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="1288dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>New Directions CBRI</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Directions CBRI"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Civic Dialog</div> <div> Here is a place for friends--and why not strangers?--to sound off about both new and old directions in the field of civic renewal.  For the time being, please send your letters to the webmaster-moderator by <A HREF="mailto:Acollver@Optonline.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Acollver@Optonline.net"><U>e-mail</U></A>.  Whether this grows up to be a bona-fide Weblog, or <I>blog</I> for short, will depend on readers' response and webmaster's enthusiasm.  </div> <bR> <div> Note:  Only submissions that the moderator finds are (1) relevant and (2) add something new to this website will be accepted.   Editor and author will negotiate mutually acceptable changes to make the presentation more readable, clarify arguments, separate facts from opinions, and of course avoid obscenities, personal attacks, misspelling and grammatical goofs.</div> <div>  <A NAME="town_civic_partnerships"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="6" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="738" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#0000FF" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="718"><div> To start a conversation on better ways to organize the suburbs, here is the summary of a March, 2007 paper on Town-civic partnerships.  The complete paper is at <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bookstore"><U>Library/Bookstore</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Town-Civic Partnerships</B>:</div> <div> <B>Connecting Local Communities </B></div> <div> <B>and Neighborhoods with Local Government</B></div> <bR> <div> by Andrew Collver*  March 15, 2007</div> <div> _______________________________________________________________________</div> <div>      To bring local government more closely into alignment with local neighborhood needs and opportunities, some cities have established systems of city-neighborhood partnerships.  Early leaders were Portland, Oregon, 1974, and Seattle Washington, 1987.  </div> <div>      Here it is proposed that a similar system could provide a number of advantages to Long Island communities.  At the base of the system would be local civic associations within each school district affiliated to form a district council.  This council would be autonomous, not an agency of the town, and accountable to the district's residents, nonprofit organizations, businesses and property owners.</div> <div>        On behalf of its constituents, the council would be authorized to form a partnership with a new Town Office of Community Partnerships.  The purposes and functions of the partnership would be specified in an agreement.  Both the district council and its member civic associations would be free to carry out activities that are not in conflict with the partnership agreement.</div> <div>      Town government would set down the standards to be met in order to become eligible for the partnership and the benefits to be gained from it.  Citizens would then be invited to organize themselves accordingly and apply to join.</div> <div>      Documents that describe various ways that other municipalities have found to bring municipal operations into harmony with neighborhoods are in a series of appendices, available on request to ACollver@Optonline.net.                                                                          <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bookstore"><U>Read the complete paper.</U></A></div> <div> _______________________________________________________________________</div> <div> *  Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Stony Brook University </div> <div> Research Director, New Directions Community-Based Research Institute  </div> <div> 68 Aspen Lane, Stony Brook New York 11790</div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="what_are__deliverables__"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A>I</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="6" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="738" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#0000FF" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 96 WIDTH="718"><div> The initiation of Civic Dialog was inspired by a letter from Tokyo in January, 2007.   Bob Mulvey had sent a copy of the Newsday story, "A Man on a Mission," to his daughter in Boston.  She in turn distributed it to her cousins network.  Alan Mulvey has seen community development from quite a lot of different perspectives--perspectives that we may have missed here in the Long Island suburbs.  Here is what he has to say about the concept of "deliverables."</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>A New Defining Face of Sustainability for America`s Middle Classes</B></div> <bR> <div> by Alan Mulvey</div> <div> Tokyo, January 2007</div> <bR> <div> Bob Keeler's story, “The Affordable Housing Crusader,” <I>Newsday</I>, Jan.  21, 2007, is a big article, full of information that reminded me of how well Bob Mulvey expresses his ideas.   So I write a little big response.  Your indulgence please.  </div> <div> I don't get the culture of those who say that the only deliverable is the easily identifiable one of Land Trusts.  It's so clear, or should be, or at least should become in the future much more clear to a much larger number of mainstream thinkers, that deliverables also include all those things that they want for their own children's future-- safe environment, quality in education, opportunities that enrich but also give back, a moral sense, a civic leadership capacity.  These ideas are not at all "foggy" to parents or to young people, though they are difficult to articulate in a bankers' or economists' board room.  Like all generous ideas, they need generous listeners.  But that is just a short term problem. </div> <div> The study of economics in the universities is growing more and more popular, and as a result society is going to be full of people that count economics as a basic education.  All of which means that ordinary people will be more conversant with economics, and economists will be more human in their assessment of what is `deliverable`. Then, an assessment of the desirability of land trusts will take into consideration not just affordable housing but anything that becomes truly a part of a community consensus, such as amenities, businesses, the environment, etc. And it will be understood that land leases are worth implementing to encourage an empowered community of owners.</div> <div>  What really has a positive effect on children growing up in the neighborhood is seeing a healthy-looking built environment rather than a degraded one; seeing adults behave selflessly for the betterment of their common future; being shown that they themselves can take part in the process and that their voices will be heard; finding that the community makes it possible for them to avoid the delinquent's course of self-doubt and destructiveness; and growing up with a sense of belonging coupled with the common sense that profiting from each other is no profit at all.  </div> <div> It is well documented, and awarded, in projects from India to South America and Africa, that a sense of community cooperation, of participation and having a voice, of belonging, of ownership, all lead to a very pragmatic sustainability of community-cohesive action on common persistent problems and a preparedness for future calamities.  These are the `deliverables' expressed in funding papers filed by NGO`s across the globe and sent to institutions such as the Schwabb Social Entrepreneurs Association (the sister of the Economic Forum), the Ford Foundation, and many many others who give generously.  Why should they do that "over-there" but not in Long island? </div> <div> Well, it looks like they are doing it now in long island and elsewhere in the USA and the developed world.  And so, we can talk of deliverables for a modern built environment and a developing nation alike, such as gender equality, property maintenance and upkeep, personal capacity building, education and participation in civic institutions, and lastly, a sustainable community development in the sense that the community is empowered to ask for the new institutions that their path or journey of development calls forth.  </div> <div> All this from land leases?  Yes.  And that is why it is so essential and such a huge work to define them clearly so that they may have a beginning and begin to spread.  They have so much potential and they will surely lead to much else--at minimum a new defining face of sustainability for America's middle classes.   </div> <bR> <div> <I>Alan Mulvey is an Architect from Ireland who has worked in Dublin, Barcelona, Paris and New York, gained a masters in Computer Music, studied with the famous modernist Henri Ciriani, worked for the pioneering eco-architect Paul Leech Gaia Assoc., worked at the R&D design office of Walt Disney Imagineering/Bran Ferran Assoc., studied earthen architecture in Auroville, lived and worked as a `barefoot architect` in rural India for 4 years with the Indian NGO Gram Vikas (winner UNHabitat award 2002). For the last 2 years he has worked as an Architect in Tokyo, Japan.</I></div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="shared_equity_housing"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="6" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="738" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#0000FF" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="718"><div> George McCarthy is Senior Program Officer in Development Finance and Economic Security, Ford Foundation.  When he began saying that shared equity housing, as provided by community land trusts, is urgently need as the "Third Way" to provide homes and that he would like to see it applied to 1 in every 4 homes in America, Newsday editors took notice.  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Newsday Editorial</div> <div> <B>Less-costly housing</B></div> <div> <B>Own the home but share the equity</B></div> <div> November 17, 2006</div> <bR> <div> Of all the strategies for producing more housing that working families can afford, the one that has so far received the least attention in these parts is the community land trust. But there's been a quiet grassroots movement in that direction, and now the Ford Foundation is entering the fray on Long Island. That's a healthy turn of events.</div> <bR> <div> There's wide agreement that the Island needs both more single-family homes and more rental units. But there's a third way: shared equity. That's where land trusts come in.</div> <bR> <div> A trust is a nonprofit organization that owns the land under houses it builds or acquires, sells houses at affordable prices and leases the land long-term to the homeowner. It keeps housing affordable by retaining part of the appreciation in the houses' value. This lets owners build equity and move up the housing ladder, without making an undue profit, and lets land trusts keep down prices for future buyers. The subsidy stays with the land, not with the owner.</div> <bR> <div> Here, there's movement toward land trusts in such places as Southold, Bellport and Farmingdale, with a boost from a group called New Directions Community-Based Research Institute. On Monday, at the Milleridge Inn in Jericho, the institute is hosting an event that marks a significant turning point: It features a talk by George McCarthy, a senior program officer at the Ford Foundation.</div> <bR> <div> The foundation wants to see shared-equity units increase from about a quarter of one percent of all units to about 25 percent nationwide. McCarthy says too many people think of land trusts as a funky, counterculture approach. Still, there are more than 200 land trusts in the country. In California, for example, the City of Irvine has opted for one, and there are early discussions in New York City. It's worth exploring as one strategy for increasing the affordability of housing, and the Ford Foundation's encouragement should help. </div> <div> Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>