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	<title>Rebuilding Cities That Built America</title>
	<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com</link>
	<description>Reinvesting in and reinventing older industrial cities</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:48:05 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>CRSI Reaches 51 Co-Sponsors in the House</title>
		<description><![CDATA[CRSI, sponsored by Rep Tim Ryan [OH-17], now has 51 co-sponsors. As of August 6, the following Representatives have become CRSI co-sponsors:

Rep Brian Higgins [NY-27]
Rep Betty Sutton [OH-13]
Rep Charles A. Wilson [OH-6]
Rep Earl Blumenauer [OR-3]
Rep Jim Gerlach [PA-6]
Rep Dale E. Kildee [MI-5]
Rep Marcia L. Fudge [OH-11]
Rep John D. Dingell [MI-15]
Rep John A. Boccieri [OH-16]
Rep Zachary T. Space [OH-18]
Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson [TX-30]
Rep Daniel B. Maffei [NY-25]
Rep Thomas S.P. Perriello [VA-5]
Rep Dennis J. Kucinich [OH-10]
Rep Maurice D. Hinchey [NY-22]
Rep James L. Oberstar [MN-8]
Rep Steven C. LaTourette [OH-14]
Rep Allyson Y. Schwartz [PA-13]
Rep ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=308</link>
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		<title>The Idea of Smaller Cities is Gaining Traction</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This article from Rueters highlights innovations from across the nation to address the problem of significantly declined populations in older industrial cities and the resulting blight and infrastructure. The article begins by praising the Genesee County Land Bank for it&#8217;s innovative approach to urban revitalization through vacant lot reclamation and demolition. The Land Bank has successfully demolished 1,000 homes in five years. The concept of deliberately shrinking a city usually raises some eyebrows. After all, shrinking implies smaller, and smaller isn&#8217;t exactly an American ideal. But it&#8217;s necessary. As Dan ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=797</link>
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		<title>The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Accepts a CRSI Amendment to the Livable Communities Act</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs had a markup session on the Livable Communities Act. Senator Schumer posed an amendment that would include a Regeneration Planning Grant Demonstration Program, which is an aspect of the Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act (CRSI). The Livable Communities Act with Schumer&#8217;s amendment passed through the Committee and will now go to the entire Senate for a vote. In addition, the same Bill and amendment will need to pass the House.
The Regeneration Planning Grant Demonstration Program would provide funding to ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=775</link>
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		<title>Regional Network Conference Creates a Buzz</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last month the Cleveland+Youngstown+Pittsburgh Regional Network hosted a conference that was [coincidentally?] entitled &#8220;Rebuilding the Cities that Built America.&#8221; The conference featured a briefing on The Community Regeneration, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2009, a keynote address from Dan Kildee, former Genesee County Treasurer and current President of The Center for Community Progress, and a lunchtime plenary that explored the new Sustainable Communities Initiative. The aim of the conference was to exchange best practices and policies that can benefit older industrial cities and build relationships across the three cities.
The following ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=791</link>
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		<title>How the Federal Government Should Be Assisting Older Industrial Cities</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Next American City published a two part story on &#8220;&#8230;how the federal government provides roadblocks to enacting &#8216;rightsizing&#8217; policies in older industrial cities, and what can be done to change this.&#8221;
The second article especially highlights the inadequacies of the federal government to enact effective policies to help these cities rebuild and precisely articulates all of the nuances and difficulties. For instance, &#8220;&#8230;small population leads to a small tax base, which in turn leads to a smaller city government, which leads to a rejected application for Neighborhood Stabilization funds. It ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=786</link>
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		<title>Should We Put People or Places First?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In Richard Florida&#8217;s new book The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity, he dedicates Chapter 12 to &#8220;The Death and Life of Great Industrial Cities.&#8221; An excerpt from this chapter was recently published on a blog called the Urbanphile.
In this chapter, Florida explores the notion of &#8220;shrinking cities&#8221; and considers what kinds of policy need to be implemented to address this phenomenon. Essentially, he boils it down to the following question:
Should public policy toward hard-pressed, economically strapped cities focus on people, not just by ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=780</link>
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		<title>City Introduces Plan to Reuse Vacant Buildings</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Goshen Redevelopment Commission of Goshen, Indiana has approved a new plan to reuse their vacant properties. This plan would create a temporary &#8220;Economic Revitalization Area,&#8221; and individuals or companies interested in putting vacant properties located within this area back to productive use would qualify for  a tax break. &#8220;The plan, as proposed, would allow the Goshen City Council to approve tax phase-ins for any building that&#8217;s been empty for more than a year where new operations are starting, said Larry Barkes, city attorney.&#8221;
This initiative represents yet another way cities ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=668</link>
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		<title>Older Industrial Cities have a Place in FY 2011 Budget</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Mara D&#8217;Angelo works for Smart Growth America on older industrial cities issues. When President Obama released his FY 2011 Budget a few months ago, D&#8217;Angelo wrote a blog entry commending the President&#8217;s efforts to revitalize older, blighted urban neighborhoods. She specifically applauds Obama&#8217;s appropriations for the EPA&#8217;s brownfields program. According to D&#8217;Angelo, the appropriation demonstrates:
&#8230;A keen awareness of the desperate need in cities across the country to clean up vacant properties and reclaim polluted industrial sites as community assets. The Obama Administration&#8217;s proposed $40 million dollar increase for the program ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=664</link>
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		<title>Older Industrial Cities are Gaining Traction within the Office of Urban Affairs</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Upon taking office, one of the first things President Obama did was sign an executive order that established the White House Office of Urban Affairs (you can read that executive order here). As the Office has begun to form its agenda, it appears that the plight of older industrial cities is certainly on that radar screen. A few weeks ago Adolfo Carrion, Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, and Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President on Urban Policy, attended the World Urban Forum 2010. Both of ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=659</link>
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		<title>City Implements a New Law to Fight Blight</title>
		<description><![CDATA[South Euclid, OH has passed a new law to fight blight caused by vacant and abandoned properties. The law implements two new measures:
one identifies owners or others who control the property; the other creates a system to ensure that violations get fixed and aren&#8217;t handed off from one owner to another.
In addition, owners of vacant properties will be forced to pay a $200 fee.
Although there are people who oppose the law, supporters of the new law say it will deter people from &#8220;flipping properties&#8221; and emphasize the fact that vacant ...]]></description>
		<link>http://www.rebuildingcitiesthatbuiltamerica.com/?p=656</link>
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