Winnecke and Abell Reverse Two Years of Regressive Policy: Will the City Council Follow this Lead

By: Joe Wallace

In a much anticipated move the Vanderburgh County Commissioners passed a comprehensive smokefree workplace ordinance that will become effective this summer. Even though only a small number of businesses are effected this move sends a message to the City of Evansville and the surrounding area that this time the governance of unincorporated Vanderburgh County is choosing public health, lifestyle, and economic development over the fears of losing a small amount of business to businesses that cling to the outdated paradigm that having a smoking section is required to run a thriving restaurant or bar.

Speaker after speaker came to the lectern to plea with the three commissioners to pass this ordinance with accounts of friends and relatives who have suffered and died from the effects of both smoking and second hand smoke. At the end, each commissioner had their say and the ordinance passed by a margin of 2 – 1 with Commissioners Marsha Abell and President Lloyd Winnecke enthusiastically supporting the measure and Commissioner Stephen Melcher casting the lone dissenting vote.

Melcher citing full knowledge and acceptance of both the scientific evidence that that was presented and the economic development advantages that a smokefree workplace ordinance bring cited keeping the playing field level as his reason for voting no. This is the same reason given two years ago when then Commissioner Troy Tornatta and Melcher overrode Commissioner Winnecke’s vote making Vanderburgh County one of the first Census MSA’s in American to reverse such an ordinance.

Commissioners Winnecke and Abell both cited the attractiveness of the community to the much sought after educated young professionals and the universally accepted public health issues as reasons for their affirmative votes. Commissioner Winnecke stated furthermore that from a business perspective that taking actions that over the long run will make health insurance premiums drop, lost time work incidents decrease, and promote public health is the right thing to do to make Vanderburgh County a more attractive place for business to move and grow.

Will the City of Evansville Finally Follow?

In 2010 the Evansville City Council deadlocked on a less restrictive resolution sponsored by Councilmen Dr. H. Dan Adams and Dan McGinn. The resolution was also supported by Councilwomen Wendy Bredhold and Connie Robinson who made an impassioned statement that “she is her brother’s keeper” in casting the tying vote. A tie goes to the status quo so no action was taken.

5th Ward Councilman John Friend is now on record in support of a comprehensive smokefree workplace ordinance much like the one that Vanderburgh County passed tonight. Councilman Friend’s pivotal vote can tip the majority in 2011 if the resolution is re-introduced. His Republican opponent for the 5th Ward seat local entrepreneur Brent Grafton is on record as supporting a smokefree workplace ordinance but has not stated that he would only vote for it if there are no exceptions as Councilman Friend has emphatically stated.

The Aztar Question

Casinos in general have not been supportive of laws that protect their workers from second hand smoke citing anticipated lost revenue from competition. Indiana governments are sensitive to the perceptions of gambling houses because government derives substantial revenue from taxes paid from wagering. Most studies conclude that there is a short term drop followed by a quick return to previous levels but most of those studies are not in locations isolated from easily accessible competition.

Evansville’s Aztar would be somewhat isolated from other options for gamblers due to the geographic distance to other casinos that would offer smoking areas. The closest casinos that would allow smoking if Aztar embraced worker protection laws would be 3.5 hours west to St. Louis, 5 hours south to Tunica, MS, 8 hours north to Detroit, and 2 hours east to New Albany.

Davis Proposes Creation of 50 Summer Jobs to Make our Evansville Parks Beautiful

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Evansville Parks Department would receive an infusion of at least $150,000 and an additional summer workforce of about 50 school-aged summer workers under a proposal by current Democratic Party mayoral candidate Rick Davis.

Davis, the current Vanderburgh County Treasurer, told a Town Hall audience at McCollough Library on Thursday night that an additional 50 high school and college-aged students would comprise a Community Service Corps under the umbrella of the Evansville Parks Department. The students would be paid minimum wage for 40 hours per week and be charged with cleaning and improving the parks and cemeteries during a 10-week summer period.

Davis was in attendance at a recent Evansville Parks Board meeting and was dismayed as Neil Troost, an Evansville physician whose daughter was stuck with a hypodermic needle while playing in a sandbox at Sunset Park, delivered a damning PowerPoint presentation to the Parks Board describing the poor state of Evansville’s parks. Davis said it was clearly evident from Troost’s presentation that the Parks Department is severely underfunded and undermanned and in need of immediate attention.

The summer workforce would be responsible for cleaning and beautifying our parks and removing graffiti from parks department facilities.

“The citizens of Evansville deserve to let their children play in a taxpayer-funded park without worrying for their safety or being exposed to profanity that has been spray-painted on children’s playground equipment,” said Davis, 41, who is the Vanderburgh County Treasurer. Davis said he would also like to see the Community Service Corps tackle beautifying improvements at city-owned cemeteries, too.

“During the summer months — during the growing season — our parks department personnel are busy keeping the grass cut so that we may enjoy our parks,” said Davis. “The addition of the Community Service Corps would help ensure our families have a beautiful, safe, and enjoyable green space to take advantage of.”

Members of the Community Service Corps would be between the ages of 16 and 20, said Davis.

Davis, who has held seven Town Hall meetings, said quality of life issues such as improvements in the Parks Department have been important topics brought up by members of the general public.

The next scheduled Town Hall meeting will be held on Thursday, Feb. 24, from 6-7 p.m. at Oaklyn Library, located at 3001 Oaklyn Drive. To learn more about Rick Davis and his campaign, please feel free to visit www.PickRickDavis.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT RICK DAVIS FOR MAYOR CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN BILL DENTON AT 499-6312.

The Importance of Parks and Recreation…A Better life!

By: Linda Koelling, Vice Mayor of Foster City, CA

We all know the importance of leisure time and recreation in our lives, yet, when times are tough it seems the first things we look to cut in any city budget is in the area of Parks and Recreation. Although recreation means something different to each individual, on the community level the meaning of recreation is focused toward the attainment of an ideal, toward contributions in one form or another to a better way of life. It can then be said that recreation provides for the improvement of society and therefore is essential in our lives. We only have to look around us in Foster City and realize the quality of services that our Parks and Recreation Department provides through its exciting programs and exceptionally maintained parks. When looking at our budget one will see that Parks and Recreation carves a large piece of the budget because our city sees the essential value in leisure activities.

You may have noticed that I have labeled Parks and Recreation as an essential service. I believe that in the midst of vast changes in our communities and the need for regenerating our society because of the economic issues we are all facing, it is important that we have recreational opportunities in place for personal needs, social interaction, creativity and inspiration. Parks and Recreational facilities provide a welcome retreat for the entire family.

As the warm summer months approach, residents should look at the various opportunities that will be available through our Parks and Recreation department. There are opportunities to simply strolling through neighborhood parks such as Leo Ryan Park, walk the new track at Catamaran Park or participate in a structured activity like the Family Overnighter at Boothbay Park. Whether it’s the Levee Pedway or neighborhood park structures, our parks system provides something for all ages and interests. Foster City Parks make life better by making this community a desirable place in which to live and work now and in the future and capturing the serenity and awe of nature.

You can enjoy what the Foster City park system has to offer and discover how it can make your life better. Parks may enhance the quality of life by offering a safe outdoor space for play, or maybe it’s the beauty and quietness of being in nature that makes you feel alive. It could be the healthy movement of exercise at your own pace or spending time with family. You might just discover the simple free time of fun and ability to relax in positive spaces. The parks may also serve as gathering places for socializing and learning; a common ground that connects you and neighbors.

You will recognize the value of Parks and Recreation as they will forever enrich our lives in the neighborhoods and communities in which we live. I encourage you to live the promise that parks make life better and there is no better city than Foster City that exemplifies the many ways that Parks and Recreation positively affect our lives

San Jose Estimate is $40 Million to serve 1 million customers

Like the electric grid, many of today’s water utilities are still using 19th century technologies. That’s attracting a rising number of entrepreneurs to what is one of clean tech’s newest and perhaps most critical sectors.

Some observers see a looming crisis as consumption of the planet’s limited fresh-water resources continues to rise. Sensor networks and other electronics could be leveraged to rebuild an aging and inefficient infrastructure while accelerating the move to seawater and waste water reclamation, they say.
But even the most optimistic experts admit it will take tough new policies and significantly higher prices to drive any progress toward a modern water system. Even with such changes, growth in electronics for water utilities is likely limited to the low-single-digit growth of the utilities themselves.

San Jose Water Co., one of the 10 largest in the country and more automated than most, has all 1 million of its customers metered. But the 225,000 meters it uses are all mechanical devices that must be read in person.
“It would be nice to have automated meters, but right now the cost is prohibitive; we’ve estimated $40 million for our system,” said Tom Victorine, director of operations for the utility, which employs just 324 people and supplies 50 billion gallons of water a year.

Victorine estimates Moore’s Law will put smart meters within San Jose Water’s budget within 10 years.

Moore’s Law is named after Intel founder Gordon Moore who postulated that every two years the number of transistors that can be put into a given space doubles while the price halves making the performance to price ratio increase by a factor of four every two years.

From Electronic Engineering Times

IS IT TRUE? February 22, 2011

IS IT TRUE that the Evansville City Council shall be asked to consider shifting Parks funding from Community Youth Sports programs to maintenance?….that this that this resolution was created by 1st Ward City Councilman Dan McGinn ….that City Council attorney John Hamilton is making legal and binding adjustment to this document? ….that it is time for the private sector step up and help with the funding of these worthy Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs in Evansville? …..”that government shouldn’t do for people or groups for what they should do for themselves”?

IS IT TRUE that the appearance and functionality of any cities parks are one of the “vital signs” that visitors or site selectors look at to evaluate the civic health of a city?…that back in the 70’s when New York City had let Central Park be taken over by gangs and it became dangerous that New York was thought to be that way throughout the city?…that back when the Central Park jogger was being savaged and tourists were fearful of walks in the park that New York was losing tourist dollars and business hand over fist?…that only when Central Park was taken back from weeds and thugs did New York real estate recover?…that only when Central Park became safe and clean did Times Square come back to become a vibrant place full of life as opposed to prostitutes and drug dealers?…that back in the 70’s when New York was a dysfunctional mess that the Evansville park system was quite nice?…that New York was brought back to life when a series of strong Mayors were elected who drove out crime and insisted upon civic cleanliness and a pristine Central Park and other New York parks.

IS IT TRUE that world renowned landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted designed New York’s Central Park, Stanford University, and the entire park system of the City of Louisville?…that in his book “A Journey Through Texas” written in 1857 that Fredrick Law Olmsted referred to Evansville as the only city of note on the Ohio River in the State of Indiana?…that a student of Frederick Law Olmsted designed Evansville’s Garvin Park and did the layout of a park system in Evansville that is based on Olmsted’s theory of public park design?…that Central Park was brought back from the brink of ruin and that the park system of the City of Evansville can be too?…that proper budget allocation, civic involvement, and a big dose of pride of community can do for Evansville what it did for New York City?

IS IT REALLY TRUE that it’s really time that the Parks Department Administrators and the politically appointed Board members (who receives $3,000 a year for serving on the Board) finally become good stewards of the public trust by becoming pro-active in the obvious maintenance issues in our city and County parks?

IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville Redevelopment Commission will hold a public meeting at 8:30 a.m. in room 307 at the Civic Center on March 1, 2011? ….the reason for this meeting is for the appointed board members of this Commission to consider new appropriations of $2.8 Million dollars for Downtown TIF projects? ….that the Chairman of the Redevelopment Commission should re-advertise this public notice by breaking down what Downtown TIF projects they are planning to launch and the cost breakdown of each project? ….it would be also nice if the Redevelopment Commission Chairmen would send a copy of this information to each and every City Council Members so they can give their input concerning the above appropriations for new Downtown TIF projects?

IS IT TRUE that we are interested in how several new houses were started in the Front Door Pride area after the bond issue to cover the cost was postponed last fall?… that we believe that a full disclosure needs to be made with respect to how each and every one of these $2.8 Million will be spent?

IS IT TRUE CCO “MOLE #3” would like to congratulate 2nd Ward City Councilwoman, Missy Mosby and her challenger Patrick McBride for doing an excellent job in their first e-debate in the Community Observer? ….”MOLE 3″ thinks both candidates did a creditable job?….MOLE #3 predicts this race is too close to call but at this time Missy Mosby has the edge in this campaign?….”MOLE #3″ says that this primary battle between Missy and Patrick will be an old fashion political barn burner?…that we would like to see more issues on which these two candidates have differing opinions?

Dr. Troost’s Crusade Getting Attention

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE

RESOLUTION C-2011- SPONSORED BY:

WHEREAS, the budget for the City of Evansville for the year 2011 currently shows that the sum of Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) has been allocated to a program commonly known as Youth Sports; and,

WHEREAS, the budget for the City of Evansville for the year 2011 currently shows that the sum of Ten Thousand dollars ($10,000.00) has been allocated to a program commonly known as Youth Leadership; and,

WHEREAS, the Council has been made aware that maintenance in local Parks facilities is lacking and several facilities are in immediate need of maintenance and has further been made aware that a City resident was injured by a dirty hypodermic needle that was discarded in Sunset Park and that graffiti and litter plague another Parks facility, The Pigeon Creek Greenway; and,

WHEREAS, the lack of maintenance in our City Parks is in part due to lack of sufficient funds to employ sufficient personnel to maintain said Parks and lack of sufficient funds to purchase necessary supplies and equipment to maintain said Parks;, and

WHEREAS, the maintenance or the City’s Parks is important to the taxpayers of the City of Evansville and should take precedence and have priority over the aforementioned Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs and that the funds in the amount Sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) should be utilized for the employment of part time employees to clean, repair and maintain our Parks and for the purchase of materials and supplies to maintain our Parks; and,

WHEREAS, it is the desire of the Common Council of the City of Evansville to utilize the aforementioned sum of Sixty Thousand Dollars ($60,000.00) for the employment of part time Parks employees and for the purchase of materials and supplies to maintain our Parks and that said sum should be transferred to the Parks Department for these stated purposes rather than be granted to the Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs and that Sunset Park and the Pigeon Creek Greenway be the first facilities to benefit from these funds.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE THAT:

1. No funds be granted or utilized for Youth Sports and Youth Leadership programs.
2. That the sum of Sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) be allocated to the Department of Parks and Recreation for the sole and express purpose of employing part time employees and for the purchase of materials and supplies for the maintenance of various Park’s facilities and that Sunset Park and the Pigeon Creek Greenway be the first Park’s facilities to benefit from these funds.
3. That the balance of the funds be utilized to maintain other Park’s facilities as determined by the Staff of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

4.. That the Mayor of the City of Evansville, the Board of Parks Commissioners, the staff of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Controller of the City of Evansville do what is necessary to achieve these purposes.
5.. That this Resolution be in full force and effect upon its adoption by the Common Council of the City of Evansville and approval by the Mayor.

PASSED AND ADOPTED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EVANSVILLE This ______day of _____________, 2011.

COMMON COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF EVANSVILLE

__________________________
Presiding Officer

IS IT TRUE? February 21, 2011

IS IT TRUE that other media sources are finally publishing articles about the vanishing population of the City of Evansville?…that it has only taken 50 years for them to start?…that finally the Courier and Press ran an editorial yesterday that addressed the topic of population declines?…that the Downtown loft program, Front Door Pride, the Pigeon Creek Greenway, a public smoking ban, Amazonia, Bosse Field, the LST and the Downtown arena were all cited in the article as efforts that have been made to make Evansville more attractive?…that population shrinkage is about people and not about stuff?…that with the exception of a public smoking ban which incidentally has NOT BEEN ADOPTED by the Evansville City Council that all of these things are targeted at tourists or at very small numbers of people?…that if these are the things that are being done to alleviate the symptom of population shrinkage that Evansville is seriously misguided?

IS IT TRUE that the Manhattan Institute released a study that concluded that the most influential attribute to the growth of a city is the SKILLS of its residents?…that not one of the things listed above does one thing to improve the SKILLS or educational attainment of so much as one Evansvillian?…that the same study concluded that SKILLED people look for cities that have good schools, safe neighborhoods, short commutes, and other SKILLED people when deciding where to live?…that not one of the things listed above does one thing to improve the schools, the safety of neighborhoods, or attracts or inspires other SKILLED people to choose Evansville as home?

IS IT TRUE that the Front Door Pride homes and the IDEA Home are absolutely stunning and setting neighborhood aside some of the best priced homes in America?…that selling homes for half of what they cost to build is not sustainable for local governments and benefits only a few people?…that price does not matter to young professionals ready to start a family unless the neighborhood schools are top performers and crime is minimal?…that if the FDP neighborhood had schools that compete with Scott Elementary on ISTEP performance and the low crime rates of northern Vanderburgh County that all of these houses would be sold at double the price?…that there is still the ugly reality that adding homes when the population is shrinking defies the logic of free markets?

IS IT TRUE that population flight really is a problem for the City of Evansville?…that breaking down the numbers for the first decade of the millennium reveals that Evansville shrunk by roughly 10 people per week when annexations are considered?…that some of these people left for better opportunities and others passed away?…that there are only two ways to grow a population?…that having babies and having people that move here are the only growth mechanisms available?…that an aging demographic as is typical for Evansville are rapidly getting beyond the age of having more babies?…that the growth of the population of Evansville will depend on being the choice of people who were not born here as a home?…that people choose where to live based on economic opportunity, safety, schools, and then on entertainment options?…that I have never ever know anyone to relocate to a city because of an arena, a ball field complex, a rain forest exhibit, or a WWII boat?…that if the City of Evansville does not start doing something to inspire economic opportunity that the exodus will continue?…that two arenas, five zoos, a hundred miles of bike paths, a chicken in every pot, a half priced house in a crime ridden neighborhood, or even consolidated government will not make up for the deficiency of career opportunities with a good future for young educated professionals.

IS IT TRUE that band aids and games will not solve the population problem? …that an intervention may just be required to get things on a path to growth?…that from an economic perspective it will take the equivalent of chemotherapy, followed by multiple organ transplants to really get the City of Evansville onto a path to relevance and prosperity?

Missy Mosby vs. Patrick McBride

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL EDEBATE ON COMMUNITY-OBSERVER.COM

Practical Goals for a Growing City

The article is rather long and deep analytically. It goes into some rather intricate details about the fact that cities with skilled people grow and concentrates on what to do to keep or attract skilled people. It is also clear that valuable skills are a dynamic thing and that creating positive change is the real key to maintaining skills. Here are some excerpts. I encourage anyone who really wants to understand how to make Evansville a skilled city and thus a relevant city to digest the entire article several times.

“Cities grow when people want to be near other people in that city or to something else that’s near that city.”

“In 1900, it was important to be near the coal mine, near the Great Lakes; in 2000, it was irrelevant.”

“In 2000, increasingly, cities are located around places where smart people want to live rather than around places where businesses have some inborn transportation cost advantage.”

“There is no reason to think that the decline of manufacturing firms or the exodus of manufacturing from cities is inefficient or bad. It is a big mistake to think that we’re going to reinvent cities around nineteenth-century solutions.”

“Moving ideas and skilled people has been what made cities work. It’s no longer about the port; it’s about the people. Entrepreneurship is part of the equation.”

“The policy vision that this will tend to push is that if we have skilled workers, the employers will follow. We should have an employee-based view of public policy.”

“Schools predict population growth, employment growth, income growth, and housing growth. Schools are a reliable predictor of which cities do well and which cities do poorly. ”

“The crucial thing, obviously, is that you have smart people and that they want to stay there—and that they don’t immediately respond to a negative shock by moving on to the next city.”

“The key to reinvention is to keep skilled people from leaving. That brings us to the actual policy issue: How do you make cities skilled? If skilled people are so important, how do you keep skilled people in your city?”

“being good at manufacturing meant that they were less-skilled places, so cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit tended to attract huge numbers of unskilled people, which can be a real difficulty for the city later on. The fact that a city was good at doing something for less-skilled people—though it was great in 1950—was terrible in 2000”

“The bad news is that in the best-case scenarios, the top bureaucrats of governments still choose losers.”

“Cities often focus on growing industries in which they have no conceivable comparative advantage. How are cities with incredibly low skill levels and no major universities going to be serious centers of biotech?”

“Why would you think that by focusing on low-skilled, nineteenth-century industries that you are going to reinvent your city for the twenty-first century? The hallmark of the modern economy is unpredictability and innovation”

“There’s no way with the data to reject the view that the number of college graduates, or some reasonable proxy for skills, is everything. Nothing else appears to predict anything about urban success.”

“What else do skilled people like? They live in places with lower murder rates, and they don’t like crime. …Skilled people scoot to the sides of boundaries, where they are able to send their kids to good public schools rather than to bad public schools.”

“As much as we may want to take care of our poorest residents locally, it’s a very hard thing to do because of the mobility of skilled people. We often make things worse because the skilled people emigrate.”

“But if you think that you’re going to save a city by quick fixes such as creating a funky downtown, it’s hard to imagine it working. All the available evidence suggests that most skilled people—for example, a thirty-eight-year-old married couple or a twenty-seven-year-old single person—want good, cheap schools, fast commutes, and safe streets. These things do not come cheap or easy.”

Here is the link to the entire study.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_40.htm

What Makes Cities Grow?

By: Stephen Moore

Back in the 1960s, economist John Kenneth Galbraith pronounced that there was “nothing wrong with New York that doubling the city budget wouldn’t solve.” As the budget more than doubled while the city’s problems grew worse, many came to suspect that just the opposite is true.

Now there’s statistical evidence that high spending and taxes do indeed lead to urban decay. My colleague Dean Stansel and I conducted a study for the Cato Institute comparing the tax and fiscal policies of fast-growing cities with those of declining ones. We found a consistent pattern: spending and taxes were far higher in the declining cities.

Of the nation’s 75 biggest cities, the ten fastest-growing increased in population by between 34 and 89 percent between 1980 and 1990. The ten fastest-declining cities lost between 7 and 16 percent of their populations during the same period. (New York, which grew a modest 3.5 percent, was not among the cities we compared.)

The differences in fiscal policy between the two groups of cities were striking. For every $1 of per-capita expenditures in high-growth cities, the shrinking cities spent $1.71. High-growth cities spent an average of $673 per person per year, versus $1,152 in the shrinking cities. These figures don’t include expenditures on health, education, and welfare, which are difficult to compare across cities because of differences in which level of government is responsible. We found, however, that education expenditures are $1,400 per pupil higher in low-growth cities than in high-growth ones; welfare benefits are higher, too.

Shrinking cities had more than twice as large a bureaucracy as growth cities: the high-growth ten had 99 city employees per 10,000 residents; the shrinking cities, 215. City taxes averaged $304 per capita in the high-growth cities, compared with $588 in the shrinking ones. And whereas none of the 15 highest-growth cities have an income tax, ten of the 15 lowest-growth ones do. A key for urban revival, it’s clear, is to reduce spending and government employment so that existing and prospective businesses and residents don’t bear such a high tax burden.