Restoring Prosperity

As you may have noticed, we have redesigned the Restoring Prosperity website to touch things up and smooth out the rough edges. Over the next month or so, we’re going to be posting more content, and inviting people working on the ground in each of the six states (and at the larger federal level) to join in the conversation and talk about what’s working, what’s not, and what we should all be paying attention to.

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The foreclosure crisis raging through cities across America is leading to the the man-made catastrophes of vacancy and abandonment. The damage caused by vacancy and abandonment is undeniable: Abandoned buildings and empty homes, storefronts, and lots decrease property values, breed crime, create environmental hazards, and drain municipal budgets.

There’s no easy fix, but the National Vacant Properties Campaign wants to help communities stabilize neighborhoods and residents keep their homes. Helping homes stay occupied by their owners is the critical first step to preventing the contagion of vacancy and abandonment from taking root.

To that end, the Campaign has been compiling information on the multiple waves of the foreclosure crises and how cities and organizations are responding. To make it easier for you, they’ve started to compile resources that are available online. Visit their foreclosure clearinghouse to find links to organizations, research, and relevant news articles.

Visit the Campaign to browse this new resource and learn more about their work.

A few months ago, I was in Baltimore for a summit conducted by the Regional Plan Association on the Northeast Megaregion maintaining its economic competitiveness while addressing climate change. Rep. Earl Blumenauer had one bit of narrative that stuck with me about our nation’s history of rising to the challenge of infrastructure with visionary plans — and the will to make them a reality.

This year marks the bicentennial of the Gallatin Plan (1808), crafted by Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, to develop the infrastructure needed by a fast-growing nation. This plan built on George Washington’s vision of connecting the interior settlements to the markets and ports of the East Coast with a network of roads and canals.

One hundred years later (1908), President Theodore Roosevelt invited every state and territorial governor to join members of his Cabinet and Congress, professional organizations, and government bureaus in a National Conference at the White House to discuss infrastructure needs for the 20th century. The resulting report incorporated the growing interest in conservation as well as the need for future investments in hydropower to generate electricity. More importantly, it laid the groundwork for many of the critical investments initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to jumpstart the nation’s recovery from the Great Depression.

So now in 2008, will we have a new grand vision for infrastructure? We’ve completed the interstate system proposed at the midpoint of the last century. But 2008 is a different time, and we face new challenges of congestion, aging bridges and roads, and the need for investments in transportation that can help us get where we need to go efficiently while also reducing emissions. Read more