Urban Agenda
12.09.2009
President Obama took the first step in helping America’s cities when he created the White House Office of Urban Affairs. This new council understands that our cities need more than just a partner -- they need a partner who knows that the old ways don’t work any more.
Last August, I unveiled the first phase of my urban agenda to revitalize Ohio’s great cities. it calls for a reviatlization and refocusing of HUD, the use of stimulus money to make loans available to auto parts suppliers, and the preservation of Ohio's fresh water resources.
HUD
To effectively help America’s cities, the Department of Housing and Urban Development must re-emphasize its Urban Development mission – without shortchanging its Housing mission. HUD can achieve this by making specific changes to some of the old ways it has done business.
HUD must:
* Begin using Community Development Block Grants to promote economic development.
* Change its policies to allow for a more efficient clean up of brownfields.
* Lead the way on green buildings by not only retrofitting existing public and assisted housing but also working with the Labor Department to make sure that some of the new, green-collar jobs go to residents of that housing.
Community Development Block Grants are among HUD’s longest-running development efforts but they must be modified to have a specific goal of promoting economic development. Rather than spend the money in mainly low- and moderate neighborhoods, HUD must allow the grants to help large-scale development projects that can transform and re-invigorate an entire region. HUD can do this by promoting economic development around anchor institutions such as hospitals, colleges and universities, and research labs.
The Cleveland area’s high concentration of world-class medical facilities and top-notch colleges and universities would make it well-positioned to take advantage of HUD’s modified mission. Just this summer, the Cleveland Clinic unveiled its new bone marrow transplant and leukemia floor, complete with a new air-handling system that purifies the air in the entire unit – and gives patients more freedom to move around. When the Clinic needed the new system, it looked no farther than Akron, where Air Enterprises stood ready to help its neighbor.
We saw this same kind of inter-city cooperation in the terrific marketing effort that Cleveland and Akron undertook in its effort to be awarded the 2014 Gay Games. Also, we’ve seen exemplary cooperation between Cleveland and Akron in the combining of their political training programs—the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron, and Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.
Outside of Cuyahoga County, Dayton’s proximity to Wright Patterson Air Force Base offers opportunities for avionics. The University of Toledo, which has developed one of the most respected solar technology programs in the country, helped to launch northwest Ohio to the forefront of the nation’s renewable energy movement.
HUD also can spur development by changing its policies and assisting in the clean up brownfields. If a responsible private investor cannot be found, the property should be eligible for block grant money under the elimination of slums and blight mandate – even if the low- and moderate income requirements for the grants are not met.
HUD should allow block grant money to flow through Community Development Corporations. Churches with CDC’s can with work neighborhood and community groups and community action agencies that to ensure the local citizens are heard at the federal level.
And HUD must lead the way on green buildings. The agency has direct influence over 10% of the nation’s housing stock. Think about that: 10% of all the housing in America. That sizeable market presence allows HUD to directly promote investments in energy efficiency and green buildings.
HUD is beginning to position itself as a national leader in the green building retrofitting market by retrofitting existing, often aging and inefficient public housing. But HUD officials must work in collaboration with labor unions and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to make sure that jobs created with these funds are available to residents of public housing and surrounding low-income areas. This will allow HUD to help train the next generation of green-collar workers and make our world cleaner, reduce utility costs, boost the emerging green-energy markets and help Ohio as it transitions from the old economy to the new economy.
HUD’s mission also must be expanded to work in collaboration with public health officials to help enhance preventive health initiatives and education in central city areas where public housing/section 8 residents are at risk. To give HUD the tools it needs, I will institute a model I pioneered in the Secretary of State’s Office that is a social health index we call Better Lives, Better Ohio.
Completion of Better Lives, Better Ohio fulfilled my campaign promise to provide an online tool offering access to information about Ohio and its people. It allows us to take a closer look at where we have strengths as a state and what challenges we still need to address. The information is presented in an easy-to-use format so that families, new businesses and state government can access it to make informed decisions about Ohio’s future.
At the federal level, just like the state level, the goal of the index is to inform policy and program development. You can’t fix what you don’t measure.
I am not suggesting in any way that HUD abandon its goal of providing housing. These proposed changes are not intended to take away resources from the needy but to use resources more wisely to create or enhance significant urban development that will provide jobs and financial security while at the same time create more vibrant cities where people want to live, work and play.
Auto Supply Chain
Working with HUD is a longer-term project, but Ohio must move aggressively and immediately to address the challenges that face our automakers. Automakers can’t make autos without auto parts, and our supply chain is dangerously close to collapse.
Michigan ranks No. 1 in auto parts suppliers. Ohio is No. 2, but the credit crunch following the TARP bailout of 2008-2009 has made it hard for suppliers to get the loans needed to keep businesses operating and produce the parts. For Ohio's auto supply chain, the priority must be in assisting suppliers that have existing orders or that will supply newer, more fuel efficient vehicles.
The federal government should provide stimulus funds to launch a loan guarantee fund for suppliers. Today’s credit crunch is making it hard for even viable suppliers to get loans. And by giving priority to those making make parts for fuel-efficient cars, Ohio can help lead the way to making our planet safer.
Protecting Ohio's Water Supply
We should not allow one drop of water to leave Lake Erie. The world is getting drier and thirstier, and there are some who want to drain our lake one bottle at a time.No water must be sold, diverted or exported outside of the Great Lakes basin.
To achieve that, Ohio needs a strong voice in Washington who can work with other Great Lakes states to protect one of our greatest assets.
By promoting policies to help rebuild our cities, retool our manufacturers and protect our water, Ohio will rebound. We already have the human capital, the anchor institutions, the innovative spirit and the work ethic, needed to make our cities stronger. We need a partner in Washington who understands that the social and economic viability of our state depends on the prosperity and quality of our cities.
Updated: April 13th, 2010
