How the recession could reshape the country

Richard Florida has a long, provocative article in this month's issue of The Atlantic on how the (very deep) recession will probably reshape the development patters of the country, and what cities can do to jump start their prosperity. Besides giving some really dismal information (average home price in Detroit: a bit of $18,000), it is remarkable how many of the changes relate to smart growth, and how Florida argues that denser, more integrated and flexible regions are what will drive a city forward.

Well worth a read, at least to have a bit of a bird's eye view of the issues at hand. If Florida is write, Connecticut might be in a fairly good position to thrive and prosper by thinking regionally not just within but also beyond its borders. Building infrastructure to connect the state effectively and efficiently both to Boston and New York City is urgent, and the plans should go beyond relying in piece meal upgrades of the existing rail links and institutional arrangements.

The Rell Budget

Governor Rell just unveiled her budget proposal (full text here, greatest hits here), and to tell the truth, we are still going through it. Heidi will probably give some pointers on the good, the bad and the ugly on it; for know, it seems that I was mistaken and there are no cuts (at least no big ones) on help for cities and education funding. A good thing. In addition, Rell has talked quite a bit on cooperation between towns, positive if well implemented; in that I am a bit less confident.

The amount of reorganizing is pretty substantial on a first look, with a pretty indiscriminate trimming of the miriad of commissions that populate the state. In terms of services, higher education got big cuts, and low income people will be asked to pay more for health care.

Reaction by legislators has been mixed; Jonathan Pelto really, really doesn´t like it, though, and my Left Nutmegg calls it "awful".

Aside of all that, one random question: what´s up with the legislature obsession with a bottle bill? I know it is important, but it is really that important? Can anyone explain?

Making towns work together

One of the main points of the Smart Growth Working Group's agenda is working to create incentives to promote cooperation between towns. Call it voluntary regionalization; to avoid the self-destructive race for new development that municipalities have to engage in due to the broken property tax system, we help towns work together to get these projects they were fighting for and to share the benefits.

It is a good way to bypass a lousy tax system; not a perfect fix, but a fairly good one considering how reluctant towns can be when the word region gets tossed around. The package unveiled Monday is a good first step. It is important to stress, however, that it won't be useful if no efforts are made to include all towns and cities in these agreements; if the inner cities are left out (again) by their suburbs when vying for development, the cooperation will still be pretty much useless in terms of smart growth.