Key concepts: new urbanism, Iowa, state initiatives
Attention Conversation Notice: "Iowa." Where's that? Do they mean "Ohio"? We always get those confused.
Holy cow! Modeling virtual cities in mere minutes with
dual lasers!
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624985.800
Good lord! Genetically altered mice with expanded lifespans!
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7347
Augmented animals! Can such things be? Well, no,
probably not, thank goodness.
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67349,00.html
From: Connor W. Anderson cman*cman.cx Subject: Redesigning Middle America Date: May 5, 2005 11:21:57 PM CDT To: bruces*well.com
Hi Bruce,
Longtime member of the Viridian list here.
I reside in Clinton, Iowa, population 28,000.
Links:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Clinton
+Iowa&spn=0.784149,1.189270&t=k&hl=en,
http://www.ci.clinton.ia.us
http://www.clintonia.com/dwncomm.cfm
Recently, our Governor, Tom Vilsak signed an executive order establishing The Iowa Great Places Initiative. In short, this process will pick three visionary plans for transforming and enhancing Iowa "Great Places" and then put $12-20M worth of state departmental money at the dispoal of the winners to bring these ideas to fruition.
Link:
http://www.iowagreatplaces.gov
"Great Places" is designed to make good places great by bringing together the resources of state government to build capacity in communities, regions, neighborhoods or districts that cultivate the unique and authentic qualities that make places special: engaging experiences; rich, diverse populations & cultures; a vital, creative economy; clean and accessible natural and built environments; well-designed infrastructure; and a shared attitude of optimism that welcomes new ideas, based on a diverse and inclusive cultural mosaic.
At the request of Governor Tom Vilsack, government agencies will work together as true partners with three "pilot" great places (to be selected throughout the state), to stimulate ideas and planning, streamline access to available state resources, help leverage local and private resources, and share technical expertise.
The Great Places initiative will also bolster the state's other successful economic tools like Vision Iowa and the Iowa Values Fund.
Both our local planning committee and the statewide selection committee are made up of mostly non-political, young professionals under the age of 40. In Iowa, where the median age is 36.6 years and rising, this is a HUGE deal. One looks at the makeup of the selection panel and the language and incredible open-endedness of the proposal documents, this initiatives simply screams New Green Urban Planning. A Daniel Burnham meets Viridian-type vision, if you will.
Oh, and the deadline for initial applications is June 31, with final selections to be done by September. This is lightning fast stuff by anyone's standards, especially government.
What we'd like to do is to invite some of the best minds in sustainable urban planning and design to work with us on a submission that ties several existing and planned riverfront and neighborhood redevelopment projects together into a "grand arc" from Eagle Point park (a beautiful WPA-era park) in the far North down the riverfront through the Lyons and Clinton downtown areas and then west along the Highway 30/Camanche Avenue corridor. Substantial sections of the latter are undergoing redevelopment planning. The proposal could include not only a Burnhamesque grand plan but one or possibly two "anchor" projects. Currently in the planning stages are a new municipal libary and a Sawmill Museum == in the late 1800's Clinton was the lumber capitol of the U.S. with more millionaires per capita than anywhere in the U.S.
Link:
http://www.clintoncountyiowa.com/history.htm
http://www.clintoncountyiowa.com/history1.htm
I'm really quite excited about this chance to bring real worldchanging ideas to Middle America. Do you think you can help us with some initial contacts or suggestions of people we should be bothering? I'm also sending basically a duplicate of this letter to the folks over at worldchanging.
Best regards,
Connor W. Anderson
