From the Desk of Ellen Pope
Welcome to the first issue of Transatlantic Connections Transforming Communities, the newsletter of GMF's Comparative Domestic Policy (CDP) program. The CDP program works to build opportunities for dialogue between policymakers and practitioners who work at the local and regional level in the United States and Europe. For more about the program, visit the CDP website. Over the past year, the CDP program has grown by leaps and bounds. In September 2008, the program launched its Transatlantic Cities Network (TCN), linking 25 dynamic, engaged civic leaders who represent communities across the United States and Europe. After two study tours and workshops (in September 2008 and February 2009), strong personal and professional connections have already grown between TCN representatives, and the group has been enthusiastic and creative in collaborating with the team here at GMF to shape possibilities for the TCN's future. The CDP program's fall 2008 Fellows are in the midst of completing and writing up their research. In mid-April, we will release the next Call for Applications, which will be open to both European and American applicants. As the TCN and our fellowship program evolve, the CDP program plans to publish policy briefs, case studies, podcasts and blog posts that will highlight best practices, explore policy challenges shared by cities on both sides of the Atlantic, and report findings from study tours, workshops, and our fellows' research. This newsletter will serve as a periodic update on these publications and on the program's activities. In the meantime, you can always find our most recent publications on the CDP website. We welcome any questions or feedback you might have about this newsletter, and we look forward to keeping you updated in the coming months. Sincerely,
Ellen Pope
Director of Comparative Domestic Policy
epope@gmfus.org TCN EVENT
Americans, Europeans discuss rail transit at Texas workshop
This workshop, held February 18-20, brought five high-level European rail practitioners to San Antonio, San Marcos, and Austin for a three-day workshop, designed to provide fresh insights on the challenges inherent in several of the region's passenger rail initiatives. The five European experts, who work in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris, and Stuttgart, shared experiences with all aspects of rail projects - including planning, funding, and public participation – in both closed-door meetings with Central Texas decision makers and three full days of public panels and presentations. The workshop convened a broad cross-section of individuals whose decisions will affect the region's future mobility – an ideal audience for the European experts' emphasis on the need for greater regional and interagency cooperation.
Read more and view presentations> TCN EVENT
Connecting green: Vision for Portland bike trails shaped by visit to Amsterdam and Copenhagen
 In October 2008, the CDP team organized a study tour to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Copenhagen, Denmark, for the Portland, Oregon, region's Blue Ribbon Committee (BRC) for Trails, tasked with the development of a comprehensive network of trails for the Portland region. Members of the BRC, which brought together public- and private-sector stakeholders in the region's cycle and pedestrian trail development process, drew key lessons from the opportunity to examine two fully-developed, heavily-used cycling infrastructures. Recently, BRC members Mia Birk (Principal, Alta Planning + Design), Scott Bricker (Executive Director, Bicycle Transportation Alliance), and TCN Representative Mike Wetter (Senior Advisor to Metro Council President David Bragdon) spoke with CDP Director Ellen Pope about how the opportunity to explore possible futures for Portland's trails system influenced the Committee's recommendations on next steps for Portland. In the podcast below, the group discusses the relationship between commuter cycle paths and recreational trails, the need for trails to connect to destinations and other trails, and where Portland will go from here.
Read More about the Study Tour>
Portland's trail system and next steps
  TCN EVENT
TCN representatives' workshop and study tour of Belgrade and Turin
From January 28 to February 5, the CDP team led a study tour and workshop for 20 TCN representatives to TCN cities Belgrade, Serbia and Turin, Italy. The trip served as a follow-up to TCN's official launch workshop (held in September 2008 at GMF's Washington, DC, headquarters) and provided TCN representatives with a chance to examine the opportunities and challenges facing Belgrade and Turin and the strengthen the sense of teamwork and community within the network.  In Belgrade (January 28 - February 3), through an intensive schedule organized by the Balkan Trust for Democracy, TCN representatives studied the effects of systemic post-war challenges on the city's policymaking landscape. Many members of the group expressed a strong interest in bringing their collective professional resources to bear on city's major social issues, especially the need for adequate housing and social programs for displaced Roma populations (TCN Case Study).
From Belgrade, TCN representatives traveled to Turin, where, through meetings and site visits organized by Torino Internazionale, the group learned about that city's active strategy for comprehensive urban transformation. The trip culminated with a two-day workshop in Turin, where discussions focused on the impact of the economic crisis on TCN cities, on specific policy challenges in TCN cities Detroit, Austin, and Rotterdam, and on future directions for the network.
Read More> CDP FELLOWS
Fall 2008 CDP Fellows
American CDP Fellows Jess Zimbabwe, director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, and John Swanson, transportation planner with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, recently returned to the Washington, DC, metro area from Turin, Italy, where they were based at SiTI for several months as they conducted research. Jess studied policy impacts on city design, while John looked at public involvement in transportation planning processes. John recently posted to the GMF blog on his initial observations of the relationship between long-term land use planning and different modes of transportation in Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. European CDP Fellow Patrizia Saroglia, research associate at A.lea Consulting, is currently in the midst of her stay at GMF's Washington, DC, headquarters, where she is conducting research on the provision of employment services for people with disabilities. In May 2009, European CDP Fellow Iolanda Romano, president of Avventura Urbana, will also travel to Washington, DC, to study public deliberation in planning projects.
Fellow Biographies> CDP FELLOWS
Polycentric or monocentric? A look at metropolitan planning in Scandinavia
2008 CDP Fellow John Swanson, who oversees public involvement in transportation planning at the Metropolitan Washington (DC) Council of Governments, recently traveled to a number of European cities, including Copenhagen, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden, in order to study a variety of approaches to public involvement in long-range land use and transportation decisions, such as the introduction of congestion pricing. In a post on the GMF blog, John writes about his initial observations on the link between and transportation culture and the structure underlying regional plans in Copenhagen and Stockholm, and discusses the potential lessons for the Washington region as it crafts a vision for structuring significant growth in jobs and population over the coming decades.
Read Full Post> TCN CASE STUDY: CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
Model scenarios focus Charlotte region on building social capital by 2015
Through four "stories" that play out in a series of short films, the Crossroads Charlotte project proposes a range of possibilities for Charlotte's near future, which today is threatened by low levels of trust in the community, especially between members of different ethnic groups. According to the four stories, depending on whether action is taken today to grow the region's social capital, by 2015 Charlotte could become "Fortress Charlotte," beleaguered by fear, tension between ethnic groups, and lost faith in leaders - or the citizens of Charlotte could begin to see "Eye to Eye," with a thriving economy driven by creative energy and diverse experiences, and with leadership roles shared by those outside the city's traditional power structure. The Crossroads Charlotte project, organized by the Foundation for the Carolinas, uses scenario modeling to instill a sense of urgency and agency throughout the community about region's future. The scenarios have been shared with community institutions and local citizens through artistic performances, facilitated discussions, and, most recently, a feature film. Accompanying this multi-pronged dissemination strategy is a rich set of tools designed to facilitate and, in some cases, fund the implementation of new programs by community institutions (within their standing missions) that focus on growing trust in and connections with the community by 2015.
Read More>
TCN CASE STUDY: TURIN, ITALY
Long-Term Neighborhood Requalification Spurred by EU Urban Pilot Project
 In 1997, city government leaders in Torino, Italy secured a grant under the EU's Urban Pilot Programme to fund a comprehensive revitalization of Porta Palazzo, then one of the city's most troubled neighborhoods. The effort was part of the city's attempt to reshape its image (it was then known as "the Italian Detroit") through greater international cooperation. When the grant, which required matching funds from the city, closed out in 2001, the redevelopment process (known as The Gate, a reference to both the neighborhood's medieval gate and its historical role as a gateway for the city's immigrants) was institutionalized as a city development agency, making the neighborhood's renewal a permanent part of the city's long-term strategy for post-industrial growth and development. Leaders of The Gate, which involves both public and private investments, see the project not as a comprehensive strategy, but rather as a long-term process comprising over 100 small projects that share a common aim. Projects implemented as part of the process have included programming and minor structural upgrades to complement the city's renovation of Porta Palazzo's market square (home to one of Europe's largest daily markets), small-repairs grants for local homeowners, and a range of social programming with a focus on language classes, job training, and entrepreneurship counseling.
Read More> TCN CASE STUDY: BELGRADE, SERBIA
Roma settlement plans derailed by political opposition
 For many of the TCN representatives who traveled to Belgrade in February, the site visit that left the greatest impression was to the illegal Roma settlement under Gazela Bridge, where 220 families live in makeshift dwellings, many without basic infrastructure. Plans are now underway to reconstruct the bridge, which forms part of a key European corridor route, but EU funding for the project is contingent upon the successful relocation of the Roma families who will necessarily be displaced. TCN representatives spoke with the director of local NGO Roma Heart, who had worked with the city to craft a proposal for a new social housing settlement for the families, which would have also housed an employment center, a kindergarten, and health and psychosocial services. Now, due to strong neighborhood opposition in all proposed locations for the settlement, the families will instead be placed in social housing flats scattered throughout the city with no support services and a five-year limit on their stay. Additionally, living in flats instead of small houses will make it impossible for many families to support themselves by collecting and recycling scrap material, currently the sole source of income for many families in the Gazela settlement.
Read More> BOOK REVIEW
Century of the City: No Time to Lose
Century of the City: No Time to Lose, by CDP Advisory  Committee member Neal Pierce and Curtis W. Johnson with Farley M. Peters, reports findings from the Global Urban Summit, a four-week series of eight conferences held in 2007 at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy. Conference participants - 250 urban leaders, practitioners, and scholars representing six continents - gathered to address the reality that, as an ever-growing majority of the world's population resides in cities, the urban environment is necessarily the context in which poverty and other social ills will be addressed over the next century. The conferences covered both the developed "Global North" and the developing "Global South"; about half of the book is devoted to the issues facing American cities, especially the need for coordinated federal strategy and investment, and one chapter discusses the results of a weeklong workshop on America 2050. The final conclusions of the conference apply to cities in all parts of the globe: urban poverty will only be reduced through economic growth, improved efficiency, and the strategic allocation of resources (especially land), all of which, in turn, demand strategic planning and cooperation across disciplines and geographic boundaries. BOOK REVIEW
Tale of 7 Cities: A practitioner's guide to city recovery
The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics recently released Tale of 7 Cities: A practitioner's guide to city recovery, which summarizes the results of CASE's in-depth analysis of strategies for recovery in seven of Europe's former industrial powerhouses. The guide, compiled by CDP study tour alum Anne Power, Astrid Winkler, Jörg Plöger, and Laura Lane, draws common themes from the histories of TCN cities Leipzig, Germany, and Turin, Italy, as well as Belfast and Sheffield, UK; Bremen, Germany; Saint-Étienne, France; and Bilbao, Spain. All of these cities were nineteenth-century industrial giants but faced sharp, extremely rapid deindustrialization and decline in the 1970s, 80s or 90s. The book
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