Spring 2012 Class Schedule

The Erie Citizen’s City Planning Academy will offer a second, 5-week session beginning in March. Classes begin at 6:00 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.

Thanks to Mercyhurst University, the classes will be held on the Mercyhurst campus.

Tentative dates are as follows:

March 6th, March 13th, March 20th, March 27th, & April 3rd.

The Planning Academy is free of charge as a result of generous funding by the Erie Community Foundation. The course is open to city of Erie residents with priority given to Neighborhood Watch members.

For more information or to secure a place in class, please contact us at citizenplanningacademy@gmail.com or at the Erie Neighborhood Watch Council office Monday – Friday at 814.454.3808.

Thank You!

March 20th Class: Economics, Housing, Retail, Blighted Properties

Tonight’s class will feature two speakers:

Gerry Urbaniak who will discuss retail and give an overview on
economics and Richard Bertges who will talk about his success with
housing in the Center City neighborhood and also explain the blighted
properties process.

Hope to see you there.

Quote for the Week

“Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil.” —Author Unknown

Name That Neighborhood

Here’s an interesting article about naming or re-naming a neighborhood. Erie isn’t the only city having difficulty with carving out boundaries and an identity for neighborhoods.

The Awkward Art of Neighborhood Naming:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/01/awkward-art-neighborhood-naming/843/

Adaptive Reuse: Green Space as a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization

Adaptive Reuse: Green Space as a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization

For many reasons, adaptive reuse projects are great for the environment. Using already existing buildings instead of building new reduces waste, requires less energy, and scales down the general consumption of materials. This green space has farther reaching effects, particularly fostering a greater sense of community and neighborhood revitalization.

Safe Routes to School

Your neighborhood may very well have a school. And in Erie, this means that a number of children still walk or ride bikes to and from. The “Safe Routes to School” Program is designed to help make that trip to and from school safer and even encourage children to walk and bike to school more often.

Learn more here:

Launched in August 2005, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a fast-growing network of hundreds of organizations, government agencies and professional groups working to set goals, share best practices, leverage infrastructure and program funding, and advance policy change to help agencies that implement Safe Routes to School programs.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s mission is to advocate for safe walking and bicycling to and from schools, and in daily life, to improve the health and well-being of America’s children and to foster the creation of livable, sustainable communities.

 

How A Park Helped One Town Weather The Recession

Yes, we know the city has difficulty in maintaining parks, but with the right planning could we build new parks and leverage private investment?

“The park cost $13 million,” White says. “Within two years, over $100 million in private investment was created around the park — hotels, restaurants, condominiums, apartments. The entire, what we call the West End of our downtown, just blossomed.”