January 2012 Newsletter
Congrats Steve
U.S. Representative Steve LaTourette was selected by the American Planning Association as the 2011 Legislator of the Year. Representative LaTourette was awarded the distinction because of his long-standing advocacy of transportation programs that enable planners to build communities of lasting value.
Ohio Planners News 12-11
Lake County Eastern Governments Form Cooperative
Entities expressing interest in forming a cooperative government are the Perry Joint Fire District, Madison Fire District, Painesville Township Fire Department, Painesville City Fire Department and Concord Township. A primary purpose of the Council of Government(COG) is to improve fire safety services.
The COG allows communities to purchase collectively expensive specialized equipment. Other benefits would be to foster cooperation among the political subdivisions in all areas of government services. This will include, but not be limited to the effective exchange of information, pooling of manpower and resources for the efficient solutions of specific problems dealing with reciprocal service, mutual aid, parallel action and exchange of ideas.
L.C. Tribune 11-18-11
Unemployment rate in Lake County looks good. The rate in October 2011 was 5.9%, Mentor was 5.3% while Ohio was 8.4%. These rates are unusually good to compared to the national rate of about 9%.
Source: Tri-County Business Journal
House price declines are getting smaller. The gap between 2010 and 2011 are down to -3% whereas the rate for 20 major cities was 20% in 2009. The market projection of the LCDC presenter of 12-16-11 was recovery in four to five years. In the meantime the numbers are inching up toward the positive side.
Source: S& P Indices 11-30-11
Legislative Breakfast Scheduled for 2-27-12
The 17th annual Legislative Breakfast is scheduled for 2-27-12 at LaMalfa Centre at $20. Representative legislators and a county commissioner are expected to speak. Mark your calendar for 7:30-9:30am. You may register with Melissa McArthur at 440-336-4355 or cmb6899@sbcglobal.net or online at www.lakecountydevelopmentcouncil.org.
Married couples now in minority
Married couples have dropped below half of all U.S. households for the first time, the Census Bureau says, a milestone in the evolution of the American family toward less traditional forms.
Married couples represented just 48 percent of U.S. households in 2010, according to data being made public and analyzed by the Brookings Institution. This was far below the 78 percent of households occupied by married couples in 1950.
Just a fifth of households were traditional families-married couples with children-down from about a quarter a decade ago and from 43 percent in 1950, as the iconic image of the American family continues to break apart.
“The days of Ozzie and Harriet have faded into the past,” said William Frey, the senior demographer at Brookings who analyzed the data.
Today, traditional patterns have been turned upside down. Women with college degrees are now more likely to marry than those with just high school diplomas, the reverse of decades ago.
Rising income inequality has also divided U.S. society, making college-educated people less likely to marry those without college degrees. That educated group has struck a new path: They marry later but stay married. In contrast, women with only a high school diploma are increasingly opting not to marry the fathers of their children, whose fortunes have declined along with economic opportunities.
NY Times 5-26-11
Half of Us are Poor
Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans-nearly 1 in 2-have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that’s shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government’s safety net frays. The numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold-roughly $45,000 for a family of four- because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and childcare costs are consuming up to half of a family’s income.
States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.
About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That’s up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.
Associated Press 12-15-11
Farm of the Future
In March, Milwaukee was one of 24 cities worldwide to win a Smarter Cities Challenge Grant from IBM, which provides $500,000 in consulting help to tackle critical quality-of-life issues. This summer, a team from IBM spent several weeks interviewing potential stakeholders in what proponents hope will be a burgeoning “aquaponics” industry that creates jobs and eliminates food scarcity in depressed neighborhoods.
Aquaponics combines hydroponics, where plants are cultivated in water instead of soil, and aquaculture, the farming of fish and other marine creatures. It uses a series of tanks and pumps to create a closed loop where fish waste fertilizes the plants and plants purify water for the fish. It’s drawing attention as a sustainable approach to urban agriculture.
Plan supporters envision warehouse-sized aquaponics operations that are equipped with sophisticated sensing devices to boost efficiency, and backed by research that multiplies fish spawning cycles and boosts crop production. These facilities could be housed in vacant buildings in poor neighborhoods, providing jobs and a supply of nutritious, locally produced food for residents.
The report proposes launching an aquaponics innovation center to share scientific and technological breakthroughs and serve as an incubator for new companies.
Governing-December 2011
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Lake County Development Council
LCDC and its members constitute a significant part of what makes Lake County such a great place to live and do business.The Council seeks to enhance the quality of life in Lake County and stands to assist you and receive your input.
