As you all know I am involved with that Occupy movement.  My involvement has taken an interesting turn as it is beginning to involve urban policy/urban regeneragation issues.  Among the people Im starting to work with is a neighborhood group near Miami Valley Hosptial, a local union (SIEU), the mayor of Dayton, the UC Community Design Center, etc.  What I am going to propose is a working group be set up to work urban policy things.

 

Here is the proposal statement.  I'd like to soclity your alls feedback on this.  Note that I wrote it to be fairly broad so the working group could address a host of issues and not be limited to one thing, like foreclosures.

 

PROPOSAL:  Stand-up a Neighborhoods Working Group

 

Purpose

 

Address urban policy issues in the Dayton region, with a focus on spatial justice.

“Urban Policy Issues” is to be broadly construed to include topics such as urban sprawl, rural conservation, questionable use of TIF, transit and transportation, as well as conventional urban regeneration issues such as deterioration, abandonment, vacant properties, absentee ownership, neighborhood conservation and preservation, etc,

 

Concept of Operations

 

Think Tank:  The group would also conduct idea generation/brainstorming for advocacy and actions.  The group would conduct research around  issues.  Research would provide a data-driven foundation for advocacy strategies and direct actions.  As part of this effort the group would require the resources of the OD Technical and IT working groups to develop databases, websites, etc. There may be a requirement for the Arts & Culture committee to assist in the preparation of graphics and layout.

 

Advocacy:  The group would engage with neighborhood and citizen groups, as well as individual citizens, to advocate for their issues.  The group would also present internally generated issues for Occupy Dayton to act on as the primary advocate, independent of specific neighborhood group engagement. 

Networking:  The group would connect neighborhood groups with outside resources such as the UC Community Design Center, OSU Knowlton Schools’ sustainable neighborhood program, and perhaps other outside resources, to provide assistance.  The group would also facilitate networking between individuals and organizations interested in spatial justice issues. 

 

Action:  The group would propose actions of various types supporting from advocacy.  These could be conventional methods such as letter writing, public speaking, and lobbying, and direct actions such as protests, vigils, and other creative ways of highlighting issues.  The resources of the Direct Action committee and Arts & Culture committee would be required to “design” the direct action, ranging from the tactics to visuals, music, etc.  The Media committee would be needed to document and publicize the action.

 

Participation:

 

Participants would not be limited to the Occupy movement, but could include individuals or organizations interested in a specific urban policy issue.  Participation would be on an ad-hoc basis, depending on the issue.  Participants could stay active over the course of one or two issues and then depart. 

 

...note the participation section is worded to make this group open.  My idea is to get people involved who dont support Occupy but are interested in urban affairs.  Which could mean you all.  Would anyone here at UO want to participate?  If you live in the area this could be real-time participation.  Or it could be virtual participation via this forum, as a crowdsourcing effort or virtual brainstorming session.

 

Looking for feeback here. 

I don't mean to discourage you, but...

 

I got involved in a big civic exercise called "Community Compass" a few years ago that was kicked off with a bang in the ballroom at Music Hall. About 1000 people attended. The people were organized into smaller groups, who met in working sessions to come up with goals and strategies to solve urban problems. The whole process took two years, and at the end they publised the results in a big book.

 

I stuck with it through the end. Only about 10 people showed up at the concluding meeting. There were as many ideas as there were people, but the whole program sort of fizzled out in the end. I learned some things, and met some people, but no one actually applied any of the ideas to solve the problems.

 

A plan without funding is just a dream. Life is what happens while you're making other plans.

 

It seems that federal and state policies control so much of the economy that even if the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (Or Dayton, or any other Ohio city) could get their act together and make some progress, it would be overwhelmed by things outside of their control.

Yeah, this wouldn't be that grand.  It's written like a big thing, but it would be pretty small-scale, really. You said 10 people.  I can't imagine more than 10 people working on this at any one time...that would be the very upper limit. 

 

It would be pretty much task-oriented.  The idea is to act as a resource for grassroots organizers and community groups, and a way of connecting up the direct-action bias of of Occupy to neighborhood orgs and activists as a way to stir the pot.  The think tank aspect would be a way of putting numbers & graphics behind the issues selected...really the kind of stuff I posted here on UO, but maybe pitched differently. 

 

 

As you all know I am involved with that Occupy movement.  My involvement has taken an interesting turn as it is beginning to involve urban policy/urban regeneragation issues.  Among the people Im starting to work with is a neighborhood group near Miami Valley Hosptial, a local union (SIEU), the mayor of Dayton, the UC Community Design Center, etc.  What I am going to propose is a working group be set up to work urban policy things.

 

Here is the proposal statement.  I'd like to soclity your alls feedback on this.  Note that I wrote it to be fairly broad so the working group could address a host of issues and not be limited to one thing, like foreclosures.

 

PROPOSAL:  Stand-up a Neighborhoods Working Group

 

Purpose

 

Address urban policy issues in the Dayton region, with a focus on spatial justice.

Urban Policy Issues is to be broadly construed to include topics such as urban sprawl, rural conservation, questionable use of TIF, transit and transportation, as well as conventional urban regeneration issues such as deterioration, abandonment, vacant properties, absentee ownership, neighborhood conservation and preservation, etc,

 

Concept of Operations

 

Think Tank:  The group would also conduct idea generation/brainstorming for advocacy and actions.  The group would conduct research around  issues.  Research would provide a data-driven foundation for advocacy strategies and direct actions.  As part of this effort the group would require the resources of the OD Technical and IT working groups to develop databases, websites, etc. There may be a requirement for the Arts & Culture committee to assist in the preparation of graphics and layout.

 

Advocacy:  The group would engage with neighborhood and citizen groups, as well as individual citizens, to advocate for their issues.  The group would also present internally generated issues for Occupy Dayton to act on as the primary advocate, independent of specific neighborhood group engagement. 

Networking:  The group would connect neighborhood groups with outside resources such as the UC Community Design Center, OSU Knowlton Schools sustainable neighborhood program, and perhaps other outside resources, to provide assistance.  The group would also facilitate networking between individuals and organizations interested in spatial justice issues. 

 

Action:  The group would propose actions of various types supporting from advocacy.  These could be conventional methods such as letter writing, public speaking, and lobbying, and direct actions such as protests, vigils, and other creative ways of highlighting issues.  The resources of the Direct Action committee and Arts & Culture committee would be required to design the direct action, ranging from the tactics to visuals, music, etc.  The Media committee would be needed to document and publicize the action.

 

Participation:

 

Participants would not be limited to the Occupy movement, but could include individuals or organizations interested in a specific urban policy issue.  Participation would be on an ad-hoc basis, depending on the issue.  Participants could stay active over the course of one or two issues and then depart. 

 

...note the participation section is worded to make this group open.  My idea is to get people involved who dont support Occupy but are interested in urban affairs.  Which could mean you all.  Would anyone here at UO want to participate?  If you live in the area this could be real-time participation.  Or it could be virtual participation via this forum, as a crowdsourcing effort or virtual brainstorming session.

 

Looking for feeback here. 

 

The first thing I would do is completely divorce yourselves from the "Occupy" movement.

 

People will tend to tune you out if you're connected to them....people who can do you a lot of good. 

 

It helps if you speak their language (I'm reminded of the scene in "The West Wing" where Judge Mulready teaches Charlie how to support affirmative action in conservative terms), but if you have that "Occupy" connection, such will ring false.

...that could be the case!  And the local Occupy movmeent might not be interested either.  This is a bit esoteric and "reformist" for them. :laugh:

 

Believe it or not Dayton is so apathetic and conservative that Occupy is nearly the only game in town.  So its a good launching pad. Occupy is wide-ranging and theres so much going on around it that i'd expect to see spin-offs.  This could be one.

 

But i would be interested in hearing what other UO people have to say, or think, about this. 

 

 

 

 

Hah...i brought this to the General Assmebly and their eyes glazed over.  I told them to table it and then we can vote..er..."come to consensus"...on it next week.  Told them this was just a trial balloon.  Also posted it at the private FB group and their website forum.  Dont expect much interest.