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Beauty Behind the Barbed Wire
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Category Archives: Planning
Connecticut: Counties, But No County Government
Originally published at Global Site Plans
Most of New England is made up of counties that predate the Declaration of Independence. However, these counties exist largely as geographical regions, with few reminders of their former county governments besides old courthouses, maps, and online administrative forms. The neighboring state of Rhode Island abandoned their county governance over 100 years earlier than Connecticut. Vermont and Massachusetts maintain a weak county government similar to what Connecticut once had, but theirs, too, is growing weaker.
At its height, Connecticut’s county government was responsible for liquor licenses, and services such as roads, jails, and courts. At the time county level government was abolished in Connecticut, it had little power, and was considered an ineffective “patronage” system of appointed commissioners. Many services that define county governance in other states were delegated to the state or towns.
In 1959, a Democrat-controlled legislature voted to end county government, and serving no other purpose but to manage county jails, the last elected position of county governance, the sheriff, was finally discarded in 2000. It’s a popular opinion that county governance is unnecessary because Connecticut is a small state.
It is often said that “Connecticut is split up into 169 little fiefdoms,” meaning that local governance is the responsibility of the separate 169 cities and towns. Each town provides its own services through taxation. If a small town is unable to operate an expensive service like a high school, it coordinates with surrounding towns for that service to be provided. To keep local tax rates as reasonable as possible, periphery services such as ambulances, animal control and tree maintenance are managed by multiple towns. This coordination is facilitated by Planning Regions, or “Regional Councils of Government,” commonly referred to in Connecticut as COGs.
In Connecticut, COGs have developed as a way to help towns and municipalities looking for ways to reduce their operating costs. Regionalism is now a focus of state government and in an effort to perform more efficiently, the number of COGS has been reduced from 15 to 9 within the past few years. Interestingly, this is nearly the same number as counties, with similar geographic boundaries. In lieu of cost pinches, decreased town-level civic participation, and other considerations, I often wonder if regionalism could further be applied to school boards. In many states, school boards are the dominion of county government.
Occasionally, proposals to re-enact county government come forward, and given the fact that the COGs perform many of the functions of county governments elsewhere–and receive more responsibility every year–it might be worthwhile to ponder their need in Connecticut and what they should look like.
What does county government look like where you live? Does your county government have a large decision making role?
Credits: Images and Data linked to sources.
Successful BRT Systems: Characteristics
What do effective Bus Rapid Transit systems (BRTs) have in common?
• Physically segregated busways
• Operation of trunk+feeder buses
• High station platforms
• Fare prepayment, flat fares, free transfers
• Mostly operated by private companies
• High passenger volumes
• High commercial speeds of operation
• Much lower cost than LRT or metro
• BUT: Metro-like appearance
• Distinct identity and good image
Rashida Manjoo: Advice for Africa
Dr. Rashida Manjoo, lawyer and international advocate to advance women’s rights makes points in her conversation with University of Connecticut students which have relevance to the issue of African nationalism and independence.
By knowing your struggle—becoming educated on it, and the means of changing it—you can overcome it. Becoming familiar with barriers oppression, one will quickly find legal grounds in policy, and “having a law degree helps you understand the world in a way.”
Having an understanding of policy and the means to change it was a path traveled by Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah obtained a Western education, and used this to assist his advocacy for Pan-Africanism, by organizing supporters and leading conferences on the matter. He was then able to apply his understanding of Western legal systems and political navigation to help Ghana (then the Gold Coast) achieve self-rule from the UK, by the ballot in February of 1951, and ultimately, independence in March of 1957.
Dr. Manjoo also conveyed an approach to measure the effectiveness of issue advocacy. If “what people were demanding in the past, they are demanding today,” then the issue is still in need of advocacy. This relates well to the land issues of Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically, that of Zimbabwe and South Africa. Their freedom struggles were grounded in the return of the land for majority use from the minority white settler populations. Since independence, the black majority is still landless, and the bulk of the land remains in white, Western, and now “Eastern” hands. In many cases, choice properties have become the private estates of leaders in government, or political gifts to their supporters.
There are many examples between the two countries that of land that once was fertile, now fallow and no longer productive. Fear is the issue making the trained agriculturalist a refugee to neighboring Botswana or Mozambique. Land equity has not been effectively addressed “on the ground,” and the issue remains just as pressing as it did at independence and fifty years prior. The need for discussion and resolution persists.
UCONN’s: Violence Against Women Conference
IMAGE and recent Manjoo news: UN expert heads to UK to investigate violence against women
“The Great Stink” & Cholera Containment
The prevailing scientific theory the time of the cholera outbreak in London was that cholera was transmitted by foul odor (miasma theory). The concept of ‘bacteria’ wasn’t understood—many people thought if they couldn’t “see” illness causing bacteria, it wasn’t really there. People trusted the advice of “medical quacks,” instead of common sense cures to tackle the dehydration.
Faraday testing the waters of the Thames, 1855 Punch Magazine, volume 29 Westminster City Archives
It was felt that cholera was a socioeconomic disease, associated with those of lower morality and the “poor, stinking masses.” As cities grew in population, the pre-industrial waste infrastructure was unable to handle the excess excrement. Cities lacked the modern resources we take for granted, such as recycling and safe sewage removal. Leaky cesspools were the standard method of waste disposal, and these compromised fresh water sources.
The Great Stink ushered in new sanitation laws. In part because the Parliament could no longer tolerate the smell of the Thames River, a new sewer system was constructed which is still in use today. Public spending increases, which brings new parks into cities to provide fresh air. By 1875, the Public Health Act would require all houses to have their own sanitation and water.
ZIM: Soil Poaching, Too
The maximum $20 fine is not deterrent enough to help fight the rising crime, says Marondera Mayor, Farai Nyandoro.
Most soil extraction is carried out at night when council security officers do not patrol the affected areas. “The practice adversely affected council housing developmental projects, as areas affected by the illegal soil extraction are almost impossible to service for both residential and commercial purposes,” added the mayor.
The thieves even use mechanized earthmoving equipment such as graders, front loaders, tipper trucks and other heavy machinery to illegally extract the soil.
Soil poaching is fast crawling towards farming areas under the jurisdiction of Rural District Councils. Some new farmers desperate to make a living have been accused of selling soil from their properties to the poachers. But analysts say the practice would render farms unproductive in the long run, as it strips away valuable top soil.
The Zimbabwean: Soil poaching on the rise
Stop-Lights Create Road Danger
The number one cause of car accidents is traffic.
Self-explanatory.
But what IS traffic? Traffic is stacking within the system. Instead of being dispersed through the road network, vehicles are clumped together by automated (and oftentimes inefficient) intersections. Automated traffic controls produce a dangerous driving environment.
The band-aid: improved intersections and interchanges. The solution: multi-modal innovation.
GIS: Data, Maps, and Imagination
A geographic information system
Using GIS, you can map where things are (ex. wells, bus routes). You can map quantities (ex. number of doctors, or schools in an area). You can map densities (ex. distribution of coverage, or populations. Using GIS you can identify features or ranges (ex. ‘school zones’, street names). Using GIS, you can determine distances between items (ex. proximity to toxic waste). Using GIS, you can map the change of these things over time (ex. changes in land use).
Governments, Environmental Organizations, Utility Companies, Planners, Natural Resources Industries. Governments use GIS to analyze issues to help increase efficiency and improve coordination. Environmental Organizations use GIS to make conservation decisions. Utility companies use GIS to monitor their services and manage assets. Planners use GIS to map and plan for long-term land use. Natural resources industries use GIS to determine the locations and feasibility of their extraction efforts.
USGS Eros is controlled by the federal government and is responsible for collecting and managing data resources on land use in the United States. The United States Census Bureau is controlled by the federal government and it collects information on populations and demographics. National Atlas is (also) managed by the US Department of Interior; it collects maps and geospatial data for use in GIS systems.
“The Geographic Approach” integrates information and mapping, in a way which makes it a tool for understanding our world. The Steps are: Ask, Acquire, Examine, Analyze, and Act. It involves asking a specific question from a location-based perspective, acquiring information and data necessary to analyzing the issue, examining the issue, analysis of the method used to reach your answers, and then finally, acting upon or utilization of the conclusions found. GIS is an important tool in the entire process.
ESRI is maker of GIS programs and their website helps users seeking support, training, and other geospatial and data resources. It was a project of the geographer Jack Dangermond.
A Great Pyramid In Memphis, TN
The sixth largest pyramid in the world used to house sporting events. When Memphis had a tough time keeping a basketball team, the arena sat vacant in between monster truck shows and occasional concerts. Whether or not it appears to resemble any other coliseum, now, is irrelevant. Although the choice in design for a sports facility was questionable, it is still a viable and impressive site.
Pyramid Arena Facts
Pyramid Arena – Google Maps
UPDATE:
A Look Inside The Pyramid And Bass Pro Shops’ Progress
Sisson Overpasses, Hartford Connecticut
An example of a landscape failure, these overpasses were designed on Robert Moses highway building principles. These “exits to nowhere” were supposed to connect to a circumferential loop around the city of Hartford. The loops were never completed and this portion of I-84 remained as a curiosity. The creation of the Sisson Overpasses demolished neighborhoods and forced the burial of an urban river. The ramps are well past their lifespan and either need extensive repair, or repurpose. There is no inexpensive fix.
Bring I-84 To Ground In Hartford
Remove Viaduct, Restore Downtown Hartford Connections
October 24, 2010 | Hartford Courant | By Tom Condon