Feeling the Summer Heat in Low-Income Neighborhoods

With last week’s heat wave out west, and the return of sizzling temperatures here in Tulsa, it seems an appropriate time to look at AARP’s recent report on Summer Cooling Costs and Older Households and the importance of staying cool. As the report makes clear, turning on the air-conditioner for some families means balancing financial constraints and health concerns. AARP’s analysis is no doubt aimed to better understand the needs of households 65 or older, but the needs of older consumers living on a set income are often analogous to the needs of low-income families.

Logo courtesy of the Center for Disease Control

AARP reports that, over the past decade, average residential electricity costs have increased 40%, from 8.7 to 12.0 cents per kilowatt-hour. To help Americans afford the cost of heating and cooling their homes, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides federal block grants to the states and other jurisdictions. States, however, set their own eligibility requirements and can supplement the grants with their own funds.

Most states seem to use LIHEAP funds to subsidize heating costs.  The AARP report cites LIHEAP Clearinghouse data showing only 29 states, and the District of Columbia, have cooling assistance programs. Furthermore, the average grant for these cooling programs are typically less than half the amount distributed for heating assistance.

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Guest Post: Schools and Neighborhoods-Linkages for Academic Achievement?

Brent Isaacs, AICP, Research Specialist for Neighborhood Revitalization Initiatives, is our September guest blogger.

At the end of August, CAP’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiatives was pleased to host Michael Schubert, Principal of Community Development Strategies in Chicago to discuss issues related to the Kendall-Whittier Promise Neighborhoods effort. Mike came to us by way of NeighborWorks America, an organization of which CAP is pleased to be a network member.  Following our visit, he sent us a paper he wrote entitled Schools and Neighborhood Revitalization: An Invitation to New Thinking (Schools and Neighborhood Revitalization.pdf).

I was struck by the tone of this paper because it approached the subject from the perspective of whether neighborhood revitalization contributes to school improvement or academic achievement.  Most of the literature that I have read is from the opposite perspective:  how improving neighborhood schools assists in neighborhood revitalization.  Clearly, while there is a symbiotic relationship between neighborhoods and schools that is not often understood, CAP’s primary interest is in the former perspective.

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Tulsa’s Promise Neighborhoods: Moving Towards Cradle-to-Career Services

Good news continues to roll in for the Kendall-Whittier and Eugene Field Neighborhoods.  Last December, CAP received a $500,000 Promise Neighborhood planning grant to focus on revitalization in both communities. The inspiration for Promise Neighborhoods is based on the successful model of New York City’s Harlem Children’s Zone, a program featured in Waiting for Superman and various other media. These grants fund programs in high poverty neighborhoods which have a proven capacity to build partnerships and possess the necessary systems to track kids through school, so no one falls through the cracks.

This week, the Tulsa World reported that Tulsa Public Schools pledged to provide longitudinal data to track Kendall-Whittier and Eugene Field students as they progress through school.  This collaboration also includes a pledge to join with other partners in efforts to reform educational strategies. Taken together, this means CAP is in a better position to compete for a $7 million dollar grant to provide cradle-to-career services to children in the Eugene Field and Kendall-Whittier neighborhoods.

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Data and Neighborhood Revitalization

I haven’t had the time to read all 118(!) pages of this report, but I wanted to share it before it gets swallowed by the paper monster that is my desk right now.  The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System published Putting Data to Work: Data-Driven Approaches to Strengthening Neighborhoods. 

The report looks at how communities are building and using data systems to target resources.  Individual sections are written by authors from The Urban Institute, LISC, Brookings, The Reinvestment Fund, and other organizations.  The report is part of a broader effort from the Federal Reserve, Urban Institute, The Reinvestment Fund, and LISC to “help communities develop the infrastructure and data sources they need to make strategic policy decisions with respect to neighborhood stabilization.”

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Guest Blog: Gentrification with Justice

As part of a new project at CAP, each month we will be featuring a guest blogger from across the agency.  Kirk Wester  Director of  Neighborhood Revitalization Initiatives, is our second blogger.

As someone whose job it is to work to revitalize neighborhoods and to bring about systemic change, I am intrigued by the idea of a man named Robert Lupton, PhD. He developed an idea he calls, “Gentrification with Justice.” He starts with the belief that the deterioration of our nation’s urban landscape came as mobility and the capacity for independence paved the way for a mass exodus of resources from urban areas to the suburbs. In his book, Return Flight, he describes a neighborhood in his home of Atlanta, called Summerhill as this shift to the suburbs occurred following the Civil Rights Movement:

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Winter Weather Reading Rundown

Wow!  The weather here in Oklahoma has been crazy the last 2 weeks.  We have experienced 75 and sunny, record snow fall, record lows (Can you believe it was colder here than the South Pole?), and back to 70 and sunny.  During the days stuck in my apartment during Snowpocalypse 2011, I had time to make a small dent in my stack of articles and reports.  This post will be a quick rundown of two.  I will probably do longer posts later, when I have more time to invest in proper blog posts. 

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PLANiTULSA Final Comments

PLANiTULSA will present a final draft of its comprehensive planning document on Tuesday, January 19. The presentation begins at 6pm at the Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E. 6th St.

You can read chapters of the draft plan, which include land use, transportation, economic development, housing, and parks and open space, at www.planitulsa.org.

Audience members will be able to express their opinions throughout the presentation using “clickers.” It’ll be just like sitting at home on a Tuesday night, except you won’t be able to change the channel!

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PLANiTulsa Releases Draft Plan

Yesterday evening, PLANiTulsa officially released a draft of  Tulsa’s vision and planning for the future. As many of you are aware, Tulsans have spent the last year attending planning sessions through PLANiTulsa and helping to guide and provide input towards Tulsa’s future. Micah and I have written past blogs on the subject which I encourage you to read if you click on the Planitulsa tag.

To download the report go to http://www.planitulsa.org/. There will also be a presentation of the plan at an open house. See below. Hope to see you there! You can’t afford not to care.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Drop in anytime between 4:30pm and 8:00pm
Presentation on Draft Vision/Small Area Concepts at 5:30pm and 7:00pm
Greenwood Cultural Center
322 N Greenwood Ave
Tulsa, OK 74120

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Time Running Out on PLANiTULSA

If you haven’t already reviewed the PLANiTULSA scenarios and submitted the short feedback survey, then you’re doing a serious disservice to the city you call home. The deadline to participate is TOMORROW, June 18.

Seriously, this is your chance to register your vision for our future before who-knows-what will happen in the hands of the City Council.

The scenarios are these:

• Scenario A: Trends Continue. If you like the way Tulsa has grown the past 20 years, this one’s for you. 83% of population growth goes to the ‘burbs.
• Scenario B: Main Streets. Existing communities benefit from new development and transit investments, especially along 11th Street, Harvard, Yale, and Peoria.
• Scenario C: New Centers. New hubs of jobs and housing concentrated around downtown, North Peoria, Southwest Tulsa, and East Tulsa. Lots of new development happens in previously neglected areas of Tulsa, but a lot of it is “green field” or open land development rather than infill or re-development.
• Scenario D:  Centered City. Transit and housing investments concentrate on downtown and inner-midtown. The objective is to create a much denser center city.

Get to it!

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PLANiTulsa: Vote for your favorite scenario

 

 

 

 

A few of us last night attended the PLANiTulsa unveiling of the 4 scenarios that have come out of the planning workshops. Those present were issued the challenge of telling 10 others  about it and to vote. They want to be able to get at least 15,000 to vote. There were only a few hundred at the Cain’s last night so we have some work to do!

 The comprehensive planning process was last done 30 years ago. Many of the areas identified for renewal in Scenarios B, C, and D are areas that currently are in the process of revitalization or need revitalization and would address grocery stores, transportation, employment, housing, and education needs. Go to http://www.planitulsa.org/ and vote for Tulsa’s future and then pass on to your friends and colleagues!

There are PLANiTULSA groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also follow cityoftulsagov on Twitter to get updates on PLANiTULSA and other city projects.

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