April 2008

News and Blog Topics

APA Newsletter Information
As many of you already know, the APA MA/RI newsletter converted to a web-only version last September. The process has not been completely smooth and is not yet complete, but we're working hard to address concerns and make the website and newsletter current, relevant and informative. If you have any ideas on anything you'd like to see either more of or differently, please let me know. You can e-mail me at pioneervplanner1@yahoo.com. I'd also love to post articles of interest to MA, RI, or other APA members, including your local work in the field. Please send along some details and contact information and I'll see what I can do to publicize it. There is so much going on that we might only hear about at awards meetings. I can also post events, RFPs and announcements for you. You may already know that it's easy to post jobs on the website - you don't even need to sign in. Jobs, events, and announcements also go in the newsletter. Deadlines for each month are the last day of the preceding month. The deadline for the May issue will be April 30. We also look forward to new options for advertisers besides just business cards. We'll keep you posted as our graphics ability grows. Thanks again for your patience, and we look forward to serving our Massachusetts and Rhode Island communities!
AICP President's March Message
January 1st was a milestone for the planning profession. On that day, AICP officially began its Certification Maintenance (CM) program, which requires members to engage in professional development in order to maintain their certification. This program was much needed, but at the same time it was a risk, but a risk worth taking. The continued health of AICP is dependent on a meaningful credential. CM is one of the steps we are taking to build on the heritage of certification. AICP members have demonstrated a commitment to high standards of professional practice. By staying up-to-date with the latest planning tools and techniques, AICP members advance the quality and integrity of the planning profession. By formalizing that professional development in our Certification Maintenance program, we enhance the credibility of the planning profession. At the time of the approval last April, the AICP Commission made a commitment to listen and make changes as they were needed. In hindsight we are comfortable this was the best way to do this, create the program and amend as needed. Without actual experience, all the efforts would have still led to an incomplete result. Through member feedback, with two rounds of formal feedback from AICP members, and significant input from academic members, the Commission made many changes to the proposed program in response. We continue to listen and intend to act on what we hear. Yes, this process is frustrating to some, but it is similar to writing a new zoning code. Rare is the code that needs no amendments. In creating the CM program, the AICP Commission discussed at great length how to pay for the program. We agreed that the cost of administering CM should not come from a member dues increase, or from an increase in member fees. We believed unanimously that the program should be paid for by the education providers including APA and its components, and that it must relate directly to the total costs for implementing the program. We are committed to working with education providers to make the CM program a success. For those that become a registered CM provider, AICP's 17,000 professional city, rural, suburban, and regional planners will look to their training programs to fulfill the CM requirement. The CM program is a great way for providers to reach a huge audience of professional planners interested in training programs—and a way for us to ensure that AICP members can find top-quality training programs. So far, nearly 200 providers have registered more than 3500 activities. Since the AICP Commission approved the Certification Maintenance program last April, staff and Commission members have contacted and met with more than 700 training providers from around the country to encourage them to register as CM providers and submit their activities for CM credit. We want to ensure that available training opportunities cover a variety of topics but also are delivered in a variety of formats from online training to seminars and workshops. As other professions have discovered, some potential providers may either not know about the program or choose not to participate, so members have been asked to help us recruit more CM providers by e-mailing staff at CMproviderinvite@planning.org about training providers, or downloading a fact sheet from our website to pass along to favorite training providers. Also, we are reaching out to officials and professionals who hire and work with planners to encourage them to hire AICP-certified planners and support the professional development of their planning staff. This marketing of the credential is important to the continued success of AICP planners. The formal commitment to continuing education that Certification Maintenance represents is a central part of the message we’re sharing with those colleagues. We’re showing the people planners work with every day—and the people who might hire a planner tomorrow—that the four letters after a planner's name signify expertise, credibility, and dedication to ethical practice. Planners now join the ranks of professionals that have continuing education requirements—attorneys, architects, accountants, and others. Certification Maintenance is now demonstrating our credibility to the public officials, citizens, and colleagues who rely on us—and advancing the quality and integrity of the planning profession. The Certification Maintenance program links certified planners to training opportunities that will keep them up-to-date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. When providers register, we’ll let AICP members know about their CM-approved activities in our online directory of CM providers and in our online calendar of events. The benefits of becoming a CM provider include expanded listings on APA’s online calendar of events, inclusion in the online directory of registered CM providers, use of the CM logo in marketing and promotional materials, feedback from attendees offered through our automated rating mechanism, and partnership opportunities with APA Chapters and Divisions. Every provider must pay an annual nonrefundable $95 registration fee. We want to keep the entry fee as low as possible. Additional fees are assessed based on the number of credits for which each activity is eligible. The annual registration fee includes two CM credits. Additional fees are required for each activity submitted for CM credit beyond the two included credits. The $50 per additional credit fee covers activity review, marketing, outreach, and database costs. The Commission will be receiving reports from staff on alternative fee schedules that may better suit certain types of training. Our hope is that we can develop a flexible fee schedule that will encourage non-APA providers to offer their training as part of the CM program. Education providers should visit our website to learn more about calculating CM costs for your activity: www.planning.org/cm. They should also continue to have a dialog with staff and the Commission about issues as they come up. We’re here, and we are listening.
Fenway Park's New Sustainability Plan
Under the team's new sustainability plan, Boston's Fenway Park could be greener than the Green Monster Imagine this: you're at Fenway Park on a warm summer evening. You look down from your seat above the Green Monster as the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees 7-0. As usual, the sold-out crowd -- never known for being sedate -- is erupting in joyous pandemonium, dreaming of yet another World Series victory. But something's different. You buy your kids hot dogs, only now they're organic. Instead of throwing your empty beer cup under your seat, you toss it in a brightly colored, easy-to-reach bin that is part of the ballpark's extensive recycling program. And that faint rumble you would sometimes hear -- it's gone. The stadium generators have been supplemented with solar panels perched just above the stands behind first base. Now Red Sox Nation has another reason to celebrate. This is not fantasy baseball. Over the past three years, NRDC has been working with professional sports teams to revamp their operations, with the goal of lightening the organizations' impact on the environment. When you consider that nearly 120 million people turned out to watch baseball games in 2007, the collective impact of fans gathering in one place becomes clear: plastic cups, paper napkins, field lights -- they all require energy and resources and generate waste. "When that many people start seeing solar panels next to scoreboards and recycled paper logos on game-day programs, it brings environmental awareness into the mainstream," says Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at NRDC whose work includes helping major corporations -- most recently sports teams -- go green. "What if, in addition to baseball and apple pie, we could make environmental protection All American too?" That's what Hershkowitz set out to do two years ago when he sent a letter to Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball. Hershkowitz offered NRDC's technical assistance on everything from buying renewable power to using recycled paper. Selig seized the opportunity: just weeks earlier, Red Sox management had called the commissioner asking for advice on going green. "We are the oldest continuously operated sports facility in America," says Katie Kirschner, senior manager of business operations for the Red Sox. "We thought, wouldn't it be great if we led the charge by becoming the most sustainable ballpark in the country too?" In 2007, the Red Sox, in collaboration with NRDC, kicked off a five-year sustainability plan, and by the time Fenway turns 100, in 2012, the park could be as green as its legendary Green Monster. NRDC has pledged to help the team reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent and recover 50 percent of its recyclable drink containers. NRDC is now working with Selig's office to launch an environmental initiative that will encourage every team to buy an increasing percentage of its electricity from renewable sources, use paper with at least 30 percent post-consumer content, and keep at least 40 percent of stadium waste from entering landfills through recycling, reusing, and composting programs. The Oakland Athletics, the Seattle Mariners, and the Cleveland Indians are already working toward NRDC's greening targets, and the trend extends beyond the baseball diamond: professional basketball, hockey, and football teams are looking to set similar goals, with the Philadelphia Eagles driving the offense. The Eagles launched a program to green their operations in 2004, and with guidance from NRDC, the team now gets 25 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources. The stadium is plastered with posters featuring linebackers saying, "You want to talk trash? Let's recycle." The scoreboard -- the largest in the NFL -- is powered by solar panels that are visible from the field. Educating fans can make a big difference, not just in the shadow of the Green Monster, but across the nation. Says Katie Kirschner: "Our hope is that we can influence our fans .
Failure to Vote on Manhattan Congestion Plan "Shortsighted"
Puzzled by state lawmakers' inability to pass the landmark Manhattan congestion pricing plan -- introduced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last April and recommended after some revisions by a special legislative commission in January -- Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Administrator James S. Simpson said ''New Yorkers have now forfeited nearly $500 million annually for mass transit improvements and $354 million in immediate federal funds,'' and they ''will not have the chance, any time soon, to discover what people in Stockholm, Rome, London and other European cities already know: congestion pricing works!'' Pointing out that Prague will be next and that Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle got federal funds to devise congestion pricing plans, Administrator Simpson, formerly on the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board, called the lack of an Assembly vote on the plan to cut Manhattan traffic and pollution ''very disappointing, as well as short-sighted.'' He also challenged those who think congestion pricing is ''an 'elitist' approach'' to a critical problem that can only worsen. ''Well, there is nothing 'elitist' about miles of gridlock at rush hours,'' he stressed in a speech at the New York Building Congress' construction industry breakfast. ''It affects virtually everyone -- commuters, truck drivers, taxi drivers, buses, and even straphangers crammed onto the subway. It affects this region's ability to provide the mobility that's so vital to keeping New York a workable, livable community. And it affects our productivity and our quality of life.'' Noting that traffic gridlock costs the regional economy an estimated $13 billion a year, reports New York Times writer Sewell Chan, Administrator Simpson urged ''trying new things,'' including congestion pricing, high-speed electronic bridge and tunnel tolls, and ''public-private partnerships,'' under which the private sector assumes some of the costs and risks involved in designing, building, and operating transit systems. -- New York Times 4/10/2008
Website and Newsletter Update
Hello everyone,

First , I would like to announce that the APA Website has moved to a new server, with many more capabilities over the old one. As you may know, the website is developed by students, including myself and others, at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. The Center for Community & Learning Partnerships serves to enage students in Service Learning projects with local and state non-profit organizations. This new server will allow us to provide better communication opportunities and faster eNewsletter delivery.

Speaking of the newsletter, I would like apologize to those of you who received a newsletter more than once. In the process of moving to this new server, we experienced several bugs which forced us to run several tests.

I am happy to report that the March 2008 eNewsletter was successfully delivered, and can be viewed in full form online at the website.

In the next coming weeks, we are looking to make improvements to the RFQ/RFP/CFP submittal process, as well as other fixes and enhancements throughout the rest of the site.

We appreciate all the patience the Board and Membership has given us throughout this process. This project has given students like myself a great opportunity, but we're still learning! Many thanks to everyone.

Cheers,

Austin Lauria Web Developer, BCNS '08 Wentworth Institute of Technology