Thursday, November 1, 2012

SIGN UP FOR A MASTER PLANNING WORKSHOP

BANKERT PARADIGM by Terry Bankert 810-235-1970 ,
PARADIGM SHIFT DRAFT # 5.. 11/1/12
10:00 pm

11/1/2012
The Flint public Library reference section has space set aside for research material to study Master Planning . On 11/1/2012 I went to review these materials and was pleasantly surprised. Job well done Flint Public Library.


I am a volunteer member of and an advisory committee to the Steering Committee of the Flint Master Planning Project that support the Flint Planning Commission in the preparation and implementation of a Flint Master Plan. 100’s of citizens are involved you may also. Advisory Committee member have been asked to each host a mini master planning workshop of 20 people. I am researching for this project and recruiting participation. Once 20 people have volunteered for my workshop I will by consensus identify a best time place and date for the workshop.

I was pleased to see at the library another major planning activity was under way by the Flint Parks titled “ What is your vision for City of Flint Parks.” A 100 or so people were in attendance.

I continued to the reference section of the library and a neat corner was set up for us master planners. There are three wall maps a nice large table and a bookshelf with 20 or so items already on it.

My first choice, I plan to read it all, was a three ring notebook for the Steering Committee almost up to date. Since my Infrastructure Advisory Committee advises this group I thought I would start by learning about it.

NOTES and my comments FROM THE FLINT MASTER PLANNING STEERING COMMITTEE NOTE BOOK

The Advisory committee does not write content for the master plan. It advises the Steerign Committee. The Steering Committee reviews staff documents and provides feedback to the planning commission. We should attend all of these meetings.

Chief Planning Officer Megan Hunter said she is here to sct as a facilitator and to help give the community vision for the Master Plan giving thr community a voice and meeting the state requirements. My task this weekend will to orient myself to these State requirements.

3/6/12 Alicia Kilsupes [sp] with the Mott Foundation. Big daddy for us GFlintoids. SHe shared a summary of a program “Reinventing Americas Legacy Cities” post industrial cities, shrinking cities, weak market cities.

Sjhe said CITIES DRIVE THE ECONOMY.

The next economy needs from cities ; exports, clean energy [low carbon], innovation infrastructure [public and private] , wide spreading acess to education [public universities and community colleges]

Flint is a City in transformation and needs a vision
we need a vision that is realistic and relevant
and an inspiration of the community values and hope.

WE NEED NEW GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE AND SUPPORTIVE GOVERNMENTAL PARTNERSHIPS.

At the 2/7/2012 Master Plan Steering Committee they adopted a policy statement on involving the community. It explains why we are being asked to get involved.

“Successful Community engagement will spark ideas and hopes of community members. People of all ages , races, socio-economic background and abilities across allsectors of the City of Flint will be included and no one will be excluded. The process will equip participants to make informed contributions while drawing on their insight and interests. It will remove barriers to participation by developing a flexible schedule, child care and transportation needs. It will result in a plan where community members and hear their voices in the final product and become involved champions for its implementation.” Look closely here, the designers of this process need warriors to drink the kool aide and join in the battle to make this vision happen . This part will be democratically messy and not for the timid. I’m in.

9/6/11 meeting

A Master Plan is;
a process and a document,
a vision and a roadmap,
common vision,
direction to new leaders,
best use of resources,
provide strategic focus,
qualifications for grants,
address housing needs,
by law used aas a basis for Zoning Decisions

MICHIGAN PLANNING ENABLING ACT PA 33 requires the plan tyo address;
land use,
zoning,
transportation,
infrastructure,
rehabilitation of blighted areas,
The Zoning ordinance will be reviewed to related to the planned new use. THE COMMUNITY MUST BE VIGILANT TO PROTECT ITS INTERESTS.

Every five years the Master Plan is reviewed.

--end for today

notes.............................................................

How should we think about the future of Flint MI?

WE NEED A NEW WAY OF CREATING IDEAS AND MAKING THEM HAPPEN IN FLINT. A PARADIGM SHIFT.

Handa introduced the idea of "social paradigm" in the context of social sciences, and identified the basic components of a social paradigm. Like Kuhn, Handa addressed the issue of changing paradigm; the process popularly known as "paradigm shift". In this respect, he focused on social circumstances that precipitate such a shift and the effects of the shift on social institutions, including the institution of education. This broad shift in the social arena, in turn, changes the way the individual perceives reality. Another use of the word paradigm is in the sense of "worldview". For example, in social science, the term is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception. Social scientists have adopted the Kuhnian phrase "paradigm shift" to denote a change in how a given society goes about organizing and understanding reality. A "dominant paradigm" refers to the values, or system of thought, in a society that are most standard and widely held at a given time. Dominant paradigms are shaped both by the community's cultural background and by the context of the historical moment. The following are conditions that facilitate a system of thought to become an accepted dominant paradigm: Professional organizations that give legitimacy to the paradigm Dynamic leaders who introduce and purport the paradigm Journals and editors who write about the system of thought. They both disseminate the information essential to the paradigm and give the paradigm legitimacy: [from wikepedia]

How do we organize our thoughts on Flint future? What are the best articles in Urban Studies to plan and create a better future for those who choose to live in Flint Mi?

What is our relationship to this community Flint?

What is the relationship for us of the built up city and the natural environment?

What must we understand about Flint before we can be empowered to change it?

How does race and gender and economic class factor into this study?

What do we know about the Flint cultures?

How is Flint the City an expression of our human spirit?

To know Flint what do we understand about its politics, governance, and economics?

What is the interconnectedness between urban economics, politics, Flint and the greater society?

What is the importance of aesthetics?

Why emphasize the need for a sustainable city? What does that mean?

What is the future of Flint in the information age? We must look deeply and widely about Flint to understand the new paths we must walk, or run!

How do we answer these questions.


1.Attend an Urban Transformation Convention?http://www.facebook.com/attorneybankert#!/events/427543220628472/

see;http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/10/urban_transformation_conferenc.html#incart_river

I attended the Congress for Urban Transformation all events.


2.Read the material in the Flint Public Library set aside for those that wuish to study up for the Flint Master Planning Process

3. PARTICIPATE IN THE FLINT MASTER PLANNING PROCESS.Attend and patricipate... [ show up, speak up , act up, support the will of the majority and rights of the minority. Do my home work and take no prisioners. Advocate the final product even if I disagrees with any part of it]... in the Flint Mater planning process. I am on the Infrastructure and community facilities advisory group. I am listed as Content Knowledge Advisor affiliation attorney.

Concepts integrated below here is a calendar of events & misc

10/29/2012- MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE NATURAL RESOURCES, OPEN SPACE AND CONSERVATION 5;30 Salem Housing 3216 M.L. King Ave.

10/30/2012 - MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES, 5:30 PM Hasselbring 1002 West Holmes off Dupobt between Pierson and Carpenenter.

11/12/2012- MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE-HOUSING 5:30 PM. GENESEE COUNTY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY 101 Burton ST.

11/14/20102 - MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 5:30 Great lakes Baptist Center 5905 N. Saginaw St

11/19/2012 - MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE PUBLIC SAFTEY, HEALTH, AND WELFARE 5:30 pm Hamilton Health, 2900 N. Saginaw


11/26/2012 - MASTER PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE TRANSPORTATION AND MOBILITY 5:30 MTA CENTER ROOM TBD 1401 S. Dort Hwy

11/15/2012-FLINT MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY WORKSHOP- Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church. 1601 Fay St 7 pm to 8:30 pm.

11/28/2012-FLINT MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY WORKSHOP-Greater Galilee Baptist CHurch 4418 Industrial Ave, 7 pm to 8:30 pm

12/13/2012-FLINT MASTER PLAN COMMUNITY WORKSHOP-Community Action Resource Department (GCCARD) 601 N. Saginaw ST., Suite 1B

ONLINE PARTICIPATIONvisit www.imagineflint.com


For my convience I will organize material by the topics assigned to the ThE master plan advisory committees.

MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

What are your thoughts about globalization,information technology,master planning and urban theory?Just what are the competing ideological perspectives on making a better future for Flint?Do you want a sustainable urban development in this postmodetnism era?I sure do.

YOU SHOULD GET INVOLVED, LEAD BY EXAMPLE.

I think involvement in the Flint Master Planning three year project is an excellent way to self educated and create a community coalition to take the ideas and decisions from this vehicle to cause real change in Flint and cultivate and grow new community leadership. Let me know if you are interested.

I have a small role in the Flint Master Planning Project as a member of one advisory committee to a steering committee that reports to the Flint Planning Commission .

With an open mind I am starting here by constructing a set of assumptions and model of decision making for ME in this process. I fully expect to modify my thoughts in this personal paradigm before the three years Master Plan process is completed.

I will use as my foundation text “The City Reader” 3rd edition edited by Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout 2003. Within it I will use the article “Planning Sustainable and Livable Cities” by Stephen Wheeler 1998 which is the second to last chapter and and projects thoughts I agree with about how cities should be reorganized using the Flint Master Planning Process.. Additionally I just liked it.

What follows here I do not present as original work . I will cite other sources when used This paper begins as an adaptation of the Wheeler article altered with subsequesnt resources and my opinions . My objective is to create for me a paradigm of decision making for use in the Flint Master planning process. If it helps you, that great!

Terry Bankert www.attorneybankert.com


Flint Michigan is the murder capital of the United States with a history of Municipal Financial irresponsibility resulting in two takeovers of the city by the State of Michigan. One still under way. Are we just children and victims that cannot sustain a livable city?

What can we citizens of Flint do to create a better future ?

Reorganize is the logical response. Reorganize the culture of the community, its economics, its politics, its sustainability and its livability.

How can we reorganize?

A tool citizens have is an adequately funded professionally run first rate Master Planning Process.
see overview of the Flint Master Planning Process,
http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/2012/10/it-is-your-flint-future-that-is-being.html


You are invited to join with me one of Flints oppressed citizens to forge a better worls...lol.... I suggest an informal group come together. Comprised of citizens formally in the master planning process and some not to learn and monitor the process with the goal of making the conclusions of the group happen. Let us/me know if you are interested.

Once more my style here is to adopt the Wheeler article and any resource I can get my hands on RELEVANT to the Flint situation and not present it as my original work BUT AN ACTION PLAN. Now on to it.

INTRODUCTION

We know the enormous and exponential growth of the worlds population has a profound and often catastrophic effect on the natural environment of Planet earth. Non-renewable energy sources have been consumed though not yet totally depleted We have been cleared of our oxygen giving forests, buffalo slaughtered, species extinguished. Did you know the rainforests are disappearing. Today, many argue that global warming caused by population growth, urbanization, and irresponsible fossil fuels consumption now threaten to cause irreparable damage to the climate of the entire world. [1]

We use sustainable to describe a world in which both human and natural systems interact positively to create a more livable city. [1]

How can these elements describde briefly below be used to generate consensus around specific master planning objectives.

Some ask can this process avoid cooptation by existing political forces?

I argue lets use this process to bend if not break the stranglehold of old school politics in Flint Michigan.

Let us demonstrate we have the community will to grow new enlightened leadership or cause the cooptation of the existing political leadership.

Nobody gives you political change based on new sustainability livability paradigms . We have to take it, to force it to happen, to bend others to our will , to co-opt or break them.

Wheeler views the evolution of sustainable urban development thinking and welds it to a new concern for livability. For Flint needed are fewer murders and economic viability to sustain basic services and generally make this city more livable. We must change our view of how this community is organized.


Sustainability used here is development that improves the long-term health of human and ecological systems.

We present here core themes to apply to our decision making as good citizens and to guide efforts or thoughts in the Flint master planning process.

My goal taking from Wheeler is to offer a theoretical framework or paradigm to provide tools to carry out our plan to foster a sustainable and livable community by the formalism of the master planning process. My foundation objective is to change the political culture and seed our community with new thoughts and new future leadership.

SPECIFICS for Flint's Urban Development Strategy,

1. create a long term plan not year by year or election cycle by election cycle.

2.recognize that a core theme in urban sustainability requires we pay attention to the natural environment.

3.Urban sustainability master planning requires holistic and interdisciplinary connections of the insights of ;

a. biologists

b.transit planners

c.agronomists

d.economists

e.experts in land use

f.experts in transportation

g.experts community development

h.environmental planning

i. experts in sociology

j. experts in political science

k.experts in criminal justice

l. experts in the law

m. experts urban studies and public administration

n.experts in the arts

o. YOU!

There are several directions our conversations should take to reach a consensus on Flints sustainable urban developmental policy and master plan. We recommend these core values be articulated to re build Flint formally and informally to achieve sustainability and livability.These core values are;

1. no unplanned urban sprawl

2.efficient infrastructure

3.compact efficient land use

4.fewer automobiles necessary in the city

5.more efficient resource use

6.restoring natural systems

7.good housing

8.health social ecology

9.sustainable economics

10.green urban-ism

11.combine land use housing and transit design in environmentally sensitive ways

12.seed pressure to change the culture of Flint

13. Seed new political and institutional leadership

Material organized by CITY OF FLINT MASTER PLAN ADVISORY GROUPS

1.Housing
2.Economic Development
3.Transportation and mobility
4. Natural resources, Open Space and Conservation
5.Public Infrastructure and community facilites
6.Public saftey
and other topical arears I think are needed.
7. Implementation/political action/ taking it to the street

-
below from the material provided by the master planners staff, then my adoptation

1.Housing- affordable housing, neighborhood blight, residential demolition, housing rehabilitation, multi-family housing, reuse vacant buildings for housing. Sample task-Review of nbh housing inventory or houising market analysis.
2.Economic Development-job training, expansion of small business,literacy,pre k education, community schools, commecial demolition, industrial park development. -Sample task-Review market analysis to identify needed neighborhood services or examination of workforce and educational attainment data.
3.Transportation and mobility- complete street, bicycle paths, bus transportation.Sample task- Review of substantial transportation principales and strategies to incorporate "complete street" into Flint.
4. Natural resources, Open Space and Conservation-urban gardening, urban agriculture, Flint River, community parks, vacant land, environmental conservation.Sample task-Review of startegies to improve water quality of the Flint River.
5.Public Infrastructure and community facilites-utilities, storm/waste water, recreational facilkities, library, fie/police stations, public art, city wide wireless communications. Sample task-Review of Flint School Facility Plans or feedback on the City's storm management system.
6.Public saftey, health & welfare- police fire services, health and social services.Sample task-Identification of sources for health and crime data or recommendations on how to track improvements in these areas after the Master Plan is implemented.

and other topical arears I think are needed.
7. Implementation/political action/ taking it to the street

BANKERT PARADIGM SHIFT

I WHAT IUS THE THEORY OF A MASTER PLAN

II
1.Housing-
affordable housing,
neighborhood blight,
residential demolition,
housing rehabilitation,
multi-family housing,
reuse vacant buildings for housing. Doug Weiland stated Flint has had 50 years of population decline. 35% of the Property in Flint is abandoned. 1/3 owned by the Landbank[2]
Strephen Allerano stated . Zoning changes are needed . Other thoughts WHy no chickens in the city why any zoning. Lets zero base our thoughts of zoning. What does future Flint need.WHy not give vacant land to tenured citizens , answer the powes to be want to cllect land to give to defvelopers.
Sample task-Review of nbh housing inventory or houising market analysis.


2.Economic Development-
job training,
expansion of small business,
literacy,
pre k education,
community schools,
commecial demolition,
industrial park development.
-Sample task-Review market analysis to identify needed neighborhood services or examination of workforce and educational attainment data.


3.Transportation and mobility-
complete streets,
bicycle paths,
bus transportation.

Sample task- Review of substantial transportation principales and strategies to incorporate "complete street" into Flint.

4. Natural resources, Open Space and Conservation-
urban gardening,
urban agriculture, - Greg Haines , Mr Rodgers - Flint needs to expand its urban gardening program.Teach to youth job skills and the ability to feed them selves. ZONING CHANGES ARE NEEDED TO PROMOTE URBAN AGRICULTURE. tr- What changes?[2] Jerome Chou said the law needs to be adjusted to allow urban agriculture.[2]
Flint River,
community parks,
vacant land,
environmental conservation.

Sample task-Review of startegies to improve water quality of the Flint River.

5.Public Infrastructure and community facilites-
utilities,
storm/waste water,
recreational facilities,
library,
fire/police stations,
public art,
city wide wireless communications.

Sample task-Review of Flint School Facility Plans or feedback on the City's storm management system.

6.Public saftey, health & welfare-
police fire services,
health and social services.

Sample task-Identification of sources for health and crime data or recommendations on how to track improvements in these areas after the Master Plan is implemented.

and other topical areas I think are needed.

7. Implementation/political action/ taking it to the street

8.INDEX NEEDs for change and suggest ordiance changes or charter changes or state legislative changes or federal policy changes
9. Make Flint desireable and user friendly to business. Make it easy to get throught the maze of regulation, inspections and city authorization

10 MAJOR PROJECTS
a."The CHevy" old chevy in the hole by kettering.
b."The neighborhod a companioj project in the neighborhoods using resources from the CHevy the CHevy gets community support.
c. City ewide lanscaping master plans
d. recalim industial sits to include but not limited to checy in the hole

11. integration of all institution planning currently used and shelved documents we do not have to re create the wheel.WHAT DO YOU THINK?

12 what are the expectations of the funding sources
13.

by Terry Bankert Flint Divorce Bankruptcy Attorney 810-235-1970




Sources
[1]
The City Reader” 3rd edition edited by Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout 2003. “Planning Sustainable and Livable Cities” by Stephen Wheeler 1998 beginning page 486

[2]
CONGRESS FOR URBAN TRANSFORMATION , Flint Public Art Project 10/26-28 in Flint MI.
124 W.1st Street Flint MI 48502, info@flintpublicartproject.com
www.flintpublicartproject.com
Working with residents to revitalize the city through art and design.

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