Another Conference on Urban Revitalization.

There was this conference in Columbus....

...called Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing Ohio's Core Communities. Sounds dry, but yer humble host eats this stuff up.

The covnenors were Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio, and the sponsors where a mix of foundations and corporate types. Brookings has the agenda, sponsors, presentations, and supporting studies available online here.

Interestingly enough Brookings' co-convenor, Greater Ohio has opened their conference web-page for comments, so after reading what's proposed you can say your piece.

Work looking into, and I'm really interested what they end up recommending in 2009 with their final report. Incidentally, one of the presenters was Jane Dockery of WSU's Urban Studies program.

Here is the event summary.

The 2008 Ohio Summit – Restoring Our Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing Ohio’s Core Communities convened more than 1000 government, corporate, civic, neighborhood and academic leaders from around the state, including Governor Ted Strickland, Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, Senate President Bill Harris and Speaker of the House Jon Husted confirmed as speakers. The Summit was co-convened by the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and GreaterOhio.

The purpose of The Summit was to elicit reaction to a draft set of proposals for state policy reforms that reflect a critique of past policies, aimed at revitalizing communities throughout Ohio. Each of the recommendations was carefully tailored to the unique assets and challenges of Ohio’s 32 core communities whose revitalization is the springboard to a more prosperous and competitive state as a whole. Comments derived from this gathering will help to shape the final report to be released in early 2009.