The University of Chicago Hosts Second Annual Urban October

This month marks the second annual Urban October at the University of Chicago, a monthlong initiative that highlights policy leaders, public officials, and leading researchers from Chicago and around the world who are confronting the most profound challenges facing global cities.

Such urban challenges have only increased in 2020. The basic infrastructure of global cities—including public transportation, densely populated office and residential districts, and overburdened public health systems—have made them especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wildfires in California have worsened air quality for millions of residents on the West Coast. A summer of public reckoning on racial justice and policing in major American cities has resulted in mass demonstrations in the streets. Meanwhile, climate change is expected to prompt population shifts in the United States and abroad, widening the gulf between the rich and the poor and accelerating urbanization. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: UChicago News

The Two Sides of Participation in Urban Food Policy

In many countries around the globe, urban food policies were born in an era of increased public participation in local policymaking. However, food raises specific questions when it comes to participation. Indeed, how do you foster participation around a topic that is new to local actors? An article published in Politics and Governance analyses participation at the onset of local food policy in the city of Ede, in the Netherlands. Researchers looked at the way local civil servants in charge of developing food policy viewed both their role and that of non-governmental actors. They unveiled a tension between two very different ways to see what participation is about. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Urban Food Futures

Introducing a Spatial Equity Data Tool

Data-driven decisionmaking in city government has expanded rapidly in recent years, driven by advances in technology and the digitization of many city services. The Urban Institute applauds the growth of data-driven decisionmaking, but they also recognize there are real concerns about the potential for bias in data used to guide public decisions. Left unchecked, unrepresentative data can directly lead to inequitable policy outcomes that harm vulnerable groups.

For example, many public works departments have started using citizen complaint data, like 311 requests, to allocate scarce city resources to perform sidewalk repairs and fix potholes. On the surface, this may seem like a way to make governments more responsive to citizen needs. The problem is that citizen complaint systems are more likely to be used by certain demographic groups, namely white residents, highly educated residents, and high-income residents. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Data@Urban

Employment Opportunity: OSU Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, Summit County, Ohio

The 4-H Positive Youth Development Educator works collaboratively with county and state teams and with local agency leaders and volunteers. This includes implementing and supporting a comprehensive volunteer system through identification, selection, orientation, training, utilizing, recognizing, and evaluating of adult and youth volunteers to support local 4-H delivery methods (e.g. community clubs, after-schools clubs, camps, school enrichment, etc.). Responsible for a broad range of basic to complex duties that could include, but are not limited to, maintaining relationships with 4-H club and committee members, providing guidance and/or leadership for 4-H Youth Development programming targeted to local and regional needs, and engaging youth to build leadership, citizenship, and life skills. Utilize appropriate methods both formal and informal, of community assessment to identify educational needs and opportunities of local community. Design, implement, and teach educational programming, based on these needs, to groups and individuals comprised of adults and/or youth.  Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Jobs at OSU

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Series

Many American communities have realized considerable financial and water quality gains by incorporating green infrastructure strategies for reducing and managing stormwater. The same green infrastructure that helps manage urban stormwater and improves water quality provides a wealth of other benefits to our communities including reducing urban heat island effects, providing evaporative cooling and shade, improve air quality by removing pollutants, human health benefits, and tangible economic benefits such as increase property values and green jobs.

Join Penn State Extension for this Green Storwmater Infrastructure Webinar Series to learn how research and work across Pennsylvania are providing cost effective approaches to managing stormwater. Explore how to properly prepare soils, select appropriate vegetation, plant, and maintain green stormwater infrastructure systems. The series begins this month. Follow this link to learn more.

To learn about Ohio State’s Stormwater Management Efforts, you can contact Dr. Ryan Winston, or  follow this link.

Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well Challenge

Join Jenny Lobb, Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Franklin County, for the Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well fall email wellness challenge. The challenge will begin the week of October 19, 2020 and run through November 25, 2020. Participants will receive two email messages weekly with tips and encouragement on topics such as play, rest, creativity, nourishment, and more.

Follow this link to learn more.
Follow this link to sign up.

Sourced from: OSU Extension, Franklin County

Urban October

Urban October is an opportunity for everyone to be part of the conversation about the challenges and opportunities created by the fast rate of change in our cities and towns. Each October, everyone interested in sustainable urbanization from national and local governments to universities, NGOs and communities is encouraged to hold or participate in activities, events, and discussions.

The month began with World Habitat Day on October 5 and will end with World Cities Day on October 31.

This year’s World Habitat Day global observance was held virtually, and was hosted by the city of Surabaya, in Indonesia while other celebrations of World Habitat Day were held round the globe using the theme Housing For All: A Better Urban Future.

World Cities Day 2020 is the seventh global celebration since it was launched on October 31, 2014 in Shanghai, China. The theme is Better City, Better Life and the sub-theme for this year is Valuing our communities and cities, and the Global Observance will be hosted in Nakuru, Kenya.

Today 55% of the world’s population live in cities and towns and the number is growing every day. The United Nation’s Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Development Goal 11 “to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable” puts sustainable urbanization at the center of the global agendas for development. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: UN-Habitat

You Can Name Our Blog

We’d like your suggestions for a new name for our urban Extension blog. We will be moving the Extension in the City blog from u.osu.edu over to our website and have an opportunity to name the blog. Each week we add four articles and send them out in the news digest. The blog entries range from happenings in your county to national news impacting your work in urban communities. You are also welcome to submit peer-reviewed articles that you can count as creative works.

If you have an idea for the blog name, please send it to Michelle Gaston.6@osu.edu by October 15.