Some interesting resources

1.  An online publication in Wausau, Wisconsin called VolumeOne has a great set of articles on riverfront revitalization called "Rethinking our Rivers."

2.  In "Changing the structure of local government revenue generation," I mentioned last week's series on city finances in the Wall Street Journal.  There were six articles:

- "U.S. Cities Grapple With Finances"
- "Weak Tax Base Hurts Renewal"
- "Pension Pinch Busts City Budgets"
- "Cash Crunch Crimps Struggling Cities"
- "Cuts in State Aid Leave Cities Reeling"
- "Cities' Revival Curbed By Red-Ink Budgets"

3.  While it's technically about the cost of sprawl on suburban jurisdictions, this report, Suburban Sprawl: Exposing Hidden Costs, Identifying Innovations, by the organization Sustainable Prosperity, mentioned in this Toronto Star piece, "Brampton, like Mississauga, has hit the fiscal wall" by Christopher Hume, is worth checking out.  From the article:

That loud sucking sound heard first in Mississauga as it entered a downward spiral some years ago is now audible in Brampton. Both “cities” are reaching the end of the late-suburban development cycle and all those fees that kept property taxes low for years have dried up, or are about to.

Suddenly, the residents of those two communities are discovering the real price of sprawl. As their leaders know, it won’t be cheap.“Staff has given us all kinds of financial statements proving that development is not paying its way,” Mississauga’s long-time mayor Hazel McCallion told the author of a report, Suburban Sprawl: Exposing Hidden Costs, Identifying Innovations, released last month. “It’s not my opinion here. The facts are on the books. We are going into debt in a big way in the Region of Peel.”