Checking in from Washington, D.C.

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

I spent the day at the national Smart Growth Conference in Washington, D.C. organized by the non-profit Local Government Commission. Started out the morning by sitting in on a fascinating session moderated by Joe Schilling of Viginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute on "right sizing" American cities that have been losing population. The session included an overview -- given by Blaine Bonham, Jr. -- of how Philadelphia is working to clean up and "green up" an enormous number of vacant lots; and then heard Terry Schwarz discuss how Cleveland planners are seeking to staunch the steady hemorraging of their city's population (despite Cleveland being home to major employers like the Cleveland Clinic).

Also sat in on a session focusing on the connection between land use and water, and how that's related to smart growth. Coincidentally, one of the speakers, Lynn Richards, is preparing an article for the Planning Commissioners Journal on stormwater management.

During the afternoon, I joined about 30 conference attendees on a tour of three "green" projects in Washington, D.C.: the green roof atop the American Society of Landscape Architects headquarters; low-impact stormwater management practices at the historic Navy Yard; and the EPA's Rios Courtyard, which features some creative stormwater retention features (some of you might recall that our general manager, Betsey Krumholz, reported on this Courtyard several months ago -- see "In Their Own Backyard").

I'll follow up with more detailed reports about the Conference in a week or so.