Submitted By Amy Bishop, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
alb199+@pitt.edu
University of Pittsburgh’s
David Miller,who is the director of
the Innovation Clinic at the Graduate School of Public and International
Affairs (GSPIA), has a new proposal to foster communication among the 35
municipalities that share a common border with the City of Pittsburgh and the city itself.
Still lacking
an official name, the initiative is centered around creating a forum, or
congress, in which all 36 communities would act as equal partners in finding
common ground on issues that face the Pittsburgh area.
“We note an increasing sense of
common issues associated with the city and these surrounding communities,”
Miller said. “GSPIA should be creating an opportunity for discussion of these
issues.”
A planning meeting for the congress
is set for October 31. Miller has invited a representative from each of the 36
municipalities to come together to discuss whether a congress of this scope is
desired and whether it is feasible.
“We’re creating this opportunity
for these communities to see if this makes sense to them. The ultimate decision
about the creation of the congress is up to the participants,” Miller said.
So far, the idea has generated
positive response. According to Miller, elected officials in these communities
have expressed a growing interest in this forum and are beginning to recognize
that many of the solutions to problems facing this area involve consultation
across municipal lines.
According to Miller, most current
intergovernmental cooperation starts at the city border and moves outward to
the county border. This will be an
opportunity for these common-border communities to begin a conversation that
includes the City of Pittsburgh.
The 36 municipalities invited to
participate represent a total population of 680,000. Only roughly 310,000
reside within the Pittsburgh city limits. And while Miller and his team will be providing necessary research and
institutional support throughout the congress, he will leave the direction of
the concerns up to the participants that represent these 680,000 citizens.
“We want the communities to drive
the agenda,” he said.
The agenda for the planning meeting
includes discussing the feasibility of such a congress, topics that could be
presented to the forum and an official name for the group. The congress would
launch in April or May.
“I have two main goals for the
October 31 meeting,” said Miller. “First, to see that common border issues are
significant and important enough to continue to have structured meetings. And
second, that at the conclusion we have created a planning process for follow-up
actions that includes the representatives from those municipalities, so in a
way there is a handing off of the agenda from GSPIA to the group itself.”
Questions with regard to the
initiative may be directed to Ann Pollack and the Innovation Clinic, Graduates School of
Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. (apollack@pitt.edu).
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