CREATIVE CITY NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER 2001

ISSUE 4: GROWTH

ISSUE IN FOCUS: Smart Growth
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Bohemian Index
CREATIVE CORNER: Slow Cities
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Marquette County, MI
September 11: Creative City Participants Respond
Research and Public Policy Outline
Creative City Participants' Updated Agendas


SEPTEMBER 11: CREATIVE CITY PARTICIPANTS RESPOND

Each of our participating Creative City communities has been affected by the events of September 11 and what has followed.  Of course the impacts have played out differently in different areas, and some have experienced more or less "direct hits" than others.  The emotional, financial, and governmental implications are, however, similar in many ways – regardless of where we’re from.  It was immediately clear that our Creative City project and the related agendas would be affected as well.  As you know, a decision was quickly made to postpone our conference in Louisville.  It was a time when our cities’ leadership chose to remain close to home when possible, and when many people were wary of air travel.  The focus of many of our Creative City agendas has necessarily changed, and yet we all are committed to maintaining the overarching goal of improving the quality of life in our communities.

In order to gauge the status of the Creative City project in relation to the "Attack on America", we asked our participants to talk to us about how their cities were reacting.  On a national level, Partners is particularly interested in the role of leadership in Creative Cities, the economic impacts on our participating cities, and how each of you are addressing the security issues that have recently come into focus.  We recognize that each of you have been affected in different ways, and therefore have different approaches in your responses.  At the same time, however, there are some commonalities, and this is a time when sharing our experiences can prove especially useful.  What follows is a summary of some of the common experiences that have occurred on or since September 11, as well as some of the actions taken by Creative City participants in response.

Reactions:

• Overall apprehension and fear for safety/security in communities
• Increased vigilance
• Fear of Anthrax
• Overworked fire and rescue teams
• Citizens seeking reassurance from community leaders
• Increase in false alarms and threats
• Decrease in tourism in some areas
• Decrease in restaurant patronage and group leisure activities
• State cutbacks in funding (expected aid no longer available)
• Conferences and meeting called off/postponed in the sort term
• Social agencies not getting necessary funding
• Issues/difficulties that were already present becoming worse

Creative City Response:

• Securing public buildings, ids required
• Using the media to connect with the public (reassurance that "thingsare safe" and that "the city is on high alert")
• Higher airport security, bringing in outside police/security
• Deploying police to high threat/prospective targets (increased security)
• Constant contact with the FBI (where before there was little to none)
• Quick response and investigation into scares/threats
• City guidelines drafted for dealing with Anthrax and other emergencies and scares
• Bio-terrorism research
• "Go Out to Eat" week, and other encouragement to get back to life as normal

Overall, our participants noted that they were not facing significant deficits, and that security was their main concern.  Most cities believe their citizens seem to have been able to get back to "life as usual" for the most part.

As we continue to deal with the effects of the attack and the ongoing effort to derail terrorist actions, there may very well be occasion to use our creativity to secure and reassure our cities and communities.  I hope that the Creative City network can work together in this effort, and continue to share both our resources and our compassion.