City of Evanston Blog
Day 2 in Washington
Day 2 in Washington was once again focused on advocating on behalf of the City's Neighborhood Stabilization Grant. We started the day at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is the agency which is offering the grant.
The Mayor looked up an old friend, Dan Lurie, who is a Senior Advisor to a HUD Deputy Secretary. Dan grew up here in Evanston and his family still lives here. We met with Dan and two colleagues. While under Federal regulations HUD staff could not discuss our specific application at this point, the Mayor nonetheless pitched the needs of Evanston and the component parts of the application. We heard much about the work that HUD is doing to try and transform itself into being more responsive to community needs. We also talked a lot about the importance that HUD is placing on regional partnerships. This is challenging for us with the long shadow of the City of Chicago and their many independent needs.
The meeting also provided a glimpse of the challenges of the Obama Administration coming into large existing bureaucracies and trying to make change and fast. The three staffers we met with were all new to HUD coming in with the new administration. We left the meeting promising to stay in touch on all things Evanston.
We next went back to Capitiol Hill for a planned meeting with Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's staff. When we arrived at the office, we discovered we were seeing the Congresswomen instead. Schakowsky does such a great job representing us (and staying in close touch with the Mayor), we didn't want to take up here time. We thought briefing her staff would be just fine. As we waited to see her, we could hear her on the phone lobbying someone hard on the health care bill.
The Mayor retold the stories of our previous meetings with the Senators, EPA and HUD to the Congresswoman. She promised to do some digging on our behalf, especially on the HUD grant. This was my first extended conversation with the Congresswoman, having met her briefly in August. She is a fierce advocate for Evanston.
We then had lunch and it was time to head back to the airport for our flight back to Chicago.
The trip held a few lessons. First, Evanston needs to do this more. We have no real identity among agencies and the staffs of our Senators. Both Senators are interested in Evanston issues. We need to now cultivate this interest to our benefit. Second, we need to evaluate how we can partner with our neighbors to attract Federal dollars. We heard at every meeting the focus of the Obama Administration on giving money not to single jurisdictions, but to groups of cities/counties. Finally, we need to figure out internally how to staff intergovernmental issues so that these interactions and advocacy can happen all the time.
The word is out in the larger metro community about the need to collaborate amongst and between jusidictions in order to get not only federal but also foundation monies. The Metropolitan Planning Council is one organization helping to facilitate these collaborations. A consortium of south suburban jurisdictions, with funding from one of our metro foundations, hired a coordinator to help the jurisdictions hard hit by foreclosures to work and plan together to begin dealing with this destructive trend. One regional connection that could benefit Evanston would be if Mayor Tisdahl began networking at the Metropolitan Mayors' Caucus.
October 27, 2009 10:37 AM