Serving UIC's Great Cities Commitment: Solutions for Today's Urban Challenges

This last week, members of GCI staff traveled to Ecuador and to Arizona to share the work of the Great Cities Institute.  Besides spreading the great work happening at the University of Illinois at Chicago, we learned a great deal that adds to our work here.

Teresa Córdova, Director, and Timothy Imeokparia, GCI Director of Research, along with Moises Gonzales, Director of the University of New Mexico Resource Center for Raza Planning, traveled to Ecuador in cooperation with the Ministry of International Trade.  The purpose of our visit was to contribute to the discussion in Ecuador about how exports can be used to build local community economic development. In Guayaquil and Quito the GCI team met with staff of the Ministry of International Trade, Pro Ecuador, associations representing export companies, cooperatives, and an array of others, including children.  The team was featured in colloquia at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil. Most notably, the team had meetings with the Minster of International Trade, Diego Auelstia, who visited us in Chicago back in April. In both cities and surrounding areas, we visited housing projects and informal settlements to see efforts by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to address problems stemming from rural to urban migration. We will continue our work with Minister Auelestia on government policies to expand exports as a strategy to increase opportunities for all Ecuadorians.

Thea Crum, Director of GCI Neighborhoods Initiative presented on Participatory Budgeting in Chicago (PB Chicago) in two sessions at the By the People: Democracy Conference at Arizona State University. The first session provided an overview of the growth and expansion of from 2012-2015 including expanding from one ward to seven and the implementation of the first PB process in the U.S. with tax increment financing dollars. PB Chicago has engaged over 9,000 voters in directly deciding how to spend $12 million in public dollar. Over 60 community projects have been implemented impacting over 290,000 Chicago residents. In the second presentation she shared PB Chicago’s evaluation methodology and key findings. Stayed tuned for the third annual evaluation report that will be released in early 2016. Ms. Crum also attended the North American PB Research Board with 20 of the top researchers and academics in deliberative democracy to discuss the Tool Kit for PB Evaluators and Researchers and to set the research agenda for the next year.

Leaders of 150 nations, and 40,000 delegates from 195 countries will attend the COP21 conference this week, a reminder that climate change is still one of the top issues facing the globe today.  The conference’s top mission: Get global leaders to agree on a legally binding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to curb global temperature gains to below a 2 degree Celsius increase over preindustrial global temperatures.

The conference is taking place in Paris, site of the November 13 terror attacks, and opened with a moment of silence for the victims. The tragedy brought about an urge for action with President Obama saying in his opening speech “What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it.”

The magnitude of this global conference shows the importance of immediate actions to react to climate change, and the effects it is having on the global economy, with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telling world leaders “A political moment like this may not come again, we have never faced such a test. But neither have we encountered such great opportunity.” Hopes remain high for an agreement, as many leaders’ actions have shown that their nations are taking climate change serious. The two biggest players (and greenhouse gas producers), China and the United States are sitting down together at the COP21, and have acknowledged their roles in solving the issue.

If an agreement is made, it will be the biggest milestone since the non-binding Kyoto Protocol was agreed to by 192 parties. Notoriously, the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and dropped out of it completely in 2001. Some of the biggest greenhouse gas producers, China, India and other developing countries, were exempt from it. After 20 years of U.N. negotiations, the COP21 is the biggest attempt to reach a legally binding agreement on global emissions.

We at Great Cities Institute will continue to watch these negotiations, in hopes that an agreement will be reached. We are at a pivotal moment in the world, and recognize the positive impacts that these negotiations can have on the growing green economy and climate adaptations our cities face nationwide and globally.

About the Author:
Jackson Morsey, GCI Urban Planner: Primarily working within GCI’s Neighborhoods Initiative, Jackson works in collaboration with community-based organizations, university faculty, and staff to provide technical assistance and services for community and economic development projects.