On September 22, 2010, at the Building Livable Communities forum , Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation Policy at USDOT and James Lopez, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary at HUD, answered some questions about the new HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Partnership should be seen as a model or case study for other government agencies. The Partnership for Sustainable Communities does not need to be the only interagency government partnership focused on the development of livable communities.
Osborne and Lopez explained why only HUD, DOT, and EPA were involved and pointed to some of the logistical problems that have arisen in the developing of the Partnership. Simple communication between agencies is made difficult with modern email firewalls and other cyber security screening processes. Also, when you have too many people working on the same issue, efficiencies break down and it becomes difficult to please everyone. There is a saying, “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup.” In other words, too many people working on a single project can ruin it. Minimizing these difficulties improves the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the collaboration.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities brings together senior staff members of each of the three agencies involved. The combined efforts of these leaders have developed grant programs and new policies to support its mission to “coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas and regions build more sustainable communities and make those communities the leading style of development in the United States.”
The Partnership should become a model for other government agencies seeking to improve efficiencies and create more comprehensive and involved policies. Since adding more agencies and leaders to this particular trifecta will almost certainly disrupt its effectiveness, the Partnership could serve as a guide for other agencies who wish to work together on a livability platform. These clusters of agency leaders would efficiently solve urban and rural policy problems or develop new policies to improve livability for the nation’s communities. To read more about balance and efficiency see Partners’ article What is the Tipping Point for Livability?.
Livability is a puzzle that cannot be solved by just one person or group of individuals; rather, it requires a network of teams working together to put the pieces in the right places. Each team is responsible for a section of the puzzle and once the pieces are put in place, the overall picture becomes clearer. The Partnership for Sustainable Communities will help to solve the housing, transportation, and environmental portions of the puzzle, but there are many other sections that need to be addressed by other agencies. As Partners has discovered over years of studying livability, it is not simply a transportation agenda, or a smart growth agenda, or an agenda for jobs, or for the environment—it is a balanced agenda that takes into account all of these things and more.
The Department of Commerce, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Energy could all work together in a partnership. Combing their resources and knowledge of economic development, health care, and sustainable energy sources, the working group could develop policies that would promote energy efficient, walkable commercial corridors. Another example of a working group could be the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education. Partners believes that livable communities are also communities with strong cultural institutions. A partnership that combines leadership from these three groups can develop grants and policies that promote community involvement, collaborations among museums and universities, and job creation in the cultural community.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities stands as a case study for other agencies wishing to create interagency collaborations. There are some more hurdles left to address, but this experiment proves that interagency collaboration is possible and can be effective when executed correctly.
Osborne and Lopez explained why only HUD, DOT, and EPA were involved and pointed to some of the logistical problems that have arisen in the developing of the Partnership. Simple communication between agencies is made difficult with modern email firewalls and other cyber security screening processes. Also, when you have too many people working on the same issue, efficiencies break down and it becomes difficult to please everyone. There is a saying, “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup.” In other words, too many people working on a single project can ruin it. Minimizing these difficulties improves the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the collaboration.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities brings together senior staff members of each of the three agencies involved. The combined efforts of these leaders have developed grant programs and new policies to support its mission to “coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas and regions build more sustainable communities and make those communities the leading style of development in the United States.”
The Partnership should become a model for other government agencies seeking to improve efficiencies and create more comprehensive and involved policies. Since adding more agencies and leaders to this particular trifecta will almost certainly disrupt its effectiveness, the Partnership could serve as a guide for other agencies who wish to work together on a livability platform. These clusters of agency leaders would efficiently solve urban and rural policy problems or develop new policies to improve livability for the nation’s communities. To read more about balance and efficiency see Partners’ article What is the Tipping Point for Livability?.
Livability is a puzzle that cannot be solved by just one person or group of individuals; rather, it requires a network of teams working together to put the pieces in the right places. Each team is responsible for a section of the puzzle and once the pieces are put in place, the overall picture becomes clearer. The Partnership for Sustainable Communities will help to solve the housing, transportation, and environmental portions of the puzzle, but there are many other sections that need to be addressed by other agencies. As Partners has discovered over years of studying livability, it is not simply a transportation agenda, or a smart growth agenda, or an agenda for jobs, or for the environment—it is a balanced agenda that takes into account all of these things and more.
The Department of Commerce, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Energy could all work together in a partnership. Combing their resources and knowledge of economic development, health care, and sustainable energy sources, the working group could develop policies that would promote energy efficient, walkable commercial corridors. Another example of a working group could be the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education. Partners believes that livable communities are also communities with strong cultural institutions. A partnership that combines leadership from these three groups can develop grants and policies that promote community involvement, collaborations among museums and universities, and job creation in the cultural community.
The Partnership for Sustainable Communities stands as a case study for other agencies wishing to create interagency collaborations. There are some more hurdles left to address, but this experiment proves that interagency collaboration is possible and can be effective when executed correctly.
