Some urban and metropolitan areas throughout the Northeast and Midwest have enjoyed stable population growth and rich economic prosperity throughout recent history. However, many of the region's historic cities - former centers of industry, transportation, and American ingenuity - have suffered, and continue to suffer, the pains of population loss, lack of traditional employment opportunities, and diminished economic investment.

Recognizing that a large number of our nation’s most economically challenged older industrial cities are concentrated in our region, the Northeast-Midwest Institute has embraced a new Revitalizing Older Cities Initiative.  This initiative pulls from many of the long-standing policy issues associated with the Institute, including brownfields, urban food issues, energy, manufacturing, and environmental restoration policy.

Corresponding with the Institute’s older cities work, the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition established the Revitalizing Older Cities (ROC) Congressional Task Force.  Members of Congress sharing an interest in restoring prosperity to America’s great historic manufacturing and transportation centers of the Northeast and Midwest now have a structured group to exchange legislative ideas, create effective policy, and utilize the research capabilities of the Northeast-Midwest Institute. The ROC Congressional Task Force is co-chaired by Representatives Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Mike Turner (R-OH) and currently maintains 15 members. To support the ROC Congressional Task Force, the Northeast-Midwest Institute is carrying out research on demographic change in older cities, discussing relevant upcoming legislation, establishing key priorities for older cities, and designing a project that will highlight successful initiatives taking place in NEMW older cities to tackle persistent, shared problems.

Northeast-Midwest Reports

• Revitalizing Older Cities Summit Report
• Quantifying the Environmental and Energy Conservation Benefits of the Maryland Historic Tax Credit Program, Evans Paull, Fall 2009
  
• Environmental and Energy Conservation Benefits of the Maryland Historic Tax Credit Program, March, 2009
• The Environmental and Energy Conservation Benefits of the Maryland Historic Tax Credit Program, Executive Summary, March, 2009
• Heritage Tax Credits: Maryland’s Own Stimulus to Renovate Buildings for Productive Use and Create Jobs, an $8.53 Return on Every State Dollar Invested, Lipman Frizzell & Mitchell, LLC (Joe Cronyn, Principal) and Northeast-Midwest Institute, Evans Paull, Senior Policy Analyst).
• Sustainable Urban Redevelopment and Climate Change - a joint white paper with  National Trust for Historic Preservation, Smart Growth America, and Reconnecting America for the Congressional Briefing on July 17, 2008
• Downtown Revitalization in Urban Neighborhoods and Small Cities
• Smart Growth and the Clean Air Act
• Smart Growth and the Clean Water Act
• Coming Clean for Economic Development

Resources for Preservation and Sustainability

• National Trust for Historic Preservation, Sustainability Website
• Historic Preservation as Sustainable Development, Patrice Frey, National Trust for Historic Preservation, A draft white paper, October 2007.
• Historic Preservation and Green Building: A Lasting Relationship, Environmental and Building News, January, 2007
• LEED for Existing Buildings, US Green Buildings Council
• The Renovation of LEED-EB, Vanessa Wong, Architecture and Design, July, 2008

Preservation Projects Going Green

• Portland Armory Project - Ralph DiNola presentation
• Transforming a Brownfield in Baltimore: H.F Miller Tin Box Co., Case Study, Greg Lewis
• Baltimore Observed: Development - Census Building, Urbanite magazine, January, 2008
• Brewer’s Hill, Baltimore
• Clipper Mill, Baltimore
• Montgomery Park, Baltimore

Resources for Measuring the Sustainability Elements of Preservation Projects

• Embodied energy calculator - National Trust for Historic Preservation
• Energy cost of demolition and waste: EPA WARM model
• Vehicle miles traveled and CO₂ as a function of density
• Energy Life Cycle Analysis – Carnegie Mellon University

• Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008
• HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) Grants Home
• Neighborhood Stabilization Program Funding Levels by State and Region
• HUD Methodology for NSP Grant Allocations
• NSP Information by State

• Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial Cities - Jennifer Vey, Brookings Institute
• Fostering Sustainable Reuse of Abandoned Properties - Alan Mallach, National Housing Institute
• Combating Problems of Vacant and Abandoned Properties: Best Practices in 27 Cities – U.S. Conference of Mayors
• Mayors’ Resource Guide on Vacant and Abandoned Properties - Alan Mallach, National Housing Institute for the U.S. Conference of Mayors
• Revitalizing Inner-City Neighborhoods: New York's Ten-Year Plan - Michael H. Schill, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ellen Schwartz, and Ioan Voicu, New York University.

Brookings Institute Restoring Prosperity Program
Congress for the New Urbanism
Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Program
HUD Community Renewal Initiative
International Economic Development Council
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
National Housing Institute
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
National Vacant Properties Campaign
Planetizen - The Planning and Development Network
Project for Public Spaces
Restoring Prosperity Initiative
Smart Communities Network
Sustainable Communities Network
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
GSA Urban Development/Good Neighbor Program