Wednesday, January 14, 2009

a call for advice from the region

the following request for information was just placed on the message boards for the Cleveland+Pittsburgh+Youngstown Regional Learning Network.

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attention friends of the Cleveland to Pittsburgh corridor:

Similar to Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Youngstown has many architectural and industrially historical sites, but unlike those cities, we don't do as good of a job of illuminating them at night. A bunch of us are attempting to gather partners and funding streams to beautify the hills and features circling downtown Youngstown, and we need your advice.

We are looking to contact individuals through the Regional Learning Network for best practices for moving forward, especially about funding issues, such as:

* What was the funding stream to pay for capital/infrastructure lighting expenditures?
* How do you maintain lighting operating costs and pay the bills on a continuous basis?
* How do you sell the importance of illuminating such structures to potential partners, and even funders?

Instead of recreating the wheel on this adventure, we'd like to gain insights from successful people in the RLN which will ultimately increase the chances of our project being successful. Please forward this request to anyone who may have the time to explain to us how the process to success worked in their cities.

Thank you for you time.

shoutyoungstown@gmail.com

2 comments:

Tyler said...

And thank you for your time!

Jim Russell said...

I think I found an instructive example in Charleston, WV:

http://www.dailymail.com/News/200901210642

The couple's mission to brighten Charleston's bridges was complete.

John and Ruth McGee have provided the inspiration and funding; Pittsburgh lighting engineer Hal Hilbish has provided the expertise; and city officials have coordinated the work necessary to light three of the city's bridges, the South Side Bridge, the Kanawha Boulevard Bridge and finally the Lee Street Bridge.