This entry was originally posted on the infoneeds.org blog for the Miami seminar on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. Find more on the site; the seminar continues until this afternoon.

Moderated by Paula Ellis, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Knight Foundation, three community foundation leaders shared their experiences.

Andrea Bazán of the Triangle Community Foundation talked about balancing history and future with community foundation strategy:

Josie Heath of the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County talked about a shared future if not a shared past:

Paula Ellis talked about the current conversations about journalism in service to history:

An audience member talked about the upcoming launch of the game Ruby’s Bequest about community and donorship:

Emmett Carson of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation talked about ageism and its detrimental effects:

And all the panelists talked about where their leadership journey has taken them:

Comments or thoughts for the panelists or other attendees?

Congratulations to Lisa Williams and her team on the relaunched Placeblogger site:

Placeblogger is a 2007 Knight News Challenge winner (the $5 million yearly contest to fund innovative ideas in local news delivery).

The 2008 Knight News Challenge Screening Team is in Miami today to work through all of your great applications. Here’s some of the energy in the room today:

Just some of our incredible team of screeners led by Susan Mernit: Debi Jones, Brian Oberkirch, Andrew Hyde, George Kelly, Chris Messina, Beth Kanter, Rosental Alves, Dianne Lynch, Joyce Barnathan…

Thanks to the News Challenge winner Lisa Williams of Placeblogger and the Berkman Blog Group for a great Boston meetup last night where we talked about the history of the News Challenge (the $5MM yearly contest to find innovative digital delivery ideas), the Garage site for working through ideas before applying, how mentoring in the Garage works, and brainstorming ideas for this year’s contest.

You’ll see Steve Garfield and Jason Pramas (Open Media Boston) in the group below as well as developers and thinkers from MIT, Harvard, and Somerville organizations.

Next Thursday, we’ll host meetups in Austin and we’ll also be at the Maker Faire during the weekend. After that, we’ll talk in San Francisco (Facebook invite). We hope to meet you then–

Remember that the News Challenge contest closes November 1st; you can apply here and work through your idea before applying here with a mentor who has won the contest in the past.

Tuesday, Macon.com posted this story about future planning for Macon roads, mentioning Knight Program Director for Macon, Beverly Blake, and an e-mail she wrote to community leaders.

From the Macon.com article:

With funding from the Knight Foundation, a disinterested third party, Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture IMAGINE Lab (www.coa.gatech.edu/imagine) is being employed to look at the proposed project and present a 3-D rendering that should show the community what the project will actually look like. There are all sorts of rumors of the project’s height and width and how it will interact with the Ocmulgee River. In the letter informing community leaders about the Tech project, Beverly Blake, the Knight Foundation program director, said, “Will it (the I-16/I-75 interchange) provide an orderly set of feeder streets to bring more folks into downtown/intown Macon? Will the time for construction effectively choke off all life to downtown? Are the alternatives worse than the proposed plan?”

The computer generated visuals, she said, will let us “see just exactly what the proposed interchange will look like when completed from different perspectives…”

Blake’s original letter concluded:

They [Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture IMAGINE Lab] are pleased to provide us with a proposal for their work to bring to us the three dimensional view of the proposed interchange; they will need info from Bibb/Macon and also DOT. If the scope is within the financial parameters of the grantmaking of the Knight Fund for Macon at the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, we will ask the Board of CFCG to consider funding of this visual presentation.

I wish to be clear that Knight Foundation does not have a position on this plan-our only position is to support projects and ideas that move forward Macon as a vibrant, progressive community. Our goal is to assist in providing accurate information to our citizens and policy makers.

I welcome your comments and ideas. Kindly respond to all so that we can each be a part of this conversation.

Do you have comments or ideas? Please leave them in the comments below.

Analyzing Knight Foundation’s efforts in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, reporter Dick Polman writes,

Today, nearly three years after the storm, and with expenditures thus far totaling roughly $10 million, Knight Foundation can rightly point to a string of achievements – most notably, its crucial role in bringing world-class planners and architects to the afflicted region, and prompting citizens to chart new communities in ways they had never before imagined. Yet at the same time, political, cultural and financial obstacles have impeded recovery on virtually all fronts. In the words of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is praised for his recovery efforts even by political foes, “It’s all been way too slow to suit me.”

Here’s a recent comment on the article by James W. Cromwell:

…After reading your article I have a different perspective of some of your good intentions that your foundation had for the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But I think you have been hoodwinked by the business men of these communities into believing that your monies were being used to help the citizens when it was really being used to help big business…

Adele Lyons, Knight Program Director for Biloxi responded:

…A long-term recovery after a hurricane like Katrina takes many organizations working together. We have worked with several of the funders you noted including the Twenty-First Century Foundation, OxFam, Ford Foundation and Foundation for the Mid South. We work together as part of the Gulf Coast Funders for Equity. Several of us helped organize the Funders’ Forum for Sustainable Gulf Coast Transformation held in September 2007.

We wanted to know what happened after Katrina. In the first few days, Knight Foundation made emergency grants to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross totaling $1 million to help with the relief efforts. Relief was slow to reach the East Biloxi citizens. Additional emergency grants totaling $110,000 went to several small, local nonprofits. And, of course, many of our grantees continue to work in East Biloxi…

See the East Biloxi grantee list and both comments in their entirety here.

Find more of Knight’s “Stories of Transformation” here.

Two external mentions of the new grant to revitalize Macon neighborhoods:

Charles E. Richardson of the Macon Telegraph contexts the new grant as part of a much larger effort to attract business partners to join Mercer, Macon Housing Authority, the city of Macon, NewTown and the Medical Center of Central Georgia on the College Hill Corridor Committee. In his article, he explores how Macon can model some of Akron’s recent success in reshaping a downtown area.

Mercer.edu is streaming video and audio from the June 6th press conference here.

From the Mercer.edu press release:

“From my arrival in Macon two years ago, I have been struck by the opportunities for economic renewal in the historic neighborhoods around downtown,” [Mercer President William S.] Underwood said.

“Downtown redevelopment is gaining momentum, and the success of initiatives such as the Beall’s Hill neighborhood redevelopment provide a solid foundation for further expansion of redevelopment efforts.

“I am deeply grateful to Knight Foundation for providing a major grant that will allow the partners to combine and more effectively coordinate their efforts, while attracting new partners and additional expertise, to make this endeavor a national success story.”

Knight Foundation Program Director of Macon Beverly Blake agrees, acknowledging that “enduring change happens when we work together-across real or perceived barriers-with others of good faith to create the future of Macon…for all of us.”

What ideas do you have about the new direction for Macon? Please leave comments for Beverly below.

Editor’s note: Beverly Blake is the Program Director for the Knight Foundation community programs in Columbus, Macon, and Milledgeville. Below, she announces a new grant for Macon neighborhoods and invites your thoughts in the comments and by e-mail.

Yesterday, a $250,000 Knight grant was announced for a comprehensive revitalization planning effort in Macon, Georgia–a significant expression of Knight’s confidence in the community to make Macon’s neighborhoods vibrant and welcoming for all people to live, work, play and study.

From the announcement ceremony (video is 11:02):

Macon has eleven historic districts containing more structures of historic significance than either Savannah or Charleston. The successful revitalization of two distressed Macon neighborhoods in 2002 led to a push to reclaim the soul of the intown neighborhoods with beautiful architecture, great history, and forty years of decline.

Mercer University anchors one end of both the downtown and intown historic districts: the downtown area with beautiful boulevards and architecture and the Ocmulgee River at the other end. This revitalization grant will specifically target an area between Mercer University and downtown Macon known as College Hill Corridor.

With a community alliance joining Mercer students, a new mayor, and a reinvigorated city council with existing Macon leaders and residents, we are on our way to transform the physical landscape of Macon’s first neighborhoods and the way we feel about this place we call home.

I invite you to join us in this effort; please let me hear your thoughts by e-mail (blake {at} knightfoundation {dot} org) and in the comments below.

Related coverage: Macon.com, Fox 24, 13 WMAZ.