CHAIR'S MESSAGE

By Mary Massaron Ross

Witold Rybczynski describes the experience of living in cities in City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World. After comparing the great cities of Europe to those in the New World, Rybczynski explains that “the fortunes of cities rise and fall.” In his view, this is “especially true in the New World, where there is little urban stability and some cities grow while others decline.” But instead of seeing these changes as negative, Rybczynski argues that this instability “is a reflection of a society that has embraced change and transformation, and which continues to fashion and refashion its surroundings.”

On the cutting edge of those efforts to refashion their surroundings are lawyers who practice on behalf of or interact with the local governments in American cities. As those who practice in the area know, it can be difficult to keep up with the fast-moving law. But the Section of State and Local Government Law has provided some phenomenal opportunities to learn about these legal issues during this past quarter. Our fall meeting and seminar in Detroit concentrated on legal issues in efforts at development and redevelopment, with a particular focus on the use of stadiums and casinos in a downtown area. For me, it was an opportunity to host Section members in my hometown. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spoke to those in attendance about the budget problems of a big city, Detroit’s negative image despite huge strides toward renewed growth, and the important role that lawyers play in the process. On a bus tour of downtown Detroit, attendees had the chance to see some of Detroit’s cultural and societal treasures such as numerous live theaters, one of the country’s largest and most impressive art museums, a symphony housed in a newly renovated acoustically perfect symphony hall, and new downtown stadiums for baseball and football. Attendees also had the chance to hear speakers on brownfields, land-use issues, and financing of the stadiums. Detroit presented us with a marvelous laboratory for learning about what works and what doesn’t in major cities and discussing the role of the lawyers in that process. Speakers also focused on liability and management issues that arise in a sports and entertainment district and provided practical pointers for addressing these issues. And speakers discussed the ethics questions that arise in the bidding process and provided sample ordinance language and procedures.

In addition to this focus on cities in Detroit, the Section co-sponsored a program dealing with land-use planning and celebrating the thirty-year anniversary of the Golden v. Ramapo decision. Planned by Section Chair-Elect Patricia E. Salkin and others, the program discussed the original Ramapo ordinances and master plan, the politics and background leading up to the litigation, the decision, and its impact over the last thirty years. Materials from the program will be included in a special symposium issue of the Section’s publication, The Urban Lawyer. In conjunction with the program, the Section participated in a special celebration for the lawyer who handled the Ramapo litigation, the Section’s long-time member and editor of The Urban Lawyer, Professor Robert H. Freilich. I was pleased to have the chance to speak in honor of Bob’s many years of service to the Section.

These outstanding programs reflect the Section’s commitment to providing its members with the very best continuing legal education programs. Toward that end, a group of Section leaders involved in continuing legal education planning met for a one-day retreat to refine and improve our CLE planning process. CLE Director Richard Opper, Assistant CLE Director Peter Buchsbaum, Council Member and Committee Coordinator Donna Pugh, Chair-Elect Patricia Salkin, Vice-Chair Stephanie Brown, and I spent the day developing job descriptions, forms, and checklists to improve the planning and coordination for our meetings and seminars. This represents part of our ongoing effort to revitalize our organization. We hope that you will see even better programs with earlier and better publicity about them so that you will have plenty of opportunity to join us at future CLEs.

Plans are already in process for our spring seminar and meeting. From May 8-11, 2003, the Section will be meeting at the Don CeSar Beach Resort and Spa in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Our spring event has traditionally included continuing legal education presentations with a particular focus on hot topics in areas of interest to our committees. This year the Land Use, Environmental, and the Government Operations and Liability Committees will all hold hot topics sessions. In addition, Section Committees are planning panels on “Farms, Forests, and Open Spaces” with a special focus on environmental, land-use, and public finance aspects of those topics. The keynote luncheon speaker will be Kerry G. Kirschner, executive director of the Argus Foundation. See pages 6-7 for registration information. We hope that you will join us. This not only offers the chance for great programs, but the opportunity to become actively involved in our committees, which will be meeting over the course of the weekend.

The Section also offers its members an outstanding publication, The Urban Lawyer, to help you keep up with cutting edge issues of all sorts. The most recent issue presented a symposium on “Cities on the Front Line: The Aftermath of September 11,” which provided a rich discussion of homeland security issues as they relate to cities and the policies and responses that may be required to address them. This topic is of particular interest to the Section and we have formed a Task Force on Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Chaired by Ernest Abbott, the task force has had several meetings and is in the process of preparing a checklist for state and local government attorneys to assist them prepare for possible disasters. The task force has laid out an ambitious plan and you will hear more about its efforts in the future. The task force is already planning a program for the ABA’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco, so watch for details of that program.

The Section’s plans and programs are moving forward well and I invite you to join us at our future meetings and to become involved. I can promise you that you will meet interesting people from all practice settings, will learn a great deal about issues of concern in your practice, and will have some fun in the process.